Photos of the Uprising Anniversary in 2005

Brian's post about his trip to Kwangju this year for the anniversary of the uprising has prompted me to post a few photos from my trip there in 2005, which I looked at briefly here. I arrived on May 21, and as it was a Saturday, it was the day of street celebrations.




It was, at that time, as far as I saw, purely a celebration of the uprising, and the event was one based on civic pride. A few of the high school students manning the display above told me their fathers had taken part in the uprising. Below is a comic portraying the events of the uprising, namely the troops firing into the protesters and the formation of the citizen's army:


There was a re-enactment of the uprising (of the same shooting, in fact), which I looked at in the post I mentioned above. Here are the buses used in the re-enactment.


The event that year was called 'Red Festa', a name which seems designed to give people like Baduk an aneurysm. I wonder if it was influenced by the 2002 World Cup "Be the Reds" T-shirts? I really don't know. I didn't see any other political causes linked to the uprising anniversary.



The mural above is obviously based on the picture below.


A concert with pop and hip-hop performers began while images from the uprising played on the screen at right.


The next morning we stopped by the memorial in front of the provincial hall, where the final battle was fought between the citizens army and the national army.


It looks to me like colonial-era architecture.


Then we went to the 518 Cemetery. Not being the 18th, it was much quieter than when Brian visited.


Again, my views of the visit were dealt with in much more detail in this post.

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Mad Cowangju

Do make sure to read Brian's post about his trip to Kwangju for the 28th anniversary of the Uprising, which turned out to be more about... something else.

It's quite different from my experience there three years ago.

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Links to essays about the Kwangju Uprising

[Update - The May 18th Memorial Foundation website has an E-book titled "We Saw" with lots of photos that can be found under "Information and Resources", and then "Publications". What's notable is that the dates and photographers are listed with them.]


I've posted a blibliography of the Kwangju Uprising before (though it needs to be updated), but I thought I'd look at some other essays I'd recently found regarding the Kwangju Uprising.

Again, I'll start with Tim Warnberg's 1987 article "The Kwangju Uprising: An Inside View," which is an excellent account of the uprising by a Peace Corps Volunteer in the city at the time. It can be downloaded here (scroll down to bottom left and wait 24 seconds for the 'download' button to appear).

Neoliberalism and the Gwangju Uprising by Georgy Katsiaficas, uses declassified cables to examine how the U.S. pressured the Korean government to liberalize its economy (instead of its political system) in the wake of the Kwangju Uprising. I think it's useful to look at the economic motivations the US had for supporting Chun Doo-hwan, especially when looked at alongside security and geo-political considerations. The essay focuses only on the economic considerations, however, and tries to pin almost all of the negative things Chun did in 1980 (firing and imprisoning thousands of people, the purification camps, etc.) on the requirement of American businesses for a "stable structure" before investing. In my mind there's a little too much coincidence and not enough causation proven in the essay.

During the uprising, I think that Chun did his best to make it look like the US was supporting him. For example, he agreed to distribute fliers with the US position (calling for calm on both sides) in Kwangju, but instead broadcast that the US had approved the initial crackdown. He also asked the US to allow him to move the 20th division to Kwangju when it was not necessary (it had been removed from CFC control on May 16, when General Wickham was in the US) . With this in mind, I'm interested in reading Donald Sohn’s essay “Chun Doo Hwan’s Manipulation of the Kwangju Popular Uprising”, which can be found here.

Mark Peterson wrote about a meeting between US citizens in Korea and the embassy in 1980 where Horace G. Underwood warned that “Chun is wrapping himself in the American flag. If the United States doesn’t do something about it, it will have ‘hell to pay’ in the future.”

I couldn't help but think of this quote when I saw a powerpoint presentation Katsiaficas did. Though it uses some quotes in misleading ways, it also has scans of some of the cables Ambassador Gleysteen sent to Washington. I found one of them very interesting. On June 6, ten days after the end of the uprising, he wrote

US businessmen are cautious over the long-term stability of the ROK but less concerned over democratic development. If the military leadership can develop an apparently stable structure and reinvigorate the economy, then US business and banking circles will be prepared to go back to business as usual.

