Latest news with #GwangjuUprising
Korea Herald
17-07-2025
- Politics
- Korea Herald
Lee promises to back amendment to Constitution
On 77th Constitution Day, president asks secretaries to review redesignation as public holiday Marking the 77th anniversary of the South Korea's Constitution on Thursday, President Lee Jae Myung expressed his commitment to a new amendment, stressing that a new amendment to the Constitution must be "citizen-centered." In a Facebook post, Lee said a newly amended Constitution, which upholds the spirit of the Gwangju Uprising in May 1980, encompasses the greater fundamental rights of each citizen, the greater local autonomy and the curtailment of power through reforms "must be a compass to lead the way of South Korea." The liberal president also thanked the people for overcoming the political crisis that stemmed from former President Yoon Suk Yeol's martial law declaration in December, within the boundaries of the Constitution. South Korea last amended the Constitution about four decades ago, effective in 1987. It was the ninth amendment in the country since its foundation on Aug. 15, 1948. Later on Thursday, Lee asked his secretaries to consider redesignating Constitution Day as a public holiday in a meeting he presided over at his office in Seoul. Nearly two decades after South Korea removed Constitution Day, which falls on July 17 each year, from the list of public holidays, lawmakers have again pushed to designate the day as a full public holiday to shed light on the role of the Constitution in safeguarding democracy. Since Lee's inauguration on June 4, Reps. Kwak Sang-eon of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea and Kang Dae-sik of the main opposition People Power Party have each introduced revision bills aimed at adding Constitution Day to the list of public holidays, following its exclusion in 2008. Kwak and nine other lawmakers of three liberal parties proposed the redesignation on June 13, suggesting it could "boost the domestic economy and guarantee people's right to rest," and at the same time uphold the spirit of the Constitution. Kwak proposed a revision of the Act on Public Holidays to allow South Koreans to be granted the day off. Of five national celebration days designated in South Korea, Constitution Day is the only among them that is not also designated as a public holiday. On July 9, Kang and 10 other People Power Party members proposed a similar bill to revise the Act on Public Holidays, raising a need for the Constitution Day to be redesignated. South Korea promulgated its first Constitution on July 17, 1949, and the day was designated as a holiday in 1950. The conservative Lee Myung-bak administration, however, delisted the day as a public holiday in 2008, amid calls to recover national productivity alongside the introduction of a five-day workweek in 2004. According to a recent report by the National Assembly Research Service, there have been 17 bills so far designed to reinstate Constitution Day as a public holiday since 2008. Constitution Day "holds great symbolic significance" in that a need to safeguard constitutional values has been in the limelight, and it therefore deserves to be redesignated as a public holiday, added the report released Monday. It also called for a social consensus on the matter, given that the redesignation could have significant socioeconomic impact on South Korea.
Express Tribune
07-07-2025
- Politics
- Express Tribune
Valve removes Steam Mod upon request from South Korean Government
Valve has removed a Steam Workshop mod depicting South Korea's 1980 Gwangju Uprising following a formal request from the South Korean government over concerns of 'historical distortion.' The mod, titled Gwangju Running Man, is a total conversion for Mount & Blade: Warband and depicted the pro-democracy protests as violent riots, framing the military's response under then-President Chun Doo-hwan as justified. According to a translated report from Automaton, the mod effectively glorified the violent crackdown on protesters during a critical moment in South Korea's push toward democracy. Initially, South Korea's Game Rating and Administration Committee (GRAC) blocked domestic access to the mod. GRAC later contacted Valve to request its global removal, arguing that the content violated laws against historical revisionism and could cause public harm. Valve complied with the request, removing the mod globally. According to PC Gamer, this instance marks one of the first known cases where Valve has removed user-created content worldwide at the direct request of a foreign government on political grounds. Previously, Valve has removed controversial titles such as Active Shooter in response to public backlash, but these decisions were not tied to governmental intervention. The Gwangju Uprising remains a significant event in South Korea's history, with the violent suppression of protests leading to hundreds of deaths, and some estimates placing the toll above 2,000. Valve has not issued a public statement regarding the mod's removal at the time of writing.
