Hwang In-oh, head of the Sabuk Uprising Comrades Association, speaks during a rally in front of Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul, April 14, asking the president to apologize for historical state violence. Yonhap
Dressed in their old helmets and uniforms, elderly former coal miners gathered in front of Cheong Wa Dae in central Seoul, April 14, joined by families of their deceased former co-workers.
They called for the president and the government to immediately apologize to survivors of state violence. They also demanded the prompt implementation of measures for restoration of honor and support for commemorative projects, as laid out in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) nonbinding recommendations.
The gathered people, now in their 70s and 80s, are survivors of an incident in Sabuk, a mountainous mining town in Gangwon Province, that saw a labor union standoff turn violent in April 1980.
Ahead of the 46th anniversary of the incident, known among participants as the Sabuk Uprising, calls are being renewed for remedies that both promote the process of healing and directly reckon with the damage inflicted by state violence in suppressing the miners’ struggle and in its subsequent investigation.
The Sabuk Incident was centered on the Sabuk Mining Office of the Dongwon Coal Company in Gangwon Province. The branch labor union there experienced dysfunction as allegations of behind-the-scenes meddling swirled around its executives. Unjust interference and fraud in elections, perpetrated by management as well as public officials, Jeongseon county police and agents of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency were particular points of tension by 1979.
In April 1980, mere months after the coup led by Chun Doo-hwan, discontent reached a tipping point. Martial law authorities put the brakes on a union assembly promised to a faction demanding the union branch head’s resignation. Permission was initially promised by the police chief at Sabuk town’s substation although he technically lacked the authority under military rule.
When miners continued gathering, a clash spontaneously erupted after a surveillance officer was caught filming; a police vehicle then struck several miners, who, to date, have not received any restitution. Both plainclothes and uniformed officers present failed to intervene or respond. This triggered a collective, at times violent, uprising between miners — acting without organized leadership — and police that lasted four days, from April 21 to 24, 1980, foreshadowing the Gwangju Uprising less than a month later.
Workers guard the main gate of a mining company in Sabuk, Gangwon Province, April 23, 1980. Korea Times file
The confrontation between miners and police ended with a negotiated agreement on the morning of April 24. A countermeasures committee — made up of representatives from the provincial and national police, the labor ministry, the provincial governor and company management — agreed not to use violence and to make every effort to resolve the situation amicably.
Source: Korea Times News
