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Gwangju Uprising

1980 anti-government protest in South Korea

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Fotos der Opfer des Gwangju-Massakers
Schlarpi · CC BY-SA 3.0

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Through Communism

The uprising began when Chonnam National University students demonstrating against martial law were fired upon, killed, beaten and tortured by South Korean soldiers. Some Gwangju citizens took up arms and formed militias, raiding local police stations and armories, and were able to take control of large sections of the city before soldiers re-entered the city and suppressed the uprising. While the South Korean government claimed that 165 people were killed in the massacre, scholarship on the massacre today estimates around 600 to 2,300 casualties. The military government of Chun labelled the uprising a "riot" and claimed, without evidence, that it was instigated by "communist sympathizers and rioters" acting at the behest of the North Korean government. The United States under the Carter administration, fearing that North Korea might intervene, gave approval to Chun to retake the city and also considered contingency plans to send extra U.S. troops to South Korea if the uprising spread to other cities.

In 1997, a national day of commemoration for the massacre was established for May 18 and a national cemetery for the victims was built. Later investigations confirmed the atrocities that had been committed by the army. In 2011, the document archive of the Gwangju Uprising was listed on the UNESCO Memory of the World International Register. In contemporary South Korean politics, denial of the Gwangju Massacre is commonly espoused by conservative and far-right groups.

Background

The assassination of President Park Chung Hee on 26 October 1979 triggered a number of democracy movements that had previously been suppressed under Park's tenure. The abrupt end of Park's 18-year authoritarian rule left a power vacuum that created political and social instability. Park's successor, Choi Kyu-hah, had no real control over the government and Chun Doo-hwan, chief of the Defense Security Command (DSC), was able to seize control of the military in the coup d'état of December Twelfth. At the time, both the military and Chun denied any political motivations behind the coup and Chun had no clear influence over domestic politics.

In March 1980, at the beginning of a new school year, professors and students who had been expelled for pro-democracy activity returned to university and formed student unions. These unions led nationwide demonstrations against martial law and in support of democratization, free elections, human rights, labor rights, and freedom of the press. These protests culminated in the 15 May 1980 demonstration against martial law at Seoul Station which involved over 100,000 protesters. When the prime minister appealed for time to consider their demands, students returned to their campuses. On 16 May, opposition leaders Kim Dae-jung and Kim Young-sam held a joint press conference, echoing the students' demands.

Beginning in February 1980, the army issued orders to a number of units to undergo severe riot control training, called "Loyalty Training" (충정훈련; 忠情訓練). The training included harsh and unconscionable tactics, and was criticized as a factor behind the paratroopers' indiscriminate use of violence against the subsequent uprising.

On 17 May 1980, Chun forced the Cabinet to extend martial law to the whole country and in the process closed universities, banned political activities, and further curtailed the press. To enforce martial law, troops were dispatched to the country's main cities, including Gwangju, the provincial capital of South Jeolla Province. The same day, the DSC raided a national conference of student union leaders who had gathered to discuss their plans following the 15 May demonstration. Twenty-six politicians, including opposition leader and future president Kim Dae-jung were also arrested on charges of instigating protests. Chun sought to minimize the scale of protests by cutting off all communication to and from Gwangju and used disinformation to depict the protests as the result of communist instigators.

Gwangju was at the center of anti-government and pro-democracy demonstrations, as Kim Dae-jung was born in South Jeolla Province and over the years, built his political base there. Jeolla had historically been the target of exploitation because of its abundant natural resources (its vast, fertile plains made it the agricultural breadbasket of the Korean Peninsula) and the region was associated with political dissent and liberal activism. Historically, the region was the site of the anti-colonial Donghak Peasant Revolution (1894–1895), the Gwangju Student Independence Movement (1929), and the Yeosu–Suncheon rebellion (1948). Under the military dictatorship of Park Chung Hee from 1961 to 1979, the government favored the development of Park's native Gyeongsang Province, while Jeolla Province was neglected. Among the protests against Chun's imposition of martial law, the protests in Gwangju were the most intense.

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