By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter

Owners of restaurants and shops in the Gwanghwamun area of central Seoul will file a lawsuit against the organizers of anti-American beef rallies, seeking compensation for damage to their business.

The Lawyers for Citizens said Wednesday that it would help the owners file the suit.

Restaurants and shops in Gwanghwamun and Jongno, where candlelit rallies and violent clashes between demonstrators and police have taken place for more than two months, have seen huge financial damage due to a drop in their customers.

Some 100 merchants held their own campaigns earlier this month to urge the rally organizer to stop the demonstrations, saying their sales have dropped by a tenth.

Despite the damage, the merchants initially did not plan to file a lawsuit, however, a remark by a lawyer from the Lawyers for a Democratic Society, which supported the protests, ignited their anger and led to their collective action.

Song Ho-chang said in a televised forum Sunday that those who staged the campaigns were not shopkeepers from Gwanghwamun, but were in fact people mobilized by conservative civic groups opposing the anti-U.S. beef protests.

``Rather, restaurants in Gwanghwamun which used to close at 10-11 p.m. now close at 9 p.m., as their products are sold out because of the large number of ralliers. Shop owners now make as much money in one day as they did before in a month,'' Song said.

Angered at the remark, restaurant and shop owners sought legal action, a director of the Lawyers for Citizens said.

``The lawsuit will include compensation for Song's remark that defamed the owners,'' he said.

rahnita@koreatimes.co.kr