1 of 9 | A woman bows to stone slabs etched with the names of those killed during the Jeju Massacre but whose bodies were never found during the 77th annual Jeju 4.3 Memorial Ceremony at the Jeju 4.3 Peace Park, Jeju City, South Korea, on April 3, 2025. Photo by Darryl Coote/UPI
South Korea’s Jeju Island collectively mourned the deaths of tens of thousands killed nearly eight decades ago during an early Cold War massacre on Thursday, as the southern resort island tries to heal old wounds reopened by President Yoon Suk-yeol’s short-lived declaration of martial law.
Thousands, many in their 70s and older, attended the 77th annual Jeju 4.3 Memorial Ceremony at the Jeju 4.3 Peace Park, just north of Jeju City, where they honored the estimated 30,000 Jeju Islanders killed mostly by South Korea’s counterinsurgency forces between 1947 and 1954 in an attempt to put down a leftist uprising. Advertisement
An estimated 10% of the island’s population was killed and hundreds of villages were razed during the Jeju Massacre, known as the Jeju April 3 Incident in Korean. Survivors were prohibited from speaking of their trauma until the 2000s due to fear of government reprisals and societal stigma. Advertisement
The event on Thursday began at 10 a.m. local time with a moment of silence followed by remarks from acting President Han Duck-soo.
“I deeply engrave in my heart the innocent sacrifices of the victims and bow my head in sincere remembrance,” he said. “I extend my deepest condolences to the surviving victims and bereaved families who have endured years of pain and sorrow.”
It was not clear until early Thursday that Han would speak at the event, despite having attended the last two Jeju 4.3 memorial ceremonies as prime minister, with the anniversary falling amid a period of political turmoil in South Korea.
On Friday, the verdict in Yoon’s impeachment trial is set to be announced by South Korea’s Constitutional Court, where he is being tried for declaring martial law on the night of Dec. 3.
Angered by staunch resistance to his policies from the opposition party, Yoon, a conservative, declared martial law, accusing his opponents of being North Korean sympathizers and conducting unspecified anti-state activities.
Though aborted hours later by the National Assembly and impeached later that month, the declaration of martial law resurrected decades-old nightmares on Jeju of government forces skulking through the island’s mountain region and killing anyone they saw on sight. Advertisement
“It felt like the sky was collapsing. My heart ached. I was so angry and terrified,” Ahn Young-ran, 55, told UPI, recounting how she felt the night martial law was declared.
She was attending the memorial ceremony with her husband, Yang In-seop, 52, and were performing Jaesa memorial rites for his grandparents, who were killed during the massacre under martial law.
“Because we know what that meant, we couldn’t sleep that night, fearing we were returning to the past.”
Martial law was first declared in South Korea in October 1948 to put down an armed mutiny by a regiment of the South Korean Army resisting deployment to Jeju to suppress the communist uprising.
The next month, President Syngman Rhee again declared martial law — this time for all of Jeju, legitimizing the military operation that had already begun and would continue despite the declaration’s revocation in December.
Though the Jeju Massacre lasted until September 1954, the majority of the killings occurred that winter of 1948-49.
The symbol of the Jeju Massacre — a red camellia flower, which blooms on the island in early spring — has been adopted by the protest movement against Yoon. When National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik signed the articles of impeachment against the president on Dec. 14, a red camellia pin adorned his lapel. Advertisement
The acting president briefly mentioned the political crisis during his remarks on Thursday, acknowledging that “our nation is facing various challenges, both domestically and internationally.”
“National unity is more urgent than ever,” he said.
“If we fail to overcome ideological, generational, regional and class conflicts, it will be difficult to overcome the current crisis and sustainable growth for Korea will not be possible.
“The spirit of Jeju 4.3 teaches us the invaluable lessons of reconciliation and coexistence, which are more important now than ever.”
At least one person was forcibly removed from the crowd for protesting during Han’s speech, while a few others called for Yoon to be impeached and the acting president to step down.
“Impeachment must happen, no matter what,” Ahn told UPI. “If not, something like this will happen again.”
