Hankyoreh on the expelled Kodae students
Very big kudos to Hankyoreh, who have not only covered the story of the expelled Korea University students (I’ve mentioned some of the events there before: here and here), but translated the article into English. In brief, the seven students were expelled without credit last spring for a protest about the democratic representation of students that led to a number of professors being trapped in a building for some time. Since their expulsion they have held a sit-in tent protest outside the campus in Seoul (408 days in all).
As the article points out, most of the seven students are members of DLP left faction All Together (다함께), and it always seemed likely that the university wanted to use the incident of the ‘confined professors’ to get rid of the organisation from the campus. The article provides some confirmation of this suspicion from one of the expelled students who is not a member of All Together:
Five of the seven expelled students played leading roles in that 2005 demonstration, and were members of a student activist group, ‘All Together’ (Da Hamkke). One of the other seven expelled, Cho Jeong-sik, 25, was not a member of ‘All Together,’ but he said that university authorities questioned him after the 2006 building lockdown, “Are you a member of ‘All Together’?” Instead of saying, “No,” Cho replied, “Why do you ask such a question?”
The university still refuses to negotiate with the students, some of whom are now suffering various physical ailments due to their prolonged outdoor lifestyle.
News is somewhat better for a friend of mine involved in another similar case, Jo Myeong-hun:
A similar situation is occurring at Hankook University of Foreign Studies. Jo Myeong-hun, 27, who is majoring in English at the university, was given an indefinite suspension from school in August last year after posting a leaflet accusing several professors of beating and sexually harassing striking university workers at a labor-management protest.
On May 10, the Seoul Northern District Court ruled in favor of Jo, saying the punishment was an abuse of the university’s disciplinary rights. However, Jo is still not back at school, as the university has appealed against the ruling.
Asked why it appealed the court’s ruling, a university official said, “We cannot let our institution be defamed.”
Meanwhile, Jo says he needs only five more credits to graduate.
There’s more about Jo’s expulsion here, and if anyone is around Kodae and wants to show the students their support, I’m sure they’d appreciate it.
