Independent researcher & freelance writer. Working on contested histories, memory, and Korea’s truth commission. Fmr. Global Korea Scholar. McGill & 고대 Alumnus.
This track was in use till ‘66 & buried during the construction of a pedestrian underpass at Sejongro. Seoul’s bulldozer’ Mayor Kim Hyon-ok was responsible for the trams’ demise. The cars were outdated, replacement + track repair was too costly, & the system disrupted traffic. 
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. 
Choi Min-Sik was born in 1928 to a poor Catholic peasant family in what is today South Hwanghae-do, North Korea. He moved to Seoul upon liberation, and after the war he smuggled himself to Japan where he had dreamed of studying art
Fmr. US SoS @mikepompeo joins virtually for a talk with ex-US Amb. An Hoyeong. On 🇨🇳 influence, he says it is already entrenched, & states worldwide must push the CCP back from inside their gates. Also, “🇨🇳 wants every nation to be a vassal state that pays it tribute & homage” 
I’ve been thinking about Sewol a lot over these days. I have memories of seeing it on the news and discussing it in my high school law class, but it was only after coming to Korea that I really understood the scope of what happened, the gov't's complicity, & social impact it had. 
Floral tributes for the victims have started to be left at the top of #Itaewon/#이태원 Station Exit 1 and posted on storefronts, such as Foot Locker’s, beside the alleyway where the stampede occurred. 
The land on which the building sat until recently is now being redeveloped by Buyoung Housing with a 27-story hotel, which when complete will have 850 rooms. Initially the company was given a construction permit on the condition that the façade of the Hanil Building be preserved 
This prison was the third to have been established in the city’s modern history. The first opened in 1908 during the last years of the Korean empire at what is now 충장로. It measured just 95 square meters and could hold 130 prisoners in 11 cells.
I found @JihyunPark7’s memoir helpful in understanding just how powerful 성분 is in reality, especially when one is a descendant of somebody who fled South during the war. Also appreciated the co-author’s reflections as a South Korean, which were interspersed between chapters
These injuries were sustained during mass street demonstrations against the death by torture of SNU student Park Jeong Cheol and the Chun Doo Hwan dictatorship on his university’s campus.