By Kwon Mee-yoo
Staff Reporter
Seoul City plans to set guidelines for rallies at Seoul Plaza in front of City Hall by June to regulate noise and facility installment.
The city is gathering information on how foreign plazas are managed and will host discussions and conduct a series of surveys to collect opinions on how to operate the downtown site.
The guidelines will elaborate how to regulate time, noise and install equipment as many big rallies are held at Seoul Plaza.
The directives allow the city to cancel approved rallies if those assembled make too much noise or cause inconveniences to citizens by installing excessive facilities.
The detailed plans will be made public on the city's Web site and electronic signboard at Seoul Plaza to avoid possible misunderstandings.
The plaza has been a site for citizen gatherings for purposes such as cheering for the Korean team during the 2002 World Cup and mourning the late President Roh Moo-hyun last year.
Currently, those who want to congregate at the plaza must get permission from the city. The existing guidelines only allow events related to leisure or cultural activities. Political rallies are banned.
A group of some 85,000 citizens, including Kim Min-young, secretary general of the civic organization People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, filed a request to use the site by simply notifying the authorities of their intended action, last December.
The city submitted the revision to the Seoul Metropolitan Council Friday and the council will decide whether to pass the bill or not.
The city council will hold the discussions on March 23.
The city plans to separate the roles of three plazas in downtown Seoul - Seoul Plaza for large-scale events, Cheonggye Plaza for small events and Gwanghwamun Square for historical events.
"We will set up identities for each place and ultimately establish a Seoul-style culture of using plazas," the official said.
meeyoo@koreatimes.co.kr
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