CIA Releases 5.18 Riot and Korean Politics after 40 Years

History must be objective only when it is recorded with a camera. However, South Korean history was written by the political power for their own advantage. On May 9th 1995, JoongAng Ilbo news compiled Commander Shtykov’s diary, the highest ranking Soviet Commander stationed in North Korea, into a series of articles. In the diary, it is stated that the general strike of September 1946, led by the South Korea Labor Party, and the Daegu riot in October were carried out with orders, instructions, and funding (5 million yen) from the Soviet Military Government. In the history of North Korean espionage operations in South Korea, the history of South Korea is recorded as an endless struggle between those who follow the United States (conservative reactionaries) and those who follow Kim Il-sung (progressives).  The 4.19 (April 19th), [m1] which caused the removal of Rhee Seung-man, who was driven into a corner by 3.15 election fraud, was also the espionage operation of North Korean spy (Lee Seok), and it was also the North Korean espionage operation that drove the removal of Rhee Seung-man on April 26th.

History must be objective only when it is recorded with a camera. However, South Korean history was written by the political power for their own advantage. On May 9th 1995, JoongAng Ilbo news compiled Commander Shtykov’s diary, the highest ranking Soviet Commander stationed in North Korea, into a series of articles. In the diary, it is stated that the general strike of September 1946, led by the South Korea Labor Party, and the Daegu riot in October were carried out with orders, instructions, and funding (5 million yen) from the Soviet Military Government. In the history of North Korean espionage operations in South Korea, the history of South Korea is recorded as an endless struggle between those who follow the United States (conservative reactionaries) and those who follow Kim Il-sung (progressives).  The 4.19 (April 19th), [m1] which caused the removal of Rhee Seung-man, who was driven into a corner by 3.15 election fraud, was also the espionage operation of North Korean spy (Lee Seok), and it was also the North Korean espionage operation that drove the removal of Rhee Seung-man on April 26th.

To manipulate the history of these riots into the history of South Korea’s ‘democratization’, North Korea has established historical power in South Korea. At present, the left-wing monopolizes not only historical and cultural power of South Korea, but also political power. All right-wing leaning history books have been suppressed by left-wing forces, and we can no longer find traces of right-wing history books in the library. In order to record the anti-state uprising (Gwangju Uprising) as the history of democratization and to indoctrinate it into the people, they have poured out false information through various cultural means such as movies, TV dramas, books, seminars, and events. On the other hand, if the right-wing makes a movie, it is not even possible to get a movie theater for a screen[m2] ing. Our history was stolen. These leftists, of course, are followers of Kim Il-sung, and Kim Il-sung’s deification was based on the anti-Japanese guerrilla war era. Now the leftists slander Japan endlessly and spreads anti-Japanese sentiments. This anti-Japanese vanguard is Yoon Mee-hyang, and Yoon Mee-hyang is a typical pro-North Korean sympathizer.

Rhee Seung-man, who built an American-style democracy, is denounced as a pro-Japanese dictator. President Park Chung-hee, who made South Korea the 10th-largest economy in the world, from a miserable country that had an unemployment rate of 30% barely managing to stay alive with the aid of herb-roots and tree-barks in spite of receiving surplus agricultural products and relief goods from the United States, is also denounced as a pro-Japanese dictator.

The most conscientious force in this country, supposedly, is only 5.18 forces. There is a growing sentiment that if Rhee Seung-man had not established the government of South Korea, it would have been unified under Kim Il-sung, and if it had not been for General MacArthur’s Incheon landing operation, South Korea would have already been unified under Kim Il-sung in 1950.

They say, that the U.S. is a warmonger, and that the U.S. and South Korean forces committed a massacre of the Korean people in the Korean War. Also, there is wide-spread sentiment that 2 years earlier, in the case of Jeju 4.3, the U.S. military and Rhee cut the people of Jeju Island up into several parts for no reason: they raped them and buried them alive. There is also the spread of even more disinformation. In 1980 General Chun sent members of the Airborne Division, from Gyeongsang Province to Gwangju, drunk on hallucinogens from kaoliang liquor, to make Gwangju into a bloodbath. According to this disinformation, troops supposedly stabbed pregnant women in the stomach with bayonets, removed the fetus, and threw the fetus down in front of the pregnant women. The Korean people are now brainwashed to see Japan as a barbarian country, that mistreated and massacred the people of Joseon. Now the Joseon people were a flower garden that were trampled on with guns and swords by Imperial Japan as well as exploited for their supplies and labor.

Also, South Korean people are indoctrinated to hate Park Chung-hee, saying “if he did not mount a coup after 4.19, South Korea would have been absorbed into the North by the Jangmyun regime. Park Chung-hee made it difficult to carry out the forceful unification; making the country rich and America greedy.”

The distortion of 5.18 (Gwangju Uprising) history also follows this disturbing trend. On January 23rd, 1980, the South Korean Supreme Court determined the 5.18 (Gwangju Uprising) as a rebellion uprising that Kim Dae-jung maneuvered from behind the scenes. This was reflected in the US State Department’s report that was transferred to the South Korean government on May 12th 2020. This ruling was suddenly reopened under the leadership of Kim Young-sam in 1996 (without a retrial procedure). This time however, Kim Dae-jung was turned into a loyal patriot and General Chun, the rebellion’s traitor. To overturn the 1981 Supreme Court ruling, it had to go through a retrial procedure. But there was no legal path to open a retrial. In the end, the retrial process was bypassed through the passing of the 5.18 Special Act. This 5.18 Special Act was an unconstitutional law that violated the principle of double jeopardy and the principle of no penalty without a law.

