Anti-President sentiment spills over to Saenuri
Protesters slam ruling party’s inconsistency over impeachment
Public rage against President Park Geun-hye over the influence-peddling scandal involving her confidant Choi Soon-sill has spilled over to the ruling Saenuri Party after it decided to help the President step down by April instead of being impeached.
Nearly 20,000 people held a protest in front of the ruling party’s headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul, at 2 p.m., Saturday.
Since the scandal emerged in late October, this was the first massive protest in Yeouido, the center of the nation’s politics where parties’ headquarters and the National Assembly are located, while Gwanghwamun used to be the main rally site. The gathering came after the Saenuri Party decided Friday to guarantee Park an “honorable exit,” instead of pushing for impeachment, with a schedule for her resignation by April and an early presidential election in June.
The rally participants said the party is attempting to give an “indulgence” to the President, demanding that it disband.
“The ruling Saenuri Party adopting such an outrageous flip-flop decision instead of joining efforts to impeach Park, is seeking an opportunity to suit its political interest. It is now an accomplice in this crime,” said Oh Min-hwan, a staffer at an association of progressive civic groups.
“We hereby declare that our next mission is to make the Saenuri Party dissolve for its failure to listen to the public. We will keep expressing our opposition to make sure its lawmakers and other politicians learn that they exist to serve the public.”
The participants ripped a large-sized Saenuri Party flag into pieces. Some also threw eggs at the banner on the wall of the headquarters, which read, “Our fellow citizens, we offer our deepest apologies. We will settle the current situation as soon as possible.”
“If the National Assembly fails to uphold the public will, Yeouido will be the second Gwanghwamun with millions of protesters holding candles,” one participant said.
They then marched to Yeouido Station and many headed to Gwanghwamun for an evening protest there.
Besides the offline protest, online ones have been also active.
A new website, https://parkgeunhack.com, opened Friday where people can send messages and petition for Park’s impeachment to lawmak- ers of their constituencies, either the Saenuri Party or others. More than 700,000 people had signed the petition there as of Sunday evening.
“Impeachment is possible only by lawmakers. Please ask lawmakers of your constituencies to vote for impeachment,” the site reads. It also shows the lawmakers’ reactions to the petitions — while many opposi- tion lawmakers said they would vote for it, most Saenuri Party members remained without responses.
Some people are directly calling or text messaging Saenuri Party lawmakers after the party members’ mobile phone numbers were disclosed online last week by an unknown individual. The disclosure coincided with another list of 16 law- makers opposing Park’s impeachment, which Rep. Pyo Chang-won of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea unveiled on his Facebook page, Wednesday. They included Saenuri Party floor leader Chung Jin-suk and Chairman Lee Jung-hyun.
The 16 members have been unable to carry out their duties due to a bar- rage of hate calls and messages demanding they vote for impeachment. Some have changed their phone numbers.
The Saenuri Party filed a complaint with the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office against Pyo for obstructing their public duties and violating the law governing personal information protection.