“ANOTHER has been killed like this, again,” lamented the mother of Lee Han-yeol, who was fatally injured by a tear-gas canister in 1987 during a demonstration against the military regime of Chun Doo-hwan. She was among many attending the funeral of Baek Nam-gi, a 69-year-old South Korean activist and farmer. Mr Baek was knocked over by a blast from a police water cannon during a demonstration last year; after ten months in a coma, he died on September 25th.
Clashes between demonstrators and police have a special resonance in South Korean politics. The death of Mr Lee became one of the defining moments of the country’s transition to democracy. As he lay in a coma, fellow students circulated a photograph of him, bloodied and slumped in the arms of a friend. Almost 30 years on, protests, frequent and raucous, are still a big part of public life. But just how far it is legitimate for protests to go, and how police should respond, are still matters of fierce debate.
Mr Baek’s death struck a chord in part because he epitomised the dogged activism that helped to put an end to the authoritarian order that endured from the second world war until the late 1980s. He...Continue reading
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