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Police and employees with sports organizations affiliated with the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee attempt to access the handball arena in Seoul’s Olympic Park on June 16, 2026, only to be thwarted by protesters calling for an election do-over. (Kim Hye-yun/Hankyoreh)

With a protest at a ballot processing center continuing for the 12th day after an unprecedented shortage of ballots in Korea’s local elections on June 3, employees from sports organizations operating in the building were once again foiled in their attempt to reach their offices. The police are launching investigations into protesters blocking the entrance to the building.

Employees with sports organizations affiliated with the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee who have been unable to access their offices for more than 10 days made another attempt on Tuesday morning to enter the handball stadium in Olympic Park, located in the Jamsil neighborhood of Seoul.

When the police sent liaison officers to help the employees access the building, protesters responded angrily with shouts of “What country do you work for?” and “Show us your badges!” with some shouting, “You should be working for the Korean people!”

While officers from the Songpa Police Station used megaphones to warn protesters three separate times that they would be prosecuted for disrupting business operations, pushback from the protestors only intensified.

Despite the tense standoff, employees with the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee seemingly reached a dramatic agreement to gain access to their office in negotiations that afternoon with the protestors and lawmakers from the opposition People Power Party. 

The employees agreed to all the conditions stipulated by the protesters: setting up two cameras for live broadcasting, admitting two members of each group at a time, and allowing protesters to search the employees’ possessions upon their departure.

But one protester physically blocked the entrance and strenuously resisted the employees’ attempt to access their office, forcing them to eventually give up.

PPP leader Rep. Jang Dong-hyuk visited the site of the protest on Tuesday along with other lawmakers from the party, including Reps. Park Jun-tae, Kim Mi-ae, Kim Meen-geon and Kim Jang-kyom.

“The head of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency tried to force an entry today and is threatening Koreans young people and other citizens with the prospect of their financial ruin. Citizens! The PPP will stand with you to defend this place. We will join you as long as it takes to resist brutal attempts to force entry,” Jang shouted, eliciting a cheer from the protesters.

But contrary to Jang’s protestation, very few of the crowd control units typically used to physically suppress or disperse protesters were on the scene on Tuesday. The police who were present were generally “dialogue officers” trained to mediate conflict situations and detectives responsible for investigating criminal charges.

In fact, the police have opened an investigation into protesters who are blocking the office on the charge of disrupting business operations. “We will immediately launch an investigation based on the evidence we’ve collected and will take strict legal action,” the Songpa Police Station said.

While the Korean government will allow the protests in Olympic Park to proceed, it does not plan to tolerate any illegal behavior that may arise.

“The government will deal sternly with illegal behavior so as to set an example,” Prime Minister Kim Min-seok said in a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

“We will track down anybody who endangers our citizens’ lives and safety and hold them strictly responsible,” Interior Minister Yun Ho-jung said in a statement to the public.

Justice Minister Jung Sung-ho also wrote on his social media account that the authorities would “do everything possible” to ensure that protesters who had committed acts of coercion and violence were “charged and prosecuted.”

By Jeong Bong-bi, staff reporter; Jeong Hye-min, staff reporter; Lim Cheol-hwi, staff reporter

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