KCTU Announces Plans to Proceed with Rally... Becomes a Gauge for Future Police Response

Police Install 1km Barricades Around Transition Committee
Deliberating Response Level to Violations of Assembly and Demonstration Act

[Asia Economy Reporters Seongpil Cho, Sehee Jang, Byungseon Gong] The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) is set to hold a large-scale rally on the 13th, raising concerns about clashes with the police. The rally’s announced time, location, and scale exceed the limits permitted by the court, making it effectively an illegal assembly. The police, who have declared a strict response policy, are reportedly deliberating on the level of their response.

On the day near the Presidential Transition Committee office in Tongui-dong, Seoul, police officers began disembarking from riot control buses around 8:30 a.m. and were deployed to their positions. Security was tight. Police barricades extended from the Transition Committee office to Sajik Tunnel, forming a barricade over 1 km long along Sajik-ro. Sajik-ro is the largest road near the Transition Committee and a likely route for the large number of KCTU participants. Police were also stationed in every alley in Tongui-dong, with two officers assigned to each narrow alley to monitor the situation. Four officers stood at a crosswalk, watching pedestrians and vehicles passing by.

Sajik-ro is the location where the court partially allowed the KCTU rally, which the Seoul Metropolitan Government had denied. The Seoul Administrative Court’s Administrative Division 5 (Chief Judge Kim Sun-yeol) ruled the day before that the KCTU could hold a rally from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. on one southbound lane near the Gyeongbokgung Palace National Folk Museum, with up to 299 participants including the organizer. This temporarily suspended the Seoul city’s ban on the downtown rally for one hour at this location. However, the KCTU announced it would proceed with a resolution rally around the Transition Committee from 3 p.m. as originally planned despite the court’s decision. Legal experts view this action as a violation of the Assembly and Demonstration Act. A lawyer in Seocho-dong pointed out, “If the KCTU proceeds with the rally as announced, it will exceed the scope of the court’s suspension of effect.”

On the morning of the 13th, barricades surrounded the area near the Presidential Transition Committee in Tongui-dong, Seoul. Photo by Gong Byung-sun mydillon@

The police are reportedly considering criminally charging the organizer for violating the Assembly and Demonstration Act if the KCTU does not comply with the court-approved location, time, and scale near the Transition Committee. However, it is internally expected that the police will not immediately proceed with dispersal procedures even if the rally is forcibly assembled. This is due to court precedents that prohibit issuing dispersal orders solely because the rally was banned. A police official stated, “Generally, immediate dispersal procedures are difficult and require policy decisions from the command and subsequent court interpretations.”

Besides the area near the Transition Committee, the police have concentrated personnel and vehicles at other locations where KCTU gatherings are expected. At a meeting chaired by Police Commissioner General Kim Chang-ryong the day before, it was decided to deploy about 120 companies and up to 10,000 officers for the rally. The police plan to use these forces to completely block the possibility of the KCTU holding a ‘surprise rally’ in other parts of Seoul besides the Transition Committee vicinity.

The police’s response level on this day is expected to serve as a gauge for future rallies and demonstrations under the next government. The Transition Committee criticized in last month’s police agency report that “the police’s lukewarm response to KCTU rallies and demonstrations caused public distrust,” and emphasized that “selective law enforcement should be avoided to maintain public trust.” Upcoming rallies and demonstrations requiring police response this month include the Public Transport Workers’ Union rally on the 14th, the People’s Revolution Party rally on the 16th, the National Concentrated Rally for the Disabled on the 19th, the two-day rally by the National Solidarity Against Disability Discrimination (Jeonjangyeon) on the 20th and 21st, and the KCTU Workers’ Health Rights Rally on the 28th.

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