The missionary community, in contrast, is acutely depressed by recent developments, concerned over the possible mistreatment of the numerous people arrested, and critical – often bitterly critical – of the US for not having in some way prevented these developments. They are quick to bring to the embassy tales of rising anti-American sentiment, are not taken with moves we have already made, and cannot be counted on for support in our difficult maneuverings over the next few months. More numerous and more vocal than those of the business community, we would expect that complaints reaching the department will be heavily weighted on the side of the church-related American residents of the ROK.

In other words, the embassy considered the missionaries, who were warning them of rising anti-Americanism, to be a pain in the ass. But hey, the Japanese in Korea found American missionaries to be pains in the ass as well. Underwood turned out to be very correct.

Things would not be helped by having policy analysts for the Heritage Foundation like Daryl M. Plunk writing stuff like this in September 1985:

Given the extent of the insurrection, the death toll was remarkably low--a fact that reflects the ROK government's efforts to minimize casualties. Those who continue to distort what happened at Kwangju should have their motives questioned. They seem determined to prevent the wounds from healing and to drive a wedge between the U.S. and the Korean people. The ROK government, by contrast, has been trying to put the Kwangju incident to rest and to heal the country's physical and emotional wounds.

"Those" who were continuing to distort what happened was likely aimed at American activists and academics. The paper above is interesting to read because it is obviously written during the fifth republic, lauding the military and blaming the protesters as it does (a view many people who are only vaguely familiar with the uprising continue to hold). The 1987 book The Kwangju Uprising: Shadows Over the Regime in South Korea provides one of the likely sources for the above paper, namely the "Report on the Kwangju Incident to the National Assembly National Defense Committee, June 7, 1985." For example:

Clashes between demonstrators and Martial Law troops led to misunderstandings. Groundless rumors fabricated by impure elements deepened regional acrimony, set apart civilians and troops, and led to arson, destruction, killings and injuries.

At last, demonstrators seized weapons and armed themselves with weapons, turning Kwangju into a state of lawlessness and anarchy as the city's administrative functions were paralyzed.

You know, it seems like something is missing. Like, oh, I don't know, the fact that the soldiers in the photo below would open fire with M16s on the crowd within an hour of this photo being taken?


It wasn't exactly "a state of lawlessness and anarchy" either, as stores began to reopen after the troops retreated from the city on May 21, and people volunteered their time or food to help feed the citizens' army. Others helped clean the streets and collect weapons, and most importantly, hundreds of people donated blood to the hospitals. As Betts Huntley, who worked at the Kwangju Christian Hospital put it on the 21st, the day of the shooting, "The hospital is swamped with people trying to give blood. They're turning people away."

Of course, the first day after the military retreat looked chaotic, and it was that time which was broadcast by the three US networks on May 22 (I've looked at those clips before). Note that the final clip - the NBC broadcast - describes “citizens wounded evidently at random by other citizens”. The correspondent was on the outskirts of the city with the army, and was likely given this piece of disinformation.

Last but not least, here you can find the essay "Women's Role and Experiences During the May 18 Uprising". Two of the stories found in the essay appear in this post, but one story, that of a high school girl who was the only survivor of an attack on a bus that left 17 dead, I've never read before. I'll look at that attack in more detail soon.

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Bad taste

This Hankyoreh article last week noted that "There will be several events honoring the victims and embodying the spirit of the [Kwangju] uprising..." According to Brian, (in the comments here) what he saw in Kwangju this weekend "was pretty much wall-to-wall Mad Cow stuff [...] I was hoping for a little solemnity, but was surprised to see everything on the night of May 17th basically be a rally against American beef."

