Road closures expected in Seoul amid major rallies for, against Yoon Suk Yeol's impeachment
Police said Friday roads in central and western Seoul will be partially closed on Saturday as tens of thousands of people are expected to take to streets, as the political turmoil continues following the end of the hearings in suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol's impeachment trial, Tuesday.
Suspended from office and under detention, Yoon currently awaits the Constitutional Court verdict that will determine his fate, following the wrap-up of hearings over upholding his impeachment, Tuesday.
According to Seoul police, rallies in Jongno-gu, central Seoul, and Yeongdeungpo-gu, western Seoul, will likely cause traffic congestion, so they advise people to use the subway. Police added it would dispatch some 270 officers to control traffic near rally locations.
Starting at 2 p.m. Saturday, people calling on the Constitutional Court to confirm Yoon's impeachment will gather near the Anguk-dong four-way intersection in Jongno-gu. Then at 3:30 p.m., lawmakers from the five opposition parties are expected to lead a rally at this location. Then at 5 p.m., participants will start marching in the Sajikro area near Gyeongbokgung Station exit 4.
Those opposing Yoon's impeachment will gather at 1 p.m. at Sejong-daero near the south end of Gyeongbokgung. This rally will be followed by a march to the Constitutional Court in Jongno-gu, Seoul, vial Euljiro.
A conservative Christian group will also hold a "national emergency prayer meeting" rally against removing Yoon in Yeouido, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, at the same time.
Saturday is a public holiday marking the 106th anniversary of the March 1 Independence Movement, in which Koreans across the peninsula rose up in resistance to Japanese occupation and to call for independence on March 1, 1919, following Imperial Japan's annexation of the peninsula in 1910.
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Korea Herald
6 hours ago
- Korea Herald
[Wang Son-taek] Keys to success for the Lee administration
President Lee Jae-myung, who took office on June 4, has been busy. He is working to resolve the six-month national crisis that left the country without a president because of the martial law declaration by former President Yoon Suk Yeol. It is also urgent for Lee to appoint high-ranking officials to help him run the government over the next five years. Though he is very busy right now, he might hope to see his administration succeed -- in other words, to reestablish governance. Since the democratization of the Republic of Korea in 1987, there have only been two successful cases where the government has been wholly rebuilt -- specifically, the elections in 1992 and 2002. However, it is necessary to put aside the 1992 election of President Kim Young-sam, given that it resulted from a political trick -- the merger of three major parties. On the other hand, the election of President Roh Moo-hyun in 2002 can be evaluated entirely as the result of public judgment. His election as president was mainly due to the public's relatively positive evaluation of his predecessor, President Kim Dae Jung. The other presidents were all subject to public criticism but failed to lay the groundwork for a successful transfer of power to the opposition. The newly launched Lee Jae-myung administration should closely examine the background of the Kim Dae-jung administration's success and the causes of other governments' failures. Three variables might be derived by analyzing the successes and failures. The first is the zeitgeist, or the spirit of the times; the second is communication and the third is unity. President Kim Dae-jung always tried to grasp the zeitgeist, and once it had been understood, he demonstrated his utmost efforts to bring it to fruition. Until the 1990s, he focused on the struggle for democratization and political development. In the 2000s, he raised national topics such as national unity, informatization and technology, inter-Korean reconciliation and cooperation. What might be the zeitgeist President Lee is facing? The first priority is overcoming insurrection. Efforts should be made to heal the psychological wounds of the people, shocked by the insurrection, by establishing institutional arrangements to prevent it from occurring again. The second most important task is to proceed with national reconstruction, which Korea must elevate to the next level by reforming and improving policies the state completely reversed during the three years of the Yoon Suk Yeol government. To this end, we propose a new Korean-style national development model and a national reconstruction campaign. To upgrade our democracy, it is necessary to introduce additional systems that guarantee popular sovereignty and to march with the people toward a future in which national integration can take place naturally. In terms of the economy, we need a national campaign to become a creativity-oriented society in which diversity, inclusiveness and tolerance are respected and where people can try again after failure. It is true that governments other than the Kim Dae-jung administration acknowledged the spirit of the times. The problem is that their actions went in different or opposite directions. The second task in succeeding as a government is effective communication. President Kim Dae-jung's communication method was surprisingly simple. First, to understand what policies the people wanted, he referred to opinions expressed in newspapers and broadcasts as much as possible. The next step was to candidly explain to the public the background of his policies and seek support. Even if a policy did not get 100 percent support, a candid explanation helped lessen the degree of rejection by the people. While pursuing his policies as the next step, Kim admitted to errors when things went wrong and sought understanding by explaining what happened. Listening to public opinion, explaining policies in advance and elucidating policy failures were key elements of Kim Dae-jung's successful communication. Although these elements seem simple, they are not easy to implement. If officials in charge of state affairs neglect the people and focus only on the struggle for power, they will not achieve public acceptance because frank communication would mean political defeat. Ironically, this is a key factor that led to the success of the Kim Dae-jung administration and the failure of other governments. The last of the three successful elements of the Kim Dae-jung government is that it made every effort to unify the people. National unity is also easy to talk about but challenging to achieve. This is because "the people" are ultimately the voters who support a leader in today's situation of severe political polarization. In a sense, voters who do not support the winner of an election might not count as citizens. Kim never discriminated against the people who did not support him, which was one of the great secrets to his success. For President Lee Jae-myung, achieving national unity will be more difficult than it was for President Kim because political polarization has become so extreme. Nevertheless, if President Lee repeatedly reaches out to and embraces the conservatives who oppose, fear and despise him, antipathy toward him will undoubtedly lessen. Then, the energy he would have spent attacking the opposition can be put into developing the policies that the majority of people want. In that scenario, there would be no reason for him not to succeed. The Lee Jae-myung administration has a much greater chance of success than its predecessors. This is because most of the negative images of President Lee are simply illusions. Within the next three months or so, it is certain that the baseless slanders against him will disappear. However, improving Lee Jae-myung's image does not guarantee success. The administration must work hard to grasp the zeitgeist, communicate strategically and achieve national unity as the great Kim Dae-jung did. These may well be sufficient conditions for success.
