“Demanding Ouster of Gov’t Breaches Law”: Korean Bar Association

On the ongoing candlelight protests, the Korean Bar Association (KBA) stated Thursday that calling for the ouster of the legitimately elected Lee Myung-bak administration is severely damaging the nation’s constitutionalism and destroying the constitutional order.

The bar association claimed in its statement, titled “Concerns over constitutionalism that lost its bearings over the flickering candles,” that the government must sternly punish law-breaking protestors in order to protect the constitutional order.

“Even though night rallies after sunset are already illegal without a permission according to the current law on assemblies and protests, they are being shielded under the name of peaceful protests,” said an association official. “What is more deplorable is that some religious people have also joined the illegal protests in the name of religious events, increasing the anxiety of innocent people.”