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Hyundai Motor's 13-year Protest Interruption, and Young Men in Black

Aug. 03, 2023, 08:00 PM.

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The monsoon rain that poured for days stopped. Hot humid air clinged to skin. Around 2 p.m. on July 19, the temperature in Seoul soared to 32 degrees Celsius (89.6 degrees Fahrenheit). 
At the foot of the Hyundai Motor Group twin towers, which have Hyundai and Kia logos on the top, nearly 30 young men all dressed in black were standing in a line. They were wearing shoulder sashes and holding signs with slogans like "Enhancing Corporate Competitiveness by Advancing Labor-Management Relations" and "Global Top Company with New Labor-Management Culture.”
The faces of the young men appeared to be in their early to mid-20s. They were standing roughly two to three meters apart from each other on the sidewalk surrounding the Hyundai Motor Group headquarters. 
Some took up the shades under the trees. Some held up tumblers or bottled water to quench their thirst. Those on the treeless section of the sidewalk were all holding identical umbrellas. The umbrellas were brand new, with labels and wrappers on, as if the men just received them from somewhere. Those at the corner of Yeomgok intersection in front of Hyundai Motor Group headquarters, glared at Newstapa’s camera.
These young men were familiar to the locals. When Newstapa asked about them, one local resident spoke up.
"I understand it’s a protest against Hyundai Motor, but I don't know more than that,” the resident said. “I’ve seen them here since a year or two ago. They've been standing there just like that. Standing there quietly holding signs that said 'Chairman Chung Eui-sun is rotten’ and stuff like that. I don't know more."
The resident said she thought the ‘young men in black outfit’ were complaining about injustice against Hyundai Motor. 
"It makes me wonder about the reasons, how frustrated they must be to be out on the streets. I don't know the story behind it,” she added.
Young people dressed in black are lined up on the sidewalk in front of Hyundai Motor Group's headquarters in Yangjae-dong, Seoul, with banners with slogans such as "illegal assembly out."

Mysterious news articles sniped the rally in front of Hyundai Motor headquarters

In the social section of the Seoul Economic Daily’s June 28 edition, an article stated that "a protester’s illegal tent installed in front of the Hyundai Motor headquarters building has been removed after 10 years.” The headline of the story was: "Residents had to wait 10 years to restore their daily lives."
Two weeks prior to this article, the Seocho District Office of Seoul carried out an administrative enforcement action to remove banners and a tent set up around Hyundai Motor headquarters by a laid-off Kia dealer. 
The June 28 Seoul Economic Daily article mentioned that a resident wrote on Seocho District’s website praising the enforcement. 
“It looked like a lawless place with all the banners and tent,” the article wrote, quoting a Seocho resident’s post on the District Office website. “As a resident, I’m deeply grateful to the District Office for upholding the enforcement based on administrative principles.”
In Seoul Economic Daily’s June 28 edition, an article stated that "a protester’s illegal tent installed in front of the Hyundai Motor headquarters building has been removed after 10 years.”
Coincidentally, the exact same quote appeared in online articles by a dozen other media outlets including Maeil Business Newspaper and News1 on June 27, a day before the Seoul Economic Daily article was published.
However, Newstapa couldn't find the paragraphs, which the news stories claimed that a resident wrote, after searching all the bulletin boards on the District Office website. The District Office staff in charge of website management also failed to find it.
“We only have a few bulletin boards open for the residents. Or maybe that resident has submitted it as a complaint,” the Seocho District Office Public Relations Office Website Manager said. “I’m not sure but maybe it was a private post, which I can’t share with you if that’s the case.”
This means, a website post which both Newstapa and District Office staff couldn’t find was quoted simultaneously by reporters from a dozen media outlets.
Another anonymous Seocho District resident appeared in the Seoul Economic Daily’s June 28 article.
“The neighborhood changed after the protest installations, including banners full of rough languages and unedifying tents, were cleared,” the resident was quoted as saying. “I was stressed out by the loud noise, but the change has given me a sense of peaceful life.”
This same quote was mentioned in articles published the same day by different media outlets and different reporters. In the articles, there was no indication that this resident actually exists. There’s no choice but to question how possible it is that multiple reporters would come across a single resident who says exactly the same thing, up to the postposition.
The Seoul Economic Daily article also quoted an anonymous legal expert, whose 
comments were also reproduced word-for-word in other news articles published on the same day by other outlets, including Maeil Business Newspaper, News1 and EDaily.

