Irene Kahn, the secretary general of Amnesty International is in Seoul this week. Yesterday, she met with the families of the six protesters who died in January after a fired broke out when riot police raided an abandoned building in Yongsan. Khan promised the families that AI would keep an eye on how the Korean government handles the incident and expressed hopes for a more thorough investigation. Also on Khan’s agenda, are meetings with senior officials from the Justice Ministry and National Human Rights Commission.

Another Japanese tourist died from their injuries in last weekend’s fire at a shooting range in Busan. The total number of deaths is now 12 and the exact cause of the fire is still unknown. Last week, investigators announced that the point of ignition was in fact  an explosion, but the cause of the explosion is yet to be confirmed.

Tempers are likely to rise following yesterday’s ground breaking ceremonies for the four-rivers project at the Yeongsan and Geum River sites. Lee Myung-bak attended the Yeongsan ceremony in Gwangju and delivered a speech saying that the project must move forward and not be derailed by politics. He described the completed project as an engine for economic growth and contributing to the well-being and happiness of Koreans.

Both speech and ceremonies (including the ceremonies at the Han and Nakdong Rivers scheduled for Friday) are contentious given that Lee’s Grand National Party (GNP) and the opposition Democratic Party (DP) have been in a budgetary deadlock over the four rivers project, with the DP wanting to cut the budget for the four rivers project. In the assembly, none of the standing committees reviewing next year’s budget have completed their talks and according to the constitution the budget must be approved by December 2nd. Many DP reps from Gwangju and South Jeolla boycotted the ceremony calling the timing of the event politically motivated, along with Lee’s decision to speak in Gwangju, the DP’s traditional stronghold. The Hankyoreh weighs in on the ceremonies, calling them the launch of a propaganda war.

The project was advanced as part of  the  administration’s green growth strategy, and involves restoring Korea’s four major river systems: the Han, Nakdong, Yeongsan, and Geum. The project proposes a 2012 completion date and an estimated cost of 22.2 trillion won. The project was initially controversial given that Lee had  to scrap his Grand Canal proposal after getting elected. Critics maintaining that the four rivers project was actually the grand canal initiative dressed in “green”. Environmental critics opposed the grand canal citing the environmental damage it would cause, and there are similar concerns regarding the four-rivers project. Although, Lee described the project as eco-friendly in yesterday’s speech.

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