What times are we living in? Is it "an age of the people's happiness" in the twenty-first century when the majority of the citizens live a "decent human life"? Or are we living in a time of the Yushin dictatorship from the late 1970s when the press was crushed and the people had their basic rights thoroughly violated? These questions naturally surface as we look at the appalling site in the Kyunghyang Shinmun building where the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions is located and where the police had turned into a complete chaos to arrest the leaders of the railway union a couple of days ago. The main glass door was shattered by the hammer swung by the police, the acrid smell of tear gas still permeates every corner of the building, and pieces of glass and other debris roll around here and there. Simply put, this was an act of violence which turned the clock of the South Korean society back tens of years and a serious challenge to the freedom of the press and democracy. Thus we strongly urge the government to clearly identify how the latest anti-press, anti-democratic violence was planned and carried out, and to strictly punish those responsible.

The police charged into the press building when the Kyunghyang Shinmun reporters were busy holding a meeting and writing articles for the following day's paper. Shattering windows and spraying tear gas in such a situation was a rash action which ignored the basic proprieties towards the press. Besides, the police failed to keep their prior promise to "notify the Kyunghyang Shinmun 30 minutes before executing the arrest warrant." Enforcing the law, the police had voluntarily stomped on the principle of good faith. Another thing we must point out is that the police had been issued an arrest warrant for the senior members of the union; they had not been issued a warrant for a search and seizure of the office. Yet the police had behaved as if their goal was to demolish the Kyunghyang Shinmun building rather than to arrest the union executives.

We mentioned the late 1970s because the current situation is essentially not much different from back then. In August 1979, Park Chung-hee's Yushin government dispatched more than 1,000 police officers to arrest the female workers at YH Trading, who were protesting at the New Democratic Party office. In the process, opposition lawmakers were assaulted and a female worker jumped to a tragic death. Eventually, the Yushin regime collapsed with the Buma (Busan-Masan) Uprising and the October 26 assassination, which soon followed. The historical fact that a government will inevitably fall if it is hostile towards the entire labor force and suppresses the press was confirmed once again when the Kim Young-sam government tried to ram the Labor Act through the National Assembly in December 1996. The New Korea Party, the ruling party at the time and currently the Saenuri Party, rammed a labor law which enabled layoffs in the early hours of Christmas day and toasted to their victory in a restaurant near the National Assembly; but their glass soon turned into a poisoned chalice which would lead to the government's collapse with the corruption scandal at Hanbo and the Asian financial crisis.

Perhaps it is no wonder that people see signs of misfortune in the incumbent government, which has violated the Kyunghyang Shinmun headquarters with more than 5 times the number of police officers compared with the YH case of 1979 and turned the entire labor sector into their enemy. Yet, we do not want a government, which has yet to spend a year in office, to fall, for it would be a tragedy for the entire Republic of Korea not to mention for President Park Geun-hye, the government and ruling party. Therefore, we urge President Park and the authorities responsible in the current government to reclaim reason and common sense.

We do not believe that the forced entry into the Kyunghyang Shinmun building was carried out based on the decision by the police alone. It is practically impossible for the police to independently make a decision on such a serious issue--to mobilize thousands of its officers and turn the offices of a newspaper busy producing its paper into chaos--without orders from "above." Therefore, we demand the government once again to thoroughly uncover how the latest act of violence, which has dragged the level of democracy and freedom of the press in South Korea's society back to the level of the days of the military dictatorship and sternly punish those responsible; needless to say that a sincere apology and compensation for property damages should follow. Whether democracy and freedom of the press in this land once obtained with the blood and tears of countless citizens will retreat or advance after overcoming this crisis solely depends on the government.