Korea History Chejudo Rebellion, 1948

The Jeju uprising (in South Korea, the Jeju April 3 incident, Korean: 제주 4·3 사건) was an uprising on Jeju Island, South Korea, from April 1948 to May 1949. Tensions on Jeju Island escalated with protests following a police assault incident during the 1947 March 1st Independence Movement Day celebration, and the suppression of those protests which resulted in 6 deaths. A general strike was later organized by the Workers' Party of South Korea (WPSK) from February to March 1948, protesting against the general election scheduled in the United States-occupied half of the peninsula. Kim Dal-sam, the head of the WPSK in Jeju, formed a guerrilla organization to take up arms, and launched an insurgency in April 1948, attacking South Korean police facilities and officers, and right-wing civilians. Following independence in August 1948, the First Republic of Korea (ROK) under President Syngman Rhee escalated the suppression of the uprising on Jeju Island by declaring martial law in November and beginning an "eradication campaign" against insurgents in the rural areas of Jeju in March 1949, defeating them within two months. The ROK executed many insurgents and their supporters causing some to refer to this campaign as the Jeju massacre. Upon the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950, many imprisoned insurgents and supporters were extrajudicially executed, and the existence of the uprising was officially censored and repressed in South Korea for several decades. The Jeju uprising and its repression were notable for its extreme violence; between 14,000 and 30,000 people (10 percent of Jeju's population) were killed, and 40,000 fled to Japan. Other estimates reach as high as 80,000 dead. Atrocities and war crimes were committed by both sides, but historians have noted that the methods used by the South Korean government to suppress protesters and rebels were especially cruel, with violence against civilians by pro-government forces giving rise to the Yeosu–Suncheon rebellion in South Jeolla Province during the conflict. According to Bruce Cumings, right-wing paramilitary groups, including the North-West Youth Association, were especially brutal towards civilians, exercising more authority than the police. Some historians and scholars, including military historian Allan R. Millett, regard the Jeju uprising as the true beginning of the Korean War. In October 2003, the National Committee for Investigation of the Truth about the Jeju April 3 Incident chaired by South Korean prime minister Goh Kun released a comprehensive report detailing the violence that occurred during the uprising, and South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun issued an official apology on behalf of the South Korean government. In 2019, the South Korean police and the defense ministry apologized for their involvement in the massacres during the Jeju uprising.