Olympic torch relay will start in Seoul guarded by 8,000 police

The first of 80 runners was scheduled to start the 24-kilometer (15-mile) journey at Olympic Park at 2 p.m. local time, escorted by bicycle patrols, 120 police officers and a helicopter, with 8,000 riot police lining the streets.

The Olympic torch tour has drawn protesters who've used the global event to criticize Beijing's crackdown in Tibet and its human rights record. China blames supporters of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader, for organizing the most serious unrest in 20 years in Tibet's capital, Lhasa, last month.

Protesters in London, Paris and San Francisco disrupted the relay to draw attention to China's crackdown in Tibet last month,while there were arrests last week in Australia and in Japan yesterday.

Five people were arrested protesting the torch's journey through Nagano north of Tokyo, while there were seven arrests in Canberra, Australia's capital, during the relay's tour on April 24, leading organizers to shorten the route.

The Olympic flame will tomorrow be taken to Pyongyang, North Korea's capital and the 18th city in the relay, before heading to Vietnam, Hong Kong and Macau.

The flame was lit in Greece on March 24 before being transported to China. The global relay officially started on April 1 in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and will have traveled about 137,000 kilometers to 20 nations by the time it arrives back in China on May 4.