Seoul: South Korean police apologised for the first time Wednesday over massacres that killed 10,000 people decades ago and the military expressed deep regret as President Moon Jae-in seeks to re-examine history.
On April 3, 1948 members of the communist Workers’ Party of Southern Korea — an ally of the organisation that still rules the North — launched an armed uprising on the southern island of Jeju, attacking a dozen police stations.
At the time the division of the peninsula had yet to be formalised and the Korean War was still two years away, but the US-supported South was ideologically split following the end of World War II and Japanese colonial rule. The revolt was quickly put down, but while sporadic clashes continued more than 10,000 civilians were killed by South Korean security forces over the next six years, including beyond the end of the Korean War.
“We apologise to the innocent people whose lives were sacrificed,” said Min Gap-ryong, the commissioner general of the Korean National Police Agency, at a commemoration of the uprising’s 71st anniversary.
“We promise to be an organisation that only thinks about and works for Korean citizens so that a tragedy like this will never repeat in our future.” The country’s defence ministry also expressed “deep regret” to the victims, while stopping short of a full apology.
The Jeju Incident, as the events are known, remains a highly politicised issue in South Korea, as do some other aspects of the country’s post-war history. (AFP)
