Daegu City to Form Teams of Three Until January 3 Next Year
Rotational Standby from 6 PM to 9 AM the Following Day
After Daegu City installed a statue of President Park Chung-hee at Dongdaegu Station and deployed staff for nighttime protection, a public servant organization protested. On the 25th, Yonhap News reported that starting from the evening of the 24th, Daegu City has been mobilizing administrative bureau employees to work night shifts to protect the statue of former President Park at Dongdaegu Station Plaza. According to the report, the working hours are from 6 p.m. on the day to 9 a.m. the next day.
Park Chung-hee statue installed at Dongdaegu Station Plaza on the afternoon of the 23rd. Photo by Yonhap News
In response, one of Daegu City’s public servant unions, the 'Daegu City New Public Servants Union,' issued a statement saying, "Despite most citizens opposing the anachronistic erection of the statue of former President Park Chung-hee, the city forcibly held the unveiling ceremony on the 23rd and mobilized employees to stand night sentry duty. Daegu City, which planned work shifts to guard the statue during the year-end and New Year holidays when families should be happily spending time together, must wake up and immediately withdraw the plan," they argued. As the controversy spread, Ahn Jung-gon, head of Daegu City’s Administrative Bureau, explained, "The Public Facility Management Corporation should provide protection, but since increasing personnel takes time, only the Administrative Bureau is working for the time being. Since the statue was unveiled, protecting it is a natural administrative measure."
Earlier, on the 23rd, Daegu City held an unveiling ceremony for a 3-meter-tall statue of Park Chung-hee wearing a straw hat and holding a bundle of rice stalks at Dongdaegu Station Plaza. The inscriptions read, "The road beyond the barley hump, always thinking of farmers," and "A president who never missed a single year of rice planting and harvesting during his 18 years in office." Approximately 600 million won was invested in making the statue. On that day, Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo explained in his commemorative speech that the reason for erecting the statue of former President Park was "because a symbol honoring the spirit of industrialization was needed."
Mayor Hong said, "Daegu has three great spirits: first, the patriotic spirit of the National Debt Repayment Movement in the late Joseon Dynasty; second, the 2.28 spirit resisting the dictatorship; and third, the spirit of industrialization that led the modernization of the homeland. Daegu has the National Debt Repayment Movement Park and the 2.28 Memorial Park with their symbols, but there was no symbol for the spirit of industrialization, so we decided to erect the statue of former President Park," he said.
The "Anti-Park Chung-hee Idolization Nationwide Civic Movement Headquarters" held a press conference on the 22nd at Dongdaegu Station Plaza opposing the statue of former President Park Chung-hee installed by Daegu City. Photo by Yonhap News
However, even before the unveiling ceremony, Dongdaegu Station Plaza was the site of rallies by groups both supporting and opposing the statue’s erection. On that day, about 100 members of the 'Anti-Park Chung-hee Idolization Project Pan-Citizen Movement Headquarters' held signs saying "Absolutely remove the Park Chung-hee statue." Meanwhile, about 100 members of the 'Patriotic Daegu Struggle Headquarters' on the opposite plaza held banners reading "Park Chung-hee is Free Korea," supporting the statue’s erection. Fortunately, due to safety concerns, about 400 police officers were deployed on site that day, preventing any major clashes. However, since the opposing groups aim to dismantle the statue, conflicts related to the statue of former President Park are expected to continue.
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