Monks with the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism prostrate during a march from the main hall of the Jogye Temple all the way to Anguk Station in Seoul on April 2, 2025, to urge the Constitutional Court to remove Yoon from office. (Kim Tae-hyeong/Hankyoreh)
“Even with the announcement of a date for the impeachment ruling, there have been so many things happening that have been unimaginable. I’m here out of concern that that kind of insensible thing could happen again with the Constitutional Court.”
On Wednesday morning, Park Hyeon-hee, 51, shook off her tiredness as she continued her late-night vigil for a 12th straight hour on a road near Exit 6 of the Anguk subway station in Seoul. Park called out of work to visit Seoul the night before from Nonsan, South Chungcheong Province.
The location in question is around 250 meters from the Constitutional Court. From 9 pm Monday to 9 pm Tuesday, members of the public were holding a “24-hour late-night collective action for the immediate removal of insurrection leader Yoon Suk-yeol” at the site.
Around Park, another 500 or so citizens were staring at the Constitutional Court, their bodies cloaked in coldproof foil and blankets — the so-called “chocolate kiss quilt.”
Even after the Constitutional Court declared that Yoon’s impeachment ruling would be announced at 11 am on Friday, members of the public have continued taking action to demand a return to common sense and democracy.
Choi Hye-won, a 35-year-old company employee who said she had been taking part in the action since 11 pm the night before, described summoning her last vestiges of strength by recalling painful memories of the events since December of last year.
“[Yoon’s] removal from office is important, but I also really agree with those who say this is not the end, but a beginning for major social reforms,” she stressed.
“As I heard about the discrimination and threats that different people have faced [at impeachment demonstrations], I thought of all the things I had been ignoring, and it’s out of regret over that, that I’m here in the street today,” she explained.
A college freshman participates in the rally for Yoon’s ouster near Anguk Station in Seoul on March 2, 2025, as she listens to an online class. (Jung Yong-il/Hankyoreh)
As in previous demonstrations in Seoul’s Yeouido, Hannam, Namtaeryeong, and Gwanghwamun areas, 100 different members of the public took the stage throughout the early morning hours at the vigil outside the court to talk about the future of democracy after Yoon’s removal from office. The speakers included precarious workers, women, and young people, among others.
Along the median strip of the road by the demonstrations, citizens hung ribbons with messages such as “We will fight through love” and “Let’s move forward toward an equal world.”
On the same day, the signatures of 1 million citizens calling for Yoon’s removal from office were delivered to the Constitutional Court after a 72-hour on- and offline campaign launched on March 30 by the group Bisang Action for Yoon Out and Social Reform.
At noon, the organizers held a press conference at Anguk Station for the submission of the million nationwide signatures to the court. During the event, they called on the justices to “rule 8-0 to remove Yoon Suk-yeol after his destruction of the constitutional order.”
Around 30 monks and others affiliated with the Jogye Order of Buddhism’s society and labor committee and the Pan-Buddhist Emergency Council — an association of Buddhist civic groups — held a ritual of five-point prostration from the front courtyard of the order’s main hall to the vicinity of the Constitutional Court.
Before prostrating themselves, the participants declared their aim of offering an “earnest prayer that a more merciful and equal democratic society will be realized and that all citizens will enjoy a happier society of equality.”
Other emergency declarations were issued in different regions of South Korea. At Chonnam National University, 301 faculty members predicted, “If [Yoon’s] impeachment by the National Assembly is not upheld, we will see direct action by the sovereign people to restore the justice that has been deferred.”
“The Constitutional Court must show us what it was created for,” they urged.
By Jeong Bong-bi, staff reporter
Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]
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