On August 29, line 14 of the Paris metro was the scene of a peculiar incident. At round 9 am, a gaggle of Koreans in wheelchairs boarded at Olympiades station and, as soon as contained in the prepare, started to crawl. The eldest shouted in damaged English: “Residents of Paris, we’re from South Korea! And we want your solidarity, to demand our rights!” The person in query was Park Kyoung-seok, the main determine within the motion to fight discrimination in opposition to individuals with disabilities in Korea. As he handed, he lined the bottom with stickers, the final traces of the stunt, which ended 5 stations down the road.
In South Korea, everybody is aware of the identify Park Kyoung-seok. “Actually everybody,” stated those that have accompanied him on his journey. Together with his white hair pulled again right into a ponytail and his smart outdated man look, Kyoung-seok, 63, made a reputation for himself within the basements of Seoul when he led civil disobedience actions within the South Korean capital’s subway system.
His battle is for higher transport accessibility all through the nation. Since December 3, 2021, the date of his disabled affiliation’s first main demonstration, a number of dozen individuals have gathered each morning at rush hour to dam the doorways of the capital’s subway trains, some with their wheelchairs. Through the greatest protests, which happen 4 occasions a 12 months, they quantity a number of thousand. August 27, 2024, marked the 663rd day of protest because the motion started.
Dragged by a safety guard
Kyoung-seok owes his incapacity to an accident in 1983. He was 23 when he injured himself hang-gliding whereas collaborating in an newbie competitors. The younger man had discovered to fly a number of months earlier, throughout his navy service. That day, as a result of defective tools, he fell and misplaced the usage of each his legs. “I bear in mind very properly, it was a Sunday. My mom had advised me to go to church, however I did not hear. I am unable to assist considering that I used to be punished for that,” he confided 41 years after the occasion.
SADD motion within the Paris metro on August 26, 2024
Within the years following his accident, Kyoung-seok spent his life holed up at his mom’s home. He thought of suicide a number of occasions. “I’d have most well-liked to be unhappy, however I used to be sedated,” he recalled. “Earlier than the accident, I used to be only a carefree younger man who favored to drink and social gathering.” In the present day, he likes to explain himself as a warrior, ready to lose his life on the battlefield. His mates confirmed this: “He by no means stops combating. Even when he is sick.”
Because the starting of the motion, the activist has been subjected to virulent repression by the authorities and Seoul’s conservative mayor, Oh Se-hoon. In a extensively circulated video, the 60-something is seen being dragged by a subway safety guard and strangled by the metallic chain with which he had tied himself in protest. He recounted how he needed to be rushed to hospital following the incident.
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