SEOUL (UCAN) - Riot police troops have been withdrawn completely from the entrance of Myongdong Cathedral in South Korea's capital after having been stationed there for more than a decade.
The pullout of the three detachments assigned to the cathedral by the Seoul Central Police Station proceeded April 29 even though some 40 dismissed workers were still staging a sit-in protest in the church compound.
The police presence had caused much inconvenience for people going to the cathedral, and the Church had continually asked for the withdrawal.
The Church welcomes the "voluntary withdrawal," cathedral vicar Father Nicholas Chang Deok-pil told UCA News. "We also hope that the church would not be a place of confrontation between policemen and demonstrators again."
During the 1980s, the cathedral grounds came to be considered a safe haven from security forces by anti-government protesters, and riot police had been stationed there since.
Tension peaked during the 1987 June Democracy Movement, when hundreds of students and citizens protested at the church compound on June 10, demanding the constitution be revised to allow direct presidential election.
Amid an escalating confrontation, Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan of Seoul intervened directly with the government, warning that any crackdown on the compound would lead the whole Church to confront the government.
Then-president Chun Doo-hwan relented on his plan to declare martial law and crack down on the demonstrators at the cathedral and nationwide, and on June 29 a direct election plan was announced.
Following the successful, peaceful protest, Myongdong Cathedral become a common site for democracy and human rights demonstrations by anti-government students, workers and various marginalized groups. As demonstrators continued to stage protests in the church compound, riot police continued to be stationed around the church to check the protests. They often checked demonstrators and cars entering the Church, and once even stopped the car in which Cardinal Kim was riding.
Three years ago, during the government of former president Kim Young-sam, relations between the government and the Church suffered an abrupt chill when riot police entered the church compound for the first time on June 6, 1995, to arrest union leaders staging a sit-in protest there.
The action stirred up protests among Catholic priests and laypeople nationwide against the violation of the "sanctuary for the underprivileged" that they said had been recognized since the 1970s. Cardinal Kim publicly criticized the government over the incident, denouncing the police for the use of force.
Since President Kim Dae-jung, a Catholic, was inaugurated in February, fewer protests have been staged at the Church compound, although terminated workers have recently used the cathedral grounds to express their demands.
UCAN 20. mai 1998