Present there were more than 10,000 unionists affiliated to the Confederation of Trade Unions from different parts of south Korea and members of civic and public organizations and opposition parties.

Speakers at the rally noted that the unionists of Ssangyong Motor Co. are staging the fierce struggle for their right to existence, getting ready for death while going on the strike.

Charging that the Lee Myung Bak group is making desperate efforts to kill the workers in the struggle en masse by mobilizing the police forces and gangsters, they stated that they would no longer allow the dictatorial "government" to trample down them.

The fascist police are staging a murderous drill there to commit the second Ryongsan tragedy, they pointed out, calling upon the people from all walks of life to fight in solidarity till the demands of the Ssangyong Motor unionists have been met.

After the rally, its participants staged a demonstration.

The fascist police made double and treble rings of more than 12,500 policemen of 117 companies and at least 100 combatant police buses in a bid to block up the workers' struggle, while creating an atmosphere of violent repression.

The demonstrators waged a sit-in strike, attempting to advance into the spot of the unionists' strike in defiance of the police suppression.

In another development, the families of the Ssangyong Motor unionists occupied the office of the "Grand National Party" in Youido, Seoul, on July 24 and entered a sit-in strike there.