The trial was held, but for General Chun, there was no law to convict him and no evidence either. Judge Kwon Sung of the Seoul High Court, who tried the case, defined the 5.18 protesters (Gwangju Uprising) as quasi-constitutional. He ruled that the demonstration should have spread throughout South Korea, but it was a clear rebellion that General Chun suppressed by force early on. It specified that the standard of law to be applied to General Chun and others is not a Constitution or a law, but a ‘natural law’. In the written judgment it is stated that the ‘natural law’ is the ‘National Recognition Act’. This means that it was a ‘court of public opinion’, in other words, the ‘people’s court’. Since the essence of the trial was a ‘People’s Trial’, the communist employed the mind reading method. It was Kwon Jung-dal, a traitor who gave the final mind reading judgment. He was mobilized as a tool of extraordinary scheming that General Chun had a traitorous mind. That was the work of Kwon Jung-dal, called ‘General Chun’s ruling scenario’ or ‘the ruling master plan’. My analysis is that the person who planned this was Kwon Young-hae, the head of National Security Agency at that time and Hong Joon-pyo.

5.18 (Gwangju Uprising) was a guerrilla war led by 600 North Korean special forces. On page 595 of ‘The struggle of the people of South Korea who follow the banner of Juche’ issued by the North Korean National Reunification organization in 1982, page 35 of ‘The Indignation of Gwangju’ issued by the Workers’ Party Press in 1985, page 40-41 of ‘The daily log of the 5.18 Situation and Damage Status’ issued by the Agency for National Security in 1985, page 40-41 of ‘The Investigation Results of 5.18 Related Incident’ published by the prosecution in 1995, it is recorded that the leaders of 5.18 totaled 600. The above data and literature from both North and South contain the contents of the raucous activities of these 600 people, and the summary is as follows:

“On May 21st, 1980 at 0800, 300 citizen soldiers, with obtained top secret moving plans of the 20th Division Command vehicle unit, set up obstacles for an ambush and attacked. The weapons used were mainly clubs and petrol bombs. They took 14 jeeps, including the division-general’s jeep; these 300 rebels went to a nearby Asian automobile factory within walking distance. The plant was a military supply contract firm manufacturing military trucks and state-of-the-art armored vehicles. It was heavily guarded by watchtowers armed with high walls and machine guns. By 0900, another rebel unit of 300 came to the Asian automobile factory by five large buses. Now totaling 600. These 600 rebels neutralized the heavy security of the Asian automobile plant, seized four state-of-the-art armored vehicles, that could not be driven without a manual, and 374 military trucks. They robbed 44 arsenals that were secretly disguised in 17 cities and counties in South Jeolla Province in just four hours. They took 5,403 guns, distributed them to citizens, trained them and purged all others who didn’t cooperate. They blamed these deaths on the marital law army. Of the 117 people who were shot dead, 88, or 75%, were killed by armory guns such as carbine guns, and more than 80% were killed in the absence of martial law army. 2,100 TNT bombs were assembled in the basement of the Jeonnam provincial government office.”

There were 144 Gwangju citizens who died in the 5.18 (Gwangju Uprising). In addition, there were 12 more unidentified persons. Of the 144, 30% were in their teens and 50% were in their 20s. Almost 80% of the deaths were from the lower-class (gum sellers, shoe cleaners, restaurant employees, and ragmans), who were looked down upon in Gwangju. No one would believe that these young people led such spectacular military activities. As the results of this study spread, the political power, historical power, and cultural power that have reigned under the myth of ‘5.18 democratization’ have all been mobilized to suppress me because of my research on the topic. The means of suppression include two years of communication wiretapping by the NIS (National Intelligence Service), imprisonment, mob violence, multiple lawsuits, and prohibition of contributions and lecture activities. In addition, by branding me as an “absurd remarker” through major media, people are now avoiding me.

 The reports released by the US Department of State and handed to the South Korean government stated the following about the 5.18 (Gwangju Uprising): it was caused by Kim Dae-jung’s followers and North Korean spies (the key leaders totaled 550); there purges of several Gwangju citizens by Gwangju radicals; the South Korean government minimized sacrifices in an ingenious way to avoid sacrificing Gwangju citizens; the South Korean government also showed extreme self-control (without using the right of self-defense); and the government even did its best to ensure the safety of Gwangju citizens by infiltrating the provincial government and dismantling bombs assembled by rioters.However, the entire media, as well as the Korean government, keep silent about these important facts.

 2020.5.24. Jee Man-won

 JeeMan-Won (Chairman, System Club)

* Graduated from the ROK Military Academy and commissioned as a second lieutenant

* Served in the Vietnam War for 44 months as a battery platoon leader and company commander

* Earned master’s degree in business administration at the US Naval Postgraduate School

* Earned doctorate in systems analysis (OR) at the US Naval Postgraduate School

* Served as a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses (KIDA)

* Served as a professor at the US Naval Postgraduate School

 Books:

*Where Should the ROK Troops Go? (1996, KimYoungsa)

*A Breeze or a System (1993, HyunAhmsa)

*The Shortcut to Unification is Permanent Division (1996, Jajak-Namu)

*From Fall to Leap: System Therapy (1997, SukPil)

*Archives of Documentary from Investigation Records of 12.12 and 5.18 (2008, System)

*5.18 Before Solomon (2010, System)

*Joseon and Japan (2019, System)

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