An Overview of a Few Korean Democratic Revolutions
By: Caroline Jung
The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and peaceful protests have especially gained traction since June 2020. I repeatedly mentioned these protests to my parents, and they mentioned how BLM reminds them of the Korean democratic revolutions and protests that have developed over the years. They credit the success of the Candlelight Struggle (2016-7) with earlier protests in the late 20th century and earlier like the Japanese colonization and Mongol invasions of Korea (1231-59).
My mom tells me that when she was in elementary and middle school (1980s), the smell of tear gas would sometimes drift through the window and they would shut the windows and continue class as normal. Then, as a young girl living in Seoul, she didn’t know where the tear gas came from, but as she started to watch the news, she pieced together that the frequent tear gas came from multiple university protests near her school. At first, because university students protesting was so frequently shown on the news, she thought that students were protesting and not studying, but she came to realize this was not true. They were in fact studying, and as they quietly and secretly learned about socialism (it was banned at the time because the division of the Korean peninsula had been a recent event), many protests were sparked due to the students’ want of creating a better society. However, in 1991, as protests were squashed and the Soviet Union, based off of socialism, collapsed, protests weakened.
Student protests weren't always welcomed, but they did initiate a big step that called for more citizens, ultimately changing Korean democracy. Some of these democratic revolutions are explained below.
Korean Democratic Revolutions from 1960 to 2020:
1960: April 19 Revolution (4.19 혁명)
"April Revolution were mass protests in South Korea against President Syngman Rhee and the First Republic from April 11 to 26, 1960 which led to Rhee's resignation."
"Protests opposing Rhee were started by student and labor groups in the southeastern port city of Masan (마산) on April 11. The protests were triggered by the discovery of the body of a local high school student who had been killed by police during demonstrations against rigged elections in March. Popular discontent had arisen due to Rhee's autocratic rule, corruption, use of violence against political opposition, and uneven development of South Korea. The Masan discovery led to large student protests in Seoul, which were violently suppressed; a total of 186 people were killed during the two weeks of protest."
1980: Gwangju Uprising (5.18 광주 민주화 운동)
"The Gwangju Democratization Struggle alternatively called the May 18 Democratic Uprising by UNESCO, and also known as May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement, was a popular uprising in the city of Gwangju, South Korea, from May 18 to May 27, 1980."
"Estimates suggest that around 2,000 people died. During this period, Gwangju citizens took up arms (by robbing local armories and police stations) after local Chonnam University students who were demonstrating against the martial law government were fired upon, killed, raped and beaten by government troops."
1987: June Struggle (6월 항쟁)
"The June Democratic Struggle also known as the June Democracy Movement and June Democratic Uprising was a nationwide democracy movement in South Korea that generated mass protests from June 10 to June 29, 1987. The demonstrations forced the ruling government to hold elections and institute other democratic reforms which led to the establishment of the Sixth Republic, the present day government of South Korea."
2016-2017: Candlelight Vigils (촛불 집회, 2016 박근혜 대통령 퇴진 운동)
"In South Korea, the Candlelight vigils also referred to as the Candlelight Struggle, Candlelight Revolution, or Candlelight protests is a symbolic collective gathering of political dissent in South Korea to combat injustice peacefully. This method of protesting began in 2002 as a result of the Yangju highway incident, was utilized in the rallies against the impeachment of Roh Moo-hyun in 2004, re-used again in the 2008 U.S. beef protests, and emerged in the 2016-18 President Park Geun-hye protests.”
"The candlelight protests initially started in October 2016 and lasted until March 2017. The first candlelight vigil was held on October 29, shortly after the corruption scandal was disseminated through the media. The protests that were held came to be known as the Candlelight Revolution and amassed over 2 million protestors in Gwanghwamun Square in early December. The Candlelight Revolution pressured the National Assembly into processing the impeachment of Park, with the Constitutional Court approving the motion on March 11, 2017 as the rallies continued throughout the months with fervor. On February 13, 2018, Choi was sentenced to 20 years in prison for corruption and on April 6 of the same year, Park was found guilty of corruption, coercion, abuse of power, and leaking classified information, which amounted to her final sentence being a total of 24 years in prison."