Seoul, March 3 (IANS) About two dozen students, alumni and others gathered at Ewha Womans University in Seoul last week, denouncing the National Assembly’s impeachment of South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol as “invalid,” only to encounter another group of students holding an in-school rally calling for Yoon’s ouster at the same time.
The encounter quickly escalated into violence as dozens of pro-Yoon YouTubers and activists broke into the campus to join forces, along with an opposing group of anti-Yoon student activists, despite the female-only university’s ban on outsiders entering the campus for any rally.
Insults were hurled between the opposing groups, while some tugged at others before the scene was brought to an end only after university officials and police personnel were mobilised.
The National Assembly’s impeachment of Yoon for his failed bid to impose martial law on December 3 has opened a chasm in the country, also turning usually peaceful university campuses into stages for political bickering, as those calling for his ouster come face-to-face with those supporting him.
“We gathered here today to protect the democracy of the ‘free Republic of Korea’ because we believe (the impeachment of Yoon) was unfair,” said Kim Joo-Ah, a 24-year-old orchestral instrument major at the school, during the rally at Ewha Womans University last Wednesday.
Kim believes Yoon’s impeachment should be ruled null and void, and he should be reinstated in the ongoing impeachment trial.
An increasing number of the younger generation, like Kim, have stood out among pro-Yoon rallies previously dominated by those in their 60s or older.
Kim Ji-hye, an Ewha graduate with a history major, also decried Yoon’s impeachment, claiming that the entire process from President Yoon’s arrest leading up to the investigations was “illegal,” therefore making his impeachment fraudulent.
Holding picket signs with slogans like “Freedom of expression” and “Stop the steal,” and wearing jackets with the school emblem and name, protesters chanted “Impeachment is invalid,” waving the Korean and American flags during the rally at Ewha.
Such pro-Yoon protesters have become increasingly visible at university campuses nationwide, with Seoul National University, Yonsei University and Pusan National University witnessing similar protests last month, often prompting fierce standoffs with their anti-Yoon peers.
For students like Lee, an Ewha student who asked to be identified by her surname, such an in-school confrontation sounded an alarm that the school is no longer a “safe place” and prone to intrusion by outsiders.
“There were no reasonable grounds to prove martial law was justly imposed,” she said, claiming that its only purpose must have been to “destabilise the lives of the people and destroy the national order.”
Another Ewha graduate who majored in political science and asked to remain anonymous, said she returned to the school for the first time in 10 years upon hearing that far-right forces were orchestrating at her alma mater.
“It’s shocking to see these people coming into the school, arguing for freedom of expression and advocating for the coup forces,” she said.
Experts point to the potential illegality of outsiders pushing into university campuses for political propaganda.
“There is an illegal component to them in that they bring the contention to schools and impose them on people who they know would not agree,” professor Lee Jun-han of Incheon National University said.
Professor Lee Na-young, who teaches sociology at Chung-Ang University, pointed the blame at conservative lawmakers who, she said, openly join rallies opposing President Yoon’s impeachment and overtly echo the statements of far-rightists, adding that they are egging on Yoon’s supporters to take action.
A 70-year-old Ewha graduate surnamed Hwang recalled her time at the school as a freshman in 1975, when she witnessed her seniors being dragged by the hair by riot police during the martial law then imposed by the late President Park Chung-hee, Yonhap news agency reported.
“These students don’t know what it is like to be under martial law,” Hwang said, as she rallied alongside many others calling for Yoon’s impeachment.
–IANS
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