Gwangju Massacre

The Gwangju Uprising, alternatively called May 18 Democratic Uprising by UNESCO, and also known as Gwangju Democratization Movement , refers to a popular uprising in the city of Gwangju, South Korea from May 18 to 27, 1980. Estimates suggest up to 606 people may have died. During this period, Gwangju citizens took up arms (by robbing local armories and police stations) when local Jeonnam University students - who were demonstrating against the Chun Doo-hwan government - were fired upon, killed, and beaten in an unprecedented attack by government troops. The uprising eventually ended in defeat on May 27, 1980. The event is sometimes called 5·18 (May 18; ), in reference to the date the movement began. Some critics of the event point to the fact that it occurred before Chun Doo-hwan officially took office, and so contend that it could not really have been a simple student protest against him that started it; however, Chun Doo-hwan had become the default leader of South Korea at that time since coming into power on December 12, 1979, after leading a successful military coup of the previous South Korean government.