Jeju April Third Incident

Also called: Jeju Uprising

An armed uprising on Jeju against a separate election in the south, and its suppression, in which many islanders were killed.

After police fired on a crowd at the March First anniversary rally in 1947, a general strike broke out, followed by repression by the police and the Northwest Youth League. On 3 April 1948 armed units of the Jeju branch of the South Korean Workers’ Party rose up, demanding an end to the separate election and to police and Northwest Youth League repression.

In the 10 May election, two of Jeju’s three constituencies were voided for lack of turnout. After the government was founded, troops and police burned mid-mountain villages in a harsh suppression campaign, and with attacks by the insurgents as well, many residents were killed. The government’s 2003 fact-finding report estimated 25,000–30,000 victims, most of them killed by the suppression forces. The incident ended when the restricted zone on Hallasan was lifted in September 1954.

A special act on fact-finding and restoring the honour of victims was passed in 2000, the government formally apologized in 2003, and 3 April became a national memorial day in 2014.