Nodutdol . e*News
February 2009
Candlelight Vigils Again: Yongsan Tenant Tragedy in Korea
By JK
The grieving loved ones of the tenants who were killed at Yongsan, Seoul, at a Jan. 31st vigil
On Jan. 20th, just before Lunar New Year’s day, terrible news came from Yong-san district in Seoul, Korea, that five tenants and one policeperson had been killed and 23 people injured because of violent oppression by the police against a sit-in protest.
That day, just twenty-five hours after 30 tenants, including those showing their solidarity as members of the Federation Against House Demolition (Junchulyeon), started a sit-in protest by occupying a building in Yong-san, about 1,800 police, including military commandos, were sent to quell them with no prior negotiation. Even as a fire blazed in the building, a crane operated by the police suspended a cargo container above the building filled with military commandos who reached down with long poles to strike at the tenants on the roof, while police rushed into the first floor of the building immediately after thugs hired by the developers had left.
After the deaths, the Seoul police department made a shallow apology but largely blamed the tenants for their deaths. State prosecutors persistently claim that the fire was ignited by the Molotov cocktails wielded by tenants, but do not investigate the Seoul Police department’s improper and repressive procedures at the scene. They also condone the violence enacted by the developer’s hired thugs, who had repressed tenants in that district for 8 months. Only as public opinion worsened against their handling of the situation did prosecutors begin a perfunctory investigation of the private developer and their hired thugs. But they have not taken an objective or transparent approach to the facts of the situation. This is exemplified by the behavior of the police in Gwangju, Korea, who tried to distort a January 28 public opinion poll taken by MBC broadcasting (a major station), as they texted police in other areas to vote en masse that the tragedy had happened because of the ‘rioting’ tenants rather than their own violent intervention. However, polls have consistently shown that the majority of the Korean public believes that Seoul police should take responsibility for the tenants’ tragic deaths.
This might seem to be an isolated tragedy for those who are not familiar with the history of urban development in Korea since 1960s. But violence by private developers and hired thugs, government complicity, and the tenant’s movement has a long, deep-rooted history in Korean society.
Image of the burning building in Yongsan where the five tenants and one policeperson died
A short history of urban development and the formation of the urban poor
The first mass migration in Korea goes back to 1940s and 1950s, upon independence from Japanese colonialism and due to the turmoil of the Korean War. Large groups of Koreans returned to the peninsula or became displaced by warfare and settled down in the urban areas. That was the first period when large settlements of urban squatters formed. After that, rapid economic development and the urban-centered development policy of Park Chung Hee’s military junta government in the 1960s and 1970s accelerated national migration from the countryside to the city, especially towards the capital city of Seoul. In particular, in order to maintain lower wages and cheap labor costs for export-oriented industries, the government capped the prices of agriculture products to very low levels throughout this period. Thus, as living conditions and farming income worsened in the rural areas, people were pushed to leave their hometowns and seek work in urban factories, thus settling down in large numbers in the city. The high rate of migration caused a severe housing shortage in Seoul, especially for those who migrated from the rural areas without enough capital. Because of a lack of economic and human capital, poor migrants who worked in the factories with horrendous working conditions settled in densely populated areas on the hilly terrain around Seoul, what we often call “Daldongneh” (moon neighborhoods) or “Sandongneh” (mountain neighborhoods). They lived in poor, overcrowded housing conditions, with a lack of basic services and security. However, during this period, the Korean government did not support any kind of welfare policy for the working class or the urban poor. Rather, the urban ghetto in Korea perfectly and clearly manifested the approach of the government to regulate the urban poor.
Even though the government claimed that it had policies that enforced housing rights, these policies offered little real benefit to tenants. Even when the government began promising tenants rental houses post-urban renewal, often the rent increased so much after the projects were completed that tenants were not able to afford to stay. Tenants were forced to leave their neighborhoods and move into other neighborhoods far from their places of work, where public facilities were poorly constructed and services were lacking. In essence, they simply formed or joined new slums around Seoul.
Moreover, private developers have hired thugs to threaten resisting tenants since the 1960s, but the government has never cared about this criminal activity. Some tenants remember, “One day, 20 years ago, I was on the way home from elementary school but our house was demolished.” Or they recall thugs threatening them with worse violence, saying things like, “You have lots of daughters. Be careful, “ or, “Do you really want to see blood?” The government has condoned this kind of violence for more than 40 years.
