Traditions & history
KoreaTraditions & history
The Gwangju Uprising
Five days in May 1980 when one city held out alone against the army, commemorated every year.
On the mapGwangju
On 18 May 1980 students demonstrated against the martial law declared by General Chun Doo-hwan; the paratroopers’ brutality turned the whole city. Residents armed themselves, took control of Gwangju and ran it for five days through citizens’ committees, until the final assault of 27 May. The revised official toll exceeds two hundred dead, independent estimates more. The uprising’s archives have been on UNESCO’s Memory of the World register since 2011, and 18 May is a national day of commemoration.
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