Owner of the so-called ‘illegal tent’ pushed to the middle of the road

The Hyundai Motor Group headquarters is the first place where people in disputes with Hyundai or Kia come to rally and protest. 
Park Mee-hee, whose tent in front of the headquarters buildings was named illegal by many media outlets recently, is one of them.
In the spring of 2013, Park was working as a salesperson at a Kia Motor dealership store based in Busan. She blew the whistle about the store's corrupt sales practices to an executive at Kia's headquarters. Shortly afterwards, she was fired from the store. 
Since October of that year, she has been protesting in front of the Hyundai Motor Group headquarters for 10 years, demanding reinstatement to her job. Now the Seocho District Office is not happy with her protests against the local conglomerate.
Prior to the administrative enforcement, Park received a letter from the District Office. In the letter, the Office asked her to remove the tents on the sidewalks around Hyundai Motor's headquarters, saying it receives many complaints that the tent disturbs passersby.
Park was not convinced by the warning. 
"This place is connected with the highway interchange. So within 24 hours, only about 30 people pass by this street,” she said. “I always make sure to leave enough space for pedestrians and keep the street clean."
Years passed, and Park's anger grew as she couldn't freely obtain a space to protest around Hyundai Motor headquarters due to these mysterious young people in black outfits. These young men in black have taken over the sidewalks around the Hyundai Motor buildings and refused to allow other individuals or groups like Park’s to rally and protest.
Completely pushed off the sidewalk in front of the main entrance to Hyundai Motor Group's headquarters and the surrounding sidewalks, Park nowadays holds a rally every Wednesday in a safe zone in the middle of the road. 
But the safe zone is not safe. It’s called the ‘safe zone,’ but the space where Park and her colleagues stand is dangerous, where vehicles weave in and out of intersections and highway interchanges.
Kia Motors dealership store whistleblower Park Mee-hee is speaking on a mic at her weekly rally, held on July 19 in the safety zone in the middle of the main road in front of Hyundai Motor Group's headquarters building.

Hyundai Motor’s rally site monopoly and young men in black

At around 9 p.m. on July 4, when a heavy rain warning was issued for Seoul, the rain pounded down outside the Hyundai Motor Group headquarters. Leaflets for the fired workers' rally were lying on the ground. 
Next to them, young people in black stood with umbrellas. A young male and a female in black held up a banner that had been soaked by the rain. It barely read, “Illegal rallies OUT! Guarantee legitimate rallies and abide by the Law on Assembly and Demonstration.” Whether the banner was well standing up or not, the young people’s eyes were glued to their smartphone screen.
In the night of July 4, a male and a female dressed in black are holding a banner that had been soaked by the rain. It read, “Illegal rallies OUT! Guarantee legitimate rallies and abide by the Law on Assembly and Demonstration.”
At around 7:50 a.m., Hyundai Motor Group employees swept into the building. The tanned-faced young people continued to hold signs. The Hyundai and Kia employees on their way to work didn't pay them any attention, and neither did the young people in black. One of them was simply staring off into the distance. 
A little while later, another group of young men showed up and took over the shoulder sashes and signs. It was time for a shift.
Why would these young people in black stay in front of the Hyundai Motor buildings all day?
KCIJ-Newstapa filed a Freedom of Information request with the Seocho Police Station to find out details of the rallies registered in the area around Hyundai Motor Group's headquarters from January to the end of July this year.
According to the Seocho Police Station's rally registration records, Hyundai and Kia have been holding daily rallies titled ‘Call for the Establishment of a Healthy Rally Culture to Strengthen National and Corporate Competitiveness.’ It's the same slogan written on the banners, which the young men were holding. Hyundai Motor has signed up for a rally consisting of 99 participants every single day, and Kia Motors has done two rallies every day, each with 70 and 99 participants.
Hyundai and Kia together signed up for three rallies across a total of six areas, encompassing the entire area around the Hyundai Motor Group headquarters buildings, including the area where Kia dealership store whistleblower Park Mee-hee held her rally and where she set up her tent. 
To sum up, Hyundai Motor Group organized the rally, mobilized dozens of young men in black to join the rally and monopolized the entire neighborh
Rally registration records submitted from Hyundai Motor Group to Seocho Police Station
Hyundai Motor Group mobilizes young people dressed in black to rally on all sidewalks surrounding the headquarters building.
Hyundai Motor Group's purpose of hosting the fake rally was confirmed by a court decision. The decision came as a result of a preliminary injunction filed by Park Mee-hee in 2016, which asked the court to stop Hyundai Motor from interfering with her protest. The court ruled in Park's favor. 
The decision read:
(Hyundai Motor Group) should not make its employees or third parties interfere with Park's rallies with vehicles, bodies or pickets.

