Jürgen Hinzpeter and Foreign Correspondents in the 1980 Kwangju Uprising

Introduction

The Kwangju Uprising was one of the most tragic and controversial explosions of violence in recent South Korean history. The mass protests against General Chun Doo-hwan's (1931–; president 1980–88) 1979–80 seizure of power led to the deaths of between 200 and 2000 Kwangju civilians.¹ The Kwangju Uprising is more commonly referred to by its official state-sanctioned appellation, the 5.18 Kwangju Democratization Movement (O il p'al Kwangju minjuhwa undong), because of the catalytic impact it had on South Korean politics.² The massacre of Kwangju civilians politicized a generation of young South Koreans, propelled the push towards democratic government, and led many to question the strong political ties to the United States (which was widely accused of complicity in the killings).³

Overseas media correspondents played a vital role in bringing the story of the Kwangju Uprising to the attention of the world. During the uprising, Kwangju's citizens gave foreign reporters an ecstatic reception, believing overseas journalists could help bring about a peaceful resolution to the crisis through their embassy contacts, an important implication I discuss below.⁴ The people of Kwangju also saw overseas correspondents as a vital conduit for information to the outside world.⁵ The South Korean military authorities attempted to contain information about the uprising through the heavily censored state-controlled national press and thereby prevent the escalation of violence elsewhere.⁶ Overseas correspondents could transfer their reports directly to publishers abroad, thereby bypassing official censorship.

Public awareness about the activities of overseas correspondents in Kwangju increased with the late 1990s appearance in South Korea of a series of books about their role (outlined below). This public interest in the activities of the overseas correspondents at Kwangju coincided with the emergence of what Don Baker calls a “hero myth” related to Kwangju. Baker argues that between the late 1980s and early 1990s, a new narrative emerged presenting the Kwangju participants not as “victims” of state repression but as “heroes” – political activists who risked their lives to build democracy.⁷ Baker draws on the ideas of Paul Cohen, who investigates the interrelationship between three ways of knowing the past: as lived experience, event (the historical reconstruction of the past as practised by historians) and myth – or the creation of...