 |
|
Liberty Korea Party leader Hong Joon-pyo speaks during a demonstration with other members of his party at the Unification Bridge in Paju, Gyeonggi Province on Feb. 25. The LKP is criticizing the visit of a North Korean high-ranking delegation led by Workers’ Party Vice Chairman and United Front Department (UFD) director Kim Yong-chol.
|
South Korean government re-routes NK delegation to bypass conservative party protestors
An overnight demonstration that brought out the leadership and lawmakers of the Liberty Korea Party on Feb. 24 and 25 to physically prevent North Korean official Kim Yong-chol from reaching South Korea was reminiscent of anti-Communist demonstrations of the past when demonstrators called for the Communist Party to be “beaten down.” Participants in this demonstration used crude slogans such as “shoot him down immediately,” “sworn enemy,” “off with his head” and “stone him to death.” At 7 pm on Feb. 24, party floor leader Kim Sung-tae and lawmaker Kim Moo-sung, the chair of the Fighting Committee to Block Kim Yong-chol’s Visit to South Korea, seized the southern end of the Unification Bridge, leading to the customs, immigration and quarantine (CIQ) office at Dora Mountain in Paju, Gyeonggi Province. The demonstrators were determined to “stand on the front line” and physically prevent the high-ranking North Korean delegation led by Korean Workers' Party Central Committee Vice Chairman Kim Yong-chol from visiting the South. The demonstrators, wearing thick winter clothing, ate dinner on the road and continued their sit-in throughout the night. The Liberty Korea Party sent a mobilization order to all its lawmakers, aides, party executives and party members in the greater Seoul area to gather at the Unification Bridge on the morning of Feb. 26. While the party asked more than 3,400 people to come in over 630 vehicles, only a few hundred people actually reached the southern end of the Unification Bridge for the assembly on the morning of Feb. 25. Kim Sung-tae complained to the police officers who were blocking them and asked them to “make sure the Moon administration gets a full report of the dismal situation here, where we can’t even have a meal or relieve ourselves.” Around 11 am, the lawmakers and party members who had occupied the bridge and erected a huge Taegeukgi (South Korean flag) measuring 12 meters across erupted in furry. That was when they learned that the government had rerouted the North Korean delegation across the Jeonjin Bridge, to the east of the Unification Bridge, in order to avoid a clash. But party leader Hong Joon-pyo, who joined the demonstration that morning, declared this a victory: “It looks like Kim Yong-chol had to crawl in through a ‘dog hole’ since we were guarding the Unification Bridge,” Hong said. “In the end, murderer and war criminal Kim Yong-chol has trespassed on the Republic of Korea. Letting him in through a side door was an abuse of power, influence peddling and an act of treason,” said Liberty Korea Party senior spokesperson Jang Je-won. “The Moon administration has sneaked Kim Yong-chol in and plans to put him up in style at the Walkerhill Hotel, but 50 million patriotic Koreans will definitely put him under arrest,” Kim Sung-tae said. After 16 hours on the bridge, the Liberty Korean Party dispersed at 11:30 am while singing the South Korean national anthem. The party will be holding another demonstration in opposition to Kim’s visit at the Cheonggye Stream Square in Seoul at 3 pm on Feb. 26. Demonstration criticized as an “international disgrace” The ruling Democratic Party criticized the Liberty Korea Party’s actions as “self-contradictory and an international disgrace.” Kim Yong-chol (then director of the Reconnaissance General Bureau) visited the House of Peace on the South Korean side of Panmunjeom on Oct. 15, 2014, in response to a proposal for “secret talks” by the administration of former president Park Geun-hye, who was promoting the theme of “unification as a jackpot” at the time. In contrast with its current actions, the Saenuri Party (the forerunner of the Liberty Korea Party) issued a statement at the time expressing hope that inter-Korean relations would improve. With the local elections coming up on June 13 after the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, the Liberty Korea Party seems determined to use street demonstrations to help consolidate conservative candidates and maximize its attack on the ruling party, especially during Kim Yong-chol’s visit to South Korea, and on the eighth anniversary of the sinking of the Cheonan naval vessel on Mar. 26. By Kim Nam-il, staff reporter Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]
