Tag: protests

This sounds like an off the cuff remark that President Park should not have said because as bad as the KCTU is they are not ISIS.  With that said if the KCTU would not hold violent protests there would be no need for masks in the first place:

South Korean President Park Geun Hye on Tuesday (Nov 24) called for a ban on masks at demonstrations, less than two weeks after huge anti-government protests rocked Seoul, as she warned “terrorist elements” may infiltrate demonstrations.

The president also drew parallels between masked protesters and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) – prompting organisers of the recent rally to say her comments had left them “speechless”.

More than 60,000 people protested against the conservative government’s push for labour reform and state-issued history textbooks in Seoul on Nov 14, in the biggest protest in the country for nearly a decade.

Many scuffled with police, who responded with water cannon and liquid pepper spray, leaving dozens injured and one protester in a critical condition.

Police have come under fire for what critics describe as excessive use of force, while about 200 demonstrators are being investigated after dozens of police buses were damaged.

Park described the clashes on Nov 14 as an “unacceptable” incident and called for “strong measures” against the protesters, especially those in masks.

“At a time when acts of terrorism are taking many lives around the world, some terrorist elements may sneak into such protests and pose a threat to the lives of our people,” she said at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

“In particular, masks in protests should not be tolerated. Isn’t that what the ISIS is doing these days, with their faces hidden like that?” she added.  [New Straits Times]

You can read the rest at the link.

If the New York Times wants to criticize President Park I have no issues with that, but at least provide all the facts so readers can at least make up their own minds instead of selectively publishing information to support the anti-President Park narrative:

South Koreans can be as proud of their country’s emergence from dictatorship into a vibrant democracy as they are of the rags-to-riches development that made their country a global industrial powerhouse. So it is alarming that President Park Geun-hye appears intent on backtracking on the democratic freedoms that have made South Korea as different from North Korea’s puppet regime as day is from night.

Last weekend, tens of thousands of South Koreans took to the streets to protest two repressive government initiatives. One would replace the independently selected history textbooks now available to South Korea’s educators with government-issued textbooks. The other would change labor laws to make it easier for South Korea’s family-controlled business conglomerates to fire workers.  [New York Times]

Normally I say read the rest at the link, but don’t bother because it is more of the copy paste Park Geun-hye is daughter of former dictator and trying to squash dissent like her father nonsense.  First of all the current textbooks were mostly written by leftists that are used by teachers who promote pro-North Korean ideology in the classroom.  That is the driving factor of why the government is changing the textbooks.  Secondly the textbooks have not even been written.  I would be more sympathetic to textbook protests if one of these books had even been written that showed slanted history.  Right now we don’t know what will be in them.  Maybe they will be as bad as predicted, but maybe they won’t.

As far as the changing of labor laws the Park administration is trying to make it easier for corporations to layoff older workers in order to open slots for younger workers.  South Korea has a large youth unemployment problem.  Will this work?  I have no idea, but the issue is not as simple as the New York Times makes it out to be.  The New York Times should at least provide both sides of the issue to inform readers.

The pro-Kim regime lackeys in the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions were able to mobilize a pretty impressive number of people to protest the decision to implement state approved history textbooks and passing regulations allowing companies to more easily lay off older workers to help younger workers find jobs.  The protest was the largest since the anti-US beef protests in 2008.  These history books have not even been written yet, but I would not be surprised if like the anti-US beef craziness of 2008 that these textbooks end up being much to do about nothing.  However, it gives the leftists in the KCTU reason to mobilize and bash the Park government:

 

Tens of thousands of anti-government demonstrators marched in Seoul on Saturday in what police believed was the largest protest in the South Korean capital in nearly a decade.

About 80,000 people were expected to turn up for the downtown rallies that were to stretch into the evening, according to an official at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, who didn’t want to be named, citing office rules.

The marches, organized by an umbrella labor union and civic groups, brought together protesters with a diverse set of grievances against the government of conservative President Park Geun-hye, including her business-friendly labor policies and a decision to require middle and high schools to use only state-issued history textbooks in classes from 2017.

Members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions briefly clashed with police who unsuccessfully tried to detain KCTU President Han Sang-goon during a news conference, but there were no immediate reports of injuries. A Seoul court had issued an arrest warrant for Han over a failed court appearance, after he was indicted for his involvement in organizing a May protest that turned violent.

Demonstrators, many of them wearing masks and carrying banners, occupied a major downtown street and began marching between tight perimeters created by police buses, intended to block them from entering large roads leading to the presidential Blue House. A large number of police, many wearing helmets and body armor, move swiftly to flank the demonstrators.

This was probably the largest crowd seen in a demonstration in Seoul since 2008, when people poured onto the streets to protest the government’s decision to resume U.S. beef imports amid lingering mad cow fears, said the Seoul police official.  [Korea Times]

You can read the rest at the link.

