Korean History
Lesson Twelve: April Revolution (Pt. I)
안녕하세요 여러분! Today we will be discussing the April Revolution, a popular uprising by labor and student groups in April of 1960.
Background
Since 1948, South Korea had been under the leadership of 이승만. Now, the thing about 이슨만 was that he was an asshole who was not too fond of the idea of not being in power.
He was not making any developments to South Korea’s economy. The economy remained stagnant, poor, and agrarian and he also amended the constitution to prolong his position in power. The U.S. saw this and were like, “This dude’s crooked as hell,” and reduced their economic aid from $382,893,000 in 1957 to $222,204,000 in 1959. When the funding began to be reduced, 승만 felt shocked but he was also very threatened that he might be yeeted out of office. He then got desperate.
In December 1958 he forced through the National Assembly an amendment to the National Security Law giving the government broad new powers to curtail freedom of the press and prevent members of the opposition from voting.
Election of 1960
During the presidential election of 1960, two main parties were running against 승만. One was was small Progressive Party represented by 초봉암, and the other was the Democratic Party represented by 초병옥. Feeling threatened by the large amount of support 봉암 was getting, 승만 - doing what any sane person would do in this situation, accused him of being a communist and had him executed in 1959. 병옥 then, completely coincidentally without any foul play I’m sure, died of a heart-attack during a surgery he was getting in the U.S.
After the two competitors’ deaths, the South Korean people sensed something fishy was going on and came to the conclusion that some corrupt shenanigans were taking place.
Their suspicions were confirmed after a blatantly rigged vice presidential election and it was the feather that broke the camel’s back.
마산 Protests
On March 15, 1960, a protest regarding the electoral corruption took place in 마산. The protest was orchestrated by members of the Democratic Party and about 1,000 residents of 마산 gathered in front of the Democratic Party HQ around 7:30pm. What started as a protest soon turned into a full-fledged riot when they faced off against police trying to quell their protest and there was a city-wide black out. The police then started shooting protesters who responded by pelting them with rocks.
김주열
⚠️ TRIGGER WARNING: This part describes a pretty gruesome death. If that subject makes you uncomfortable, I highly recommend not continuing any further.
On April 11, a fisherman made a grim discovery in the 마산 harbor. It was the bludgeoned body of 김주열, a student at 마산 Commercial High School that had disappeared during the riots of March 15. After an autopsy was performed, they exused his death as a drowning. However, the people weren’t buying it. Some protesters forced their way into the hospital and found that 주열’s head had been split by a 20 centimeter-long tear-gas grenade. The grenade had penetrated from his eyes to the back of his head which indicated that an officer had shot it less that a 45 degree angle - which could be fatal if shot directly at someone.
승만 tried to cover up the incident and censor the news the best he could. However, it was too late. The Korean press had already reported the incident along with a picture of 주열’s body. The nation was shocked and the incident ignited a national movement against electoral corruption on April 19.
승만 then, as he does, claimed that the 마산 protests where orchestrated by communist agents. After an investigation by the National Assembly, they came to the conclusion that the shots fired towards the protesters where not to disperse the crowd - but to kill. It was also revealed that the order to kill the protesters came from 박종표, the Chief of Public security. He also gave the order to tie rocks on 주열’s body and throw him into the 마산 shore.