사일팔 - April Revolution and Korea University

If anyone was near the main sqaure at KU (Korea University) today, they would have noticed loud korean traditional drums, colorful flags, and about a thousand students making noise for an event called 사일팔 (Sa Il Pal - presidential protest).  On this day in the year 1960, Korea University and a couple other universities played a significant role in Korean history.

Syngman Rhee was the first president of SK during the korean war and also immediately after.  After taking control, he used his power to arrest (and even kill) many of his opponents and after serving for two terms (the maximum allowed), he changed the constitution to allow him to stay longer.  Things were already pretty bad with election rigging, corruption in the government, and general discontent with the korean economy, but things began to snowball when a high school protester was discovered dead with the police at fault.  On april 18th, students from korea university started a non-violent protest against corruption and police violence - following this, the police chief called on gangs to attack them on the way home.  This sparked even more response, as the next day tens of thousands of students gathered before the presidential mansion and the police fired at them.  Soon after, president rhee stepped down from power and the second republic of south korea was established.

Today students honor those who risked their lives for democracy by remembering them in a run which is around 8 km from the school to the memorial hall.   IVF (the christian club I am part of) has a reputation for being more politically involved, but there were people at todays event grouped in clubs ranging from everything from astronomy to international relations. This event also serves as a space for people to protest other things - our club alliance group cheered for lower tuition, better working conditions for part time staff at KU, and more public space for students.  One of my club mates pictured below is sharing how we are losing club space (for small groups) and also did this chant thing for lower tuition.

The above picture was during our run to the memorial hall.  It was more of a walk at many parts as we were on the street and had to wait for traffic lights and such.  There were a lot of police that also were there to help guide traffic and such.  At the beginning, we all gathered in the main square of korea university.

We eat dinner together as a club afterwards on the street:

Though dictatorship was held off, things were quite unsatisfactory for South Koreans.  Many south korean politicians were involved with scandals related to corruption.  The previous president Lee was involved in many scandals, as was the one before him, Roh, who committed suicide in 2009.  Though I think the Korean people are critical of their leaders, what they really are hungry for is someone with integrity to lead their country.

 It is somewhat interesting for me to compare this with UBC, my home university.  It seems like the biggest problem we have is trying to get people to vote, and imagining this number of students gathering to run for 8 km for anything politically related is somewhat ridiculous.

Also in case anyone is interested, North Korea has continued to threaten the South and basically the response for most people is the same as before (none).  Next Month, I am going to the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) and JSA (Joint Security Area) that separate NK from SK, which should be interesting.