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South Korean Democratization Movement (1960s-1980s): A Resource Guide

Kwangju Uprising (1980)

 

A group demonstrators aboard and atop of buses facing Korean national guard. In the background more protestors are in the street and standing on an arched construction above the street. Black and white photo.

At the time of the May 18th Democratic Movement in 1980, citizens boarding buses on Kwangju's Kŭmnam-no in front of the Chŏnil Building confronted the martial law troops, 1980. Yŏnhap Nyusŭ.

Following Kim Chae-gyu's assassination of Park Chung Hee in 1979, known as the October 12 Incident, a brief period called "the Seoul Spring" emerged. Spanning from October 1979 to May 1980, this time was marked by widespread demands for reform and democratization from the people. However, the democratic momentum was abruptly halted by General Chun Doo-hwan’s military coup on December 12, 1979. As Chun Doo-hwan sought to establish his military dictatorship, citizens of Kwangju, located in the southwest region, rose in protest against Chun Doo-hwan’s military coup on May 18, 1980. In response, Chun Doo-hwan deployed military forces to suppress the protest. The citizens of Kwangju formed a militia to resist the soldiers’ indiscriminate killing of civilians. Despite the citizen militia maintaining control of the city for six days, the uprising was eventually quelled by the advance of military tanks on May 27, 1980. The exact number of casualties remains unknown. During this time, owing to the military government's tight control of the media, the tragedy of the Kwangju Uprising remained undisclosed to South Korean citizens. Nevertheless, the efforts of foreign journalists brought to light the true extent of the massacre. The Kwangju Uprising became a catalyst for a full-fledged democratic movement in the 1980s. The Kwangju Uprising is alternatively referred to as the May 18 Kwangju Democratization Movement, the Kwangju Democratization Struggle, or the May 18 Democratic Uprising.

Selected bibliography

Below is a selected bibliography of materials related to this event. For materials available at the Library of Congress, please note that Korean-language books and periodicals are available in the Asian Reading Room while materials in English are available in the Main Reading Room. Short descriptions are provided for Korean print materials. Please note that the list of external sources includes titles not available at the Library of Congress but available at other libraries.

The following titles are not available at the Library of Congress, but they are available at other libraries according to the library catalog aggregator WorldCat, which is supported by the non-profit global library organization OCLC. Links to book titles below will retrieve records from WorldCat indicating the location of copies at other libraries. Please consult with your local public or university library about the possibility of Interlibrary Loan.