Korea Herald
6 hours ago
- Korea Herald
[Editorial] No retaliation in probes
Special counsels should be neutral figures to avoid suspicions of revenge, oppression Three bills mandating special counsel probes into allegations involving the administration of former President Yoon Suk Yeol were enacted Tuesday following approval at a Cabinet meeting. One of the bills requires special counsels to investigate insurrection and treason charges related to Yoon's failed declaration of martial law. The second bill calls for a probe into allegations against Yoon's wife, Kim Keon Hee. She allegedly accepted luxury goods as bribes, manipulated stock prices and intervened illegally in the People Power Party's nomination of candidates for the National Assembly. The third bill deals with the death of a Marine who drowned while searching for missing flood victims and the presidential office's alleged pressure on officials investigating his death. The bills mark the first legislation for President Lee Jae-myung since taking office last week. Their passage through the Assembly was led by the ruling Democratic Party of Korea. Simultaneous special counsels investigating three cases against key figures from the previous administration and possibly lawmakers from the People Power Party are unprecedented. In light of the seriousness of the allegations, the truth needs to be uncovered. But the investigations should be impartial and transparent. If not, they are likely to be caught up in suspicions of political retaliation. Investigations of the allegations in question are either completed or ongoing. They were conducted separately by the prosecution, the police and the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials. The government and the ruling party say the legislation was intended to increase the efficiency of the investigations by integrating the separate probes and revealing the overall truth in all three cases, but there is concern about the scale of the investigation and how special counsels are appointed. As many as 120 prosecutors will be assigned to three special counsel teams. This figure is more than half of the number of prosecutors at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, the nation's largest. Hundreds of investigation officers and assistants will also join. Allocating so many resources to the special counsel probes could set back investigations into other cases affecting the lives of ordinary people. Among other provisions, the bills give only the Democratic Party and the minor opposition Rebuilding Korea Party, which almost always stands by the now-ruling party, the exclusive right to recommend special counsels in the three cases. It is hard to dispel worries about the political neutrality of their investigations. The appointment of special counsels is a supplementary system designed to keep those in power from pushing biased investigations. It should be used in exceptional circumstances and only as necessary. But the Democratic Party unilaterally passed bills that expand the scope of special counsel probes and grant nominating authority exclusively to certain parties. It is true that suspicions about the previous administration still need to be addressed, and some investigations have been criticized as insufficient. But in a situation where Lee and the Democratic Party are now in power, it is questionable whether special counsels are even necessary to investigate the previous administration instead of using the existing judicial system. It is difficult to erase suspicions of political motivations. The opposition People Power Party has condemned the bills, arguing that the special counsels' "triple investigations" are political revenge. If the investigations were used as a lever of power for political suppression, as the People Power Party worries, it would be a grave threat to democracy. The special counsel investigations should not split the nation into "us versus them," either. People experienced deep division during the Moon Jae-in administration due to its drive to eliminate "the evils of the past," which led to claims of a political vendetta. Lee vowed to base his government on "integration." If so, the special counsel probes should serve as a just means of revealing the truth and ultimately restoring the rule of law, not a means for retaliation and oppression. That begins with appointing special counsels who are politically unbiased and widely respected.
Korea Herald
17 hours ago
- Korea Herald
Lee, Fiala hail $18b nuclear power deal as 'touchstone' for broader economic exchange
President Lee Jae-myung and the Czech Republic's Prime Minister Petr Fiala in their first phone call on Wednesday acknowledged that the $18 billion nuclear exports deal with the European country could further stimulate bilateral economic exchanges. Referring to the deal signed between the two countries on June 4, Lee's spokesperson Kang Yu-jung told reporters that the deal to build two nuclear reactors in Dukovany, Czech Republic, would "serve as a touchstone for the broader bilateral economic exchanges." Kang added that the two countries may also cooperate comprehensively in cutting-edge technologies, infrastructure and energy. In July 2024, a South Korean consortium led by the state-run Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power was chosen to build two 1,000 megawatt nuclear power units in the Czech Republic. However, the final contract was not signed until this month after the local court lifted an injunction filed by France-based EDF, which was a competing bidder. During their 20-minute phone call, both leaders also called for a more active people-to-people cultural exchange and cooperation, as this year marks the 35th anniversary of forging diplomatic ties and the 10th anniversary of the strategic partnership between the two nations. Lee also expressed his anticipation for Fiala's visit to South Korea at his convenience during their call, Kang added. Lee's phone call with Fiala followed those of US President Donald Trump, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
