Professors of Dongguk University hold a press conference at the school campus in Seoul, Thursday, urging President Yoon Suk Yeol to step down. Yonhap
By Lee Hae-rin
Korea is seeing a wave of university professors criticizing President Yoon Suk Yeol and calling for his resignation, with over 3,000 professors and researchers from 55 universities across the country participating in the joint declaration as of Friday.
“We want President Yoon to step down immediately,” a group of 108 professors of Dongguk University said in a joint declaration at the school’s Seoul campus, Thursday.
Referring to President Yoon’s televised press conference from Nov. 7, they said, “Even though the two-hour statement started with an apology, the content was beyond disappointing and close to despair. There have been a series of declarations of a state of affairs by professors from various universities, raising concerns about the government’s move, but the president has confirmed that he has no intention of changing the state of affairs at all.”
The group also pointed out the various suspicions surrounding first lady Kim Keon Hee.
“Nothing has been resolved, including the Deutsche Motors stock manipulation scandal, the luxury goods scandal, the government intervention scandal and the manipulation of public opinion through political brokers and the nomination intervention scandal,” they said.
Additionally, 177 Yonsei University professors issued a declaration titled “You are no longer our president” and urged “President Yoon to apologize for the injustice and misrule he has committed and step down from his position as soon as possible.”
“What the Yoon Suk Yeol administration showed us during the first half of his term was incompetence, irresponsibility and reckless use of power. From the Itaewon disaster to Corporal Chae’s case, labor and media oppression, history distortion, submissive diplomacy to the U.S. and Japan, hostile North Korean policy, tax cuts for the rich, R&D budget and various cuts in research and development, etc., the government is unfathomable,” the group said.
“Even though most citizens are suffering from the economic crisis and economic downturn every day, the government is complimenting itself on the achievements of the state administration.”
Some 140 professors from Ewha Womans University also joined the declaration.
“We are furious. Step down immediately. During the two and a half years of the Yoon Suk Yeol administration, the foundation of a democratic republic has been shaken and people’s livelihoods have been destroyed by the endless incompetence of the president and a series of scandals and suspicions surrounding the president and his family,” the group said. “The government should not continue to privatize power granted by the people only for the benefit of itself and those around it.”
The wave of university professors’ statements calling for Yoon’s resignation started with Gachon University on Oct. 28, and then spread to others including Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Hanyang University, Sookmyung Women’s University, Kookmin University, Kyung Hee University and Korea University.
“The last time so many professors participated in the declaration of the state of affairs at once on the same subject was the manipulation of state affairs under the Park Geun-hye administration,” according to a professor at a private university in Seoul.