Stalwarts of the Seoul protest scene: conservative older folks who hate left-wingers, NK leaders and sexual freedom. pic.twitter.com/FRIc8IXeVn

— Alastair Gale (@AlastairGale) October 27, 2015

Members of the Korean Animal Welfare Association, an animal rights group, hold a rally in central Seoul on July 23, 2015, protesting against eating dog meat. (Yonhap)

The day after the one year anniversary of the Sewol ferry sinking, 4,475 people gathered in Seoul Plaza in front of City Hall, Apr. 17, for an event titled “The Saddest Challenge in the World”. They managed to successfully set the Guinness World Record for largest assembly of people holding a candlelight vigil. (Hankyoreh)

It was only a matter of time, but it looks like the Korean left is now trying to use the Sewol tragedy to their political benefit by trying to turn it into another 2008 mad cow like violent protest:

Protesters try to topple a police bus at a rally in downtown Seoul on April 18, 2015. (Yonhap)

Police said Sunday they will trace violent demonstrators at a street rally here the previous night that left scores of police officers injured.

“We will run after those who organized the violent rally and acted violently so they could be subjected to legal punishment,” a spokesman for the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said in a news conference.

As many as 74 police officers were wounded, three of them seriously, the spokesman said, adding that 72 police vehicles were damaged and 368 police cameras, walkie-talkies and other equipment were either damaged or stolen.  (………)

More than 13,000 police were mobilized to blockade the road to Cheong Wa Dae and they used hundreds of trucks and other vehicles to seal off the roads nearby.

Some demonstrators destroyed police vehicles and took out fire extinguishers to spray them against the police.

Several of the police vehicles were turned over by some protesters using ropes.

Police rounded up 100 violent demonstrators, including 20 members of the bereaved families of the ferry sinking.

Nine demonstrators were brought to nearby hospitals for injuries suffered in the clash.  [Yonhap]

You can read the rest at the link, but as we have seen before the leftists are trying to get the police to over react and then use carefully taken picture to create the perception that South Korea has become a police state just like Park’s father once administered back in the 70’s.  All it would take is the leftists getting violent and the policing responding heavy handedly and then the leftists inserting one of the mother’s of the Sewol victims into the scuffle.  They would love nothing more then having pictures of what appears to be a Sewol victim’s mother being beaten by police and they may have gotten them:

“After countless attempts and struggles until the break of dawn, we are here at the Gwanghwamun Gate with a blanket,” Kim Young-oh, who lost his daughter Yu-min in the accident, said on a social networking service on Friday. “In the meantime, the mother of one of the victims broke four of her ribs and 10 others were taken by the police.”  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

What is actually ironic about the Korean leftist is that this time they actually have a legitimate complaint though President Park is not entirely to blame for the Sewol tragedy.  The lack of safety and corruption in Korea has been going on long before Park ever became President.  Probably the worst thing so far I have seen in the aftermath of the Sewol tragedy is how the captain and crew took nearly all the blame while the company that owned the boat received less than a $10,000 fine.  If the leftists really cared about this tragedy they would be protesting in front o f the Chonghaejin Marine Company demanding that they pay compensation to the families and raise the Sewol themselves instead of protesting President Park.

This is a protest I think most men would want to go check out:

A topless woman appeared in Seoul’s busy downtown area around noon Wednesday with her private parts only covered in tape to protest for women’s right to bare their breasts.

Holding a sign that roughly translates as “Why are men allowed to expose their nipples while women are not?” she later put on a bikini top to cover herself up when a crowd of men had gathered around her.

Police arrived at the scene to stop her and the woman left at around 1:30 p.m. Police said they had no idea why she was holding the protest.

The 27-year-old woman, identified only by her surname Lee, had caused a stir last month after a video clip of her dancing topless at a night club went viral on the Internet. She is known to be an ex-dealer of German luxury cars.  [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read the rest at the link, but when asked why she was protesting topless she said it was the only way to get people’s attention.

I’m not sure what this teacher’s group is complaining about?  Do they want bribery and corruption in the teaching profession?:

The country’s largest right-leaning education organization on Thursday denounced an order issued this week by the Seoul education authority that strictly prohibits teachers from accepting bribes from parents, otherwise known here as chonji.

On Sunday, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education issued a press release announcing that bribery would not be tolerated in any form and that any person who reported a teacher accepting gifts or cash would be given a reward ten times the amount of the kickback, up to 100 billion won ($89.4 million).

The Korea Federation of Teachers’ Associations (KFTA) subsequently requested that Seoul Superintendent Cho Hee-yeon apologize for publicly regarding all educators as “potential perpetrators,” arguing that teachers already attempt to foster a morally sound atmosphere.

“Given that teachers are required to have a relatively higher level of morality, we’ve been making efforts to create a more transparent culture by establishing an ethics charter in 2005,” KFTA Chairman Ahn Yang-ok said at a rally Thursday morning in front of the capital city’s education office. “The overall majority of teachers are not accepting chonji at all.”

“But the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education has issued provocative press releases saying they would discipline even those who accept 10,000 won and have disgraced all teachers,” he continued. “Cho must apologize and come up with countermeasures.”

The Seoul’s education office explained that when it announced the new regulation, it merely intended to reassure parents so that they wouldn’t agonize over bringing in a gift for their child’s teachers.

The new regulation also demands that schools not disclose the home addresses of its teachers and send text messages to parents explaining that bribery will not be allowed. Educators are only allowed to accept gifts that do not exceed 30,000 won and only at public events like Teachers’ Day or graduation ceremonies.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

An official of Ssangyong Motor’s labor union waves to his supporters from the top of a 70-meter chimney at the automaker’s plant in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul, on Feb. 17, 2015. He has staged a sit-in calling for the reinstatement of dismissed Ssangyong workers. (Yonhap)