It’s sad how change awaits tragedy. South Korea had a serious police brutality problem. It took the police secretly killing a student to motivate activist groups. It then took the police publicly killing a student to motivate the whole country.
This is that story.
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OUR NOTES
Timeline
Recap
- Bak Jeong-chol (Park Jeong-chol)
- Died (Jan 14, 1987)
- Information suppressed by the government
- Hwang Jeok-jun performed the autopsy
- Pressured by police to say he died from “shock in the heart”
- Refused and said he “suffocated due to neck pressure”
- Choi Hwan (prosecutor) was told by police to immediately cremate the body to hide evidence
- Could instantly tell he was tortured
- Refused to comply
- Hwang Jeok-jun performed the autopsy
- Somehow this information landed in the hands of Rep. Lee Bu-yong, who was in jail for leading an anti-government rally in May 1986
- Wrote a letter disclosing the scheme
- Two prison guards helped him get it out
- Passed to a third guard
- Landed in the hands of the Korean Catholic Church two months after the death
- Read aloud in May 1987 by Father Kim Seung-hun during a ceremony commemorating the Gwangju Uprising
- Korean Catholic church had historically been more democratic, which was one reason it was suppressed in the Joseon era
- Prosecutor Lee Hong-kyu leaked info to SSH
- JoonAng Ilbo reporter Shin Sung-ho (SSH)
- Slept in a motel near his office to evade authorities
- Catholic Priests Association for Justice (CPAJ) with a doctor (Oh Yeon-sang), prosecutor, and the JoongAng Ilbo (Shin Sung-ho) exhumed the cover-up on May 18
- Inflamed the public
- Planned a demonstration on June 10
This Episode
- During the street protests, Chun Doo-hwan’s (CDH) press people were claiming that the opposition was against democracy because they took their protests to the streets and not the ballot box
- “The opposition has taken this undemocratic decision. But we hope that they will return to the table.” – Foreign Press Secretary
- Lee Han-yeol
- The demonstrations started out only in the core groups
- (June 9) Yonsei University students demonstrated
- Tear gas grenade penetrated his skull
- Became the symbol of the protests from then forward
- (July 5) died
- Over 1.6 million participated in his funeral (July 9th)
- Buried at the May 18th National Cemetery
- (June 10) Jamsil Arena – CDH’s Democratic Justice Party nominated his hand picked successor, Roh Tae-woo (RTW)
- Major demonstrations around country (~240,000 people in 22 cities)
- Grew beyond the core
- (June 18) Rally against tear gas grenades
- 1.5 million, 16 cities
- White collar workers joined, throwing rolls of toilet paper
- (June 19) CDH mobilized the army
- Feared another Gwangju Massacre
- Recalled the army a few hours later
- (June 26) Great National March of Peace
- Over 1 million, 34 cities
- 3.467 detained
- (June 29) CDH – June 29th Declaration Special Declaration for Grand National Harmony and Progress Towards a Great Nation 국민들의 민주화와 직선제 개헌요구를 받아들여 발표한 특별선언
- Speech by RTW
- Promised concessions to the opposition
- Eight points
- amend the constitution to provide for the direct election of the president;
- revise the presidential election law to ensure free candidature and genuinely competitive elections;
- grant amnesty to political prisoners, including Kim Dae-jung;
- protect human dignity and extend the right of habeas corpus;
- abolish the Basic Press Law and restore the freedom of the press;
- strengthen local and educational autonomy;
- move the political climate towards dialogue and compromise; and
- achieve substantial social reform.
Aftermath
- Korea’s labor unions were mostly borne from this (Hyundai Engine Trade Union, July 3, 1987)
- 1,060 new labor unions, 3,456 (July – September)
- (Dec 1987) first elections in 15 years
- RTW was still elected president
- Opposition divided between the Two Kims – KYS and KJD
- Likely would have defeated RTW if united
- RTW 36.6%
- KYS 28%
- KJD 27%
- 89.2% turnout
- Bombing of Korean Air Flight 858 the day before the election by a North Korean agent
- Roh continued some of the authoritarian practices of CDH
- Opposition divided between the Two Kims – KYS and KJD
- 30 years later
- (2005) National Intelligence Service busted for bugging phones of 1,800 lawmakers and journalists (1998-2002)
- (2011) NIS got psychological warfare agents to sabotage internet conversations
- PGH’s blacklist at the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism of 9,473 artists for liberal views
- The building where Park Jong-chol and others were tortured has become the Democratic Human Rights Memorial Hall https://dhrm.or.kr/
- Quote from Manjeok