Taegukgi rallies

Taegeukgi rallies
Taegeukgi rallies
Date	October 31, 2016 to present; (8 years, 7 months, 2 weeks and 2 days)
Location	South Korea; All regions and other countries
Caused by	2016–2017 South Korean protests, Impeachment of Park Geun-hye
Goals	Objections to the impeachment of Park Geun-hye and 2016–2017 South Korean protests, dismissal and rejection of Constitutional Court of Korea, invalidation of impeachment citation by the Constitutional Court, Park Geun-hye President Lottery, Park's release, National Assembly dissolution
Resulted in	Mountain Jae-in Presidential Movement
Parties
Pro-Park protesters	Government of the Republic of Korea Korea Blue House; Republic of Korea Police Agency;
Lead figures
	No known organized leadership Park Geun-hye (~2016.12.9); Hwang Gyo-an(2016.12.9~2017.05.10); Moon Jae-in (2017.05.10~); Lee Cheol-seong;
Number
Sep 12 2016; 1,300 (Estimated by the organiser); 700 (Police estimate); Dec 3 2016; 1,500 (Police estimate) ; 15,000 (Estimated by the organiser); Jan 7 2017; 1,020,000 (Estimated by the organiser); 37,000 (Police estimate); Feb 4 2017; 1,300,000 (Estimated by the organiser); Undisclosed (Police estimate); Mar 1 2017; 5,000,000; Undisclosed (Police estimate); Apr 1 2017; 700,000 (Estimated by the organiser); Undisclosed (Police estimate); Apr 8 2017; 5,000,000 (Estimated by the organiser); Undisclosed(Police estimate) Cumulative number of attendees; Police estimate : 159,600 Estimated by the organiser : 43,551,300	Nov 12 2016; 25,000 police officers; Dec 3 2016; 30,000 Police; Jan 7 2017; 14,720; Feb 4 2017; 14,600; Mar 1 2017; 16,000; Mar 4 2017; 15,900; Mar 18 2017; 11,000; Mar 25 2017; 12,300 Cumulative number of attendees 370,560
Casualties
Death(s)	4 people

The Taegeukgi rallies (Korean: 태극기 집회; Hanja: 太極旗集會), named for the flag Taegeukgi and also known as the Pro-Park rallies (친박집회), are ongoing rallies that initially started as a series of counter-candlelight rallies supporting the former president of South Korea Park Geun-hye in 2016 but now continuing with the aim of releasing Park. The Taegeukgi protestors or the Taegeukgi crowds (태극기 부대) got their names because they vehemently swung or wore South Korean flag (the Taegeukgi) during rallies.

On October 26, 2016, the first candlelight protest was held, demanding Park to step down from office. Since then, an estimated 18 million protesters over the course of 6 months gathered in Gwanghwamun Plaza to demand the resignation and impeachment of former president Park. The demonstrations continued until Park was dismissed from presidency in March 2017, even after the Constitutional Court confirmed the National Assembly's call for impeachment. Public anger centered on Park's role in political corruption regarding her personal acquaintance, Choi Soon-sil, and her role in unlawfully intervening with state affairs and coercing conglomerates to contribute large sums of money to Choi's own foundation.

Pro-Park advocates, also known as 'silver patriots' representing an older generation, believed anti-Park forces were the pro-North Korean sympathizers and manipulated by biased media. To them, what they were doing was for the protection of Jayuminjujuui (자유민주주의; 自由民主主義; lit. "liberal democracy" or "free and democracy") that they think they had contributed to rescue from direct communist threats in the past. The Financial Times compared them to the 2021 United States Capitol attack.