May 18 Truth Commission, “Soldiers Fired at Least 50 Shots... 135 People Shot to Death”

The Commission to Investigate the Truth of the May 18 Democratization Movement explains the process of exhuming the remains in a report to the nation at the commission office in Jung-gu, Seoul on May 16, two days before the 43rdanniversary of the May 18 pro-democracy movement. Mun Jae-won

An investigation by the May 18 Democratization Movement Truth Commission revealed that the military troops fired over fifty shots at citizens in more than twenty locations at the time of the May 18 pro-democracy movement. Of the 166 people who died at the hands of the soldiers, 135 died from gunshots.

The Commission to Investigate the Truth of the May 18 Democratization Movement (Truth Commission) gave its final report to the nation from its office in Jung-gu, Seoul on May 16 and announced, “After reconstructing the military’s operation to suppress the May 18 movement and analyzing maps marking the location of citizens who were injured or who died from gunshots, we discovered that the military fired weapons in at least twenty locations in Gwangju and Jeollanam-do more than fifty times in May 1980.” This was the first time that a government agency confirmed the specific number of shots that the military fired at citizens in 1980.

According to the Truth Commission, the soldiers fired the first shot in front of Gwangju High School at around 4:50 p.m. on May 19, 1980. Around eleven the next morning, shots were fired near Gwangju Station. On May 21, shots were fired around the Jeollanam-do provincial government building, where the 11th and 7th Special Forces Brigade (airborne) were stationed, and in Chonnam National University, where the 3rd Brigade was deployed. Shots were also fired in front of Chosun University, as well as in Hak-dong, Jiwon-dong, and Songam-dong, leading to casualties.

According to an analysis of hospital records and documents for compensation review by the Truth Commission, 135 people died of gunshots and at least three hundred were injured due to gunshots. A record by the truth committee in the Ministry of National Defense stated that 166 civilians died in the May 18 incident, and the latest results showed that over 80% of them were shot to death.

Among the dead, eight were minors, aged fourteen and younger, twelve were women, and five were either disabled or senior citizens ages sixty and older. Based on the hospital records and compensation review documents, 2,617 people suffered injuries.

The Truth Commission discovered a bullet supporting the fact that a Cobra helicopter (AH-1J) of the Army aviation unit deployed in the operation to suppress the Gwangju movement fired 20mm shots at Chosun University on May 21. The actual bullet was confirmed for the first time in 34 years since So Jun-yeol, former regional commander of Jeolla-do, said, “The Cobra helicopter fired shots at Chosun University” in a hearing on the Gwangju incident in the National Assembly in 1988. However, given the nature of the machine gun on a Cobra helicopter, there should have been multiple bullets, but additional bullets were not found.

The Truth Commission also confirmed that weapons including live ammunition were handed out to the troops at the time of the May 18 movement. “We verified through statements by the soldiers who were on site and through pictures of the scene that live ammunition was already distributed to some soldiers before the military collectively fired at the demonstrators after they threw Molotov cocktails and charged at the tanks around 1 p.m. on May 21,” the Commission said and added, “We obtained a statement from the machine gun shooter in the tank at the time that the machine guns on tanks were loaded with live ammunition since May 20.” The Truth Commission also confirmed that the airborne troops spread out in a line and fired shots sitting and standing in several locations simultaneously when they opened fire at citizens in front of the provincial government office based on the notes of a battalion commander at the time, prosecutorial statements in 1995, and the statements by journalists covering the scene. They confirmed that the shots were intentional, not accidental.

The Commission explained that the statements by over seventy people in the military’s chain of command suggested that Chun Doo-hwan, who was commander of the Defense Security Command at the time, was responsible for the shots and said it would clearly identify who was responsible using state-of-the-art investigation methods. Bak, who was the assistant director of human resources at the Army Headquarters at the time, said, “The order to fire was not given in writing. I agree that it was a command from Chun Doo-hwan. That shots were fired meant there was an order from the Defense Security Command.” Colonel Gim, commander of security in the Army Headquarters said, “After what happened on October 26, Yi Hui-seong had no real power, and Vice Chief of Staff Hwang Young-si was the actual commander overseeing the operation in Gwangju, and it was Commander Chun Doo-hwan who controlled Hwang Young-si.”

The Truth Commission explained that the Defense Security Command (current Defense Counterintelligence Command) engaged in espionage operations that infringed the basic rights of victims and their bereaved families upon direct orders from former President Chun Doo-hwan. Chun gave orders to conduct the so-called “pigeon scheme,” dividing the victims’ group into hardliners against moderates, and to dismantle the May 18 Mangwol cemetery, where the victims’ bodies were laid.

The Truth Commission is also exhuming the bodies of the victims who were secretly buried. The Commission discovered nine bodies in the Yeongam public cemetery, near Useuljae in Haenam, and in the hills in front of the Gwangju Prison. On May 14, they exhumed three more remains, which are believed to be from the victims of the May 18 pro-democracy movement in the hills near the reserved forces training ground in Baekya-ri, Haenam-eup in Haenam-gun, Jeollanam-do. Experts are currently examining the remains.

The pain suffered by the injured and the bereaved families was ongoing. Of the 442 people injured on May 18, 1980, 44 (10%) suffered from grade-9 or higher disabilities, while 58 (13%) of the 431 people injured on May 19, 59 (19%) of the 308 injured on May 20, and 108 (31%) of the 346 injured on May 21 acquired such severe disabilities. The Truth Commission explained that even now, 43 years after the injury, many of the victims still had bullets in their bodies and relied on opioid painkillers because of the physical injury.

According to the Truth Commission, the whereabouts of most of the key documents drawn up by past units related to the operation in Gwangju, such as the Army Headquarters, Combat and Training Command, Special Warfare Command, the 20th Division, and the 31st Division, which should have been preserved permanently or for a long period of time, were not known. The Commission concluded that legal action, such as a search and seizure, was inevitable to identify the truth.

According to the Special Act on Investigating the Truth of the May 18 Democratization Movement, the Truth Commission, which launched in January 2020, will end its investigation nearly four years later on December 16. A comprehensive report will be adopted, and government recommendations presented next June.