Supreme Court: "Yongsan Presidential Office Is Not a Residence... Assembly Must Be Allowed"

The Yongsan Presidential Office is not a residence, so a final ruling has been made that assemblies must be allowed.

Since the Presidential Office moved to Yongsan in May 2022, civic groups and the police have been engaged in litigation over nearby assemblies, and this is the first time the Supreme Court has confirmed a ruling allowing an assembly.

The Supreme Court's 2nd Division (Presiding Justice Shin Sook-hee) on the 14th upheld the lower court's ruling in favor of the plaintiff in a lawsuit filed by the Candlelight Victory Transition Action (hereinafter Candlelight Action) against the Seoul Yongsan Police Station, demanding the cancellation of the assembly ban notice.

On May 28, 2022, Candlelight Action reported to the police their plan to march from Itaewon Square, passing Noksapyeong Station and Samgakji Intersection, to Yongsan Station Plaza.

The police issued a ban on the assembly based on the Assembly and Demonstration Act, which prohibits outdoor assemblies within 100 meters of the president's residential space, the official residence.

Candlelight Action filed an administrative lawsuit in objection and simultaneously applied for a suspension of execution. The court accepted the suspension application one day before the scheduled date, allowing the assembly to proceed as planned.

In the subsequent main lawsuit, the key issue was whether the presidential office could be considered a residential space, i.e., an official residence.

The first and second instance courts ruled that the police's ban notice was illegal and canceled the police's disposition.

The second instance court stated, "The presidential office cannot be interpreted as the 'presidential residence' under the Assembly and Demonstration Act, so the assembly location in this case is not a place where assemblies are prohibited by the Act."

At that time, the court mentioned, "Listening to the people's will and engaging in communication is a major duty the president must perform in the office during work hours," and added, "It is difficult to see the need to designate the presidential office as an assembly-prohibited place equivalent to the president's residential space."

The police appealed, but the Supreme Court found no problem with the lower court's conclusion and confirmed the ruling by dismissing the appeal without hearing the main case, through a summary dismissal.

Attorney Lee Je-il of Saram Law Office, representing Candlelight Action, said, "Although an administrative officer of the Presidential Secretariat submitted a statement claiming that the Yongsan Presidential Office also has residential functions, it was rejected by the court," and added, "Until recently, the police issued ban notices for related assemblies, but the Supreme Court, like the first and second instance courts, has put a stop to the police's ban notices."

Similar lawsuits filed by People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy and Rainbow Action Against Sexual Minority Discrimination have also won in both the first and second instances and are pending at the Supreme Court.

Earlier, the Constitutional Court also ruled in December 2022 that the Assembly and Demonstration Act, which uniformly banned assemblies near the official residence, was unconstitutional and ordered the law to be amended by May 31.