I was at Gwanghwamun Square to do some sight-seeing with family. As a researcher, however, I was quickly distracted by the large display in remembrance of the Sewol Ferry victims. The structures looked temporary, so my first question was how long the memorial would be up on Gwanghwamun Square? Then I wondered how long the memorial had been up. Wasn't the Sewol Ferry incident more than 4 years ago?
I found out the memorial, referred to as Sewol Plaza, has been on display since at least 2016, if not longer It sounds like the memorial may not be up that much longer though with the possible establishment of two permanent memorials: the 416 Life Safety Park in Ansan, the city where many student victims were from, and the actual Sewol Ferry sitting in Mokpo. A good article in Korea Expose describes the memorial and people's reaction here.
A recurring theme about the Sewol Ferry protests, and also the candlelight protests in 2016 against President Park Geunhye is the awakening of political activism among Korean youth. Here's an insightful first person account exploring this awakening across campuses. Apparently, there was a big student movement at Seoul National University (where I'm teaching for the summer) a couple years ago against the administration's decision to establish a new campus without student input.
Not having conducted field research on social movements in Korea for over a decade, I feel out of touch with the latest issues. I also saw peace (or anti-US) protests across the street from the US Embassy. I know Korea had its own "me too" movement that lit on fire this spring. Relatedly, there's been protests against the use of women's spycacm porn.
Smaller conservative counter-protests led by groups like the Taeguki Citizens’ Revolutionary Movement and the Association of Patriotic Culture have also emerged.
