The Korean government has limited public assembly by reducing their duration and noise level and giving the possibility to prohibit protests near the new President’s Office. The decision has received backlash for its unconstitutional impacts.
On the 17th of October, a revision of the Enforcement Decree of the Assembly and Demonstration Act came into effect, allowing South Korea’s police to prohibit assembly near the Korean presidential building and other important locations if they “deem it necessary for traffic flow.” The revision also brought with it a tightening of constraints regarding demonstration duration and noise level.
The revision amended Article 12 of the existing decree, which already included a number of roads that were prohibited from demonstrating on if the police disallowed it due to traffic control. Eleven new roads were added to the list, including roads that encompass the President’s Office, the Supreme Court, the Prosecutor’s Office and areas within the district of Gangnam-daero, Seoul’s wealthiest area.
However, this was not the only added limitation, as it included that demonstrations near residential areas, libraries, schools and general hospitals would receive stricter enforcement. As of today, only one noise violation will be allowed per hour in these areas by the police, instead of up to 2 per hour previously, and this standard will be applicable to noise lasting at least 5 minutes rather than at least 10 minutes.
During protests, noise should not exceed 95 decibels and stay below 65 decibels near residential areas, libraries, schools and general hospitals. Ninety decibels is approximately the noise of a gas-powered lawn mower for which 2 hours of exposure can lead to damage to hearing, while 60 decibels is the noise of a normal conversation between people.
The organizer of a loud demonstration can receive a fine of 300,000 wons (222 dollars) for the first infringement of the law.
This decision comes after Yoon Suk-yeol, the president of South Korea elected in 2022, officially relocated his offices from Cheong Wa Dae, the Blue House, to a Ministry of Defense building, the Yongsan.
“Announcement of their intention to suppress the freedom of assembly participants”
While the Blue House, located in Jongno District where the former royal palaces are, was considered too big, the government with the Yongsan “can realize an office that is truly open to the people,” as per the presidency’s website.
The Blue House complex is also much closer to the Gwanghwamun Square, where Koreans gather for mass protests, including against Park Geun-hye’s government in 2016. The president of Korea from 2013 to 2017 was impeached and convicted of a 20-year prison sentence for corruption charges until she received a presidential pardon in 2021.
Some Korean members of Parliament from the opposition Social Democratic Party found contradictions between this decision and previous messaging from the government and the Constitutional Court. Representative Moon Jin-seok, who said that this was an attempt to overrule the courts through law enforcement. Kwon In-sook also said “this is a reform of the enforcement ordinance that goes beyond the Constitutional Court’s judgment that the ban on all gatherings is excessive.”
The People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy and Lawyers for a Democratic Society (PSPD), a Korean social and transparency advocacy organization founded in 1994, condemned the government’s revision of the act. It stated that the police could now prevent demonstrations near large Samsung and Hyundai-KIA Motors buildings.
PSPD argues that the revision contradicts the Korean Constitution, as well as precedents set by the Korean Constitutional Court.
Through Article 21, the Korean Constitution guarantees that “all Korean citizens shall enjoy freedom of assembly.” According to the Constitutional Court decision 2000Hun-Ba67 from 2003, the Court declared that “the freedom of assembly may be effectively guaranteed only when every and any person can freely decide the ‘location’ of the planned assembly in principle.”
For the PSPD, this revision “puts a muzzle on public criticism” and is a “blatant announcement of their intention to suppress the freedom of assembly participants to decide on the location of their assembly.”
It also cited a Constitutional Court decision from 2019, in which it made a point of clarifying that demonstrating near the President’s Office was constitutionally allowed, as long as that is not its residence. But the president now also lives in the president’s office building.
“The city structure and traffic conditions are changing rapidly, so we have revised the enforcement ordinance accordingly,” the Korean police said, according to the news agency Yonhap. “We plan to guarantee as much as possible for assemblies and demonstrations in accordance with the judgment standards presented by the court.”