Seoul Central District Court / June 3, 2016
The court's decision applies to a 10-meter section of sidewalk to the left of the main entrance of the Hyundai Motor Group headquarters. The court's decision means that Park should be able to protest there without any interruption, but the decision wasn’t realized as Hyundai Motor kept letting the young people in black stand on the sidewalk every day.
The Law on Assembly and Demonstration stipulates that the police must "endeavor to ensure that each outdoor assembly or demonstration is held in a peaceful manner without interfering with each other." 
However, this doesn't work well in reality due to the police’s administrative practices of prioritizing a rally with a larger number of participants if two rallies are signed up in the same place at the same time. Taking advantage of this practice, Hyundai Motor Group signed up for its rally every single day with an overstated number of participants to 270, in order to prevent Park's rally from taking place.
In 2021, Park filed a complaint to the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, asking the Commission to prepare a measure on Seocho Police Station to ensure that all duplicately registered rallies are held in peace. The Commission concluded that the Seocho police was not responsible for their duty.
In its decision, the Committee wrote:
(The police) should have actively protected Park Mee-hee to ensure that she was able to fully express her views unhindered in her rally. It also should have strictly instructed and sanctioned the Hyundai Motor rally participants’ illegal self-help actions. The police officers failed to do so, claiming that managing overlapping rallies is not part of their duties. By failing to take appropriate measure against Hyundai Motor's actions, the police violated Park's constitutionally-guaranteed right to freedom of assembly.

National Human Rights Commission of Korea decision (Nov. 2022)
The Committee also recommended that the Seocho Police Station conduct training sessions on rally management for its officers. However, the Seocho Police notified the commission a recommendation refusal, completely ignoring the commission’s judgment.
For nearly two months since June, Newstapa reporters visited the Hyundai Motor Group headquarters at different hours in an effort to grasp the number of rally participants in black outfits – those contract protesters hired by Hyundai Motor Group. A daily average of 10 to 30 young people were standing on the sidewalk in front of the headquarters building, which is far shorter than the number of rally participants Hyundai Motor registered at Seocho Police Station. 
In short, Hyundai Motor falsely reported the number of rally participants as low as nine times and as high as 20 times in order to claim the priority.