President Lee Myungbak and his New Town policy
From the days when he was the mayor of Seoul, President Lee Myungbak has been pushing urban redevelopment as a primary economic strategy. During his time as mayor, he planned new strategies to redevelop Seoul, called the “New Town” policy. Lee and the Seoul metropolitan government insisted that they promoted this policy to reduce the inequality between residential areas in terms of the environment and urban infrastructure, especially between Gangnam (below Han river) and Gangbuk (above Han river) areas. But this developmental strategy primarily benefited those who could afford expensive buildings, shops and apartments, not current residents and tenants in those areas. It turned out that less than 15% of the original residents can stay in their neighborhoods upon completion of the urban renewal projects, while others have to leave their hometown.
Despite its great location in central Seoul with good views of the Han river, Yong-san was long limited from urban development because it was the site of a major US military base. But it has become a hot spot for development, both residential and commercial, since it became known that the US military camps there will be moved to Pyeong-Taek around 2014 (exact date to be determined).
What are the issues?
1. 5 tenants are prosecuted and arrested for causing the fire, even though the cause of the fire hasn't been investigated fairly and objectively.
2. The government and police are targetting the organization Federation Against House Demolition (Junchulyun), accusing them of being armed with Molotov cocktails.
3. The police insist that the majority of protestors arrested, hurt, or killed in Yongsan 4th zone, are outsiders (from Junchulyun), and not residents of Yongsan. Police charge that these outsiders are professional protestors (데모꾼) trying to manipulate and instigate law-abiding citizens.
4. The government is even trying to propose a law, called the “Law Prohibiting 3rd party Intervention in Urban Redevelopment Projects (재개발 사업의 3자 개입 금지법)”, targeting Junchulyun. Through these actions, the government and police are trying to avoid responsibility and mislead public opinion.
5. Lee Myung-bak does not ask Seoul Chief Police Kim Seok-ki to resign, even though Kim has been caught lying about the facts. Although he denied it the first time around, Korean National Assembly members discovered that Kim had in fact signed the order to send military commandos to Yongsan (which is not common in such instances). But the Lee administration has decided to delay the decision on Kim’s resignation, waiting for public opinion to calm down. In addition, the ruling party and the conservative media also continue to show their unwavering support for the Lee administration and the Seoul Police.
6. The government and police do not investigate the criminal actions of the thugs properly, even though there was strong evidence presented by the Democratic Party showing that the police had collaborated with the thugs in trying to draw out the tenants from their sit-in site. It was reported that the thugs provoked the tenants by burning old tires to blow poisonous smoke into the building after they had occupied it. It is also clear that the thugs have been threatening people both verbally and physically for 8 months. The government has also stated that 86% of the residents had agreed upon the compensation payment for leaving the area, but in fact there were many people who were forced to leave because of the violent actions of the thugs.
5. The conservative Grand National Party does not want to take any responsibility for the tragedy, even though they promised 26 New Towns during the general election without any countermeasures to assist tenants. They should rethink their policy and take responsibility for this tragedy. Instead, party members make accusations such as, “ Junchulyun is an anti-Korean organization” (Shin Chi-ho), or “The fundamental problem is that the protestors caused their own deaths by ignoring the law” (Lee, Eun-jae), or, wildly enough, “Junchulyun is a mob of rioters who can kill good citizens with just a slingshot”(Jung Jae-won).
Why do we have to care about this?
Violent eviction for urban redevelopment is happening not only in Korea, but also many places in the world. For example, on January 25th, the Cambodian government was criticized by the UN for its violent eviction of about 150 households in Phnom Penh.
Socially disadvantaged local residents, especially tenants have been excluded from the process of redevelopment, are often forced to leave their homes without proper compensation. They are also vulnerable to violence by private developers and the state. They lose not only their physical homes or shops but also the communities that they have built over generations.
But who cares about poor people’s everyday lives and their deprivation? Who cares about their struggle before such tragedies happened? People often think that the days of violent redevelopment are over, but it turns out that they are not. It is on-going project. People often avoid asking why the tenants had to have arms to defend themselves or for what it is that they struggle for.
We should remember that there is still a possibility that this tragedy will happen anywhere in the world as it happened in Seoul and in Phnom Penh. Since this sad New Year’s Day, Koreans again began to hold daily candle light vigils to protest the Lee Myungbak administration and mourn for those who were tragically killed. It is time to show solidarity with the socially disadvantaged and urban poor movements in the world.
The grieving loved ones of the tenants who were killed at Yongsan, Seoul, at a Jan. 31st vigil
On Jan. 20th, just before Lunar New Year’s day, terrible news came from Yong-san district in Seoul, Korea, that five tenants and one policeperson had been killed and 23 people injured because of violent oppression by the police against a sit-in protest.
