President Moon accepts foreigners' complaints

Gwanghwamun 1st Street at Gwanghwamun Square, Seoul, May 25. / Korea Times photos by Choi Won-suk

By Ko Dong-hwan

Foreigners now have an official window to deliver their complaints directly to the central government, but they must be in a written format without a personal consultation.

President Moon Jae-in opened on Thursday Gwanghwamun 1st Street, an outdoor pavilion comprising blue modular spaces, next to the Government Complex in Gwanghwamun, where visitors can leave their comments about the new administration.

Comments can also be submitted online to a website launched on Friday.

Citizens gather at the new pavilion to petition President Moon Jae-in. (From top) members of animal rights group Care hold signs saying "Ban dog meat"; a man rebukes allegedly corrupt prosecutors and calls on the Prosecutor-General to see that justice is done; two men ask President Moon to pass laws to preserve bar exams.

Foreigners can submit their comments in their own languages to staff at the pavilion or via the email indicated on the website gwanghwamoon1st.go.kr

Visitors to the pavilion can also petition through a one-on-one meeting with a stationed officer. However, the communication is limited to Korean.

"We will operate Gwanghwamun 1st Street only for 50 days," said Shin Sung-yeol, from Creative Government Planning Bureau under the Ministry of Interior, who was at the pavilion's opening ceremony on Thursday.

"The idea is to build an effective communication channel between Korean citizens and the central government. To be honest, we have not thought about tending to foreigners."

The pavilion launched the service immediately following the ceremony joined by four project planning committee executives and two citizen representatives.

More than 10 sets of small desks with two chairs were lined up inside an air-conditioned space, where officers and petitioners engaged in discussion.

Petition desks were crowded with citizens and journalists on the pavilion's first day of operation.

The ceremony was joined by several civic activists who raised their voices in front of journalists and filed their petitions at the desks.

A member of animal rights group Care live-streamed a fellow member filing a petition, while two former Samsung employees loudly claimed they were unfairly fired 20 years ago.

Two men held signs addressed to President Moon saying it was not yet too late to pass the laws to preserve the bar exam. An aged man spread out a banner containing a letter to the Prosecutor General, claiming two prosecutors had covered up for certain robbers by not complying with a Supreme Prosecutors' Office's order to extend an investigation into the alleged crime.

Visitors to the pavilion can also highlight passages of their favorite books and recommend them to the President by donating the books at a collection point.

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