hankyoreh

Sunlight reflecting off a nearby building illuminates the Statue of Peace monument that sits in front of the previous Japanese Embassy to Korea in Seoul’s Jongno District on Tuesday afternoon, the eve of the 30-year anniversary of the Wednesday Demonstrations. (Kim Hye-yun/The Hankyoreh)

Wednesday marks the 30th anniversary of the Wednesday Demonstrations, which call for Japan to redress the issue of military sexual slavery. The demonstrations have been regularly taking place since Jan. 8, 1992.

The 1,525th Wednesday demonstration was scheduled to start at noon at a site roughly 30 meters away from the comfort woman statue located in front of the former Japanese embassy in Seoul’s Jongno District. That’s because the regular location by the statue was preemptively taken by a far-right group that denies that military sexual slavery ever happened.

The practice of far-right groups occupying demonstration locations started in May 2020.

After the emergence of allegations that Yoon Mee-hyang, the former chairperson of the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, had misappropriated funds from the organization, the far-right group Freedom Union began preemptively registering demonstrations in front of the Statue of Peace, a memorial that commemorates the victims of sexual slavery. The Korean Council has remained unable to reclaim its former demonstration site ever since.

Demonstration registrations can be submitted up to 30 days (720 hours) ahead of time. Members of right-wing and conservative groups have managed to claim the site every Wednesday by taking turns staying up all night in the waiting area of the Seoul Jongno Police Station, which oversees registrations of protests for the district.

Dec. 5 was the earliest registration date for the 30th anniversary Wednesday Demonstration. Members of the Korean Council arrived at the police station two days ahead of time to spend the night there — but members of the Freedom Union and other far-right and conservative groups eventually won the day, sources said.

“Members of conservative groups slept and ate there, locating empty spaces nearby and managing to edge us out in the reporting by two spots,” explained Korean Council secretary-general Han Kyung-hee in a telephone interview with the Hankyoreh on Tuesday.

Far-right groups also nabbed the second choice for a demonstration site.

“For the next Wednesday on Jan. 12, the Army of Mothers was first to register a demonstration at the site where the Korean Council is currently holding its Wednesday demonstrations,” the Seoul Jongno Police Station explained.

“The two groups would have to discuss the matter, but it seems likely that the Army of Mothers will hold out and refuse to split up the demonstration site,” it added.

In 2014, the Supreme Court concluded that it was not worth granting guarantees in cases of fraudulent demonstration registrations made preemptively to prevent other demonstrations from taking place.

After controversy erupted over major corporations preemptively claiming sites to thwart demonstrations by labor unions and others, the National Assembly moved in January 2016 to amend the Assembly and Demonstration Act to guarantee freedoms for lower-priority parties registering demonstrations. As a result, the police are now obligated to recommend “splitting up sites” in cases where two or more groups register for demonstrations at the same site and at the same time.

Groups hold up signs while protesting the 1,517th iteration of the Wednesday Demonstration aimed at resolving the issue of the Japanese military’s system of sexual enslavement on Nov. 10, 2021, in front of the offices of Yonhap News in Seoul’s Jongno District. (Kim Hye-yun/The Hankyoreh)

The Korean Council and other groups working on behalf of the victims of military sexual slavery criticized the police for failing to make those efforts. Ahead of this week’s demonstration, they made plans to submit a petition Wednesday morning to the National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) to demand an investigation of the police.

“Far-right groups are submitting demonstration registrations for the same locations in order to get rid of the Wednesday demonstration for good,” said Kang Gyeong-ran, director of the Korean Council’s solidarity campaign bureau.

“They also routinely make remarks constituting sexual harassment and say insulting things. We’re petitioning to have the National Human Rights Commission take emergency relief measures to investigate the human rights violations that are happening at demonstrations, and to investigate the police for allowing those things to happen,” she said.

The group’s contention is that the police have been going about their business in a rote fashion — even when the demonstration registrations by far-right groups and others are clearly intended to forestall demonstrations that they are opposed to.

The Seoul Jongno Police Station said that for now, it continues to “divide the area up around the statue out of concerns about clashing among the groups.”

In response to a similar petition in March 2018, the NHRCK recommended that the police should “actively perform coordination duties to guarantee that low-priority parties reporting demonstrations are able to hold demonstrations, including recommendations to divide up times and places.” It also stressed that “low-priority demonstrations should not be simply prohibited when the recommendation to divide sites up is not accepted.”

Yang Hong-seok, an attorney with Yi Gong Lawyers, noted, “According to current law, there is no issue with preemptively occupying a [demonstration] site.”

“But in the case of the Wednesday Demonstrations, special significance is placed on the demonstration site by the statue,” he added.

“Standards need to be developed on how these ‘preventive demonstrations’ should be viewed, and how we handle cases where two groups hold competing demonstrations at a particular site.”

By Park Ji-young, staff reporter

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