Seeing and remembering: Sanggye-Dong and the demonstrations of June 1987

Abstract

Renters of Sanggye-Dong began demonstrating and resisting relocation in June 1986, and by March 1987 the situation had intensified to the point where the remaining resisters took refuge at Myungdong Cathedral in the center of Seoul. It is important to realize what was going on in the southern part of Korea at that time. Demonstrations had flared sporadically since the 10 January torture-murder of Park Chong Chol, a twenty-one-year-old linguistics student from Seoul National University. Park's death in police custody had been the latest in a series of such events that had marked the years of Chun Doo Hwan's rule. Indeed, Chun's ascension to power had been facilitated by the 1980 massacre by military and paramilitary forces of 2,000 or more residents of Kwangju. The demonstrations increased in the spring of 1987, and in June they were almost continuous. The great peace march of 23 June included 1.5 million people demonstrating in some forty cities and townships, with 250,000 demonstrating in Seoul alone. The June demonstrations caused not only Chun Doo Hwan's 10 June endorsement of Roh Tae Woo as his chosen successor but also the 27 June promise by the ruling party and Roh Tae Woo of direct rather than indirect elections in December 1987. June 1987 was a turning point in the history of the southern part of Korea.