Background
On November 14, 1947 the United Nations passed UN Resolution 112, calling for a general election under the supervision of the UN Commission. However, the Soviet Union refused to comply with the UN resolution and denied the UN Commission access to the northern part of Korea. The USSR first held elections in the north, reporting a 99.6% turnout with 86.3% of voters supporting government backed candidates. The UN Assembly subsequently adopted a new resolution calling for elections in areas accessible to the UN Commission which at the time, included only the United States Army Military Government in Korea, also known as USAMGIK.
Upset by the partition of the peninsula, the communist Workers Party of South Korea planned rallies on March 1 to denounce and block the upcoming general elections scheduled for May 10. US reports estimated that some 60 000 or 20% of the Jeju population were party members and a further 80 000 fellow travellers. The arrest of 2,500 party cadres, and the killing of at least three of them, broke up the planned demonstrations.
Read more about this topic: Jeju Uprising
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