On Saturday, November 5, approximately 200,000 people surrounded Cheonggyecheon, the reclaimed urban river in downtown Seoul, to denounce South Korean president Park Geun-hye. Phalanxes of neon-yellow-jacketed police, marching in groups of five hundred, surrounded the protesters at a respectful distance. It felt like a test; the narrow roads couldn’t hold all the attendees, making it seem like the organizers hadn’t expected so many. [...]
The next week, one million people crowded into central Seoul for the country’s biggest demonstration since 1987. Streets were closed off, and a last-minute court order rescinded the police’s non-assembly order near Park’s residence, the Blue House. The atmosphere buzzed: Myeongdong, Jongno, and other densely packed central neighborhoods — normally given over to heavy traffic and shopping — felt like a giant street party. Trains and buses into Seoul were completely booked as groups of students, seniors, and union members converged on Gwanghwamun Square.
But this was no celebration. The protesters expressed their anger at President Park, accused of being the avatar of Choi Soon-Sil, a shadowy billionaire and daughter of a cult leader, Choi Tae-min. Choi senior became the president’s confidante soon after her mother was assassinated in 1974 and remained close until his death in 2004. The younger Choi appears to have been running the country through Park, not just to get favorable land deals and donations to her charities but as a private fiefdom. Choi is accused of writing Park’s speeches and dictating government policy. [...]
The rallies themselves have been carefully stage-managed to keep the crowds excited. Officials and teenage activists scream themselves hoarse in front of giant crowds as their images appear on giant screens set up every few hundred meters. Trade unions have dance groups who perform choreographed numbers in between speakers. [...]
As Doucette and Koo argue, South Korea has a “post-democratic” system consisting of formally democratic institutions governed by elite, top-down rule. Its stability depends on its unique anticommunist context; in South Korea, the Cold War never ended. “The fear it produces helps facilitate the leveraging of power, protection of oligarchic interests, and even aggressive pursuit of further neoliberalization.” The Park Love Group reveals how much right-wing vitriol still exists: they’ve tried — and mostly failed — to muster anticommunist sentiment against the protests.
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