Modern Era · East Asia · Politics

1980

Gwangju uprising

May 18, 1980

Students in the South Korean city of Gwangju rose against the military government of Chun Doo-hwan, who had seized power a few months earlier. Paratroopers responded with clubs and live ammunition. Over a week at least two hundred civilians died, perhaps many more. The massacre would eventually help birth South Korean democracy a decade later.