Thread by @jackwgreenberg

Massive candlelight protest calling for #윤석열퇴진 (Pres. Yoon to resign), underway right now. Crowd stretches from Seoul Station to Seoul Plaza (City Hall). A pretty amazing sight that I can’t imagine seeing in 🇨🇦. Must be a several hundred thousand out. Young & old. #촛불행동

Some more photos of the crowds with their signs before the sun set. It was only six years ago that similar protests were held on this day, calling for Park Geun-Hye’s impeachment.

Defenders of the Yellow Envelope Act (#노란봉투법) which is facing amendment and prevents employers from making indiscriminate damage claims against striking workers.

Garfield says “Resign *expletive!*

Posters from the People’s Democratic Party (#민중민주당) blaming Yoon for the 10.29참사. Subheadings say the government is an anti-national dictatorship, corrupt, and incompetent.

Video footage of an adapted folk song. I’m told the original was sung to fisherman going to sea.

A most political dog with some pretty strong opinions on Yoon. #caninepolitics

Here is a float that followed the crowd as it marched to Yongsan. It suggests the influence of shamans over the first couple. The bearded figure is Monk Geonjin, who worked on a subcommittee at the PPP’s election campaign HQ. The Chinese character ‘King’ is written on Yoon’s hand

Battery-powered candles were available for purchase from a slew of vendors.

A satirical cartoon projected onto the back of a newsstand. The President is shown wearing a Saemaul Movement cap and holding the flag of imperial Japan. The beard symbolizes the influence of the shamanistic Monk Geonjin

A protesting dinosaur!

Some additional photos of the crowd:

A trot singer performs on stage as the protest gets underway, and the crowd settles in.

I found the melody of this performance quite moving, especially with the candles starting to light up.

A farmer from Nonsan sings a protest anthem with gusto

The crowd moves towards Yongsan

As a guest in Korea, I refrain from engaging in politics. I observed as my partner, who is Korean, participated. It was her 1st time joining a public protest. Here’s a picture of the sticker she put on her mask. She got it from a @LibertyinNK event we stopped by earlier.

More context: As @KarlFriedhoff notes, the protests have yet to match the scale of those that toppled Park. Park served 4 years before she was forced out. Yoon only took office May 10th of this year. JoongAng Daily had his approval rating at 34.2 % on Nov 7. Disapproval at 62.4%

When opposition lawmakers were preparing to vote to impeach Park, her approval rating was between 3-4% while her disapproval rating climbed to roughly 93%. Given this, Yoon isn’t at the same risk of sinking yet. His administration is only six months old… he still has time.

And Moon’s approval fell to 29% w/ dissatisfaction with his govt’s real estate + COVID policies, but he didn’t resign. For me, the takeaway is Korea’s democratic protest culture is alive and well, and that 10.29 has spurred more than just the opposition supporters to turn out.

When I say I can't imagine this in Canada; I mean that I can't picture such a huge # of people mobilizing like this, especially in such a coordinated and orderly manner. I was impressed with how ppl sat single file in neat rows and listened to the organizers/police.

Canada did indeed see large protests this year against COVID measures, but I would say it was more a siege/blockade, which was not peaceful, promoted violence, harassed community members, disrupted supply chain infrastructure, & caused billions in economic loss.

Korea has a strong culture of civic activism, and protests have become a facet of public debate thxs to an engaged public. All democracies are imperfect, and Korea's has certainly faced obstacles but the ppl value it more than just a political system, and are keen to defend it.