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Agence France-Presse

It is 40 years since Choi Jung-ja saw her husband, who has been missing since South Korea’s military dictatorship killed hundreds of people when they crushed the pro-democracy Gwangju Uprising, a scar that burns in the country’s political psyche to this day.
On May 18, 1980 demonstrators protesting against dictator Chun Doo-hwan’s declaration of martial law confronted his troops and 10 days of violence ensued.
But conservatives in the South still condemn the uprising as a Communist-inspired rebellion backed by the North, while left-leaning President Moon Jae-in wants to enshrine it in the constitution.
Choi’s husband was 43 when he left their house in the southern city to buy oil for a heater at the family pub, never to return.

Once the violence was over Choi frantically searched for him, even opening random coffins in the streets covered with bloodstained Korean flags.
“I couldn’t continue after opening the third coffin,” she said. “The faces were covered with blood – there were no words to describe them. The faces were unrecognisable.”
She still takes medication to deal with the trauma, she said, and curses whenever Chun appears on television.
Moon vows to reopen probe into 1980 Gwangju massacre
There is no agreed toll for Gwangju, with reports of secret burials both on land and at sea. The military remaining in power for another eight years offered ample opportunity to dispose of the evidence.
Official bodies point to around 160 dead – including some soldiers and police – and more than 70 missing. Activists say up to three times as many may have been killed.
But the search for justice has gone through multiple twists and turns and Gwangju is one of the most politicised historical events in a viciously polarised country.
The South is still technically at war with the nuclear-armed North. At the time of the uprising, Chun’s military regime described it as a rebellion led by supporters of then-opposition leader Kim Dae-jung, who comes from the Gwangju area, and pro-Pyongyang agitators.

Kim was arrested, convicted of sedition and sentenced to death. But the penalty was commuted under international pressure and he was granted asylum in the US, before being elected president himself in the 1990s after the restoration of democracy and winning the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize.
Chun was convicted in 1996 of treason over Gwangju and bribery and condemned to hang, but his execution was commuted on appeal and he was released following a presidential pardon. He still denies any direct involvement in the suppression of the uprising.
Today, the South’s president Moon – who as a student took part in other anti-dictatorship protests – regularly highlights Gwangju, promising to reopen investigations into it and calling for it to be included in the constitution.
Ex-strongman denies defaming Catholic priest over Gwangju massacre
South Korea’s opposition seeks to paint Moon as a Pyongyang sympathiser, and Hannes Mosler of the University of Duisburg-Essen said the right sought to use Gwangju to discredit liberals by linking them to the “absolute evil” of the North.
“North Korea lies at the heart of polarisation strategies in South Korea,” Mosler said.
“Once a fake narrative is built around the Gwangju Uprising that connects it with North Korea, this provides the fuel for the polarisation fire to burn further and further.”
Moon’s Democratic Party won a landslide election victory last month largely on the back of the government’s successful handling of the coronavirus epidemic in the country.
But while the city of Daegu was at the centre of the outbreak, it is the last stronghold of the right and Moon’s party lost every one of the seats there.

Last year the remains of around 40 people were discovered at the site of a former prison in Gwangju, where 242 relatives of missing people have given DNA samples in the hope of identifying corpses that have yet to come to light.
Among them is Cha Cho-gang, 81, whose son never returned after setting out to sell garlic at a market in the city, aged 19.
“My husband died three years ago,” she said. “His last wish was to bury our son’s remains before his own funeral.
“I have the same wish, but I don’t know if it will ever come true.”


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South Korea

Gwangju massacre: scars still raw 40 years after dictator crushed South Korea pro-democracy uprising

A soldier beats a man during pro-democracy protests in the southern city of Gwangju in 1980. File photo: AFP

epa08426932 A woman reacts near a grave at a national cemetery honoring those killed in the 1980 Gwangju democracy uprising, in Gwangju, South korea, 17 May 2020. On 18 May 1980 people in Gwangju rose up against the then-military rule of former general-turned-President Chun Doo-hwan. The uprising, known as May 18 Democratic Uprising, was quashed by a bloody government-led crackdown, which ended with hundreds of people dead or missing. EPA-EFE/YONHAP SOUTH KOREA OUT

This undated handout photo taken in May 1980 and provided by the 5.18 Memorial Foundation on May 15, 2020 shows soldiers charging pro-democracy protesters in the southern city of Gwangju. - On May 18, 1980 demonstrators protesting dictator Chun Doo-hwan's declaration of martial law confronted his troops and 10 days of violence ensued. But conservatives in the South still condemn the uprising as a Communist-inspired rebellion backed by the North, while left-leaning President Moon Jae-in wants to enshrine it in the constitution. (Photo by Handout / 5.18 Memorial Foundation / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / 5.18 MEMORIAL FOUNDATION" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS --- NO ARCHIVES --- TO GO WITH SKorea-politics-democracy-NKorea,FOCUS by Claire LEE /

