South Korean Youth Resistance members held a surprise demonstration outside the US embassy in Seoul on 16 September. Members of the youth movement strongly condemned the administration of President Donald Trump, which is engaged in provocative nuclear war exercises. They called for an end to invasion rehearsals aimed at North Korea and the withdrawal of US troops from the south.
In particular, they angrily condemned the revelation that President Trump had actually planned a nuclear war in order to invade North Korea, as detailed in Bob Woodward’s new book Rage, published on 15 September.
Demonstrators chanted slogans including: “Permanently stop war exercises to invade North Korea!”, “Condemn Trump’s war games!” and “US troops out of South Korea!” They also unfurled a banner and distributed hundreds of flyers with the same slogans.
One of the organisation’s members, Ahrem, was wrongfully arrested by police who were defending the embassy. Two of her comrades, including the chairman of the student committee of the People’s Demoratic Party, conducted a silent hunger strike outside the notorious Jongno police station, drawing attention to her plight and to the coercive interrogation techniques that are used there.
They were demanding the immediate dismissal of the head of the Jongno police station, an official apology by the chief of the National Police Agency, and the severe punishment of the police for their actions in defending pro-American and pro-Japanese far-right forces and illegally arresting a member of the PDP.
This action was successful in securing the release of the young PDP comrade before the end of the standard 48-hour detention period.