Not to be outdone , the Hankyoreh gives us this cartoon, from May 17:

President Lee Myung-bak is loading troops on the “Back to the Fifth Republic” personnel lorry, troops that include his attempt to seize control of the media and his “politics by public security,” that is, using the public security apparatus to enforce politics to his liking.

Chun Doo-hwan, who was president for the duration of the Fifth Republic, notes that he “never got in fights with the teenagers.”

Of course he didn't.



For those who don't know, these photos were taken in high schools in Kwangju after the end of the uprising. Here is a banner showing the faces and names of students killed during the uprising from my visit to Kwangju three years ago:


For the Hankyoreh to have Chun Doo-hwan say “I never got in fights with the teenagers” in a cartoon the day before the anniversary of an uprising which saw at least 20 teens killed, all in order to criticize Lee Myung-bak, is in pretty bad taste.

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The story behind photos taken in Kwangju in 1980

Today is the 28th anniversary of the Kwangju Uprising. I'll post more later, but for now thought I'd look at two photos (or sets of photos) and the story behind them.

Last week Korea Beat posted a photo taken during the uprising, and mentioned that the person in it had been identified. This Newsis article looks at what happened. The photo is of real estate agent Choi Yang-min, now 54, who lives in Kwangju. On May 10, 1980, at the age of 26, he got married in Mokpo. On May 16 he came to Kwangju to visit his wife’s family, and met relatives there the next day. He was staying at a motel near Geumnamro, the street that would be central to the uprising. His sister, Yang-mi, then 24, was also visiting.

On May 18 he was resting in his motel when he heard slogans calling for the end of martial law being shouted outside. He saw people breaking apart sidewalk blocks and carrying them away, and thinking something must be happening, helped them. Then he went to a restaurant, which was surrounded by paratroopers. He finished his lunch quickly and went outside, where four soldiers attacked him with their clubs. He was bleeding from his head and his sister rushed out to help him and try to stop the bleeding. He was taken by the 31st Division but with the help of a friend was set free. He needed 27 stitches.

The photographer had titled the photo “newlyweds”, which was incorrect. In January Choi was at the 518 Cemetery and was surprised to see the photo, saying it stirred painful memories, but that since it started democratization it was worthwhile, though something like that should never happen again.

There were actually at least three photos of this incident. Note that his sister also has blood on her, though the article doesn't mention her having been attacked.






The Donga Ilbo looks at the photographer who took one of the photos which has come to symbolize the uprising, that of a man in his twenties being clubbed by a soldier. The photo was taken by Na Gyeong-taek, now 60, who then worked as a photojournalist for the Jeonnam Maeil. Even seeing this photo now is emotional, and he’d really like to meet the man in the photo, but has no idea if he’s alive or dead.

On May 19, 1980, Na was taking photos from the Jeonil Building on Geumnamro, and found it difficult to take photos of the gory scenes unfolding. His hands were shaking so much it was difficult to take photos. Then the man in the photo appeared with soldiers who were hitting him, though the man seemed to stand up to the soldiers. Na took the photos secretly before the man was put into a truck and taken away.

The photo couldn’t be published at the time due to censorship, so he passed on the film to a foreign journalist (he also talks about hiding it as well). The photo was published in 1987 in the book “Kwangju: Our Country’s Cross”. He had wanted to find the young man in the photo but never had any luck, though he has inquired around.

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Oriental Lucy videos

I was wondering if Kim Choo-ja's version of 거짓말이야 might be on youtube and was surprised to find Oriental Lucy's version (uploaded by orienkorean).



I've seen Oriental Lucy live a few times now, and they always put on a good show. Below are some photos I took of shows on April 5 and April 26:



While I'm at it, here's the song Rorina Homestay:



You can also find 노란샤쓰 입은 사나이 (a Han Myung Sook cover) and Butterfly Kiss at youtube. The band's cyworld site is here, and if you feel like seeing them (or any other bands) live, have a look at the Korea Gig Guide.

