The May 18 Democratic Movement

On May 17, 1980, at 24:00, in reaction to student protests against the unlawful regime of general Chun Doo-hwan, who had staged a coup to seize control of the country, martial law was declared nationwide. The next morning, on May 18, Gwangju students went out to demonstrate regardless. Chun responded by sending in the military to violently suppress what he called the “Gwangju Riot”. The bloody repression of the May 18 Democratic Uprising, which lasted until May 27, resulted in the death of at least 150 citizens, with another 80 missing presumed death, and thousands of seriously wounded civilians, both in and outside Gwangju.

However, continuous democratic activism throughout the 1980s forced Chun Doo-hwan out of power, allowed for an official inquiry into the Uprising and its brutal suppression, and ultimately, in 1997, saw Chun sentenced to life-long imprisonment on charges of rebellion.

As such, the May 18 Democratic Uprising marks a turning point in modern Korean history. The Uprising provided the impetus to end military rule and solidify democracy in South Korea. The Movement, therefore, represents a major movement among the many pro-democracy movements that opposed authoritarianism and dictatorship in Korea’s modern history. The May 18 Uprising also exemplifies a case were citizens used their unalienable, natural, and human “right to resist” an unlawful and tyrannical regime, for which "armed struggle" in reaction to the violent suppression of legitimate protests was a justifiable means to protect their right of resistance.