18 civic bodies including the Seoul
Progress Solidarity and the Seoul Civil Rights Solidarity, held a news
conference around Cheongwadae on July 21, demanding the south Korean authorities
release all prisoners of conscience on the occasion of August 15.
The speakers demanded the authorities set
free at once all prisoners of conscience, including the chairman of the Korean Confederation
of Trade Unions, who were suppressed during the Park Geun-hye regime, and
abolish all deep-rooted evils for democracy and human rights.
It is a plausible excuse of the present
government that it said it is not proper time to acquit the prisoners of
conscience, they charged.
As long as the people are imprisoned for
the mere reason that they fought against dictatorship, a genuine democracy
cannot be realized, they noted, stressing that they should open the door of
jail by dint of the candlelight resistance which led Park Geun-hye’s impeachment.
A rally and a demo took place in Seoul on
July 22 in demand of the release of prisoners of conscience under the
sponsorship of the promotion committee for release of conscientious prisoners.
So long as the prisoners are behind the
bars, society would not be free, they said, expressing their resolve to march
up to Cheongwadae for democracy and human rights every day until Aug. 15.
Given that the people drove out the past
regime which had pursued policy hostile to the DPRK, it is due obligation of
new government to set free all conscientious prisoners, they asserted.
After the end of the rally, they marched
forward to the Blue House, chanting slogan “Set free all conscientious
prisoners”
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