Post-318: A Glance at the Gwanghwamun Protesters

The malcontents were out in force on June 12th, 2015 at Gwanghwamun Plaza [광화문광장] in Seoul. This was the height of the MERS Panic of 2015. The MERS virus cleared the customers out of the department stores, but alas was not strong enough to clear out Gwanghwamun’s protesters. A few of the protesters wore surgical masks. I didn’t.

Gwanghwamun was once the core of downtown Seoul. That was a long time back, when Seoul had a single, identifiable downtown — until around the mid-20th century. Today, Gwanghwamun is home to plenty of office space, a few government agencies, and has been molded into a tourist center. You’ll find museums, monuments, and the main former royal palace (Gwanghwamun is the name of south gate of the main palace). The U.S. embassy is there. The huge Kyobo bookstore is there.

The most interesting thing about Gwanghwamun, to me, though, is that by today it is a central place for South Korean malcontents to gather and hold their signs, shout their slogans, and annoy passersby. My impression is that the malcontentry has increased in the 2010s over what I recall in my first times there in 2009. The “malcontents” are of all sorts, most often in the guise of Christian religious extremists and far-left political protesters.

I got some good pictures of two particular protesters that day and can “profile” them a little:

(1) “U.S. Military, Get Out!”

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A snapshot of the South Korea Far Left. Here we have an anti-American, implicitly-pro-North-Korean protester (being explicitly pro-NK is illegal), holding vigil in front of Gwanghwamun’s gleaming golden King Sejong The Great statue. 


The protester kept his head down. You see him and his sign at the very bottom right of the first picture. The same man and his sign are fully visible in the second picture. (The U.S. flag waves in front of the U.S. embassy across the street.) Here we go: 

The sign’s contents with my translations:

탄저균 반입 THAAD 배치 미군은 이땅을 떠나라! 메르스 확산 6.15 부정 박근혜정권 퇴진하라! 
U.S. Military, Get Out of Our Land! We Don’t Want Your Anthrax and THAAD Missiles!
Park Geun-Hye Regime, You Can’t Control MERS! Resign Now!

자주통일과민주주의를위한 코리아연대
The Korean Solidarity Organization for Independent Unification and Democracy

The slogans come from two recent news stories, neither of which I was much aware of. First story: “Live Anthrax Accidentally Shipped to S Korea and US Labs“. The second story references the debate on whether a U.S.-made anti-missile defense system called THAAD should be deployed in South Korea or not.

I wrote above that the Gwanghwamun of the 2010s is a big tourist draw. This was a good Friday afternoon, but the place is remarkably empty. This was the several-week-window when MERS changed a lot. We see only a single pair of tourists and can count eight yellow-vested policemen. These police are all around, and in my impression much more visible than before. (The U.S. embassy is right across the street and the ambassador was slashed by a would-be assassin a few months ago.)

(2) “Stop the Seorak Mountain Cable Car!!”

Another protester at Gwanghwamun that day, a ways to the south.

This man’s sign says this (with my translation):

설악산 케이블카 반대!!
Stop the Seorak Mountain Cable Car!!

I had no idea, but it seems there is a plan to construct a cable car to the very highest summit of Seorak Mountain [설악산], in addition to a lesser cable car than already exists (which doesn’t go to the summit). Seorak is perhaps South Korea’s most famous mountain. I must say I agree with the protester. A lunkering cable car up to the summit would detract from it all. This is a common sort of development in Korea, and I expect it will likely go forward.

Here is another recent protest against the new Seorak Cable Car I find online:

At left, the small sign says:

망가지 버린 자연환을 우리아이들에게 물려줄 수 없습니다.
Ruined Nature Cannot be Passed Down to Our Children.

The Seoul protester was standing at the highest foot-traffic area of Gwanghwamun Plaza, right in front of the intersection (once the busiest automobile intersection in the country). Admiral Yi Sun-Shin overlooks this intersection: