April 3rd 1948 - Remembering the Jeju Massacre

Democracy and Class Struggle welcomes the fact that this massacre in Jeju Island is being remembered - what is less known in the West is that more people were killed in South Korea between 1945 and 1950 before the outbreak of the Korean War than in the Spanish Civil War.

The Korean War of 1950-53 has to be seen in context of these massacres in South Korea from 1945 to 1950.

When Truth comes out reconciliation is possible and truth is a path to Korean Unification.

SEOUL, April 3 (Yonhap) -- President Moon Jae-in on Tuesday apologized to the victims of state violence during a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the bloody April 3 incident on the southern island of Jeju.

 Moon, the first head of state to attend the memorial event in a decade, also renewed his pledges to uncover the truth behind the tragedy, restore the victims' honor, make state compensations for them and retrieve the remains of the missing.

 "I, as president, deeply apologize once again for all the pains stemming from the state violence and the efforts (to heal them), and also deeply appreciate them," Moon told a gathering of some 15,000 people, including the surviving victims.

 President Moon Jae-in speaks during a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the bloody April 3 incident on the southern island of Jeju on April 3, 2018. (Yonhap)

 The Jeju April 3 incident refers to the South Korean government's anti communist suppression campaign from 1948-1954 under direction of United States.

A 2003 government report put the number of civilian deaths at between 25,000 and 30,000, about 10 percent of the island's population at the time.