In contrast to the violent unrest that followed the Constitutional Court’s 2017 removal of then-President Park Geun-hye — which left four people dead — the public response to Yoon Suk Yeol’s ouster on Friday has been largely calm, with protests remaining peaceful and orderly.
Aside from two isolated incidents Friday — a man in his 20s attempted to break a police bus window with a baton, and a reported self-immolation attempt near the presidential residence in Hannam-dong — the overall atmosphere at major rally sites in Seoul, including Anguk Station, Gwanghwamun and Hannam-dong, remained calm. No illegal protests or serious challenges to public order were reported.
Protestors against and for Yoon's removal expressed their emotions, but other than the above two incidents no violence was reported Friday.
Lim Joon-tae, a professor in the Department of Police Administration at Dongguk University, was quoted by local media outlet News1 as saying that the police authorities' concrete measures, including sealing off the area around the Constitutional Court and invoking the highest alert level in the police emergency response system, effectively prevented any physical confrontations among the politically divided demonstrators.
Lim explained that the shocking mob attack by Yoon supporters on the Seoul Western District Court Jan. 19 served as a lesson that was learned from, in that it pushed the police to allocate more personnel and security equipment to ensure public safety and maintain order.
This time, mobile police squads and investigators were tasked with arresting any protestors who might break into the court building as well as with protecting the court justices. Some 14,000 officers in mobile police squads -- the units used for crowd control -- were deployed.
Allocating a total of 513 Seoul firefighter paramedics and 84 ambulances were among numerous other measures to prepare for emergencies.
Acting Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court Moon Hyung-bae also expressed gratitude to the police for ensuring the court’s security and justices' safety during Yoon's impeachment trial.
While acknowledging the authorities’ efforts to ensure public safety, Lee Joo-hee, a professor of sociology at Ewha Womans University, believes that the peaceful, mostly subdued rallies on Friday highlighted the South Korea's mature democracy.
“People say that South Korea today is divided in almost every area, ranging from politics to age and gender issues. But we were able to see that many social groups, including minorities like young women and farmers, successfully made their voices heard without violence,” Lee told The Korea Herald.
“People from all walks of life joined in solidarity and sacrificed themselves to protect the democratic system that was fought for and won against authoritarian leaders in the past. Though the political divide was considered more intense than that of Park Geun-hye's case, both pro- and anti-Yoon protestors have shown they will accept the court’s decision without any major physical confrontation. This can certainly be seen as the country showing maturity as a democracy,” Lee added.
In the view of sociology professor Kim Joong-baeck of Kyung Hee University, the process that lies ahead is actually more important in a truly mature democracy.
“In a democracy, the only thing that works well in our established system is elections, and I believe most other democratic processes are best when they do not have to be implemented. It should be like that to reflect that tolerance, restraint and cooperation are at work," Kim told The Korea Herald.
"But our presidential administration and the National Assembly used every means available, such as vetoes and impeachment measures. I believe this can be interpreted as our democracy not being mature enough,” Kim said, citing the fact that the Constitutional Court also criticized some of the opposition-led National Assembly's actions in its verdict summary.
Acting Chief Justice Moon said the National Assembly should have respected minor opinions and made efforts to practice tolerance, restraint and compromise in its relationship with the presidential administration. Likewise, the president should have respected the National Assembly as a partner in democratic cooperation.
Kim agreed that Yoon’s impeachment verdict certainly showed South Korean democracy’s high level of maturity by the fact that the process ended in accordance with the methods stipulated in the Constitution, coming to a result without bloodshed or civil war.
But Kim underlined that Korea went through a similar presidential impeachment eight years ago resulting in ex-President Park Geun-hye being removed from office.
"Because we repeated the same scenario that occurred in 2017, I cannot confidently say our democratic system has truly matured," according to him.
"A truly mature democracy can be witnessed when our democratic system does not produce situations that lead up to verdicts like Friday's,” Kim said.
sj_lee@heraldcorp.com
