Hundreds of demonstrators gathered Friday in front of the Constitutional Court in Seoul, expressing mixed reactions to the court's historic decision to outlaw a small leftist opposition party.
   
In the 8-1 ruling, the court accepted the conservative Park Geun-hye administration's request to dissolve the Unified Progressive Party (UPP), saying it supported Pyongyang in breach of the South's democratic order. All five of its lawmakers immediately lost their seats in the 300-member National Assembly.
  
UPP Chairwoman Lee Jung-hee stood teary-eyed before her supporters, who chanted her name when she came forward to make a statement shortly after the ruling.   
  
Lee claimed the decision represented the tragic end of South Korea's democracy.
 

"Today marks the demise of our democracy," she said, sporting a purple muffler and gloves representing her party.
   
Lee leveled criticism at the president and her late father Park Chung-hee.
  
"Alas, President Park Geun-hye has returned to the dictatorial leadership style of her father, and the Constitutional Court has unlatched the door leading us to totalitarianism," she said. "But the court can't disband our hope of realizing a progressive government."
   
Park Chung-hee, who ruled the country from 1961-79, is hailed by many for spearheading South Korea's rise from poverty, but his legacy is also marred by relentless oppression of dissenters.
   
Just across the street from Lee, hundreds of other protesters critical of the UPP also staged a rally, holding pickets and waving the national flag.
   
"The UPP is a pro-North Korean party that sympathizes with Pyongyang's Workers' Party of Korea," a coalition of conservative groups, including the Korea Parent Federation, said in a statement.

"The Constitutional Court must dissolve it to safeguard our country and democracy."
   
Groups comprised of North Korean defectors also urged the court to ban the party, whose members "penetrated South Korea like cancer," they said.
   
More than 1,200 police were stationed around the court to prevent violent clashes. There have been no reports of major unrest. (Yonhap)