Another Massive Protest Against Moon Jae-in & Cho Kuk Continues on October 9

2019-10-12, Tara O

After a huge demonstration on October 3, 2019, another massive protest took place on October 9, 2019, South Korea’s Korean Hangul (written Korean characters) Day. The rallies occurred in the same area that includes Gwanghwamun and City Hall in Seoul. They call for Moon Jae-in to step down or be impeached and want Cho Kuk to be jailed. For more on the Cho Kuk scandal, see here.

Here are some photos/video of the demonstrations.

Additionally, there have been 2,000 to 3,000 people continuously protesting outside the Blue House since October 3, 2019. They have been sleeping outside on the hard ground and have been present through rain and shine. They said they’re out there to defend freedom and South Korea’s liberal democracy for future generations.

Link: https://m.chosun.com/news/article.amp.html?sname=news&contid=2019100401910&id=2019100401910&__twitter_impression=true

Some of the South Korean mass media finally began to cover the protests starting with the one on October 3, 2019 as well as the one on October 9th. These flag rallies have been ongoing for nearly three years on every Saturday and many of the major holidays. More people have been joining especially after the Cho Kuk scandal broke.

Pro-Cho Kuk/Pro-Moon Rally

Moon Jae-in and his party have called for their own pro-Cho Kuk protests, and a much smaller, but sizeable crowd appeared on different date than the above in Seocho District in Seoul near the offices of the prosecutors to put pressure on them.  The prosecutors are investigating Cho Kuk’s family’s involvement in various scandals involving allegations of fraud, nepotism, embezzlement, destruction of evidence, and so on.  The photo below shows the pro-Cho Kuk/pro-Moon rally on October 5, 2019.

Many suspect the crowd protesting in favor of Cho Guk to be tied to the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, as the pro-Cho Kuk crowd seems well-organized, well-rehearsed with their protest moves, and were able to show up quickly. Everyone in this rally held pieces of the South Korean flag–mainly the yin and yang portion, but also the stripes portion, as if to symbolize the break up of South Korea.

Unlike the anti-Moon, anti-Cho Kuk protests where South Korean and U.S. flags are waved, the pro-Moon government rallies appear to be getting smaller.

These pro-Cho Kuk/Moon protests are really counter anti-Cho Kuk/Moon protests.  The anti-Cho Kuk/Moon protesters then held counter protests next to the pro-Cho Kuk/Moon rallies in Seocho District.  The pro-Cho/Moon rally organizers took a photo of the night time rally on the street, which included the anti-Cho/Moon protesters and a large unrelated annual festival to inflate the number of attendees, which in itself became controversial.

The anti-Cho Kuk, anti-Moon Jae-in rallies will likely continue.