Volta
Politics9–11 August 1979

YH Trading Incident

Also called: YH incident

Women workers of YH Trading, protesting the closure of their company, staged a sit-in at the New Democratic Party headquarters and were forcibly removed by police.

On 9 August 1979 women workers of YH Trading, a wig exporter, began a sit-in at the New Democratic Party headquarters in Mapo, Seoul, protesting the company's sudden closure. Before dawn on 11 August police stormed the building and broke up the sit-in; the worker Kim Gyeong-suk died in the process.

When NDP leader Kim Young-sam sharply criticized the Yushin regime, the government and ruling party expelled him from the National Assembly in October. In response the Bu-Ma Democratic Protests broke out in Busan and Masan, Kim's political base.

Show on the map

The map in 1979

Open the full map

OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles © OpenStreetMap contributors

States and rulers at the time
South Korea — President Park Chung-hee

People

  • Kim Young-sam1927 – 2015

    related figure · 14th President (1993–1998). Introduced the real-name financial system and full local autonomy; the 1997 currency crisis came at the end of his term

  • Park Chung-hee1917 – 1979

    related figure · 5th–9th President (1963–1979). Led the May 16 coup, the five-year economic plans and the Yushin system; killed in the October 26 incident

Before and after

Earlier
1973 Emergency Decrees and the March First Democratic Declaration
Later
1979 Busan–Masan Democratic Protests