News stories same up to typos together condemned other protests

The same news stories published by a dozen local news outlets focused on criticizing those who protest in front of conglomerate headquarters like Kia dealership store whistleblower Park Mee-hee. The stories never mention the reality of the Hyundai Motor Group’s rallies, which the company hosts through young contract protesters.
On May 10, more than a dozen media outlets, including Maeil Business Newspaper, Money Today and EDaily, published stories of exactly the same paragraphs, saying that businesses and citizens suffer from protesters in front of large companies including Park who do rallies  with banners containing insults and hate speech. 
Below is a list of such news stories that published on May 10.
Exact same articles criticizing the protest in front of Hyundai Motor's headquarters on May 10 were published by more than 10 media outlets.
The articles were written in a simple and sloppy manner, as if they simply copied and pasted someone else's sentences written in news style. The quotes from a company insider and experts were also the same.
These news articles feature a company insiders who says they've been "suffering from protests for years." 
"There are protesters who use false allegations to claim that the company must take responsibility even though the responsibilities have been determined at court,” the insider was quoted as saying. “Under the current law, companies have no other solutions but to bear the damage." 
The anonymous company insider's quotes were published simultaneously on the same day in News1, Munhwa Ilbo, Money Today and EDaily, with slightly different wording.
Many of these articles even contained identical typos, so that there's no other way to interpret this than that the reporter simply copied and pasted a press release he or she received. 
Below are some of the example typos from articles by different news outlets. The standard Korean word "시달리다,” which means suffer in English, was incorrectly written as “시달라다.”
  • "There are protesters who use false allegations to claim that the company must take responsibility even though the responsibilities have been determined at court,” an insider of a conglomerate which suffered (시달라고) from protests for years said. “Under the current law, companies have no other solutions but to bear the damage."  (News1 / May 10, 2023)
  •   "There are protesters who use false allegations to claim that the company must take responsibility even though the responsibilities have been determined at court,” an insider of a conglomerate which suffered (시달라고) from protests for years said. “Under the current law, companies have no other solutions but to bear the damage." (Money Today / May 10, 2023)
  •    "There are protesters who use false allegations to claim that the company must take responsibility even though the responsibilities have been determined at court,” an insider of a conglomerate which suffered (시달라고) from protests for years said. “Under the current law, companies have no other solutions but to bear the damage." (EDaily / May 10, 2023)  
In the May 10 articles, an anonymous legal expert also appeared.
"Unlike in the past, there are now many different types of rallies and demonstrations of various nature, which are organized for personal reasons or for different interests,” the anonymous legal expert was quoted as saying. “The Law on Assembly and Demonstration, which was created to regulate political gatherings and demonstrations in the past, needs to be comprehensively reexamined to reflect current realities." 
This is a dangerous statement that seems to deny people’s constitutionally guaranteed right to assemble and demonstrate, but the reporter didn’t verify the statement or include a counter-argument.
  • "Unlike in the past, there are now many different types of rallies and demonstrations of various nature, which are organized for personal reasons or for different interests,” a legal expert emphasized. “The Law on Assembly and Demonstration, which was created to regulate political gatherings and demonstrations in the past, needs to be comprehensively reexamined to reflect current realities." (News1 / May 10, 2023)
  • "Unlike in the past, there are now many different types of rallies and demonstrations of various nature, which are organized for personal reasons or for different interests,” a legal expert emphasized. “The Law on Assembly and Demonstration, which was created to regulate political gatherings and demonstrations in the past, needs to be comprehensively reexamined to reflect current realities." (Money Today / May 10, 2023)
  • "Unlike in the past, there are now many different types of rallies and demonstrations of various nature, which are organized for personal reasons or for different interests,” a legal expert emphasized. “The Law on Assembly and Demonstration, which was created to regulate political gatherings and demonstrations in the past, needs to be comprehensively reexamined to reflect current realities." (EDaily / May 10, 2023)

Court: Hyundai Motor abused rally registration system to interfering others’ constitutionally guaranteed right to assemble

The young men in black outfits seemed to have no rights to speak up of their thoughts while on duty. None of them shouted the slogans on their shoulder sashes, signs or banners out loud. They were instructed to remain silent. No matter how many questions Newstapa asked, the answer was always the same – silence – vastly different from typical protesters.
(I'm a reporter from a news outlet called Newstapa. What is this rally about?) Go away, leave us alone.

Hyundai-Kia Rally Participant A
(May I ask what this rally is about?) I don't know. (Are you sure you got no idea of this rally?) I don't know. They asked me to come out just for today.