This handout photo taken on May 23, 1980 and provided by the 5.18 Memorial Foundation on May 15, 2020 shows a people mourning over the coffins of victims of the Gwangju pro-democracy uprising, in Gwangju. - On May 18, 1980 demonstrators protesting dictator Chun Doo-hwan's declaration of martial law confronted his troops and 10 days of violence ensued. But conservatives in the South still condemn the uprising as a Communist-inspired rebellion backed by the North, while left-leaning President Moon Jae-in wants to enshrine it in the constitution. (Photo by Handout / 5.18 Memorial Foundation / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / 5.18 MEMORIAL FOUNDATION" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS --- NO ARCHIVES --- TO GO WITH SKorea-politics-democracy-NKorea,FOCUS by Claire LEE /

Ex-South Korean strongman Chun Doo-hwan denies defaming Catholic priest he called ‘Satan in disguise’ over Gwangju massacre

Chun Doo-hwan leaves court in Gwangju, South Korea, on Monday. Photo: EPA

epa07428214 (FILE) - South Korean Former President Chun Doo-hwan (C) and his successor Roh Tae-woo (L) stand in prison uniforms in a courtroom on trial on numerous counts of insurgency, graft and murder in Seoul, South Korea, 26 August 1996 (issued 11 March 2019). The historic trial ended with Chun sentenced to death and Roh to a prison term of 22 years and six months, but the two were later pardoned. Chun is set to appear in a regional court on 11 March 2019, for a libel trial over his memoir, in which he allegedly defamed victims of his brutal crackdown on a 1980 pro-democracy uprising. Chun was indicted without detention in May 2018 on charges that his memoirs, published in 2017, disgraced the late activist priest Cho Chul-hyun. EPA-EFE/YONHAP SOUTH KOREA OUT

epa07428411 People attempt to prevent a vehicle carrying former President Chun Doo-hwan from leaving a district court in the southwestern city of Gwangju, South Korea, 11 March 2019, after Chun attended a hearing over the prosecution's claims that in his memoirs he defamed a deceased priest over his eyewitness account of the brutal crackdown on a 1980 pro-democracy uprising under Chun's rule. The 88-year-old stressed that the memoirs were written based on historical records and the prosecution's initial investigation reports and that he had no reason to deliberately harm the reputation of Cho Chul-hyun, the activist priest who gave the testimony. EPA-EFE/YONHAP SOUTH KOREA OUT

epa07428213 South Korean Former President Chun Doo-hwan (C), accompanied by his wife, Lee Soon-ja (back), comes out of his house in Seoul, South Korea, 11 March 2019, before leaving for the southwestern city of Gwangju to attend a court hearing on a libel case involving his controversial memoirs on a 1980 pro-democracy uprising. Chun was indicted without detention in May 2018 on charges that his memoirs, published in 2017, disgraced the late activist priest Cho Chul-hyun. EPA-EFE/YONHAP SOUTH KOREA OUT

Film review: A Taxi Driver –  Gwangju Uprising drama finds its conscience in Song Kang-ho’s working-class hero

Jang Hun tells a stirring story of the taxi driver who drove a German journalist across South Korea to report on deadly clashes in the south of the country in the 1980s

Thomas Kretschmann (right) plays the German journalist Jurgen Hinzpeter in A Taxi Driver.

Yoo Hae-jin (left) and Song Kang-ho in A Taxi Driver.

Thomas Kretschmann and Song Kang-ho in a still from A Taxi Driver (category IIB, Korean, English), directed by Jang Hun.

Gwangju apology: South Korea sorry for rape and torture committed by troops against protesters after 1980 coup

A member of the Honour Guard carries the South Korean flag. Photo: AP

South Korean President Moon Jae-in vows to reopen probe into 1980 Gwangju massacre committed by troops against protesters

South Korean President Moon Jae-in consoles family members of the deceased in front of a grave marker during the 37th annual May 18 Democratic Uprising memorial at the Gwangju National Cemetery. Photo: AP

*** ONE TIME USE ONLY *** May 26-27, 1980, Gwangju, South Korea --- In May 1980, students demonstrated for democracy against the regime of General Chun Doo-Hwan. To suppress the riots, the government sent the army and the elite Special Operations Command. The students' organization did not resist the measures and the rioters were crushed on 27 May, after one week of fighting. --- Image by © Patrick Chauvel/Sygma/Corbis [21FEBRUARY2016 THE REVIEW BOOK LEAD]

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Massacre of pro-democracy activists in 1980 remains a traumatic landmark in nation’s modern history
Crackdown left around 160 people dead and over 70 missing and cemented General Chun Doo-hwan’s grip on power



Massacre of pro-democracy activists in 1980 remains a traumatic landmark in nation’s modern history.


North Korea

History

Moon Jae-in

Gwangju massacre: scars still raw 40 years after dictator crushed South Korea pro-democracy uprising

Massacre of pro-democracy activists in 1980 remains a traumatic landmark in nation’s modern history Crackdown left around 160 people dead and over 70 missing and cemented General Chun Doo-hwan’s grip on power

Massacre of pro-democracy activists in 1980 remains a traumatic landmark in nation’s modern history

Crackdown left around 160 people dead and over 70 missing and cemented General Chun Doo-hwan’s grip on power