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Seoul Plaza in front of Seoul’s City Hall has become a symbol of the stifling the freedom of assembly, and citizens have launched a campaign to amend Seoul City regulations and have it returned to the public. Seoul City regulations specify that the plaza is to be used only as a space for citizens’ leisure and cultural activities, leading some to call it a “half-plaza” that limits citizens’ free expression of their opinions through assemblies and demonstrations.

A press conference is scheduled to be held at Seoul Plaza at noon on June 8. Representatives will be attending from the People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD), MINBYUN-Lawyers for a Democratic Society, the Seoul chapters of the Korean Student Federation, the opposition Democratic Party, the Democratic Labor Party, the Creative Korea Party and the New Progressive Party. They plan to announce the launching of a campaign to call for the amendment of the city’s regulations determining the allowed uses of Seoul Plaza.

“The city of Seoul does not permit use of Seoul Plaza for assembly purposes, and the police have it surrounded with a barrier of buses because they say they anticipate illegal demonstrations,” a source from PSPD said on Sunday. “They need to change the regulations so that Seoul Plaza, which became a symbolic space of Korean democracy all the way back during the June Struggle of 1987 to last year’s candlelight vigil demonstrations, can become an open plaza where the freedom of assembly is guaranteed,” the source added.

The June 1987 Democratic Uprising or 6.10 had brought about a peaceful regime change in South Korea

According to the city of Seoul’s regulations on the use and management of Seoul Plaza, the principal use of the plaza is limited to “citizens’ wholesome leisure and culture activities.” Civic groups plan to have this part changed part to add content about “the holding of Constitutionally guaranteed assemblies” so that assemblies and demonstrations will be possible in the plaza. They also intend to remove an item specifying that those intending to use the plaza must receive a permit from Seoul City at least seven days prior, and aim to create a “plaza citizens’ commission” to enable the gathering of citizen opinions on operating the plaza. Additionally, they are looking at plans to change the name of “Seoul Plaza” to a desirable name like “Democracy Plaza.”

Current local government laws guarantee citizens the right to mount a petition challenge to local government regulations if signatures of more than 1 percent of area voters are gathered. To alter or abolish a regulation in the city of Seoul currently requires the signatures of 80,968 people.

The right to request an alteration and/or an abolition of a regulation, together with the right for residents’ audit requests, residents’ litigation rights, and the residents’ recall system, is part of the direct democracy system recognized by local government law. Following the implementation of this system in August 1999, four campaigns to alter and/or abolish regulations have been attempted in Seoul alone. Among these four, a campaign of some 160,000 to amend school food provision regulations succeeded in amending the regulation in question to stipulate the “use of superior agricultural products.” Currently, university student groups and civic groups are working together on a signature campaign for the enactment of a “tuition interest support regulation” by which the city of Seoul would assume responsibility for interest costs on university students’ tuition loans.

“A civic campaign to ensure the freedom of assembly, which is in danger of suffocation, will begin around the nationwide anniversary of 6.10 rally,” said PSPD official Park Won-seok.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]