That day, just twenty-five hours after 30 tenants, including those showing their solidarity as members of the Federation Against House Demolition (Junchulyeon), started a sit-in protest by occupying a building in Yong-san, about 1,800 police, including military commandos, were sent to quell them with no prior negotiation. Even as a fire blazed in the building, a crane operated by the police suspended a cargo container above the building filled with military commandos who reached down with long poles to strike at the tenants on the roof, while police rushed into the first floor of the building immediately after thugs hired by the developers had left.
After the deaths, the Seoul police department made a shallow apology but largely blamed the tenants for their deaths. State prosecutors persistently claim that the fire was ignited by the Molotov cocktails wielded by tenants, but do not investigate the Seoul Police department’s improper and repressive procedures at the scene. They also condone the violence enacted by the developer’s hired thugs, who had repressed tenants in that district for 8 months. Only as public opinion worsened against their handling of the situation did prosecutors begin a perfunctory investigation of the private developer and their hired thugs. But they have not taken an objective or transparent approach to the facts of the situation. This is exemplified by the behavior of the police in Gwangju, Korea, who tried to distort a January 28 public opinion poll taken by MBC broadcasting (a major station), as they texted police in other areas to vote en masse that the tragedy had happened because of the ‘rioting’ tenants rather than their own violent intervention. However, polls have consistently shown that the majority of the Korean public believes that Seoul police should take responsibility for the tenants’ tragic deaths.
This might seem to be an isolated tragedy for those who are not familiar with the history of urban development in Korea since 1960s. But violence by private developers and hired thugs, government complicity, and the tenant’s movement has a long, deep-rooted history in Korean society.
Image of the burning building in Yongsan where the five tenants and one policeperson died
A short history of urban development and the formation of the urban poor
The first mass migration in Korea goes back to 1940s and 1950s, upon independence from Japanese colonialism and due to the turmoil of the Korean War. Large groups of Koreans returned to the peninsula or became displaced by warfare and settled down in the urban areas. That was the first period when large settlements of urban squatters formed. After that, rapid economic development and the urban-centered development policy of Park Chung Hee’s military junta government in the 1960s and 1970s accelerated national migration from the countryside to the city, especially towards the capital city of Seoul. In particular, in order to maintain lower wages and cheap labor costs for export-oriented industries, the government capped the prices of agriculture products to very low levels throughout this period. Thus, as living conditions and farming income worsened in the rural areas, people were pushed to leave their hometowns and seek work in urban factories, thus settling down in large numbers in the city. The high rate of migration caused a severe housing shortage in Seoul, especially for those who migrated from the rural areas without enough capital. Because of a lack of economic and human capital, poor migrants who worked in the factories with horrendous working conditions settled in densely populated areas on the hilly terrain around Seoul, what we often call “Daldongneh” (moon neighborhoods) or “Sandongneh” (mountain neighborhoods). They lived in poor, overcrowded housing conditions, with a lack of basic services and security. However, during this period, the Korean government did not support any kind of welfare policy for the working class or the urban poor. Rather, the urban ghetto in Korea perfectly and clearly manifested the approach of the government to regulate the urban poor.
Even though the government claimed that it had policies that enforced housing rights, these policies offered little real benefit to tenants. Even when the government began promising tenants rental houses post-urban renewal, often the rent increased so much after the projects were completed that tenants were not able to afford to stay. Tenants were forced to leave their neighborhoods and move into other neighborhoods far from their places of work, where public facilities were poorly constructed and services were lacking. In essence, they simply formed or joined new slums around Seoul.
Moreover, private developers have hired thugs to threaten resisting tenants since the 1960s, but the government has never cared about this criminal activity. Some tenants remember, “One day, 20 years ago, I was on the way home from elementary school but our house was demolished.” Or they recall thugs threatening them with worse violence, saying things like, “You have lots of daughters. Be careful, “ or, “Do you really want to see blood?” The government has condoned this kind of violence for more than 40 years.
President Lee Myungbak and his New Town policy
From the days when he was the mayor of Seoul, President Lee Myungbak has been pushing urban redevelopment as a primary economic strategy. During his time as mayor, he planned new strategies to redevelop Seoul, called the “New Town” policy. Lee and the Seoul metropolitan government insisted that they promoted this policy to reduce the inequality between residential areas in terms of the environment and urban infrastructure, especially between Gangnam (below Han river) and Gangbuk (above Han river) areas. But this developmental strategy primarily benefited those who could afford expensive buildings, shops and apartments, not current residents and tenants in those areas. It turned out that less than 15% of the original residents can stay in their neighborhoods upon completion of the urban renewal projects, while others have to leave their hometown.
