Jeju Uprising - During The Korean War

During The Korean War

Immediately after the North Korean attack on South Korea which opened the Korean War, the South Korean military ordered "preemptive apprehension" of suspected leftists nationwide. Thousands were detained on Jeju, then sorted into four groups, labeled A, B, C and D, based on the perceived security risks each posed. On August 30, 1950, a written order by a senior intelligence officer in the South Korean Navy instructed Jeju's police to "execute all those in groups C and D by firing squad no later than September 6." In March 1950, North Korea sent thousands of armed insurgents to resuscitate the guerrilla fighting on Jeju, but by this time the South Korean army had become particularly adept at counterinsurgency and squashed the new insurgency in only a few weeks.

South Korean soldiers assaulted villages and took away young men and girls. The young men were executed, and girls were also executed after they had been gangraped over weeks. Seventy percent of Jeju island villages were burned by the troops.