Hundreds of thousands of South Koreans march to surround President Park’s office
Seoul: Hundreds of thousands of South Koreans marched in central Seoul on Saturday to surround embattled President Park Geun-hye’s office, forming a socalled “human chain” to demand the president’s resignation.
As of 4pm local time, organisers estimated over 200,000 people gathered around the Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul, just over a kilometre away from the presidential Blue House where Park’s office and residence are located. The demonstrators marched up to 200 metres from the Blue House as a Seoul court allowed it. Park’s office was encircled by a chain of protesters in three sides along the wall of police bus that were parked to prevent an attempt to enter inside the presidential office.
The association to let the Park Geun-hye administration resign, composed of about 1,500 civic groups, held a preliminary event for three hours before the march to the Blue House.
An official candlelight rally is set to kick off at 6pm and the second march would be staged after a lights-out event for a minute from 8pm.
Protesters on the streets are supposed to put out candles, while people watching the nationwide demonstrations on TV are to turn off lights in offices or apartments to indirectly participate in the outside rally. The advocacy groups’ association forecast that around 1.5 million people would take to the streets in the Seoul protest alone. Xinhua