Hyundai-Kia Rally Participant B
On the afternoon of July 19, Kia Motors dealership store whistleblower Park Mee-Hee appeared at a safe zone in the middle of the main road to hold her weekly rally. 
As Park and her colleagues began bringing rally materials in the safe zone, the group of young men on the sidewalk got busy. An older man who appeared to be a rally manager from Hyundai Motor Group walked around and gave instructions to the young men. 
In a matter of moments, the young men in black, who were initially standing all over the sidewalk with regular intervals between each other, gathered at the corner of Yeomgok intersection in front of Hyundai Motor Group headquarters. The intersection is where the safe zone is best visible.
Moments later, two police vehicles arrived and two officers approached the safe zone to speak to Park. Park said the officers told her that they “can't do anything about the Hyundai Motor rally because it's the prioritized one.” The officers brought Park back to the sidewalk, installed a police line around the safe zone and left.
At around 6:50 p.m., Park took the microphone and announced the beginning of her weekly rally. On the sidewalk, a noise-measuring microphone was installed. Two cameras from Hyundai Motor Group started filming Park's every move throughout the rally. 
Park shouted at the young men in black.
"The cost for those worthless businesses are all passed on to our customers’ car prices,” she said. “We’d feel good if Hyundai Motor hired those young people for work that would feel worthy and legitimate as a laborer.”
The young men in black were simply standing and listening to her speech.
On the afternoon of July 19, Hyundai Motor's rally participants were concentrated around near the safe zone where Park Mee-hee holds her weekly rally.
In 2018, the Seoul Central District Court ruled that the daily rallies organized by Hyundai Motor Group and held by contract workers were "nail house rallies." 
In the verdict, the judiciary scolded that “Hyundai Motor infringed other people’s freedom of assembly.”
Abusing the outdoor rally registration system to preempt the venues – for the sole purpose of preventing others’ gatherings with no intention of actually holding the gathering – is a substantial interference with the right to assembly, which is guaranteed by the Constitution and the Law on Assembly and Demonstration. … [Amid the rally registration system is first come, first served basis,] the fact that Hyundai Motor’s registration prevents individuals or groups who wish to organize outdoor rallies or protests related to Hyundai Motor Group from choosing a location, such as in front of Hyundai Motor headquarters' main entrance, is a significant restriction on their freedom of assembly.

The judiciary also concluded that Hyundai Motor's rally was the company’s security system masquerading as a rally.
If the series of rallies registered by Hyundai Motor Group is closely related to the location, it would be because the Hyundai Motor rallies in fact are not those real rallies guaranteed by the Constitution and the Law on Assembly, but the company’s security operations.

Seoul Central District Court / Jan. 25, 2018
Hyundai's fake rallies, which are nothing more than office building security, began 13 years ago in 2010. 
The young men in black have been mobilized to protect the Hyundai Motor Group headquarters from rally participants, every single day in all conditions – in the middle of heatwave and in the pouring rain. 
Hyundai Motor Group responded to Newstapa's inquiries about the fake rally participants as below:
We are not sure who Newstapa referred to as ‘the rally participants in black outfit’ are. We are legally organizing our rally in accordance with the Constitution and laws, following the procedures and methods. We don’t intend to interfere with the gathering of others. 

Hyundai Motor Group Response / July 18, 2023
For standing outdoors all day, the young men in black outfits get paid roughly KRW 100,000 (USD 75.45), although the amount slightly differs from one another, Newstapa found. Every day, a total of about 30 young men guard the Hyundai Motor buildings around the clock, with shifts every two hours. 
Suppose that they are paid KRW 100,000 a day, Hyundai Motor Group is estimated to spend more than KRW 1 billion (USD 754,500) a year on labor cost alone, to organize fake rallies. The total amount of money paid to contract security companies would be even higher including commissions and other expenses.
Hyundai Motor Group is estimated to spend more than KRW 1 billion (USD 754,500) a year on labor cost alone, to organize fake rallies. 

Editorials and columns call for strengthened rally regulation for their sponsor, Hyundai Motor

Newstapa also examined the number of articles published this year that stipulated Park Mee-hee’s rallies as illegal and claimed that Hyundai Motor and nearby residents have been bothered by Park’s rallies. 
Newstapa analyzed articles published online over an eight-month period from Jan. 1 to July 31 this year from news outlets affiliated with portal site Naver's news search function. Search keywords included ‘Hyundai Motor rally,’ ‘Yangjae-dong protest’ and ‘illegal tents.’ Among the results, Newstapa only counted those articles with the same structure and thesis, identical quotes from anonymous residents, experts or company insiders, and the same examples of assemblies and protest laws in other countries. 
As a result, a total of 155 identical articles were identified. This number includes not only general news stories but also editorials and columns.
After analyzing the titles and content of the articles, Newstapa found that a number of articles highlighting the same topic and material were published on the same day, or within a day or two. 
For example, in the second week of April, about 10 articles that emphasized the illegality of Park’s tent in front of the Hyundai Motor buildings were published on Monday and Tuesday (10th and 11th), and nearly a dozen of articles that criticized the funeral hymns played from Park’s tent were published on Thursday, the 13th. 
In the third week of April, about a dozen articles calling for the revision of the Law on Assembly and Demonstrations highlighting the noise and the dangers of rally items were published every day from Tuesday to Sunday, from the 18th to 23rd.
Articles attacking rallies in front of conglomerate headquarter buildings and calling for the revision of the Law on Assembly continued to appear on a weekly basis. 
In May, similar articles appeared online each week: May 10 in the second week, 15th in the third week and the 22nd in the fourth week. Also in June, similar stories appeared once every week: June 1 and 2 in the first week, the 5th in the second week, the 12nd to 13th in the third week, the 22nd and 23rd in the fourth week, and the 27th in the fifth week. 
Each day, as few as eight and as many as 20 news outlets published the same story on the same day.
The JoongAng Ilbo, Seoul Shinmun, Maeil Business Newspaper, Korea Economic Daily and Seoul Economic Daily published those questionable articles in their print editions. Seoul Shinmun and Digital Times ran full-page feature stories with more examples of rallies held in front of other conglomerates.
The Chosun Ilbo, Maeil Business Newspaper, Korea Economic Daily, Dong-A Ilbo and JoongAng Ilbo published editorials and columns that criticized rallies in front of Hyundai Motor Group's headquarters, including Park’s, and that called for strengthening regulations on rallies and protests.