New York Times
19-06-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Lessons From a Dark Past
This personal reflection is part of a series called The Big Ideas, in which writers respond to a single question: What is history? You can read more by visiting The Big Ideas series page. Modernity is born from the struggle between remembering and forgetting, and South Koreans on all sides of the political spectrum have learned from our shared history. That history includes the Gwangju uprising, a 10-day mass protest that occurred shortly after the 1979 assassination of President Park Chung-hee, who ruled South Korea for 18 years as a military dictator. Taking advantage of the power vacuum, Chun Doo-hwan, an army general, staged a coup and quickly began laying the groundwork for a new dictatorship. In May 1980, he declared martial law, and the citizens of Gwangju rose up in opposition to this continuation of military rule. The military responded with lethal force, indiscriminately killing citizens regardless of their involvement in the protest. Despite this, Gwangju became a watershed moment in the fight for Korean democracy. 'We know that we cannot defeat such a powerful army. But to end the resistance now would render meaningless all the blood shed by our fellow citizens. We must defend the provincial office to our deaths. That's the only way for us to be remembered by future generations and for the resistance to be complete.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Korea Herald
10-06-2025
- Politics
- Korea Herald
Gwangju Uprising memorial sees spike in visitors: report
May visitors to May 18th National Cemetery reach highest figure since 2018 A total of 242,503 people in May visited the graves of those who participated in the Gwangju Democratic Uprising in 1980, according to local media reports on Tuesday. The monthly visitor count at the May 18th National Cemetery was the highest since 2018 and marked an on-year increase of over 40,000 from to May 2024, the Korean-language news agency News 1 said, citing the operators of the government facility under the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs. The number of visitors usually peaks in May around the anniversary of the nationwide protest against Chun Doo-hwan's junta, which took power via a military coup in December 1979. The highest figures for any other month in 2025 and 2024 were 12,287 in April this year, and 11,202 in April last year. The number of May visitors had usually exceeded 300,000 prior to 2019 but hovered in the 200,000 range over the past three years, plummeting to 5,822 in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The political turmoil following former President Yoon Suk Yeol's imposition of martial law in December is thought to have renewed public interest in the historic citizens' protest against the military regime. Yoon's martial law decree, which led to his impeachment and removal from office, was the first to be imposed in the country since 1981, under Chun's authority. Chun was not yet president when martial law was extended nationwide on May 18, 1980, but he had effectively been leader of the junta since the coup a year before. Yoon's much-disputed martial law declaration led to comparisons with Chun. The results of the June 3 presidential election showed that 84.8 percent of voters in Gwangju voted for Yoon's political rival and eventual successor, Lee Jae-myung, who also garnered over 80 percent of the vote in both North and South Jeolla Provinces. Lee himself drew a comparison between Yoon and Chun at a commemoration of the Gwangju Uprising's 45th anniversary last month, when he attended as a presidential candidate. He said the spirit of the Gwangju citizens that refused to back down in the face of military oppression in 1980 has been inherited by those who opposed the dispatch of troops to the National Assembly under Yoon's martial law decree. Those who have been recognized by the state as having died while participating in the Gwangju Uprising are entitled to be buried at the May 18th National Cemetery, in accordance with the Act on the Honorable Treatment of Persons of Distinguished Service to the May 18 Democratization Movement. Those who have relinquished their Korean nationality or have been convicted of certain crimes can have their burial rights revoked.
NHK
23-05-2025
- Politics
- NHK
Gwangju Uprising's sexual assault violence survivors speak out
After 45 years, many still don't know about the sexual violence women faced around the Gwangju Uprising. Today, the survivors are speaking out in the hopes of forcing the government to act. NHK World's Kim Chan-ju has more