Despite its great location in central Seoul with good views of the Han river, Yong-san was long limited from urban development because it was the site of a major US military base. But it has become a hot spot for development, both residential and commercial, since it became known that the US military camps there will be moved to Pyeong-Taek around 2014 (exact date to be determined).
What are the issues?
1. 5 tenants are prosecuted and arrested for causing the fire, even though the cause of the fire hasn't been investigated fairly and objectively.
2. The government and police are targetting the organization Federation Against House Demolition (Junchulyun), accusing them of being armed with Molotov cocktails.
3. The police insist that the majority of protestors arrested, hurt, or killed in Yongsan 4th zone, are outsiders (from Junchulyun), and not residents of Yongsan. Police charge that these outsiders are professional protestors (데모꾼) trying to manipulate and instigate law-abiding citizens.
4. The government is even trying to propose a law, called the “Law Prohibiting 3rd party Intervention in Urban Redevelopment Projects (재개발 사업의 3자 개입 금지법)”, targeting Junchulyun. Through these actions, the government and police are trying to avoid responsibility and mislead public opinion.
5. Lee Myung-bak does not ask Seoul Chief Police Kim Seok-ki to resign, even though Kim has been caught lying about the facts. Although he denied it the first time around, Korean National Assembly members discovered that Kim had in fact signed the order to send military commandos to Yongsan (which is not common in such instances). But the Lee administration has decided to delay the decision on Kim’s resignation, waiting for public opinion to calm down. In addition, the ruling party and the conservative media also continue to show their unwavering support for the Lee administration and the Seoul Police.
6. The government and police do not investigate the criminal actions of the thugs properly, even though there was strong evidence presented by the Democratic Party showing that the police had collaborated with the thugs in trying to draw out the tenants from their sit-in site. It was reported that the thugs provoked the tenants by burning old tires to blow poisonous smoke into the building after they had occupied it. It is also clear that the thugs have been threatening people both verbally and physically for 8 months. The government has also stated that 86% of the residents had agreed upon the compensation payment for leaving the area, but in fact there were many people who were forced to leave because of the violent actions of the thugs.
5. The conservative Grand National Party does not want to take any responsibility for the tragedy, even though they promised 26 New Towns during the general election without any countermeasures to assist tenants. They should rethink their policy and take responsibility for this tragedy. Instead, party members make accusations such as, “ Junchulyun is an anti-Korean organization” (Shin Chi-ho), or “The fundamental problem is that the protestors caused their own deaths by ignoring the law” (Lee, Eun-jae), or, wildly enough, “Junchulyun is a mob of rioters who can kill good citizens with just a slingshot”(Jung Jae-won).
Why do we have to care about this?
Violent eviction for urban redevelopment is happening not only in Korea, but also many places in the world. For example, on January 25th, the Cambodian government was criticized by the UN for its violent eviction of about 150 households in Phnom Penh.
Socially disadvantaged local residents, especially tenants have been excluded from the process of redevelopment, are often forced to leave their homes without proper compensation. They are also vulnerable to violence by private developers and the state. They lose not only their physical homes or shops but also the communities that they have built over generations.
But who cares about poor people’s everyday lives and their deprivation? Who cares about their struggle before such tragedies happened? People often think that the days of violent redevelopment are over, but it turns out that they are not. It is on-going project. People often avoid asking why the tenants had to have arms to defend themselves or for what it is that they struggle for.
We should remember that there is still a possibility that this tragedy will happen anywhere in the world as it happened in Seoul and in Phnom Penh. Since this sad New Year’s Day, Koreans again began to hold daily candle light vigils to protest the Lee Myungbak administration and mourn for those who were tragically killed. It is time to show solidarity with the socially disadvantaged and urban poor movements in the world.
This article originally appeared in the February 2009 issue of Nodutdol eNews.
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Nodutdol eNews is the monthly e-mail newsletter of Nodutdol.Through grassroots organization and community development, Nodutdol seeks to bridge divisions created by war, nation, gender, sexual orientation, language, classes and generation among Koreans and to empower our community to address the injustice we and other people of color face here and abroad. Nodutdol works in collaboration with other progressive organizations locally, nationally and internationally as part of a larger movement for peace and social change.
In this issue
Ally Profile: Al-Awda NY, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition
Let’s Talk about Peace: Discussion with Korean Reunification Experts
Candlelight Vigils Again: Yongsan Tenant Tragedy in Korea
The Occupation Will Not Be Televised: On the Latest Attacks in Gaza
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