The mayor of Seoul will meet the LGBTI protesters who occupied city hall for five consecutive days over his scrapping of a human rights charter.

A coalition of 20 groups started the sit-in on Saturday demanding an apology and face-to-face meeting with Mayor Park Won-soon.

Park agreed to the meeting yesterday on Human Rights Day, the date the charter was supposed to be enacted.

He nullified the charter last week after Christian groups protested provisions banning discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, despite a citizen committee passing the measure.

‘Finally, Mayor Park Won-soon asked for a face-to-face meeting today… [he] delayed the meeting until after 17 December,’ Rainbow Action wrote on Facebook.

‘We’ve made a historical scene with our voices and direct actions… So many LGBTs and queers from everywhere were together in the city hall lobby.’

The coalition continued their occupation last night and said it would announce its plans after further discussion.

Park said it ‘pained his heart’ that he could not work with the citizens committee through to the end of the process and took responsibility for the violent anti-gay protests during public hearings on the charter.

‘I bow my head and apologize for the anxiety I have caused,’ he wrote on Facebook.

‘I thought that it was important to use a consensus process to voluntary commit to a social promise, unlike other laws.

‘I was unable to be in a place to announce Seoul’s human rights charter with the rest of the city.’

Park assured that the Seoul government still opposed all forms of discrimination.

h/t: The Kimchee Queen