The Jeju rebellion is an armed popular uprising on the island of Jeju in South Korea , which began on April 3, 1948 and continued until May 1949 (the last skirmishes occurred in 1953). The uprising was brutally crushed by government forces. According to various estimates, from 14 to 30 thousand people died in battles and in the subsequent punitive actions [1] , which made up a significant part (up to 10%) of the island’s population [2] .
Content
Background
On November 14, 1947, the United Nations voted in favor of Security Council resolution 112 calling for elections in Korea under UN supervision [3] . The Soviet Union refused to implement the decision of the resolution and provide access to the commission in the northern part of the country. Elections in the north were held at a turnout of 99.6%. 86.3% of voters voted for candidates supported by the government. The Communist Labor Party of Korea decided to boycott the elections held in the south. According to estimates by the US occupation authorities, about 60,000 (20% of the total) Jeju Island residents were members of the Communist Party; after the start of organized action on the island, 2,500 activists were arrested against the Communists, of whom at least three were killed.
On April 3, 1948, police on the island fired on people who marched on a demonstration in memory of the struggle of Koreans against the Japanese invaders. Outraged people attacked 12 police stations. This day was the day of the uprising.
Rebellion
About 100 police and civilians died in the fighting. The rebels burned the polls. The South Korean government sent 3,000 troops to help the local police, but on April 29, several hundred soldiers rebelled against their commanders, passing a large amount of weapons to the rebels. The government in Seoul organized anti-communist militia groups, consisting mainly of young people from the extreme right. Militias participated in the killings of the male population of the island, while at the same time appropriating land belonging to the victims [4] .
Conflict Resolution Attempts
General Kim Ik Rohl, commander of South Korean troops on the island, tried to put an end to the uprising through peaceful negotiations with the rebels. He met several times with rebel leader Kim Dalsam (a member of the Communist Party), but none of the parties was able to accept the demands put forward. The government demanded that the rebels immediately lay down their arms. The rebels demanded the disarmament of the local police, the resignation of all the ruling officials on the island, the ban on the island of paramilitary youth groups and the reunification of the Korean Peninsula.
Guerrilla Warfare
When government troops invaded the coastal strip, the rebels went into the mountains, where they created their base camps. Farmland between the coast and the hills has become the main battlefield. In October 1948, the rebel army, consisting of approximately 4,000 poorly armed soldiers, won a series of battles with regular troops. In the spring of 1949, four battalions of South Korean troops were sent to the island. The combined forces quickly defeated the rebel forces. On August 17, 1949, the command of the rebel forces broke up after the assassination of their supreme leader, I Tuk-ku. During the uprising, there were a small number of Americans on the island; Captain Jimmy Leach was the only adviser to the South Korean forces during their campaign against the Communists on the island.
Immediately after the offensive of North Korea to the south of the peninsula from which the Korean War began , the South Korean army conducted “preventive raids” against suspected activists throughout the country. Thousands of people were arrested in Jeju. The suspects were divided into four groups, designated A, B, C and D. On August 30, 1950, a senior officer of the South Korean police department in Jeju ordered to execute all people in groups C and D by shooting no later than September 6 [5] .
Notes
- ↑ The National Committee for Investigation of the Truth about the Jeju April 3 Incident (2008). Date of treatment December 15, 2008. Archived February 24, 2009.
- ↑ Kim, Hun Joon. The massacre at mt. Halla: Sixty Years of Truth Seeking in South Korea. - Cornell University Press, 2014 .-- P. 13–41. - ISBN 9780801452390 .
- ↑ United Nations Resolution 112: The Problem of the Independence of Korea . United Nations (2007). Date of treatment March 29, 2009.
- ↑ Hugh Deane. The Korean War, 1945-1953 . - China Books & Periodicals, Inc, 1999. - P. 54-58.
- ↑ Ghosts of Cheju , Newsweek (June 19, 2000). Date of treatment July 24, 2010.