I think in this case the Seoul police are correct in how they are handling this issue. If there is going to be a confrontation between different groups why would should the police allow this to happen in the middle of Seoul and make traffic miserable for everyone that works there?:
LGBT pride parade in South Korea on June 7, 2014. (Courtesy of Cezzie901 via Flickr/Creative Commons)
Police have denied permission for a street parade highlighting the rights of sexual minorities scheduled for later this month in central Seoul, upsetting the event’s organizers.
According to the festival organizer Monday, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency turned down the organizer’s request for the June 28 parade.
It was planned as a part of events for the Korea Queer Festival, which will run from June 9-28. The opening ceremony will take place at Seoul Plaza, and the parade was also scheduled to start at the plaza.
The police said other groups had already submitted plans to stage a parade at the same time and location. They also said that the organizer’s parade, which was to proceed from the plaza and along Cheonggye Stream before returning to the plaza, would worsen traffic conditions in the area.
The festival organizers protested.
“For the last 15 years, the festival has not caused any traffic problems,” said one member of the festival organizing committee.
The Korea Queer Festival marks its 16th year this year. Previously, festivals and parades were held on the streets of Sinchon, where there is a large college student population. This was the first event planned for Seoul Plaza.
The organizer suspects others who scheduled events that effectively blocked the street parade were conservative Christian groups which opposed the festival, thus giving police an excuse to say no to the parade. [Korea Times]
I can understand why these women feel unsafe but is following someone around in Korea considered a crime? If not it would explain the indifference shown by the police:
Concerned residents in the Haebangchon neighborhood, located next to Itaewon in Seoul, have formed a community awareness group in response to an increased amount of sexual harassment in the area.
People Unite against Street Harassment (PUSH) was established in March this year and held a fundraiser during the 10th anniversary of the HBC Festival last weekend.
Brittany Hayes and Alicia Trawick from Florida in the United States lead the group.
“Over the past year there have been different things happening, but it was kind of being brushed under the rug,” said Trawick. “The police were not doing anything, so we took it upon ourselves to do something.”
PUSH President Hayes believes the police response has left a lot to be desired.
“A lot of people have contacted the police about this issue but nothing has happened,” she said. “A girl wrote on the HBC forum on Facebook that she had been stalked by a guy and when she went to a police officer on the street he ignored her.”
Ashley Pifer, also from the U.S., said she had such an experience.
“I was with my friend in a mart along HBC road when an African man came in,” she said. “He said, ‘Hello, how are you?’ My friend responded and I just ignored him.”
“We walked down the road to CU Mart. I went inside and made a purchase and as we were leaving the same man walks in. He proceeded to rub my arm and say, ‘What’s this? I like.’ I moved away and walked out.
“I left my friend and walked further up the road to the pharmacy. When I came out the same man was standing across the street. I panicked and called my boyfriend and then the man ran away. To me it wasn’t coincidental that we were in three places in a row.”
As she later discovered, the incident was not isolated but part of a pattern.
“I wasn’t even going to report it until I saw a post on the HBC forum,” she said. “A guy said a similar man had followed his girlfriend home. So I decided to make a report because others came forward with similar stories,” said Pifer.
“My Korean boyfriend and I spent two hours being transported to three police stations. The whole time the police were trying to convince us not to make a report. One of the officers spoke to us in English and tried to help but after speaking with his superiors he came back and pretended he could not understand me. I eventually gave up. They didn’t believe me and it was pointless.” [Korea Times]
The average apartment prices in Seoul are actually not as expensive as I was expecting, but they are still pretty high:
Apartment prices in Seoul are expected to surpass 500 million won this month.
According to Kookmin Bank’s housing prices data, the average sale price of apartments in Seoul came to 499-point-nine million won as of the end of last month.
The average sale price of apartments in Seoul marked 489 million won in April 2013 and stayed below 500 million won for the past two years, but it is moving upward recently.
The steady rise in the apartment price is attributed to a surge in prices of jeonse, or deposit-based long-term rentals. [KBS World]
If you feels like Seoul has a lot of elderly people living in it, you would be right:
Senior citizens in Seoul have outnumbered children for the first time, the Seoul Metropolitan Government said Thursday.
As of April 30, there were 1,234,181 people 65 or over in the capital, slightly surpassing the number of children under 15 ― 1,232,194.
The aging index, the ratio of elderly people to children, recorded 100.4, exceeding 100 for the first time.
“The higher index means the number of elderly citizens is increasing more than the younger generation, which will be the working-age population needed to support them,” a city official said. [Korea Times]
This is a protest I think most men would want to go check out:
A topless woman appeared in Seoul’s busy downtown area around noon Wednesday with her private parts only covered in tape to protest for women’s right to bare their breasts.
Holding a sign that roughly translates as “Why are men allowed to expose their nipples while women are not?” she later put on a bikini top to cover herself up when a crowd of men had gathered around her.
Police arrived at the scene to stop her and the woman left at around 1:30 p.m. Police said they had no idea why she was holding the protest.
The 27-year-old woman, identified only by her surname Lee, had caused a stir last month after a video clip of her dancing topless at a night club went viral on the Internet. She is known to be an ex-dealer of German luxury cars. [Chosun Ilbo]
You can read the rest at the link, but when asked why she was protesting topless she said it was the only way to get people’s attention.
It looks like smokers in Seoul are going to have less option of where they can smoke:
A three-month grace period ends today for violators of a smoking ban at all restaurants, coffee shops and Internet cafes, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Tuesday.
From today, anyone who violates the ban will be fined 100,000 won ($90), while the owners will have to pay 1.7 million won ($1,500).
When the government implemented the ban in January, it gave a grace period until the end of March, and has since tried to raise public awareness about the smoking ban.
“Smoking in those places has not been strongly controlled to date. We only fined owners who maintained smoking tables for the last three months,” said a ministry official. “However, the ban will be strictly applied from April.” [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but it will be interesting to see how strictly this ordinance is enforced.
Shown is the Dongdaemun Design Plaza & Park in downtown Seoul on March 20, 2015. The plaza opened on March 21, 2014, to contain a multiuse park, a fashion plaza and an underground mall with the aim to serve as South Korea’s as well as Asia’s fashion hub. (Yonhap)
Seoul (AFP) – Concerns about public safety standards in South Korea have been fuelled by shocking CCTV images of a young couple being swallowed up by a sinkhole that opened at their feet on the sidewalk in Seoul.
The footage, which has gone viral on social networking sites, shows the couple plunging through the paved sidewalk, shortly after alighting from a bus in the South Korean capital, as other passers-by look on in horror.
The incident happened near an apartment construction site last Friday — the end of the three-day Lunar New Year holiday.
Firefighters rescued the young man and woman who fell 10 feet (three meters). Neither of them was seriously injured and both were discharged from hospital after receiving treatment. [AFP]
You can read more and watch the video at the link, but at least these two pedestrians are alright unlike the 16 people killed and 11 injured during the outdoor concert in Pangyo when the grate they were standing on collapsed.
