The statement disclosed that the ministry sent emergency official documents to the city and provincial education offices putting a ban on wearing yellow ribbons, waging one-by-one demo and holding joint lessons and other activities, charging that the struggle of some organizations demanding the institution of a special law on the ferry Sewol undermines the political neutrality of education.

The statement branded the response of the ministry as a reckless act dating back to the era of dictatorship as it regards even a memorial movement as a seditious act.