Tag: protests

Prosecutors Seek to Arrest Seven Students Who Broke Into U.S. Ambassador’s Residence

| October 21, 2019

There was more than seven people involved in this crime and why didn’t the police immediately hold them in jail after the crime instead of letting them go?:

 Prosecutors said Sunday they have requested a Seoul court to issue arrest warrants for seven progressive college students on charges of breaking into the U.S. ambassador’s residence.

Seventeen members of a progressive college student group used ladders to climb over the wall of the Habib House in Seoul on Friday afternoon.

The residence was vacant at that time, as Ambassador Harry Harris and his wife were away for a Cheong Wa Dae reception hosted by President Moon Jae-in.

The activists displayed banners reading “Harris leave this land,” with two others having attempted to break into the compound. They were protesting Washington’s call for Seoul to sharply increase its financial contribution to the presence of American troops in South Korea.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but I doubt any real consequences will come from this.

20,000 Koreans Gather for Anti-Japanese Protest in Downtown Seoul

| August 15, 2019

As far protests go, only getting a supposed 20,000 people to show up in the middle of Seoul is pretty weak. Maybe the supposed anti-Japan sentiment in South Korea is not as great as the media and politicians lead people to believe:

The weekly protest rally demanding Japan’s apology to victims of its wartime sex slavery marked its 1,400th edition Wednesday amid an escalating diplomatic and trade row between Seoul and Tokyo.

Nearly 20,000 activists, students and other citizens assembled to participate in the 27-year-old protest in front of the former compound of the Japanese Embassy in central Seoul at noon.

Politicians, including Rep. Sim Sang-jung, head of the progressive Justice Party, and Rep. Nam In-soon for the ruling Democratic Party also attended the historic event.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but I am still waiting for an anti-China protest in regards to their destruction of the Korean peninsula during the Korean War which was more recent than Japan’s World War II offenses against Korea.

U.S. State Department Calls China’s Release of Diplomat’s Personal Details “Thuggish” Behavior

| August 11, 2019

The only thing I find surprising about this article is that the U.S. State Department did not anticipate China resorting to so called “thuggish” behavior:

After weeks of escalating warnings alleging a covert U.S. role behind the protests in Hong Kong, the tone in Communist Party-backed media outlets is turning darkly acrimonious, with publications attacking a U.S. diplomat in Hong Kong and releasing her personal information. 

The pro-Beijing newspaper Ta Kung Pao on Thursday published a photo of opposition activists meeting in a hotel with Julie Eadeh, a political section chief at the U.S. Consulate in Hong Kong, along with details of Eadeh’s State Department career and the names of her husband and teenage children.

The report, which was recirculated by Chinese state media, emerged as Beijing doubled down on a familiar strategy of framing the nine-week-long protests as a U.S. intelligence plot to spark a “color revolution” to destabilize China.

The publication of information about the diplomat drew a furious response from the State Department, which accused China of “thuggish” behavior. U.S. diplomats around the world often meet with opposition figures and groups, occasionally drawing rebukes from governments.

The unusual pinpoint attack on the diplomat in Hong Kong underscores China’s growing frustration over the protests and their anti-Beijing message.

Washington Post

You can read more at the link, but it was utterly predictable that China would turn to nationalism and blame foreigners for the unrest in Hong Kong. The U.S. diplomat meeting with protesters was just the optics they needed to “prove” their invented narrative.

South Korean Retail Workers Fight for Right to Use Public Restrooms

| May 6, 2019

I guess you can add this to the something I did not know about Korea category:

Members of the Korean Federation of Service Workers’ Unions rally in front of the National Human Rights Commission building in downtown Seoul, April 22, to condemn the restriction on the use of customer restrooms. Yonhap

Going to the restroom is a basic need. But for some, it is a daunting task even though they have access to restrooms nearby. At department stores and duty free shops, sales people are banned from using the same restrooms as customers.

They are told to use one of the limited number of “workers-only” restrooms, leading to long lines and added discomfort.

Members of cosmetics companies’ labor unions and the Korean Federation of Service Workers’ Unions (KFSWU) rallied in front of the National Human Rights Commission building in downtown Seoul on April 22 to call for the right to use restrooms that the department stores and duty free shops designated as “customers only.”

The unionists mainly belong to luxury brands such as Shiseido Korea, Bluebell Korea, ELCA Korea and LVMH. 

“The department store prohibited sales workers from using restrooms on every floor of the building, saying those are only for customers,” Kim Yeon-woo, head of the Shiseido Korea union, said during a press conference in front of the commission.

“Many workers have a hard time using the designated staff toilets because they’re not located close enough to the sales counters and there are not enough of them.”

According to the laws on public toilets, there is no mention of “customer-only” restrooms. Washroom facilities at large commercial buildings over 2,000 square meters, such as department stores and duty free shops, are considered to be public toilets, meaning they are available for use by the public as well as store employees, according to Kim.

“However, department stores go as far as to give regular education to the workers not to use customers’ restrooms, because consumers may feel uncomfortable when they encounter sales workers there,” Kim said. “I can’t believe we have to demand such basic rights in the 21st century.”

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.