South Koreans massed in the streets of central Seoul Saturday, preparing for the largest protest yet against scandal-plagued President Park Geun-hye.
Police expected up that a demonstration on the main street leading to the presidential Blue House could draw as many as 170,000 people, although organizers hoped to have up to 1 million participants. Either figure would far surpass the official estimate of 80,000 people who took to Seoul’s streets in 2008 to protest imports of American beef during an outbreak of mad cow disease.
“Park Geun-hye resign! Park Geun-hye resign!” labor union activists were chanting at protests that began at lunchtime.
South Korea’s president was plunged into the worst crisis of her turbulent tenure after it emerged that she had been taking advice on everything from North Korea to her wardrobe from a life-long friend with no policy experience and links to a questionable cult.
The woman, Choi Soon-sil, has been accused of using her relationship with Park to solicit $70 million in donations from big businesses like Samsung, intended for two foundations but which she is accused of embezzling instead. Choi has been arrested and is being questioned by prosecutors, as are several of Park’s close aides.
Although South Korea is no stranger to corruption or influence-peddling scandals, this one has particularly angered the public because many wonder if the country was being run by a “shadow president” with no experience. They are also angry that the institutions of government – from the prosecutors’ office to the Blue House itself – not only did not intervene but seem to have helped Choi, according to reports.
For the third Saturday in a row, tens of thousands of South Koreans were out in Gwanghwamun, the central part of Seoul in front of the Blue House, to call on Park to step down.
During last weekend’s protests, some 200,000 people turned out, organizers said, although policy put the figure at a much lower 43,000.
But they are clearly expecting a much bigger show this Saturday. Student and women’s groups, together with labor and farmers’ unions, had organized rallies in the lead-up to the main protest.
Tens of thousands of people had arrived by bus from the southern cities of Busan and Ulsan, and about 1,000 people from the southern island of Jeju residents flew into Seoul on 30 flights.
“We will unleash the wrath of Jeju in Gwanghwamun Square,” said Boo Jang-won, a director of the Jeju branch of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, according to the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper.
Some 25,000 police in riot gear were out in force, while buses had been lined up head-to-tail on the streets leading up to and around the Blue House, cutting off access to the president’s office and residence.
The president’s office was taking the protests seriously and listening to the public’s concerns, a spokesman said.
The office did not whether the president was at the Blue House. If she is, she should be able to clearly hear the melee in the streets outside.
Many opposition lawmakers, and even some in the ruling Saenuri party, are calling for Park to resign. “President Park’s last gesture toward the people of Korea should be to take her hands off the helm of state affairs and to submit to a prosecution investigation,” Choo Mi-ae, chairwoman of the main opposition Minjoo party, said Friday.
The president has defied calls for her to step down over the scandal and has instead delivered two nationally-televised apologies and replaced several advisers and ministers.
Park instead wants to hold on until elections scheduled for December next year, appointing a powerful new prime minister instead. But she was forced to withdraw her nominee for prime minister after the opposition complained about her “unilateral” decision.
Her efforts to quell the public fury have not worked. Her approval rating remained at 5 percent, Gallup Korea said Friday, with Park polling an astonishing zero percent among respondents in their 20s.
Comments About This Article
Please fill the fields below.