With Corona, rallies also revive... Thousands pour into the streets over the weekend

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Song Seung-yoon] Various rallies and demonstrations continued across downtown Seoul on the first weekend following the phased recovery of daily life (With Corona) implementation.

On the 7th, a rally involving about 1,400 participants from 17 civic and social organizations was held in downtown Seoul. The School Labor Education Movement Headquarters held a memorial rally at 2 p.m. in front of Seoul City Hall to commemorate Hong Jeong-woon, who died during on-site training on the 6th of last month. The rally had 499 participants.

The Migrant Workers' Equality Solidarity held a rally of 99 people at Jeontaeil Bridge from 1 p.m. to mark the 51st anniversary of martyr Jeon Tae-il. They also marched to the Cheongunhyoja-dong Community Service Center. Police were deployed throughout Seoul, but no clashes occurred with the organizers.

The day before, more than 20 organizations with about 3,000 people had reported plans to hold rallies in Seoul, and more than half of the reported participants actually took to the streets.

The Ten Million People’s Innocent Release Headquarters gathered about 1,200 people around Taepyeong-ro in Jung-gu, demanding the nullification of former President Park Geun-hye’s impeachment and her release. The Climate Crisis Emergency Action group gathered about 350 people in front of Seoul National University Hospital in Yeongeon-dong, Jongno-gu, demanding bold carbon reduction policies from the government. Additionally, about 200 people from conservative groups held rallies or demonstrations in Jongno-gu and Jung-gu, and about 100 people gathered in the Gangnam area. Approximately 2,800 people gathered across downtown Seoul that day, causing traffic congestion in the area.

Until now, rallies and demonstrations except for one-person protests were banned throughout Seoul to prevent the spread of COVID-19. However, starting June 1, with the beginning of With Corona, gatherings of up to 499 people became possible if participants were fully vaccinated or had a negative test result. Accordingly, the number of reported rallies and demonstrations in Seoul surged from 44 cases last month to 293 cases from June 1 to 5 alone.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.