Wesley's Tool-Box

At 5 PM, December 14, 2024, National Assembly of the Republic of Korea passed the motion to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol on its second attempt. This was the culmination of the huge backlash that was caused by the short-lived martial law that Yoon imposed on December 3. I joined the pro-impeachment rally that was taking place all over Yeouido, and held a spot right in front of the entrance to the National Assembly building from around 2:40 PM.

When the motion finally passed, the entire crowd erupted in a huge celebration, and the press photographers seized the chance to record the moment. As it turned out, I was in the frame in several instances:

- Korea Economic Daily (Hankyung)
- Hankyoreh (1), (2)
- Chosun Ilbo
- Hankook Ilbo (4th photo)
- Seoul Shinmun
- Dailian
- OhMyNews (3rd & 10th photos)
- Edaily
- Yonhap News (1), (2) [on Hankook Ilbo's Extra Edition (1), (2)]

On a related note, I uploaded a video to YouTube that shows how things went from my perspective that day.

I've owned a digital camera since November 1999, and I kept every photos and videos I did not immediately delete since then. So I now have more than 15 years of digital memory with me. The first 4 years or so were captured on my first digital camera, a 2-megapixel, 2x optical zoom Kodak DC280, which I bought for 960,000 Won (US$830 at the time). It was a top-of-the-line consumer digital camera, as most cameras back then were of either 0.3- or 1.3-megapixel types. I also remember paying 160,000 Won (US$140) for a 32MB memory card.

I went back to check out some of the earliest photos and revisited the places within them to see how much has changed. With me was my iPhone 6 Plus, which incidentally cost me nearly the same (equivalent of 977,000 Won, US$940 at the time), yet had an 8-megapixel sensor and 128GB of storage.


First up is one of the iconic buildings in the huge Yongsan Electronics Market area. Building 21 of the Seonin Plaza, a.k.a. Seonin Electronics Market had been my favourite place to buy computer gears and parts in my university days.

The 1999 photo shows a dual Pentium III 500 server ad at the entrance, while the 2015 one has a GeForce GTX 740 graphics card ad in its place. The 2015 photo also shows Building 23 behind the right side of the building, which didn't exist until 2007.

Let's move to somewhere underground now.