Tag: Gwangju

This year is the 45th anniversary of the Gwangju Uprising and an American who played a role in this important event in Korea’s history was recently recognized for it:

On May 14, the city of Gwangju conferred honorary citizenship on David Dolinger (Im Dae-eun), a former U.S. Peace Corps volunteer who played a critical role during the Gwangju Uprising that began on May 18, 1980. The recognition is one of the highest civic honors Gwangju can bestow, and it is an exceedingly rare one for a foreign national who directly participated in the city’s darkest and most defiant chapter, one that led the way to democratic freedom.

“I have been applauded for what I did in May of 1980 and in subsequent years concerning 5.18, Korean human rights and Korean democracy,” Dolinger told the audience at the ceremony. “But I have not done enough and I will never be able to do enough. I wish I had been smarter, braver, more aware and a little more of everything.” (………..)

In 1978, Dolinger, then in his 20s, was stationed in Yeongam County, South Jeolla Province, as a Peace Corps volunteer. “Forty-five years ago, I was working in the health center as a TB control worker,” he reflected in his lecture. “My biggest concern was traveling to a wedding the coming weekend, and I had no idea how within a few days my life was going to change.”

As the situation escalated, he chose to return to Gwangju, not knowing that some 20,000 martial law troops were flooding into the city. Inside the South Jeolla Provincial Hall, he assisted in monitoring martial law radio transmissions in case attack orders were made in English. He also served as an interpreter, mediating between the militia and the foreign press, helping convey the words of movement leaders, such as Yoon Sang-won, to an international audience.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

The fact that there is a large pro-Yoon protest in Gwangju of all places has to be highly disturbing to the Korean left:

A longtime symbol of South Korea’s pro-democracy movement, Geumnam-ro Street in Gwangju became the staging ground for intensifying political divisions on Saturday, with protesters supporting and opposing President Yoon Suk Yeol gathering at the same time.

The two rallies, held separately along a 680-meter course from May 18 Democracy Square — commemorating the 1980 Gwangju Democratic Uprising — to Geumnam-ro, saw the biggest crowd in Gwangju since Yoon’s declaration of martial law on Dec. 3, 2024, and, in particular, the largest anti-impeachment rally.

The conservative Christian organization Save Korea organized a rally opposing Yoon’s impeachment along Geumnam-ro, specifically on sections 3 and 4 of the road from 1 p.m. until 5 p.m.

While this was happening, a rally in favor of impeaching Yoon was held on the other side of Geumnam-ro, led by the civic group Gwangju Emergency Action for Immediate Resignation of the Yoon Administration and Social Reform.

To maintain order and prevent physical clashes, police formed barriers between the opposing groups using riot buses.

Local media reported that the police unofficially put the number of people who participated in the anti-Yoon impeachment protest at 30,000, while 10,000 to 20,000 participated in the pro-Yoon impeachment protest.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

This guy just needs to take a trip to some cities in the U.S. where he will be championed for cross dressing and going into a women’s bathroom. In fact he will probably be asked to do drag queen story hour at a local library as well:

A man in his 30s, dressed as a woman and entered the women’s bathroom at dawn, was caught.

The Gwangju Police Station in Gyeonggi Province announced on the 16th that it is investigating A on charges of violating the Special Act on the Punishment of Sexual Violence Crimes (infringement of multiple use places for sexual purposes).

A wearing a skirt and lipstick is suspected of entering an outdoor women’s bathroom in Songjeong-dong, Gwangju, around 3 a.m. that day.

Maeil Kyeongchae

You can read more at the link.

This is a horrible tragedy over in Gwangju:

A building collapsed during demolition in the southwestern city of Gwangju on Wednesday, leaving at least nine people dead and eight others seriously injured, fire officials said.

They received a report at 4:22 p.m. that the 5-story building had collapsed and fell onto a bus that was stopped at a station near the construction site. 

As of 8:40 p.m., nine people were confirmed dead and eight others were seriously injured and taken to nearby hospitals. All of them are bus passengers.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

No apology will ever make the Korean left happy on this issue. Just like with the comfort women issue, they need to keep this issue alive to bash their political enemies with. So in the grand scheme of things this apology is meaningless to the Korean left:

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Nam Yeong-shin apologized Friday for the military’s brutal crackdown on protestors during a 1980 pro-democracy uprising in the southwestern city of Gwangju, vowing to fully cooperate with an ongoing probe into the case. 

This is the first time in 40 years that an Army chief officially apologized for the bloody incident.

“I believe that the military’s involvement in the May 18 Democratization Movement is gravely wrong,” Nam said during a parliamentary audit of the Army on Friday. “I’d like to offer a sincere apology to victims and bereaved families.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.