Gwangju Uprising Essay

EASIA 270: The May 18th 1980 Gwangju Democratic Uprising The Gwangju Uprising, also referred to as the Gwangju democratization movement,the Gwangju democratic uprising, the Gwangju people’s uprising, 5.18, and 5.18 Democratic uprising is a very detrimental and destructive, yet widely unknown event due to the extensive measures taken by South Korean government and military to ensure it stayed unknown. The uprising occurred in the city of Gwangju which resides in the South part of the agriculture dominated Jeolla province in South Korea. It began May 18th 1980 and lasted until May 27th 1980. However, even though the uprising itself only lasted 9 days, in reality, the events leading up to it started approximately 20 years prior. The origins …show more content…
However, he began to take advantage of his power and began to remove government and military officials he considered to be “corrupt and unqualified” he also continued to repress the opposition party and his citizens by taking control over the press and the universities. Park Chung-Hee decided to recreate the constitution according in which, “the president was to be elected by direct popular vote and have strong powers - including the authority to appoint the premier and cabinet members without the legislative consent and to order emergency financial and economic measures.” However, in 1969 he amended the constitution again in order to continue being president after his second time in office. In 1972, his country continued to be restrained after he proclaimed martial law and dissolved the National Assembly afterwhich he amended the constitution yet again in order to be president indefinitely. Korean Central Intelligence agents abducted Kim Dae Jung from a hotel in Tokyo in 1973 which caused major strain between Korea-Japan relations. As time went on many university students began to disagree with the was Park Chung-Hee continued to rule the country and so they started a campaign in order to have the newest version of the constitution revised however, as soon as Park Chung-Hee realised how much support the campaign had he issued an emergency decree in 1974 which outlawed campaigns. Later that year his wife was assassinated by stray bullets that were actually meant for him. In 1975, he issued “ Emergency Measure Number Nine,” in which criticizing the constitution or news coverage of it was considered a crime that would deliver more than one year imprisonment. By 1978, the “Miracle economy” that he had created began to decline and so he created a “stabilization plan” however, it caused a huge