Sunday 13 November 2016

Thousands of South Koreans stage peaceful rallies to demand president's resignation


Over 1 million South Koreans staged peaceful rallies across central Seoul on Saturday night to demand President Park Geun-hye step down over a scandal involving her longtime confidante and former aides. Organizers estimated that the number of participants in the Saturday rally, the third since the scandal came into focus last month, topped 1 million in Seoul alone, according to local media reports. Last Saturday, some 200,000 people turned out in the capital city.
It would be the country's largest mass rally at least since June 1987 when about 1 million demonstrators gathered to ouster the military dictatorship. In 2008, some 700,000 protested against then-President Lee Myung-bak who resumed US beef imports during the outbreak of mad cow disease. Police said around 260,000 people turned out in Seoul, beating its earlier expectation of up to 170,000.
Despite the huge number, demonstrators stayed calm and rallied peacefully. People showed restraint and instead, poured out anger by shouting for the president's resignation and holding up posters and candles.

2 comments:

  1. will it make a difference?

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  2. with such a large crowd and no incidents with the police.....a lot of countries need to learn from South Korea what a peaceful protest is all about

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