Disability rights group ends 4-year subway protest campaign after 73 demonstrations

The Solidarity Against Disability Discrimination, known by its Korean acronym Jeonjangnyeon, has decided to fully suspend its rush-hour subway boarding protests that have continued for more than four years.

On Monday, Jeonjangnyeon, the Seoul Metropolitan Council's Democratic Party of Korea caucus and the Democratic Party's Seoul chapter held a joint press conference at the Seoul Metropolitan Council building, declaring a "grand social compromise for the guarantee of disability rights." Attendees included Park Gyeong-seok, co-standing chair of Jeonjangnyeon; Lee Gyu-sik, head of the Seoul Solidarity Against Disability Discrimination; Lee Sang-hoon, floor leader of the Seoul Metropolitan Council's Democratic Party caucus; Seo Mi-hwa, a senior member of the Democratic Party; and Kim Young-bae, chair of the Democratic Party's Seoul chapter.

Jeonjangnyeon has staged a total of 73 rush-hour subway boarding protests since Dec. 3, 2021, demanding mobility and labor rights for people with disabilities. The group announced the full suspension of the protests, citing the Seoul Metropolitan Council's Democratic Party push for disability-related ordinances on mobility and labor rights as the catalyst.

The Seoul Metropolitan Council's Democratic Party will advance two ordinance amendments — guaranteeing mobility and labor rights for people with disabilities — as its first and second official party-line legislative priorities. The first would comprehensively revise the city's existing ordinance on improving transportation convenience for mobility-impaired residents, reframing it as a guarantee of mobility rights. The second would amend the city's ordinance on promoting employment and vocational rehabilitation for people with disabilities to establish a legal basis for rights-centered, customized public jobs for people with severe disabilities.

"Given the responsible decision made by the Seoul Metropolitan Council's Democratic Party, we will fully suspend the 'Rush-Hour Subway Ride' campaign that we carried out 73 times alongside citizens since December 2021, and continue our solidarity efforts to guarantee disability rights," Jeonjangnyeon said. The group had temporarily suspended the subway protests after its leadership met with Park Hong-keun, minister of the Ministry of Planning and Budget, on Wednesday. Monday's announcement upgraded that temporary suspension to a full one.

Bus boarding protests, however, will continue. "We are continuing the rush-hour bus rides every Wednesday and have no plans to stop," said Park Gyeong-seok. "It is to inform citizens that Seoul's promise to introduce low-floor buses on 100 percent of city routes by 2025 has not been kept, and to urge the city to follow through."

Jeonjangnyeon said it plans to continue bus protests centered on the Hyehwa-dong area. "Since the Oido Station lift accident in 2001, we have held bus boarding actions at Hyehwa-dong Rotary once a month — 41 times in total — and are now doing it every Wednesday," Park said. "Hyehwa-dong is a symbolic place where the struggle for disability mobility rights began."

He added that Lee Gyu-sik was seriously injured in 1999 after falling from a lift at Hyehwa Station, and that Hyehwa Station was later the first station in Seoul to have an elevator installed.

The group will also press the government to reflect disability rights in the national budget. "We understand the government budget is being finalized by the end of August and is now in its last stage," Jeonjangnyeon said. "We are delivering our policy demands again to urge that disability rights funding be included at this stage." The group added that once the government's budget proposal is submitted to the National Assembly at the end of August, it intends to raise the issue there as well.

The Seoul Metropolitan Council's Democratic Party said it plans to pursue additional ordinances on deinstitutionalization following the mobility and labor rights measures. The party said at the press conference that it would first advance the two party-line ordinances and then move on the deinstitutionalization ordinance as quickly as possible through the legislative schedule.

On the possibility that Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon might request reconsideration of the ordinances, the Democratic Party said it does not expect him to do so. Even if he did, the party currently holds more than two-thirds of the seats on the council and would re-pass the ordinances in line with the will of citizens.