June 20, 2019 — In a tightly packed room at the United Nations, human rights experts gathered for a historic symposium to commemorate a dark chapter of South Korea’s past, the Jeju Uprising and Massacre that began on April 3, 1948, and continued until 1951, which Koreans now refer to as “the 4.3 Jeju” events. Over 100 persons, including notable academic panelists, human rights experts, journalists, diplomats, religious leaders, and peace activists attended the symposium.
In a powerful moment that brought many in the room to tears, Ko Wan-soon, a now 80-year-old Jeju woman who witnessed the massacre when she was 8 years old recounted her painful memories. “Discovered by the soldiers, I was dragged out into the street, and the sky was filled with smoke as the village burned,” she said. “Bang, bang, bang, I heard gunshots, and the heads I saw were gone.”
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