Court "Conditional Approval for Protest March Against Contaminated Water in Front of Daetongryeonsil... Limit of 1000 Participants"

The court conditionally permitted a civic group opposing the discharge of contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan to hold a rally and march near the Presidential Office. Earlier, the police had notified a ban on this rally.

On the afternoon of the 22nd, when the Japanese government decided to begin the ocean discharge of contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant as early as the 24th, members of the Joint Action to Stop the Ocean Dumping of Japanese Radioactive Waste held a press conference in front of the Japanese Embassy in Jongno-gu, Seoul, demanding the cancellation of the ocean dumping schedule. Photo by Jo Yongjun jun21@

The Administrative Division 4 of the Seoul Administrative Court (Presiding Judge Kim Jeong-jung) partially accepted the suspension of execution application filed by the "Joint Action to Stop Japan's Radioactive Contaminated Water Ocean Dumping" (Joint Action) against the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's partial ban on outdoor assemblies on the 8th.

The court ruled that the police's ban on Joint Action's march along the Hangang-daero section was excessive, stating, "They completely disregarded the possibility of negotiation based on the on-site situation and effectively prohibited the march after the Samgakji rotary," and added, "Banning the entire march after the Samgakji rotary due to traffic congestion at the rotary excessively restricts the freedom of assembly."

The court allowed a march of approximately 1.4 km along Hangang-daero from Cheongryong Building in Galwol-dong, Yongsan-gu, passing through Samgakji Station to Sinyongsan Station. However, the number of marchers was limited to 1,000 instead of the originally reported 8,000 by the organizers. Additionally, marchers were restricted to two lanes of the section and prohibited from entering the bus-only lanes. Marchers exceeding 1,000 were to disperse around Cheongryong Building and were not allowed to rejoin the march formation.

Furthermore, the court prohibited the use of certain lanes and sidewalks on Sejong-daero, the march section from Taepyeong-ro Intersection to Sungnyemun Intersection, but found no issue with the provision allowing Joint Action to negotiate with the police to use these areas depending on whether other groups who reported earlier hold their assemblies.

The Joint Action side criticized the court's conditional approval. The Lawyers for a Democratic Society (Minbyun) human rights monitoring legal team representing Joint Action stated, "It is significant in reaffirming the freedom of assembly and the freedom to choose the location," but criticized conditions such as limiting the number of participants to 1,000, saying, "It severely restricts the freedom of assembly and demonstration."

Earlier, Joint Action had reported plans to hold rallies in downtown Seoul on the 9th, 16th, and 23rd of this month to criticize the government and condemn the discharge of contaminated water, and to march near the Presidential Office, but the police partially banned these on the 1st. The police argued that if Joint Action holds assemblies simultaneously with other groups that reported assemblies and marches at the same location earlier, there would be concerns about mutual interference between assemblies, conflicts, and traffic congestion.

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