Bahk Eun-ji has been with The Korea Times since 2012, building a career across multiple desks. She began at the Business Desk, where she conducted in-depth interviews with key figures in Korea's corporate world. Later, she moved to the Politics & City Desk, focusing on education policy and social affairs. She later served as team leader of the digital content team, leading curation efforts on the newspaper’s homepage and reshaping print stories for social media audiences to enhance digital reach. Now back on the Politics Desk, she covers the National Assembly and the Ministry of National Defense, with a renewed focus on political developments.
Concerns grow over conservative groups' massive rallies on Foundation Day
A main road in Gwanghwamun, downtown Seoul is almost empty of people and cars as the country maintains tightened social distancing rules to stem the spread of COVID-19, Saturday. Yonhap
By Bahk Eun-ji
By Bahk Eun-ji
The health authorities warned Sunday of the potential for more mass COVID-19 outbreaks due to massive rallies planned by conservative civic groups in downtown Seoul marking National Foundation Day, Oct. 3.
South Korea has been struggling to cope with a resurgence of the coronavirus sparked by a large Liberation Day demonstration, Aug. 15. Many people who took part in the demonstration were infected at the event and are blamed for undoing the government's earlier efforts to contain the virus.
According to Jongno Police Station, several conservative groups including the Freedom Union, and one calling for the pardon of former President Park Geun-hye, have applied for permission to hold rallies with the participation of at least an aggregated 30,000 people.
The Freedom Union said that about 2,000 people would each gather in front of the Kyobo and KT buildings in Gwanghwamun' while the group advocating for Park told police that 30,000 people would take part in a rally on Sejong-ro moving to the Hyoja Community Security Center, near Cheong Wa Dae.
Other conservative civic groups including the People's Democracy Party have requested police approval to hold anti-government rallies in Gwanghwamun Square the same day.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government and the police have technically already banned all gatherings in public squares in the city center, including Seoul Plaza and Gwanghwamun Square, since February as part of anti-COVID-19 measures, but there is a possibility that the groups may again file an administrative suit with a court seeking to hold their demonstrations.
The city government and police said approval for the large-scale rallies will not be given and so they are unlikely to be held, but they are keeping an eye on the situation.
“These groups have requested permission to hold demonstrations every weekend for the past three years. It seems as if they are trying to prioritize the space in preparation for the time they can hold a rally when the virus spreading trend changes and stricter social distancing rules lifted,” a police officer said.
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) reported 167 new cases for Saturday, including 152 local infections, raising the total caseload to 21,177. Among the 152 local ones, the majority came from the greater Seoul area, including 63 in the capital, 45 in Gyeonggi Province and nine in Incheon, west of Seoul.
The day's additional cases marked the fourth consecutive one of less than 200, although the government still remains on alert for sporadic outbreaks in the metropolitan area. As of Saturday 1,162 cases have been traced to the Sarang Jeil Church in northern Seoul and the Aug. 15 Liberation Day demonstration ― hotbeds for the recent spike in new infections.
The number of newly identified imported cases stood at 15, with four of them detected at quarantine checkpoints at airports and harbors.
As a part of rigorous action to contain the wave of infections in the capital area, the government decided to extend its toughened social distancing measures, dubbed Level 2.5, until next Sunday. The restrictions on restaurants, bakeries and franchise coffee chains in the wider capital region were supposed to end at midnight.
Under the Level 2.5 measures, these stores can operate until 9 p.m., but only offer takeout and deliveries after this time until 5 a.m.
For franchise coffee chains, bakeries and ice cream parlors, only takeout and deliveries will be permitted regardless of operating hours.
The restrictions were initially applied to franchise coffee shops following infection clusters tied to such coffee chains. But it added franchise bakeries and other dessert shops to the list Friday as people crowded such venues instead of the coffee chains.