Tens of thousands of unionized workers staged a general strike and students boycotted classes Wednesday, upping pressure on President Park Geun-hye to resign.
Demanding the president’s immediate resignation, civic groups, the workers and students vowed to hold a large-scale rally Saturday.
An association of 500 civic groups declared Wednesday as “a day of citizens’ resistance,” staging rallies in front of City Hall in central Seoul and in major cities from 3 p.m. More universities also joined a boycott of classes to ramp up pressure on Park.
Some 220,000 workers from the public transport, public service, construction and education industries under the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions joined the partial strike by taking a day off or leaving work early.
The Ministry of Employment and Labor puts the number of people who participated in the strike at 70,000. It denounced the strike as “political” and “illegal.”
Up to 1,500 street vendors as well as small businesses joined the move by closing their businesses for the day or put stickers demanding Park’s resignation on their doors.
“Ignoring people’s calls for an immediate resignation, Park shifted responsibility (for her resignation) to the parliament,” Choi Jong-jin, acting chief of the nation’s second-largest umbrella labour union KCTU, said during the rally in central Seoul. “Today’s general strike and citizens’ resistance will pave the way for the Park Geun-hye administration to step down.’
On Tuesday, Park said she would leave everything up to the parliament to decide, including cutting her term short.
Starting at 4 p.m., some 20,000 laborers marched across central Seoul and stopped at the headquarters of major conglomerates including Samsung, SK, Lotte, GS and Hanhwa, which are suspected of contributing money to the K-Sports and Mir foundations set up and run by Park’s close confidante Choi Soon-sil.
The rally organizers initially planned to march to a fountain only 100 meters away from the presidential office, but the police blocked their plan, citing traffic disruption. A local court later upheld the police’s decision.
The public assembly act bans protests within 100 meters from the nation’s key facilities such as the presidential office, National Assembly building and foreign assemblies. The place closest to Cheong Wa Dae that was open to protestors Saturday was Cheongwoon community centre, 200 meters away from the presidential office.
But the court allowed them to stage a rally in front of Cheongwoon-dong community centre until 8 p.m. This is the first time the court has permitted a rally near the presidential office in the evening.
Students from 17 universities, including Sookmyung Women’s University, Sogang University and Korea University, began to boycott their classes Friday. A few more schools including Seoul National University and Kookmin University joined the boycott Wednesday. Incheon University, Inha University and Pusan National University will join the move from Thursday.
Some 900 students from Seoul National University staged a rally in front of the school’s main building at 2:30 p.m. and marched for an hour Wednesday. They were also set to join a candlelight vigil at 6 p.m. at Gwanghwamun Square.
“It is no more than a collusion to suggest ‘honourable resignation’ for a criminal who violated the Constitution. In the face of the president’s fraudulent address, we are demanding she immediately step down,” said the student council of Seoul National University.
The sixth anti-Park rally will be held Saturday at Gwanghwamun Square. As with last Saturday’s rally, organizers said some 100,000 participants will completely surround the presidential office from several locations starting from 4 p.m. The main event is scheduled for 6 p.m.
