[Photo] Civic group petitions to create human rights memorial for Park Jong-chul

A petition campaign has been launched with the aim of creating a human rights memorial at the site of the former police station in the Namyeong District of Seoul where democratic activist Park Jong-chul was tortured to death in 1987. On Dec. 2, the Patriotic Martyr Park Jong-chul Commemorative Committee submitted a petition to the Blue House website asking that the site, which currently houses a Police Human Rights Hall, be transferred to the ownership of civic groups in order to house a human rights memorial honoring the late activist. Park was a student at Seoul National University whose death at the hands of police helped spark the June Democratic Movement in 1987, which led to the end of authoritarian rule in South Korea. The photo shows a clip from the film, “1987” in which Park’s prison cell is an important backdrop.