Gwangju Uprising

The Gwangju Uprising, also known in South Korea as the May 18 Democratization Movement, was a series of student-led demonstrations that took place in Gwangju, South Korea, in May 1980, against the coup d'etat of 17 May by which General Chun Doo-hwan strengthened his power. Chun had already seized power in the coup d'etat of 12 December 1979 and had gone on to impose martial law, arrest opposition leaders, close the universities, ban political activity and suppress the press. The uprising began when soldiers fired on, beat and killed Chonnam National University students demonstrating against martial law; some Gwangju citizens took up arms, formed militias and seized local police stations and armories, and were able to control large parts of the city before soldiers re-entered and suppressed the uprising, killing between 600 and 2,300 people.