[KS] New book: The History of the Democratization Movement in Korea

[Norman Thorpe]

Dear all,

This is a follow-up to my posting Feb. 21, in which I mentioned the conviction of 1950s presidential candidate and Syngman Rhee opponent Cho Bong-am being reversed, and his being acquitted of political crimes five decades after he was hanged for them.

Yonhap News today reported another case, this time involving a deceased activist, who has now been cleared of charges under which he was imprisoned in the 1970s. According to Yonhap, in 1974 a military court sentenced Chei Jung-koo to 15 years in prison for violating emergency decrees that the Park Chung Hee regime used to stifle dissent. His crime was calling for the emergency decrees to be repealed. At the time he was a student at Seoul National University. Seoul High Court recently retried the case and ruled on Saturday (2/26) that Chei was not guilty because the emergency decrees were unconstitutional, Yonhap said.  Chei became a member of the National Assembly sometime after the 1987 transition to democracy and served there twice. He died in 1999, Yonhap said.

Here is a link to the Yonhap story, which doesn’t say how long Chei spent in prison:

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2011/02/26/43/0302000000AEN20110226001100315F.HTML

This is the latest in a number of cases involving dissidents who were jailed during South Korea’s years of authoritarian government that have been reviewed or retried in recent years, typically resulting in the defendant being cleared of charges that were fabricated. In a number of cases the convicted defendants are already deceased, but review of the cases has been sought by family members to restore the person’s honor. Some of the reversed verdicts have also included payments of compensation.


For more information about the struggle for democracy in South Korea, some list members may wish to look at "The History of the Democratization Movement in Korea," which recently was published by the Korea Democracy Foundation, in Seoul, in cooperation with the May 18 Memorial Foundation, in Kwangju.

The book provides a chronological history of the major events of resistance to South Korea’s authoritarian rulers, gives a sense of the scope of the movements and the many people involved, and discusses some of the lessons activists learned as they fought their battles. It was written by Myung-sik Lee, a former activist. I assisted with the English editing.

A pdf of the book can be found on the Korea Democracy Foundation Web site, 
www.kdemocracy.or.kr

A direct link to the page with pdf downloads is:  
http://www.kdemocracy.or.kr/mboard/mboard/mboard.asp?board_id=board05&group_name=community


Norman Thorpe, Adjunct Faculty
Whitworth University, Spokane, Washington,
and
Faculty, International Summer Session
Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul