Seoul citizens’ patience put to test

By Kim Da-ye

Is it a case of overkill?

Korea has gone the extra mile in preparing for the G20 Business Summit and summit of global leaders but residents are complaining about the inconveniences caused by this.

Basically, what they say is that they know the importance of the meetings in Seoul as a showcase to the world but their sense of patriotism obviously is being put to the test.

A recent incident that bred much brouhaha online was the Seodaemun-gu Office’s decision to not collect food waste for three days from Nov. 10.

“The world is watching us. Please refrain from throwing away food waste during the G20 summit,” read a poster by the local council in western Seoul that thought trucks carrying food waste to a recycling center would smell, leaving a bad impression among global leaders.

After the plan received much criticism, the council withdrew it.

Seoul Metro, which runs the Seoul Subway Lines 1 to 4, also decided to remove all the bins in the stations from Nov. 1 in order to prevent terrorist attacks. Mail boxes and storage for parcels are also temporarily unavailable to the public.

Some measures target cracking down on specific groups. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency has banned some 110 previously caught motorcycle gang members from driving late at night for a month.

All privately-owned firearms are also to be kept by the police until the end of the G20 summit. Back in July, the police force announced it would collect and inspect guns belonging to individuals.

Furthermore, it has been reported that the police have increasingly carried out random inspections on the homeless and foreigners.

One of the most dramatic actions the police recently requested an arrest warrant against a 41-year-old lecturer who drew a Banksy-style mouse on several G20 promotional posters with spray paint. The court dismissed the police’s request for damaging public promotional materials, but the incident left an oppressive impression among the public.

It is already widely known that the event will hurt the local economy around the Coex where the main conference will be held. Businesses in the Coex Mall will close Thursday and Friday during which trucks cannot enter the neighborhood, halting parcel delivery there.

One foreign office worker commuting to Samsung-dong complained that there are too many security guards blocking the doors inside the Coex Mall. “Five or six security guards stand by the doors and chat with each other, blocking the doors. They aren’t doing their jobs, but disrupting the commuters during rush hour. It is really annoying,” he said, adding that he cannot understand the purpose of installing metal detectors around the Coex.

A survey done by recruiting portal Incruit showed Wednesday the sort of frustration shared by officer workers ― 57.3 percent of whom responded that the preparation for the G20 summit is so excessive that it has caused inconvenience. Around 23 percent of respondents said the preparations were not adequate.

The excessive preparation is now being ridiculed by “netizens” whose parodies of such efforts are spreading fast through Twitter.

The G20 Seoul Summit’s official committee allegedly urged people on Twitter not to wear tracksuits during the summit, enraging netizens. It later turned out that the ID used was a fake. The official committee uses the account “@G20SeoulSummit” which an anonymous user twisted into “@G20SeouISummit,” replacing l of Seoul with I.

서울시민 인내 한계

G20 정상회의 개최를 하루 앞두고 시민들에게 불편을 주는 정부의 과잉 대책이 원성을 사고 있다.

서대문구청은 G20 정상회의 기간 중 음식물쓰레기 배출을 자체 할 것을 당부했다가 화제가 되었다. 음식물을 실은 화물차가 경기도 고양시에 위치한 난지물재생센터로 가는 길에 냄새를 풍겨 세계 정상들에게 좋지 못한 인상을 줄 것을 염려해 마련한 대책은 논란이 되자 취소되었다.

이외에도 경찰에서 폭주족, 총기, 노숙자, 외국인에 대한 단속에 나서자 인권침해에 대한 우려의 목소리가 나오고 있다.

이와 같은 같은 과잉 대응을 패로디한 트위트가 빠른 속도로 퍼져나가고 있다. 한 네티즌은 G20 정상회의 위원회의 정식 트위터인 @G20SeoulSummit의 l을 대분자 I로 바꾸는 방식으로 위원회를 사칭해 정상회의 기간에는 트레이닝복 착용을 자제해줄 것을 당부해 네티즌들을 당황케 했다.