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.
Police vow to crack down on Oct. 3 rallies
The secretary general of a coalition of conservative civic groups seeking to hold anti-government rallies submits an application for Oct. 3 demonstrations at Jongno Police Station in central Seoul in this Sept. 16 photo. Yonhap
By Bahk Eun-ji
Daily new cases stay below 100 for 2 straight days
By Bahk Eun-ji
The National Police Agency warned Monday that it will take stern measures against illegal rallies to be held on National Foundation Day, Oct. 3, to prevent the further spread of COVID-19.
As of Monday, police said they had so far received 798 requests to hold rallies in central Seoul that day.
“Should they push ahead with the rallies despite the government's refusal to give permission, police will immediately take measures to disperse them. Officers will be deployed in advance and a steel fence will also be erected to block and deter demonstrations,” Police Commissioner-General Kim Chang-ryong said during a press conference at the NPA building in Seoul.
The vow came after criticism that the police's failure to respond to the outdoor massive rallies by conservative activists, Aug.15, have so far resulted in 619 new COVID-19 infections nationwide.
Such mass demonstrations pose a high risk of virus transmission as a large number of people gather from across the country and they can be in close contact as well as producing aerosols when they chant. Under the current law on assembly and demonstration, illegal rally participants can be imprisoned up to six months or fined a maximum of 500,000 won, while the organizers can be imprisoned up to two years or fined up to 2 million won.
Meanwhile, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported 70 new COVID-19 infections for Sunday, including 55 local ones, raising the total caseload to 23,045. Two more deaths were reported, raising the toll to 385 amid a fatality rate of 1.67 percent.
The daily new cases stayed below 100 for the second straight day in what could be a sign of a slowdown in new infections. However, sporadic infection clusters and untraceable cases continue to put the health authorities on alert, the KCDA said.
“Although the country has observed signs of the virus spread slowing down, there is a considerable risk of latent infections in the local community especially in the Seoul metropolitan area,” KCDA Commissioner Jeong Eun-kyeong said during a regular press briefing at the Government Complex in Sejong. “The upcoming Chuseok holiday will pose the biggest challenge to the government's fight against the virus.”
The government is scheduled to announce tightened social distancing rules for the holiday period, Friday.
Of the locally transmitted cases, 21 were reported in Seoul and 18 in Gyeonggi Province. Incheon, west of Seoul, added one more patient. The southern port city of Busan reported eight new cases, mostly linked to Dong-A University. Two cases were reported in the central city of Daejeon.
Patients with unknown infection routes have accounted for 27.4 percent of all cases reported in the past two weeks, according to the KCDA.