Singaporean reporter says candlelit protests is most moving memory

Chang May Choon, Seoul correspondent for a Singaporean media outlet Captured from JTBC

By Dong Sun-hwa

A Seoul correspondent from a Singapore media outlet picked candlelit protests in 2016 as one of the most moving memories in Korea during a JTBC variety show “Let's Eat Dinner Together” Wednesday.

For this reality show's Wednesday' episode, Korean comedians Yoo Byung-jae and Kang Ho-dong visited Chang May Choon's home and the three talked over dinner.

Chang has been posted in Seoul for three years after getting married to a Korean man.

To her, the candlelit protests in 2016 were the most memorable.

Some of these protests, held mainly over the weekend, attracted one million people, calling for the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye, but with little violence. Park has been impeached and is being tried for corruption and abuse of power.

She also strongly recalled the April 16, 2014, sinking of the ferry Sewol and the issue of comfort women, sex slaves forced to serve Japanese soldiers in the lead-up to and during World War II.

“When I visited Danwon High School with my husband on the first anniversary of the Sewol ferry tragedy, I felt bitter,” she said. The Sewol sank with over 250 Danwon students, who were on a field trip.

Regarding the comfort women, she said that it was also heartbreaking to see scars from the wounds the comfort women sustained while they were escaping from Japanese.