Seoul, Feb 8 (IANS) South Korean protesters from opposite ends of the political spectrum braved frigid conditions to gather for massive rallies across the nation on Saturday with one group calling for impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol’s immediate resignation and the other group opposing his ouster.
A group of protesters led by conservative activist pastor Jeon Kwang-hoon gathered in the Gwanghwamun area of central Seoul. They demanded the release of Yoon, currently in detention on insurrection charges over his short-lived declaration of martial law on December 3, while holding up signs claiming that Yoon’s impeachment should be nullified.
Organisers estimated that 3 million people showed up for the occasion, while the police’s unofficial count was 35,000.
Yoon Sang-hyun, a lawmaker for the ruling People Power Party (PPP), addressed the crowd during the rally, urging them not to lose any hope of seeing the day when Yoon will be welcomed back.
A separate rally near Gyeongbokgung Station, also in the vicinity of Gwanghwamun, saw an estimated 5,000 people demanding Yoon’s immediate ouster and urging a prompt ruling by the Constitutional Court on Yoon’s impeachment, Yonhap news agency reported.
Around Anguk Station, a little east of Gyeongbokgung and closer to the Constitutional Court, an estimated 10,000 people took to the streets.
Similar protests took place in cities such as the liberal-leaning Gwangju, some 270 kilometres south of Seoul, and the more conservative Daegu, 235 kilometres southeast of the capital.
Gwangju saw its first pro-Yoon, anti-impeachment rally since the martial law fiasco in December, and the gathering, organised by a conservative YouTuber, included protesters who had travelled from Seoul.
The Gwangju metropolitan government earlier rejected the YouTuber’s request to assemble at the square commemorating the democratic uprising of May 18, 1980.
Instead, the square was taken over by hundreds of protesters demanding Yoon’s immediate ouster in their weekly gathering.
The Gwangju Council of Citizen’s Movement, an activist group that has been running the Saturday rallies since December, voiced its “outrage at some ultrarightists’ attempts to justify the illegal declaration of martial law in Gwangju, the holy ground of democracy.”
In Daegu, a massive rally opposing Yoon’s impeachment was attended by a few PPP lawmakers and North Gyeongsang Gov. Lee Cheol-woo in the early afternoon.
Later in the day, hundreds of members of civic and labour groups met in the central part of Daegu to voice their support for Yoon’s impeachment.
–IANS
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