Disabled group insists the subway is its platform

Members of an advocacy group for disabled people clashed with police and Seoul Metro workers Monday morning at Samgakji Station in central Seoul as the group resumed rush hour protests for the first time in two weeks.

Park Gyeong-seok, center, head of the Solidarity Against Disability Discrimination, attempts to get on the subway Monday morning at Samgakji Station in central Seoul during a protest calling for improved services for people with disabilities. [YONHAP]

Members of an advocacy group for disabled people clashed with police and Seoul Metro workers Monday morning at Samgakji Station in central Seoul as the group resumed rush hour protests for the first time in two weeks.

The Solidarity Against Disability Discrimination (SADD) eventually failed to get on subway cars as they planned and operations on Seoul subway line No. 4 were not delayed.

But the confrontation on the platform inconvenienced commuters trying to get on or off trains.

SADD members who failed to get on the subway cars Monday morning said they would stage a sit-in until allowed to do so.

Seoul Metro maintains the protestors are violating the Railway Safety Act, which prohibits acts of “making noise, such as using violent language, or speaking or singing loudly and refusing to abide by orders from railway workers.”

The SADD on Monday vowed to resume its morning rush hour subway protests in the New Year and hold one every day. Seoul Metro, the operator of Seoul subway lines No. 1 through 6, has threatened legal action.

The SADD has held some 80 protests on Seoul subway stations since January 2021. It wants the government to increase spending on mobility for disabled people. The protests, which have involved SADD members getting on the subway cars in wheelchairs, have faced heavy public criticism because they were held at the busiest hours of the day and caused major delays.

Seoul Metro sued the SADD last year and demanded the group compensate it for losses.

The Seoul Central District Court ruled on Dec. 19 that from now on, the SADD must pay Seoul Metro 5 million won ($3,925) for every five-minute delay in subway operations. In the same verdict, the court advised SADD to stop its subway protests and Seoul Metro to install more elevators at 19 subway stations by 2024.

After the verdict, SADD said it would curtail its protests to under five minutes and refrain from any actions that would cause delays in subway operations.

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon didn’t buy the court compromise and said Sunday he wouldn’t accept any delay in subway operations.

Seoul Metro said Monday that it, too, wouldn’t accept the court’s mediation after “careful deliberation of various circumstances, including the inconvenience of [subway] users due to the illegal demonstrations and the losses suffered by Seoul Metro.”

The subway operator said it would file additional criminal complaints and civil lawsuits against SADD for losses caused in the 82 protests that the group held over the past two years.

Police said Monday that it was investigating 29 SADD members for traffic and business obstruction, and referred 24 members to prosecutors.

BY LEE SUNG-EUN, CHO JUNG-WOO [lee.sungeun@joongang.co.kr]