In May 1980, a Korean woman hugged and grieved over a coffin at the morgue of a relative who was killed in the Gwangju Uprising. On the right side of the coffin was written “Unknown.

　 In May 1980, a Korean woman hugged and grieved over a coffin at the morgue of a relative who was killed in the Gwangju Uprising. The coffin on its right side was marked “Unknown.

　The Gwangju Uprising in southwestern South Korea broke out on May 18, 1980, in response to the imposition of martial law by Jeon Doo-hwan in a military coup on May 17, 1980. Martial Law No. 10 closed universities, banned political activities, and restricted the press. The uprising broke out when students at Chonnam National University who demonstrated against martial law were fired upon, killed, raped, beaten, and tortured by the Korean military.Some Gwangju citizens took up arms and formed militias. Some Gwangju citizens armed themselves and formed militias to storm local police stations and armories. They overran most of Gwangju before Korean soldiers re-entered the city and put down the uprising. Students and all other leaders of the pro-democracy movement were suspected of being traitors and anti-government criminals, and the charges against those treated as prisoners were brutal.

　　On May 21, around 1:00 p.m., Korean troops opened fire on the crowd assembled in front of the Jeollanam-do provincial government building, resulting in numerous casualties. Some demonstrators attacked a reserve army armory and a nearby police station, armed with M1 rifles and M1/M2 carbines. By then, up to 200,000 people were fighting against 100,000 troops. The South Korean government has announced that 165 people were killed in this massacre of the Gwangju Uprising. In recent years, scholars have estimated between 600 and 2,300 casualties in relation to this massacre count. Only a handful of foreign correspondents were able to report on the Gwangju Uprising, and on May 27, the Martial Law Command suppressed the protests.