[Photo] S. Korean farmers call on nation to pay attention to its agricultural community

Honoring the spirit of Baek Nam-gi, a farmer who was fatally injured by a water cannon while protesting the Park Geun-hye administration in 2016, farmers from across South Korea gathered in Seoul on Sept. 25, calling on the public and the government to recognize the suffering endured by the country’s agricultural community. Despite society being changed by the candlelit protests, they said, the lives of farmers are still the same. The demonstrators had “funeral photos” of various crops to express the slow death being experienced by Korean farmers, calling on improvements in agricultural policy as well as a type of “unification farming” that facilitates exchange between South Korean farmers and their North Korean counterparts.