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A beef with online porn

The comparative risk of car accidents and mad cow disease have been mentioned before (here and here), but I found this direct, oblivious linking of the two issues in this article, which looks at reasons for youth participation in the Mad Cow protests, rather amusing:

Park Won-suk, deputy secretary-general of the People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, expressed different views regarding youth nationalism. Park said middle and high school students came out on the streets as they felt their health was under real threat. "They are wise enough not to be distracted by misleading information, and they make their own, right decisions,'' he said.

If the story was about automobiles, which are not closely associated with their welfare, Park said he did not think the students would participate in the protests.

Nah, it's not "associated with their welfare" at all:

Accidental injury is the leading cause of death for children ages 1 to 14 in Korea .

Motor vehicle crashes, which cause 46 percent of childhood injury deaths, are the leading cause of injury-related fatalities in Korea , followed by drowning, falls, suffocation and burns.

Every day, 37 Korean children under the age of 14 are killed or injured as pedestrians in road traffic accidents.

Of course, what really must be done to improve children's welfare is to declare war on online porn. Again.

The plan is part of the government's projects to fight against lewd material on television, the internet and elsewhere in order to prevent children from accessing sexually explicit content that sometimes leads to sex crimes.

It was only 13.5 months ago that the last war on online porn was announced. That war was in response to a numerous instances of gang rapes by middle and high school students against their peers, much as this latest crackdown is in response to the recent realization that elementary school students at a school in Daegu had been victims and perpetrators of rape for some time. The crackdown didn't work then, and won't work now; in fact, it has never worked, as Gord Sellar argues in a well-written comment here (do read the whole thing):

[A]n increase in censorship is not the way to go. As with the arguments over American beef, the real solution would be open, honest discussion and cultivation of dialog… “citizen deliberation,” as Lawrence Lessig describes it in terms of a free society. Instead of cultivating a free society where debate can occur, censorship and filtration strangles it at the roots. All of Korea’s modern governments deserve criticism in this regard, but Lee’s especially seems to be embracing censorship with a vigor unseen for years.

This shouldn't be suprising to those who remember his term as Seoul mayor. Remember his response to the punk band TV pants-dropping incident three years ago?

Seoul Mayor, Lee Myung-bak, weighed in on the issue, saying each ward should supervise obscene performances and make a blacklist of the acts who do them.

"Given that the accused said that indecent performances happen every night at clubs in the Hongdae area, the performance, which is not generally accepted, has not been regulated by the authorities," Lee said in a meeting with executive members of the Seoul metropolitan government. [...]

Lee, a member of the conservative GNP, ordered officials of the Seoul City government Monday to draw up a “blacklist’’ of bands whose performances are “decadent and not socially acceptable.’’ Those bands will not be invited to events organized by Seoul City or affiliated institutions, Lee said. The mayor also demanded that each district office strengthen control over possible decadent public performances.

Given his past affinity for "strengthening control", I don't think Lee's embrace of censorship should surprise anyone.

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Another brick from the wall.

A few weeks ago the merchants displaced (once again) by the destruction of the stadiums at Dongdaemun were moved into a new Folk Flea Market. Now the Korea Times reports on another step taken towards the new Dongdaemun Design Park.

Dongdaemun Stadium, the nation's first modern sports facility, is fading from Korea's sports history ― the demolition of the football stadium began Wednesday following that of the baseball stadium last month.

The former baseball stadium is on the right.

Built in 1926 during Japanese colonial rule, it was the symbol of Korea's modern sports, with various international matches and sports events held there until the Jamsil Sports Complex took over the role in the mid 1980s. [...] The aged football stadium was closed in March 2003 and used as a parking lot and folk market. Matches were held at the baseball stadium until recently, but very rarely.

Dongdaemun Soccer Stadium. Photo from here.

Ahead of the destruction of the football stadium, a Goodbye, Dongdaemun Stadium'' ceremony was held. Watching video clips featuring the stadium's past, present and future, city officials and some 30 former national football team members bade farewell to the sports arena. The dignitaries kicked footballs, the last ones in the stadium ― and the ceremony ended with the removal of its huge clock.

