Police Clash with Confederation of Trade Unions: 4 Arrested and 4 Injured as Police Use Force to Disperse Demonstrators

On May 31, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) organized a massive demonstration in downtown Seoul for the first time after the government announced that it would respond strongly to what it called illegal demonstrations. After the main rally, the Korean Construction Workers’ Union abruptly installed a public memorial space to remember the late Yang Hoe-dong, a director of the Gangwon Construction Chapter of the KCTU, while the police tried to tear it down. The police clashed with union members in the process and four union members were arrested for obstruction of official duties. Another four union members were injured, including one who broke his arm. The police carried crowd-control pepper spray to disperse the crowd Wednesday for the first time in six years.

On Wednesday afternoon. the union of each industry affiliated to the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions held a preliminary demonstration throughout the city of Seoul: in front of the Office of the President in Yongsan, in front of the National Police Agency in Seodaemun-gu, and in front of the Seoul National University Hospital in Jongno-gu, where the body of the late Yang was laid. Around 4:20 p.m. they gathered in Sejong-no in Jung-gu and held a rally, strengthening their resolution to engage in a warning strike. According to the organizers over 20,000 workers took part in the rally.

Police Commissioner General Yoon Hee-keun, who publicly announced that the police could consider the use of crowd-control pepper spray the previous day, appeared for work at the Namdaemun Police Station in Seoul dressed for riot control to preside over a meeting to discuss security measures at 9:31 a.m. Wednesday. Yoon said, “The police will not hesitate to play its role against illegal activities that have become a routine, taking the citizens’ freedom as hostage in the name of freedom of assembly. That is our principle.”

Tensions ran high at the demonstration site. At 1:26 p.m. Six police vehicles with steel bars on the front and side windows, which could form a “wall of vehicles,” were parked in front of the Dongwha Duty Free shop on Sejong-daero in Jung-gu. Three police tow-trucks were standing behind the Sejong-no Police Box. On Wednesday, the police dispatched eighty riot police squadrons in Seoul. Around 4: 30 p.m. a riot police unit carrying crowd-control pepper spray on their backs and holding riot shields appeared from across the Seoul Finance Center.

The main demonstration continued past 5 p.m., which was the time permitted by the police, so at 5:10 p.m. the law enforcement agency gave orders to disperse, claiming the participants were violating Article 12 of the Assembly and Demonstration Act. The demonstration ended around 5:20 p.m.

The demonstration seemed to end without any serious clashes, but about an hour later, the mood suddenly changed as the Construction Workers’ Union and a group of people who called themselves the Joint Action by Labor, Civic, Religious, and Cultural Groups for the Activist Yang Hoe-dong (Joint Action) suddenly set up a public memorial space for Yang in front of the Seoul Finance Center ahead of a cultural festival that was scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. They placed a picture of Yang, LED candles, and incense in the memorial tent and about 1,200 union members and members of the Joint Action gathered, according to the organizers.

The police tried to remove the tent claiming that the installation of the tent was a violation of Articles 27 and 72 of the Road Traffic Act. At 6:57 p.m. the police began using force to disperse the crowd and attempted to pull the people towards the road one by one. Around 7 p.m. they read the Miranda Warning (according to the rule that mandates law enforcement agencies to notify suspects of the right to a legal defense, etc.) and informed the demonstrators that they could be arrested in the act of the crime for obstruction of official duties. By 7:20 p.m. the police arrested four union members. The police representative said, “We will announce their charges later.”

When the police ordered the crowd to disperse, union members argued that the memorial space was not the jurisdiction of the police but of the gu office and that illegal actions were not official duties. They complained and asked, “How can the police seize a space for the deceased?” Union members surrounded the tent linking their arms together to block the police from approaching. They and the police shouted at each other, which led to a physical clash as the two sides pushed each other with their arms and shoulders. In the process, four union members were injured. Three of them, including one who broke his arm, were transported to a nearby hospital, while one received medical attention on site.

A, a member of the Korean Construction Workers’ Union, said, “When the police pushed, one person who was injured was pushed toward the street in front of the Finance Center building. After he collapsed on the ground, he was left there for twenty minutes until the ambulance arrived.”

Eventually, the tent was removed by the police at 7:06 p.m. less than an hour after it was set up. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency announced, “We arrested four people who assaulted police officers at the scene and are questioning them for obstruction of official duties.”

The cultural festival, which began at 7:20 p.m. after the stormy situation, ended an hour later. The police did not use pepper spray this day.

The Korean Construction Workers’ Union released a statement and said, “The police used force to seize and remove the public memorial space and threatened participants to arrest them on site and spray pepper spray.” They argued, “If they want to stop us from setting up a public memorial space and remembering the deceased, the right thing to do would be for the Yoon Suk-yeol government and Commissioner General Yoon Hee-keun, who drove Yang Hoe-dong to his death, to first apologize to Yang and his family.” The union warned, “The police should not try to crush actions to remember Yang Hoe-dong with violence. The Construction Workers’ Union will continue the struggle according to the wishes of the late activist until they sincerely apologize.”