A Group with the Goal to Oust Park Geun-hye from Presidency Organized Candlelight Demonstrations, Created Media Narratives, and Filed Accusations, Internal Document Reveals

2020-9-25, Ilyo Shinmun (Sunday Newspaper) [TRANSLATION]

Writing a “statement of accounts” after impeachment? Emergency Citizen Action for the Park Geun-hye Administration’s Resignation’s internal data disclosure

Ilyo Shinmun recently obtained material titled “Forcing Resignation Action Team-by-team Reporting and Evaluation” (퇴진행동 팀별 보고 및 평가), which appears to be created by the group Emergency Citizen Action for the Park Geun-hye Administration’s Resignation (Action to Force Resignation) [박근혜정권퇴진비상국민행동(퇴진행동)].  With a total of 61 pages, the document was reportedly written after the impeachment of former president Park Geun-hye (to evaluate the group’s effectiveness).  It focused on the reports and evaluations of the Rally Planning Team, Legal Team, and Media Team, and also included full progress reports on some major meetings.

The first impeachment rally for former president Park Geun-hye was held on October 29, 2016, occurring not long after the Gookjeong Nongdan (국정농단, an accusation that Park’s friend Choi was running the state of affairs) went public.  On October 19, 2016, JTBC interviewed Ko Young-tae (고영태), (deemed to be) a close associate of Choi Soon-sil’s (legal name Choi Seo-won), and reported that Choi had browsed and revised the former president’s speech in advance.

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According to the documents, the Action to Force Resignation group formed a Rally Planning Team and held its first meeting on November 15, 2016.  They selected co-team leaders and the structure of the team, and began preparing for the launch of the fourth Pan-national Action Day to be held on November 19, 2016.   It was revealed that Worker’s Solidarity (노동자연대) member Kim Kwang-il (김광일) and former head of Korea Youth Solidarity (한국청년연대) Yoon Hee-sook (윤희숙) became co-leaders of the Rally Planning Team that consisted of 21 activists from different civic groups.

Fourteen civic groups have sent activists to the Rally Planning Team, including Financial Justice Solidarity (금융정의연대), Workers’ Solidarity (노동자연대), Democratic People’s Public Welfare, Peace, Unification, Sovereignty Solidarity (민권연대/민주민생평화통일주권연대), Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (민주노총), Democratic Action (민주행동), Seoul Action to Oust Park Geun-hye Administration (박근혜정권퇴진서울행동), Social Revolution Workers’ Party (사회변혁노동자당), People’s Solidarity for Social Progress (사회진보연대), Living with Jesus (예수살기), People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (참여연대), Catholic Human Rights Commission (천주교인권위원회), People’s Solidarity for Korea’s Progress (한국진보연대), Korea Youth Solidarity (한국청년연대), 4.16  Solidarity (4·16연대), and others.

In the document, it was written that when the police’s estimate of the number of rally participants greatly differed from the Action to Force Resignation’s estimate, the group’s Media Team was directed to respond to the situation.  The Media Team (of the Action to Force Resignation) responded by sending an official letter of protest to the police claiming the estimate was distorted, holding press conferences, and releasing their own numbers.  The police have since stopped announcing their estimates of the number of rally participants.  Regarding this matter, The Action to Force Resignation made a self-congratulating remark in the document, stating, “we succeeded in the police announcing that they will not publicly publish the number of people at the rallies.” 

The Media Team consisted of Nam Jung-soo (남정수), spokesman for the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, Mr. Park Jin (박진), Dasan Human Rights Center’s, and Ahn Jin-gul (안진걸), the director of Public Welfare Economic Research Institute (민생경제연구소), who hails from People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy.  A total of eleven people were active under Nam, Park, and Ahn in the Media Team.  The People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy sent the largest number of three people to the Action to Force Resignation, along with activists from with Korean People’s Solidarity Against Poverty (빈곤사회연대), Workers’ Solidarity (노동자연대), National Solidarity for the Elimination of Unstable Labor (전국불안정노동철폐연대), Social Revolution Workers’ Party (사회변혁노동자당), People’s Solidarity for Korea’s Progress (한국진보연대), Korean Peasant’s League (전국농민회총연맹), and the Korean Women Peasant’s League (전국여성농민회총연맹).  The Media Team produced a total of 236 pieces of content, including 59 statements, 54 commentaries, 21 daily briefings, and 139 press releases.

The Media Team recruited the internet media outlet Pressian to organize and publish five planned & coordinated reports titled “Why Candlelight.”  Konkuk University’s Professor Han Sang-hee (한상희), SungKongHoe University’s Professor Kim Dong-chun (김동춘), and others participated.  The Media Team also designed a story about “People who should vanish along with Park Geun-hye’s resignation” with an internet media outlet OhmyNews, which contained the story from Kim Nam-geun (김남근), then vice chairman of Minbyun (Lawyers for a Democratic Society).  Media Today, a media outlet under the National Union of Mediaworkers (under the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions), also worked with Action to Force Resignation to design and coordinate a story about Minbyun’s lawyers Lee Jae-hwa (이재화) and Kwon Young-guk (권영국).

It seems that Minbyun’s lawyers were able to work with Action to Force Resignation   thanks to (Action to Force Resignation group’s) Legal Team. The head of the Legal Team was lawyer Kwon Young-guk (권영국) from Minbyun.  Lawyers Kim Sang-eun (김상은), Kim Do-hee (김도희), Lee Jae-hwa (이재화), Sogang University’s Professor Lee Ho-jung (이호중), and others were also a part of the Legal Team. They held a total of 18 meetings, most of which were held at the Minbyun office.

On December 26, 2016, the Action to Force Resignation’s Legal Team reported the former Prime Minister Hwang Gyo-an (황교안) and former Senior Secretary to the President for Civil Affairs Woo Byeong-woo (우병우) to the police with charges.  In addition, it was discovered that the Military Human Rights Center (군인권센터) wrote a bill of indictment on behalf of Action to Force Resignation, accusing pro-Park Geun-hye groups of inciting a rebellion.  It turned out that the petition for issuing an arrest warrant for Samsung Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong (이재용) and the bill of indictment against former President Park Geun-hye for “7 hours” of abandonment on the day of the Sewol Ferry sinking were also projects of (Action to Force Resignation’s) Legal Team.  The Legal Team also had a hand in the filing of a complaint to control the demonstration by a conservative group supported by the Federation of Korea Industries (전경련).

According to the Action to Force Resignation documents, a total of 23 rallies were held from October 29, 2016 to April 29, 2017.  [Truncated]

Source:  https://m.ilyo.co.kr/?ac=article_view&entry_id=380794