A video can be found here.

While on the topic of redevelopment, Kevin's Walk has photos of demolition and construction in another neighbourhood.

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Branding the mad cow

(Modified from here.)

The above image may or may not amuse you, but there are other reasons to use Bart Simpson to make a point - mainly that cartoons are useful for communicating ideas quickly, precisely because they are often so removed from reality (why are the emergency instructions in the seat pocket on the airplane illustrated instead of using photos?). Here are two images with American flags. It's quite easy, without knowing anything about the characters, to have some sense of how they feel about the U.S.



After having a look around michincow.net, I've come to wonder if perhaps the way that the "mad cow" has been branded has played a part in the appeal to the youth. By youth I also include elementary school-aged kids, because I hear them joking about it a lot. Certainly the name itself, especially when translated as michin so ("crazy cow") is humorous and has a lot of appeal to kids and certainly helped come up with the memorable mascot above. Just mix a crazy cow with an American flag on it and you immediately have a humorous image which comes accompanied with political content. The juxtaposition of a crazy animal, something to be ridiculed, and an American flag obviously leads one to imagine that the flag, and the country it stands for, is also worthy of ridicule. Call it a propagandistic Trojan cow, if you will. The version above was redone with computers and then inserted into all kinds of images to create parodies.


Such parodies aren't new, of course; several turned up after the Dog-poop girl incident, for example. A full gallery is here. And no, I'm not sure why the cow is wearing a sunflower. These images are certainly interesting because the website has taken this brand image and inserted it into humorous parodies of movie posters with its address at the bottom (though the address is wrong). Some are more overtly political, at least visually.


Note that former president Roh is often criticized (and instead of 노무현, his name spelled 놈우현, with 놈 being a rude way to address a man and 우 meaning "cow" - how clever!) as the FTA was negotiated during his term. Here's a poster some may recognize - "The Host":


They also alter one of president Lee's campaign ads (mentioned here), while this seems to tell a story of contaminated food and political betrayal. Looking at the poster above, I notice that Gwangu (mad cow) sounds very similar to Gwangju, which will be celebrating the 28th anniversary of 518 the day after students are supposed to protest this Saturday (the 17th). One hopes they don't make posters calling for a "Gwangu uprising", though considering posters like this, that may be too much to ask. The image of the mad cow has made its appeareance at protests:





There are a lot of questions raised by the michincow website, such as who is running it? Where is the money for, say, printing off these mad cow images coming from? How much influence does the site have?

All I can say for sure is that using a drooling cow as a means to mobilize people is much preferable to using images of girls crushed by a tank.

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"Just a regular search"

From last Wednesday's Korea Times:

Two top officials of an unauthorized migrants' union will be deported next week on illegal residence charges. The Ministry of Justice announced Wednesday it arrested Nepalese Torna Limbu, 42, head of the Migrants' Trade Union, and Bangladeshi vice president, 39, identified only by his surname ― Sabur, last Friday. The two, who have been illegally residing here for 16 and 9 years, respectively, were sent to the Cheongju Detention Center in North Chungcheong Province.

Members of the union claim the arrest was made to interrupt the establishment of the foreign labors' union that has acted against the government's labor policies. The government denies the allegation, saying it was a regular search.

A statement from the KCTU suggests it may have been more than a "regular search":

Immigration officers had followed the president since the previous day when he participated in May Day activities. The vice president recognized a person who had sat nearby him at a fundraiser the week before among the officers who arrested him. That President Torna heard the officers in the van carrying him communicating consistently with those stationed near Vice President Sabur’s house and in other areas in Seoul also shows clearly that the arrests were coordinated with one another.

