Disability News Japan Podcast: ‘Korea Edition Part II’ : ‘Subway-Riding Protests’ by People with Disabilities in Seoul

From Barrier Free Japan

April 30 2023

SEOUL – A Korean disability rights advocacy group on Thursday 20th April staged a surprise “subway-riding” protest at one of Seoul’s busiest subway stations to mark the 43rd Day of Persons with Disabilities, causing train delays for about 15 minutes.

About 10 members of the Solidarity Against Disability Discrimination (SADD) conducted the subway-riding protest at Myeongdong Station on Subway Line 4, beginning at 8 a.m., without any prior notice, disrupting train operations for 14 minutes until 8:30 a.m.

After a standoff with police for about 10 minutes, the activists boarded a southbound train and got off at Yeouinaru Station on Line 5 in the Yeouido district, where the government’s Day of Persons with Disabilities ceremony was about to begin.

Park Kyoung-seok, the 63-year-old leader of the Solidarity Against Disability Discrimination, had previously been arrested for similar protests, most recently in March 2023.