{
  "id": 9260420,
  "title": "The memorial I walked past a hundred times",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/23/the-memorial-i-walked-past-a-hundred-times",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-09-23T03:52:03.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Korea Times",
    "slug": "the-korea-times",
    "url": "https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/opinion/20260923/the-memorial-i-walked-past-a-hundred-times"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "My first encounter with a protest in Seoul left me expecting chaos. Back home, protests usually involved shouting matches, riot shields, and streets quickly emptying. Upon turning a corner near Gwanghwamun on a Saturday afternoon, I found myself facing a vast crowd that filled the square end to end. Initially, my instinct was to leave, but I decided to stay and observe. Rows of police stood beside the crowd, acting more like an escort than against the protesters. Striking was the presence of families with children near the front. I remember questioning the source of my fear. Months later, while walking behind the central library on my campus, I stumbled upon a path known as Democratization Road. Halfway along this path stands a modest bust I had passed a dozen times without realizing its significance. The bust commemorates Park Jong-cheol, a student who was tortured to death by police in 1987. That night, I consumed every piece of information I could find about him, utterly unable to stop contemplating how this seemingly ordinary stretch of pavement marked a turning point for the nation. Weeks after Park's death, another student, Lee Han-yeol, was struck.",
  "summary": "The first time I saw a protest in Seoul, I expected chaos. Back home, a protest meant something specific: shouting matches, riot shields, streets that emptied fast. So when I turned a corner near Gwanghwamun on a Saturday afternoon and found myself facing a crowd that filled the square end to end, my first instinct was to leave. Instead, I stayed and watched. Rows of police stood beside the…",
  "key_points": [
    "Protest in Seoul surprised observer with vast crowd.",
    "Families with children present near front of crowd.",
    "Bust of Park Jong-cheol commemorates 1987 student martyrdom."
  ],
  "editors_take": "A chance encounter with a protest and a previously unnoticed memorial reveals a deeper history that challenges the writer's assumptions about South Korea's past and its people's activism.",
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "The Korea Times",
        "title": "The memorial I walked past a hundred times",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/23/the-memorial-i-walked-past-a-hundred-times-9263472",
        "published": "2026-09-23T04:12:03.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}