hankyoreh

The former dictator Park Chung-hee watching a performance in Seoul in 1974

South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission recently published the results of its investigation into a particularly oppressive period of Korean history. The period of time in question, a total of 2,159 days between January 8, 1974, when Park Chung-hee’s 1st Emergency Measures were announced, to December 8, 1979, when the 9th Emergency Measures were lifted just after the dictator’s assissination on October 26, represented a strong crackdown by the dictatorial government on dissent.

The commission’s findings were obtained by the Hankyoreh on January 24. They describe myriad human rights abuses during that time, including 1,412 judgments on 589 cases from the appeals and supreme courts on persons indicted for the violation of the Emergency Measures during the period.

The Emergency Measures were made possible through Park Chung-hee’s 1972 Yusin Constitution, which also essentially guaranteed him unlimited presidential office. The measures, in the name of national security and civil order, placed restrictions on the fundamental rights of citizens, including assembly, association, and freedoms of speech and the press. The 1st Emergency Measures prohibited anyone to mention anything regarding the Yusin Constitution, and the 4th set of measures, announced in April of the same year, meted out punishment to those with ties to the National Young Students’ Alliance for Democracy (Min Cheong Hak Nyeon). The 9th set of measures, announced in May 1975, also allowed no freedom whatsoever to disparage or even discuss the circumstances surrounding the establisment of the Yusin Constitution.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s analysis found that about half of those who were punished for violating the Emergency Measures were ordinary citizens from all walks of life, including shop owners, salary workers, and farmers, rather than entrenched dissidents aimed at unseating the government.

Mr. Jeong, unemployed at the time, had a conversation with his neighbors in January 1974. During their talk, Jeong stated his opinion that the adoption of the Yusin Constitution and the Emergency Measures were both signs of the government’s falling apart. He said that "the current government is so rotten that the ruling party and the Park administration will soon be ruined. If you enlist in the military [right now], you will probably end up dying in a war somewhere in the Middle East." Jeong’s neighbors informed the police about his comments, and he was arrested for violation of the 1st Emergency Measures and sentenced to a 12-year prison term. His sentence was reduced to seven years by the Supreme Court. The official charges were "the creation of a groundless rumor."

Three college students were arrested for violation of the 4th Emergency Measures when they "conspired" to walk out in the middle of a midterm examination in protest of the announcement of that set of emergency measures in April 1974. The students were sentenced to a ten-year prison term.

with his daughter Park Geun-hye and then U.S. President Gerald Ford. (Yonhap)

Mr. Park, a farmer, was sentenced to a 12-year term for saying to his neighbor in May 1974 that "Park Chung-hee used to be an underboss during the Yeosu-Suncheon Revolt. He was lucky enough to become president."

The Yeosu-Suncheon Revolt was committed by troops stationed in the South Jeolla Province cities of Yeosu and Suncheon in October 1948. The soldiers had been ordered to clamp down on an uprising transpiring on Jeju Island, the so-called April 3 Incident. At that time, people on Jeju organized rallies in opposition to setting up a government that only included what is now South Korea at the exclusion of Korea’s northern half. But the troops refused to carry out their orders, and were crushed by another set of troops sent by the government under Syngman Rhee. After the incident, Park Chung-hee, then a military officer, was arrested under suspision of being behind the uprising. The military intelligence agency questioned him for being a communist, but he was released. Because it was rare at that time for anyone suspected of being a communist sympathizer to be released without charge, there is speculation that he agreed to inform on other communists hiding in the military in exchange for his freedom.

Mr. Sin, an actor, was starring in a propaganda film funded by the Ministry of National Defense when he had a chat with other actors off-camera and said, "The president’s son is having an affair with an actress." He was arrested for the creation and circulation of "groundless gossip."

Mr. Lee, a Choongnam University student, wrote in a letter to his girlfriend that "college students in Seoul and Daejeon are protesting in the streets. They have started monitoring the students, and no can talk because of the Emergency Measures." The letter was intercepted by the police at the post office and censored by the government before reaching its destination. Mr. Lee was arrested and sentenced to prison.

In fact, it was the strict censorship placed on the media and all other channels of communication at that time that resulted in widespread rumors. One incident took place in which an entire truck full of people was arrested for "spreading rumors person-to-person" after the group had a conversation about political matters. Citizens who made an errant comment about Park Chung-hee or any of his government officials having affairs with actresses, for example, were locked up or given suspended sentences, forced to bear the stigma of being an "ex-convict."

One high school ethics teacher was lucky, however. He told his class that "there are many scandals involving President Park and members of the cabinet having affairs with actresses and female singers." He was indicted in March 1979, but as the Emergency Measures were cancelled in December that year, he was acquitted before having to serve any time.

A junior high school teacher, Mr. Choi, was not so fortunate. He served eight months for saying that "the Yusin Constitution was created to ensure a prolonged one-man rule. An indirect presidential election by delegates from the Unified Citizen’s Conference the National Conference for Unification is an undesirable system."

Another school teacher told students that "Park is a dictator. The capitalists are abusing workers, and workers cannot claim their rights. After [labor activist] Cheon Tae-il burned himself to death, the treatment got better. But the government raised the price of fertilizer by a whopping 60 percent, worsening the lives of farmers." The teacher was sent to prison for three years.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]