Locked in the wall of a car and trapped in a fence … On the day of the Hangeul, Gwanghwamun turned into a maze

“We cannot enter Gwanghwamun” On the ninth day of Hangeul, on the street in front of Seoul City Hall in Jung-gu, Seoul, police officers are checking vehicles trying to enter the direction of Gwanghwamun Square. On this day, the police installed vehicle checkpoints at 57 places in the city to control traffic and carried out fire checks on citizens walking through the city center. News 1

On the 9th of the Hangeul Footprint, in central Seoul such as Gwanghwamun Square and Seoul Square, a car wall made of police buses reappeared after the first day of the first day to prevent conservative groups from gathering.

Police blocked all main streets with vehicles and fences and installed 57 vehicle checkpoints in central Seoul to control traffic. Citizens, who were prevented from traveling to the city center during the holidays, complained of discomfort when the police questioned their destination and identity on foot. Conservative groups, notified of the rally ban, condemned the government by holding surprise press conferences, individual picket rallies, and bicycle rallies at various locations in central Seoul rather than large-scale rallies.

○ Citizens complained about the nuisance to barriers, fences and inspections

From the early morning of the 9th, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency mobilized some 400 police buses to install a barrier to prevent the entrance to the main road from the Gwanghwamun Pavilion to the City Hall Square. A steel fence in the shape of a labyrinth was placed on the wall to prevent the entry of citizens. On the 3rd, it was replaced by a steel fence in place of the “wall of the police bus car” that surrounded both Gwanghwamun Square and Seoul Square. At Gwanghwamun Station, the 7 entrances to Gwanghwamun Square were lowered and locked at the fountain, just like in Gaecheonjeol times. Around 11,000 police officers were deployed around the traffic walls and fences, preventing the citizens’ assembly from attending the assembly itself. To quarantine the new coronavirus infection (Corona 19), the police notified the prohibition of more than 10 of the 1,220 rallies reported on Hangul Day by conservative groups or 139 cases reported in prohibited areas. Although all large-scale meetings were banned, it was intended to prevent the meeting itself by notifying some groups to enforce the meetings. The police raised the barrier around 2 pm when there was no concentration movement by the conservative group that was concerned. In addition, a free shuttle bus was operated for the convenience of pedestrians. However, the voices of complaints about the inconvenience of traffic and business damage caused by untested controls by police officers grew louder. Kim Mi-gyeong (48), who came out on the Cheonggyecheon excursion, said: “I went on vacation, but every time I cross the street, the police officers hit me and ask me for identities, and I feel very uncomfortable.” . Kwon Il-won, a 26-year-old college student, said: “It was the first time I was subjected to an indifferent scrutiny that my parents’ generation suffered.” Lee Mo (55), who runs a restaurant near City Hall Station, complained that “the number of customers was reduced to a fifth compared to usual because access was controlled so that people could not pass near of the store”.

○ Criticize the government with picket rallies, press conferences, and bicycle demonstrations.

Instead of large-scale demonstrations banned by the police, surprise press conferences, bicycle rallies, and individual picket rallies were held throughout Seoul. The ‘Citizen Emergency Countermeasures Committee 8-15’, which was notified of the ban while holding a gathering of 2,000 people near Gwanghwamun, near the Four Seasons Hotel in Jongno-gu, Seoul, said: “The assembly is one of the main means of protecting liberal democracy. The device of the people that can be destroyed is the freedom of assembly and association, and this means ended with the political ruling of the court ”. The Gwanghwamun National Congress Emergency Response Committee on August 15, involving the Sarangjeil Church and others, held a press conference in front of the Independence Gate in Seodaemun-gu and Boshingak in Jongno-gu and criticized that “the government’s ban on meeting was an excessive exercise of public power.”

Meanwhile, foreign reporters also paid attention to the control of Gwanghwamun. On the 9th, reporter Chad O’Caral of NK News, an American media outlet specializing in North Korea, tweeted: “Now Seoul is literally crazy (crazy). I went to the Fever Byeongsik coverage of Pyongyang, but I had never seen anything like this. ”William Galler, director of Voice of the United States (VOA), tweeted a video passing through a maze-like steel fence in front of to the Seoul City Hall, saying, “The police have installed a large number of barriers and checkpoints to detain the protesters.”

Seonghee Han [email protected] Go to reporter’s page>Reporters Park Jong-min and Lee Yoon-tae