When the previous leaders of the Migrants' Trade Union were arrested in November, their cells had the medicine they took waiting for them, suggesting that they had been watched for some time. But no, let's trust the government when they tell us it was just a "regular search". A Chosun Ilbo article tells us that

The ministry formed a task force on May 1 and launched the first crackdown on all migrant workers without visas since the inauguration of President Lee Myung-bak in late February. The ministry plans to continue its crackdown for the next three months, and says that it will prevent illegal foreign workers from making inroads into the domestic labor market.

Lee Jeong-won, an MTU official, said that they saw the crackdown coming after the new government began stating that there should be stricter enforcement of the law. The government wanted to remove the MTU leadership ahead of the crackdown on migrant workers, Lee, the MTU official, added.

The Times continues:

"We prioritize the arrest of illegal employment agents and illegal residents who overstay their visas. The foreign nationals in question have lived here for a long time. Also, they have actively participated in and organized anti-government protests,'' Kim said. [...]

The foreign labor rights group, which has failed to win legal status from the authorities, filed a suit against the government last year and the case is pending in the Supreme Court.

Apparently, criticizing justice or labor ministry policies is "anti-government." Does that mean that the Seoul High Court is also anti-government?

The Seoul High Court issued a judgement on 1 February 2007 calling for the cancellation of the rejection by the authorities of the Migrant Workers' Trade Union's Notice of Union Founding. This ruling, in effect, recognizes and thereby legalizes the MTU as a union representing the rights of all migrant workers, regardless of their status. The Ministry of Labour has appealed against this decision to the Supreme Court.

And this is why the case is still pending in the Supreme Court.

The crackdown on illegal migrants is likely to continue during the next three months since the government launched a special team this month to contain the soaring number of illegal immigrants here.

Here are the numbers of migrant workers in Korea over the last 20 years:

A few notes: Some of these numbers are from here. The numbers in brackets are percentages. All numbers are from December 31 of each year, unless otherwise noted. The industrial trainee system began in 1992 and ended at the end of 2006. Notice the dip in 1998 (due to the financial crisis of 1997), as well as the dip in the number of undocumented workers in 2003. In 2003 the employment permit system was put into place, which legalized around 180,000 workers (who could continue to work for a set number of years); another 27,000 left the country during an amnesty before the government began cracking down on those workers who could not get a permit (anyone who had lived in Korea more than 4 years).

Needless to say, the numbers aren't really "soaring" (as they did from 2000 to 2002), though that hasn't stopped scaremongering before, as this Chosun Ilbo article from 2005 shows:

From next January to August, 118,519 people's visas will become invalid. If only half of them return to their home countries - as was the case this year - the number of alien laborers staying here illegally will exceed 270,000. If this estimation turns out to be true, Korea will become a lawless world for migrant workers, and governmental policies will cease to be binding.

It's all a bit ridiculous, considering the number of undocumented workers had exceeded 300,000 in 2003, prior to the legalization of more than half of that number of workers, and governmental policies did not cease to be binding. Crackdowns certainly do net a large number of workers, as this February 2008 Joongang Ilbo article relates:

About 22,000 illegal migrants were caught and deported last year [2007], down from 23,000 in 2006, according to the service.

Taking a look at the numbers in the chart above makes it pretty clear which tactic - crackdown or legalization - has decreased the greatest number of undocumented workers here.

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A sea of red flames

No, I'm not talking about the North Korean threat back in 1994 to turn Seoul into a "Sea of Fire". I have something more recent in mind.

Students at a candlelit vigil protesting US beef imports, May 6

I have to wonder to what degree high school students, most of whom have just finished mid-term exams, are informed of the issues surrounding this. Is this just an excuse to skip school after being cooped up studying for the past few weeks? How much of this, for high school students, is motivated by anti-American sentiment, an inverse of the "go Korea!" sentiment of the World Cup street cheering of 2002 and 2006? Gord Sellar commented, after attending the first two protests, that the second protest "turned the participants into a mere audience."

