[Photo] Commemorative service held on 31st anniversary of Park Jong-chul’s death by torture

Citizens line up to lay flowers to commemorate the 31st anniversary of the death of Park Jong-chul at the Police Human Rights Center in the Namyeong neighborhood of Seoul on Jan. 14. (by Baek So-ah, staff photographer)

Park Jong-chul, the student activist whose death following torture suffered in police custody helped spark the 1987 Democratic Movement, was remembered on Jan. 14. The day marked 31st anniversary of his passing. A commemorative service was held in the old police investigation facility in the Namyeong neighborhood of Seoul where he was killed. Four floors of the site have now been converted into the Police Human Rights Center, while the fifth floor remains as it was during Park’s incarceration. Many people attended the service, including Park’s brother, Park Jong-bu, and Bae Eun-shim, the mother of Lee Han-yeol. Lee was also a student activist killed by police during a protest in June 1987 after being hit with a tear gas canister. A civic group called, “Citizens Association for Commemorating the Patriotic Martyr Park Jong-chul,” recently petitioned for the entire building to be returned to the public in order to set up a human rights center.

Park Jong-bu, the brother of Park Jong-chul, lays flowers in Room 509 of the the Police Human Rights Center in the Namyeong neighborhood of Seoul to commemorate the activist’s death on Jan. 14. (by Baek So-ah, staff photographer)