The National Solidarity for the Elimination of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities (Jeon Jang Yeon) decided to halt its daily subway boarding protests starting on the 19th.
Jeon Jang Yeon announced that day, "We are canceling the 'commute-hour subway boarding campaign at Seoul Station' that had been scheduled every day." It appears to be due to a meeting set for that day with Park, the Minister of the Ministry of Planning and Budget.
Earlier, Jeon Jang Yeon had demanded that the Ministry of Planning and Budget include funding for disability rights and said it would hold the commute-hour subway campaign every day until it received a response from the Minister Park.
Minister Park said on social media (SNS) that day, "The government budget is not a subject of negotiation determined by the intensity of rallies or protests."
However, Minister Park said, "We will responsibly review necessary disability policies and budgets based on the lives of people with disabilities, policy needs, the feasibility of programs, and fiscal principles," adding, "Conversely, we will not change budget principles or review standards because of protests or sit-ins that disrupt subway or bus operations."
Jeon Jang Yeon also issued a statement saying, "The reason we boarded the subway during commute hours was to hold accountable the reality in which, despite laws being in place, the government and politics have long ignored and belittled the rights of people with disabilities."
It argued that "discussions and acceptance should be based on the standard of state responsibility to abolish structural discrimination against people with disabilities and to substantively guarantee the rights stipulated in the Constitution and laws, not on fiscal principles and feasibility metrics designed around non-disabled people."
Jeon Jang Yeon activists have continued commute-hour subway and bus boarding protests. The previous day at Seoul Station, they staged a boarding protest, and trains on both directions of Line 4 and the downbound Line 1 (toward Guro Station) passed through without stopping for over an hour. That morning as well, they held a boarding protest at the bus stop in front of Seoul Station.