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A public hearing of the National Assembly’s fact-finding commission for the Gwangju Uprising takes place in Seoul on Feb. 8. (Yonhap News)
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2007 historical fact-finding commission concluded theory is not credible
On Feb. 12, South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense (MND) responded to remarks by Liberty Korea Party (LKP) lawmakers claiming that the North Korean military had been involved in the Gwangju Democratization Movement (also known as the Gwangju Uprising) by reiterating that such involvement “is unconfirmed.” “That matter will be looked into by the Special Committee to Investigate the Gwangju Uprising,” Defense Ministry Spokesperson Choi Hyun-soo said during the regular briefing on Tuesday. “The Ministry’s position remains unchanged,” Choi added. When reports circulated about the theory the North Korean military was involved in the Gwangju Uprising (which began on May 18, 1980), the MND released an official document on May 30, 2013, titled “The Position of the Military.” “We carefully reviewed the report published on July 14, 2007, detailing the findings of an investigation by the Ministry’s Historical Fact-Finding Commission, but we were unable to confirm that special forces from the North Korean military were involved in the events of the Gwangju Uprising,” the MND said in this document. “Out of respect for the spirit and purpose of laws that have been enacted in connection with the Gwangju Uprising and for the findings of the investigation by the Historical Fact-Finding Commission, we express our deep condolences to the victims of the uprising,” the MND announced. “The intelligence division at army headquarters had already determined that intelligence reports suggesting that the Gwangju protesters were connected to North Korea were not credible. Nevertheless, the military dictatorship disseminated this false information in order to manipulate public opinion and thus bolster its own power,” the Historical Fact-Finding Commission said. When Gwangju Mayor Kang Un-tae visited the MND on that day, then Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin confirmed this position in stronger language. Responding to a request by Kang to express the MND’s position on the theory that North Korea was involved in the Gwangju Uprising, Kim said that the theory was “completely false.” During an interpellation session at the National Assembly in June of the same year, lawmakers from the Democratic Party once again asked the administration, then under ex-president Park Geun-hye, to express its position on this matter. Then Prime Minister Chung Hong-won responded that “the government’s judgment is that the North Korean military wasn’t involved in the Gwangju Uprising.” By Yoo Kang-moon, senior staff writer Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
