Minchunghakryeon Incident

Overview

The Minchunghakryeon Incident (National Democratic Youth and Student Federation Incident) was a case in which, after plans for simultaneous anti-Yushin protests at universities nationwide became known on April 3, 1974, the Park Chung Hee government proclaimed Presidential Emergency Decree No. 4 that same night and severely punished students who had prepared the protests by branding them as subversive forces. "Minchunghakryeon" was closer to a name students had printed on leaflets, but the Korean Central Intelligence Agency defined it as an organization secretly directed by communists. A total of 1,024 people were investigated, and more than 180 were detained and indicted, receiving severe sentences including death and life imprisonment from the Emergency Court-Martial. Eight people connected to the People's Revolutionary Party Reconstruction Committee Incident, who were identified as its backers in the same investigation, were executed in 1975.

Background

After the October Yushin of 1972, resistance grew. In August 1973, the Kim Dae-jung kidnapping incident came to light, and from October campus protests intensified. On January 8, 1974, the government invoked Emergency Decrees Nos. 1 and 2, banning discussion of constitutional revision. Against this backdrop, a movement arose within the student movement to unite protests scattered across individual universities on a nationwide scale, and students at Seoul National University and several other universities prepared simultaneous demonstrations for April 3 (Encyclopedia of Korean Culture).

Course of Events

• Emergency Decree No. 4 (April 3, 1974): In a special statement, President Park Chung Hee claimed that Minchunghakryeon was manipulated by subversive forces seeking a "people's revolution," and banned activities related to Minchunghakryeon as well as class boycotts and collective actions by students. Violators could be arrested, detained, and searched without warrants, and could be punished by the Emergency Court-Martial with a maximum penalty of death.
• Announcement of the investigation (April 25, 1974): The Korean Central Intelligence Agency defined Minchunghakryeon as "a force seeking to overthrow the government, centered on students holding communist ideology," and announced that behind it were the People's Revolutionary Party organization, the Chongryon, the Japanese Communist Party, and the left wing of the progressive faction. A total of 1,024 people were taken into custody and interrogated without warrants, and 253 were transferred to the prosecution division of the military court.
• Indictment (May 27, 1974): The prosecution division of the Provisional General Court-Martial announced in a supplementary statement that 54 people had been indicted in the first round, and the final number of indicted persons reached more than 180. Former President Yun Bo-seon, Bishop Ji Hak-soon, Reverend Park Hyung-gyu, and professors Kim Dong-gil and Kim Chan-kook, among other religious figures and opposition figures outside government, were also indicted on charges of providing funds to students or inciting protests. Japanese nationals Tachikawa Masaki and Hayakawa Yoshiharu, who were covering the case as journalists, were also arrested.