Young people cheering the Korean soccer team, June 23, 2006

While some may say that the public are being mislead by an anti-American news media, and others may point out there are legitimate reasons for concern, I sometimes wonder if it's the candle makers (or flashing-horn-headset makers) who are the ones setting the agenda...

Rub a dub dub,
Three men in a rub n' tug;
And who do you think they be?
The muckraker, the lawmaker,
The candlestick-maker;
Turn 'em out, knaves all three!

Yes, I'm poking a bit of fun. But the prosecution frowns upon fun, and wants to add "mad cow horror story maker" to the list above, as the Hankyoreh tells us:

The national prosecution and police say they are going to criminally prosecute people involved in spreading so-called “mad cow horror stories” (gwangubyeong goedam) on the Internet, in addition to prosecuting the organizers of candlelight protests against imports of American beef.

Top ranking officials at the Supreme Prosecutor General’s Office held an unscheduled meeting on May 6 to discuss ways to prosecute “horror stories (goedam) on the Internet.”

“The number of horror stories on the Internet is reaching serious proportions and we can’t just sit around and do nothing,” said one prosecutor. “We’re going to look at what’s going on and see if there are any issues.”

A high-ranking police official, said the police see it as a “serious problem” that there is “inaccurate information about American beef and criticism of government policy that is not factual overflowing” on the Internet.

I guess the inaccurate information about every other topic on the internet is of little concern of them. Much as information (such as videos) of people being beheaded in Iraq was of little concern until Kim Sun-il was beheaded and the government had internet providers cut access to foreign blogs because a few of them were hosting the video.

Anyways, I do wonder what these "mad cow horror stories" are like. Are they something like this?

I heard this conversation on the bus today:

Hey, you know that girl I told you about in my class, the one who was crying after she saw her test scores?
Yeah.
Well after school my friends saw her eat a burger at Burger King.
So?
Guess what happened?
What?
They found her in the parking lot of her apartment building that night. She was lying on the ground covered in blood, and people could see her brains. They looked like...
What??
A sponge.
Wow.
She totally died of mad cow disease.

That's what I heard on the bus today.

I'm curious as to who exactly is writing these stories, and sending those text messages. I'd tend to think they're students, but who knows? How will the writers of these stories be punished? Perhaps the police could force them to stay indoors, sit in one spot for hours, and deprive them of sleep until they're 18.

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26 Years

In a comment to this post (titled, oddly enough, "10 Years") Gord Sellar mentioned an online comic about assassins who try to take revenge on Chun Doo-hwan for what happened in Kwangju in 1980. A search for the writer's name turned up this article:

The portal site for Kang Do-young’s cartoon “26 years” was jammed after the last episode was released Sept. 28. Kang, widely known by his pen name “Kangfull,” is a famous cartoon artist whose works have gained huge popularity online. His previous works like “Apartment” and “Babo” have been made into films.

“26 years,” Kangfull’s latest work, tells the story of the May 18th Gwangju Civil Uprising. [...] Kangfull’s cartoon creates a fictional account of what would have happened if the victims’ families took revenge on former president Chun. Five main characters appear in the cartoon; the CEO of a big company who feels guilt for his role in suppressing the revolt and four young people who lost their parents during the event.

Kangfull said he decided to tell the story after former president Chun said his vast fortune had been reduced to only 290,000 won. The statement reignited anger towards the former president, who many believe has not sufficiently atoned for the pain he caused during his eight-year rule. “I wanted to let people remember the tragic incident through my cartoon,” Kangfull said.

[...] Chungeorahm Film, the production company that created “The Host,” has obtained a copyright for the cartoon.

The comic can be read online here (Kangfull's site is here). I've only glanced at it briefly, but I'd imagine it would make an interesting film (and perhaps more controversial than President's Last Bang). The comic itself is very cinematic in style, and it reveals the characters experiences during May 1980 in flashback.


The picture above reminds me that a friend of mine used to live in Yeonhui-dong and would get a fruit basket every new years with a note from the Chun household apologizing for the security in the neighbourhood.

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