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South Korean activist (1950?1980)
Yoon Sang-won
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Born
| (
1950-08-19
)
August 19, 1950
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Died
| May 27, 1980
(1980-05-27)
(aged 29)
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Occupation
| activist
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Yoon Sang-won
(
Korean
:
윤상원
;
Hanja
:
尹祥源
; 19 August 1950 – 27 May 1980) was a South Korean activist and spokesperson for the citizen's militia during the
1980 Gwangju Democratization Movement
.
[1]
Yoon was killed on the last day of the uprising and has since become a symbol in South Korea as a martyr for the
democratization
movement.
[2]
Biography
[
edit
]
Yoon Sang-won was born in
Gwangsan District
,
Gwangju
, and attended
Chonnam National University
in the 1970s. Opposed to the
military dictatorship
under
Park Chung Hee
, Yoon quit his job at a bank in 1978 to focus on democracy activism.
[1]
Yoon worked on organizing labour groups and helped form the National Democratic Workers’ League on May 1, 1980. On May 18 of that year, a
citizen's uprising
against military rule and
Coup d'etat
led by
Chun Doo-hwan
broke out in Gwangju and Yoon quickly became the leading spokesperson of the organizing Democratic Struggle Committee. As
martial law
forces violently suppressed the uprising, the armed resistance intensified. Yoon and the remaining militia members took up residence in the main building of the
Jeonnam Provincial Office
[
ko
]
which was turned into the
de facto
headquarters of the resistance.
[1]
The protesters were able to fortify and hold the building until May 27 when it was stormed by martial law forces. Yoon was killed in the early morning making a last stand to defend the building.
[3]
The Gwangju Democratization Movement ended that day, but it was seen as a precursor to the 1987
June Struggle
that led to the country's first free and democratic
elections later that year
within the wider democratization movement known as
minjung
.
References
[
edit
]