Reporters said they received ‘the material’ from other members of newsroom for political reasons

Newstapa reached out to the journalists to ask why they had written such a flawed article that only served Hyundai Motor's interests. 
“You should find out for yourself,” said reporter A from a general daily newspaper. “It's inappropriate for me to answer directly.” 
“The illegal tent issue has been around for a while,” said reporter B from an economic daily newspaper. “I wrote the article based on a tip.”
Reporter B, who claimed to have written the article based on a tip from a reader, wrote another article on June 1, saying that Kia dealership store whistleblower Park Mee-hee pulled a trick by overstating the number of her rally’s participants to 20, even though she was actually holding a 1-person protest. 
However, as Newstapa confirmed in its investigation, it was Hyundai Motor Group that actually overstated the number of rally participants by hundreds every day for years.
Some reporters told different insider stories. 
Reporter C from another economic daily said that he didn’t get the press release directly from Hyundai Motor Group, but added that “I understand that someone gave the release to our newsroom. I got it within the newsroom.”
“It's just that Hyundai Motor… it was a typical trick,” reporter D said. “It wasn’t my original piece. I didn’t receive the press release myself. I eventually got to write it due to different political reasons.” 
As for the photographs included in the articles, which were written ‘taken by a reader,’ the reporter also said he actually doesn’t know the source.
To summarize the reporters’ testimony, they were given specific written materials related to Hyundai Motor within their newsrooms, and they were tasked to write the articles regardless of their will. An executive or editor at each news outlet is assumed to have given the order to the reporters.
Everyone who spoke with Newstapa is an automobile reporter who is in charge of managing Hyundai and Kia related news. And Hyundai Motor Group is a key advertiser for the news outlets they belong to.

A ‘man in black’ visited Newstapa tell the real story

At the end of July, Newstapa received an email from one of the ‘young men in black’ who knew that Newstapa reporters kept showing up in front of Hyundai Motor Group's headquarters. He said he had “a lot to tell.” 
He visited Newstapa and sat down in front of the camera. He said he is a security guard.
“I'm ashamed of this job. No one should do this crap,” he said. “(Hyundai Motor Group)It did sign up for the rally, but this is not really a rally. We’re not really rallying for anything we wish. Literally, we’re guarding the company to keep real protesters out.”
We didn't become security guards to protest and rally. Many regular people nowadays become security guards. But many of those who’d been thugs in the past choose to become certified security guards, because they want to live a better life. Then, if their employer sends them to rally, it’s no different from jobs they did in the past.

A / Hyundai Motor's Fake Rally Participant
And this ‘young man in black’ began telling unexpected stories.
(Continues in Part 2) 
By
ReportingKim Ji-yoon, Hong Woo-ram
Video ReportingKim Ki-cheol, Lee Sang-chan, Jeong Hyeong-min, Choi Hyung-seok
Video Editing Park Seo-young
CGJung Dong-woo
DesignLee Do-hyeon
PublishingHeo Hyeon-jae
Tags
Hyundai Motor Kia Motors Hyundai Kia Hyundai Motor Group Law on Assembly and Demonstration Constitutional rights Chaebol Conglomerate