Thirty years of Torture towards Democracy

As I begin talking to him in my soft, everyday speaking volume, Tae Eul Chung squints as if he cannot hear a single word I am saying. Mr. Chung, a 61 year-old, lost the hearing ability of his right ear during an intense police interrogation back in the days of absolute dictatorship under the South Korean military. Currently residing in Glendale, California, Mr. Chung could not be happier seeing the high level of democracy in present day South Korea. He smiles proudly. However, beneath his happiness, I could sense sorrow and bitterness. He pauses for a moment. He reflects back on those difficult times then begins to speak about the past—the terrible, ever long fight to achieve freedom; a fight that did not seem to have an end.

Well, the whole dictatorship began when Mr. Lee Seung Man was overthrown from presidency. What happened was that Mr. Lee, South Korea’s president during that period, cheated to remain in office. A major student protest broke out and finally, on 19 April 1960, Mr. Lee was thrown out. Then through fair elections, Mr. Bo Sun Yoon, became the next president. But unfortunately, during this long commotion, the South Korean head military general Jung Hee Park, planned to take over South Korea using military power. He soon blew out the “coup d’Etat,” also known as the blow of state. Basically, the military dominated South Korea during a period when the country was supposed to be democratic by law.

For this reason, another major protest broke out—once again by the young, South Korean college students. Unfortunately this time, Mr. Park was not very happy either with the disagreements. So Mr. Park commanded brutal punishments and interrogations to the protestors once they were caught. They were to be drafted into the army…in worse cases, some were even expelled from their universities. Yes, I too, protested with my colleagues. But eventually, I got caught. I had to face brutal abuse and intense interrogations by the police. As the student body president of my university, I was harassed and punished most severely; first, for participating in the protest and second, for information and secrets about the protest. To be honest with you, it was terrifying. They dipped my head in a bathtub filled with water over and over again, beat my bare flesh with wooden sticks until I was covered in a river of blood, and repeatedly banged my head on the wall as if I were an item.

Then after their fill torturing, Mr. Park and his fellow people made sure that every one of those protestors could not return back to an ordinary life in the Korean society. The protestors’ human rights and all sorts of powers were taken away. Some unlucky citizens were even accused of being North Korean, a communist, a “spy.” Some head leaders of the protest were executed, while the minor participants were fined. Although I do not wish to remember the cries and the sufferings of the innocent people, it is forever engraved in my head, my heart…it hurts to think about them. I still vividly remember how powerless we South Koreans were back then. There were no rights, freedoms for us whatsoever. No freedom of press, speech, assembly, nothing. South Korea was supposedly a democratic nation during that time, but only dictatorship and authoritarian rule existed then.

Luckily, after eighteen consecutive years of this nonsense dictatorship, Mr. Park’s regime finally came to an end. His repressive form of government crumbled down in an instant. Mr. Park Jung Hee and a few government officials were at a dinner party. Then Je Gyu Kim, Mr. Park Jung Hee’s “right arm,” shot Mr. Park to death. I remember reading in a newspaper that Mr. Je Gyu Kim, the assassin, confessed the killing in a court trial. But what I want you tell you here is that the collapse of this eighteen-year-long corruption was possible because of the fact that even Mr. Park’s very own collaborator thought that a change was urgently needed.    

Well, although the assassination did get rid of Mr. Park, it also began more controversy. You see, the authoritarian rule lasted from May 16th 1961 all the way to October 26th of 1978. Then, the congress attempted to set out free elections to elect a temporary president, but Mr. Kyung Hoon Kim, another military general, decided that he was going to rule over the country. He caused the 1980 12.12 incident, where “new military powers” took over S. Korea. This time, things were a bit harsher. The national broadcasting stations such as KBS, MBC, TBS, and all of the five news presses, Dong Ah, Han Kook, Dae Han, Joong Ang, and Kyung Hyang were all controlled by the officials. The new military okayed every bit of public broadcasting. Once again for the second time, no signs of democracy was shown.

After about ten more consecutive years of military regime, in 1992, S. Korea held the very first, “real” democratic election. Mr. Young Sam Kim was elected the very first true president in the history of South Korea. It is pretty sad that it took nearly thirty years for a democratic nation to fully become what it claimed to be for fifty years. Ever since the real democratic reformations, S. Korea reestablished its Congress and the governmental structures. After this change, South Korea by far became stronger economically and democratically. Most South Koreans involved with previous protests were given the chance to go back their original places. Many South Koreans tried their best to live lives to the fullest, which was good. From a per capita income of about eighty dollars per person back in the 1960s, it raised to $1300 per capita income by 1998. With an eighty percent economical raise each year, South Korea became one of the fastest growing nations both democratically and economically speaking. I am telling you, those areas are still growing even at this very moment.    

Carrie Kim