The day that Chun Doo-hwan, leader of the military coup on Dec. 12, 1979, and bloody suppressor of the popular uprising in Gwangju in May 1980, died, raindrops ran down the gravestone of Park Hyeon-suk in the old cemetery in Mangwol neighborhood — a site where many of those who died in the suppression of the Gwangju Uprising were interred.
Park was in her final year of high school at the time of the mass uprising, during which she volunteered to clean the bodies of the deceased. She was killed by indiscriminate shelling from martial law forces while she and armed citizens made their way to neighboring Hwasun County to retrieve more caskets, which were in short supply in Gwangju.
When news of Chun’s death broke Tuesday morning, the May 18th Bereaved Family Association, along with associations of those injured and incarcerated during the Gwangju Uprising, and the May 18 Memorial Foundation convened for a joint press conference at the May 18 Cultural Center in Gwangju’s Seo District.
At the press conference, the groups gave a statement, saying, “Though Chun Doo-hwan may have died, the truth of May 18, 1980, has not been lost,” continuing that, “We will absolutely hold the instigators of the massacre in May to account, make clear as day the criminal offenses of Chun Doo-hwan, a traitor without equal, and set the historical record straight.”
We have gathered some photos from the old Mangwol cemetery in Gwangju’s Buk District from Tuesday.
By Kim Hye-yun, staff reporter
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