Farmers' Groups and KCTU Hold 2nd Rally for 'Regime Resignation' in Downtown Seoul

Farmers' and labor organizations held a large-scale rally in downtown Seoul to criticize the government.

At the 'National Farmers' Rally and the 2nd General Uprising for the Resignation of the Yoon Seok-yeol Administration' held on the 20th on Sejong-daero near Sungnyemun in Jung-gu, Seoul, members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and the National Farmers' Federation are urging for rice price stabilization and opposition to rice imports. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung

The "Farmers' Path with the People," led by farmers' groups such as the National Federation of Farmers' Associations, and the "Yoon Seok-yeol Regime Resignation Movement Headquarters," composed of labor organizations including the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), held the "2nd General Rally for the Resignation of the Yoon Seok-yeol Regime" around 3 p.m. on the 20th in front of Sungnyemun in Jung-gu, Seoul. It is estimated that about 10,000 people participated in the rally.

They claimed, "Despite skyrocketing prices and plummeting rice prices causing the livelihood of the people to collapse, the current government continues to repeat mismanagement." Participants carried placards with slogans such as "Destruction of Agriculture, Extermination of Farmers" and "State Corruption, Livelihood Collapse," and also carried a bier labeled "Guarantee Farmers' Right to Survival."

Han Kyung-rye, vice chairperson of the National Women's Farmers Federation, said, "Crops were submerged due to heavy rain, and rice farming suffered poor harvests due to heatwaves in this era of climate disasters, but the government is doing nothing."

Criticism also followed regarding the arrest of 11 union members on charges of obstructing official duties during the "1st Resignation General Rally" on the 9th. Lee Tae-hwan, senior vice chairman of the KCTU, said in his opening speech, "Heavily armed police are violently responding to the rally and protests," adding, "This fully exposes the weakness of the regime."

Meanwhile, the police installed order-maintaining fences along approximately 700 meters from Exit 8 of City Hall Station to Sungnyemun and controlled all five lanes of the one-way road from City Hall toward Sungnyemun. This caused considerable traffic congestion.

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