hankyoreh

Yoon Jong-o, former mayor of Ulsan’s Buk (North) District, has been engaged in a sit-in demonstration in front of the Buk District Office since May 23. During his tenor, Yoon rejected three applications from the warehouse retailer Costco to build a branch in his district, claiming he couldn’t approve the building permit until measures to protect small merchants were put in place. As a result, Yoon faced criminal charges demanding compensation, a long legal battle that ended in the Supreme Court ruling that Yoon to pay over 400 million won (US$355,000) in compensation. The court has since seized Yoon’s home, which is being auctioned off. Yoon’s sit-in in front of the district office is a protest demanding that he be exempt from paying compensation, citing his aim of “protecting smaller merchants.”