University student council suspends group for calling Yoon 'leader of insurrection'
A university in Seoul recently attracted controversy after it suspended a student group for alleged political bias, taking issue with the group decrying disgraced ex-President Yoon Suk Yeol as the "leader of an insurrection."
The student council at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies last week declined the ratification of its affiliated community library, which is funded by the student council but had been granted autonomy in its operations. The decision effectively suspended the library's operators from their right to run the library for one semester, relinquishing control to the student council.
The HUFS Student Council took issue with six statements that the library operators released in the aftermath of Yoon's Dec. 3 declaration of martial law, in which they demanded Yoon step down and criticized Yoon as the "leader of an insurrection" and his followers as an "anti-democratic" movement.
Yoon was removed from office as the president of South Korea after the Constitutional Court on April 4 confirmed his impeachment, but the accusation of insurrection has yet to be confirmed in an ongoing criminal trial. Yoon is charged with insurrection under Article 87 of the Criminal Act, which carries a maximum sentence of capital punishment.
The Constitutional Court said the ex-president's imposition of martial law was illegal and unconstitutional but did not specifically refer to his actions as insurrection. The National Assembly initially listed insurrection among its reasons for impeaching the former leader, but retracted it later.
Members of the HUFS student council accused the library operators of political bias, pointing out that they did not attempt to reflect student consensus when criticizing Yoon, released statements related to Yoon too frequently, and that they used the phrase "leader of an insurrection" in the statement.
The operators of the library denied that their actions were politically motivated, and claimed they were merely criticizing what they believed was a threat to democracy. They pointed out that their independent statements were in keeping with the intent shown in a separate statement released by the HUFS Student Council.
The HUFS Student Council in December released a statement decrying Yoon's martial law and demanding that he step down. The statement was issued in 19 languages, apparently to stress that the school is considered among the country's leading institutions in international studies. The student council also stated that Yoon's declaration of martial law was "a clear act of insurrection that trampled on the spirit of the Constitution and destroyed democracy."
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