CIVIL WAR, POLITICIDE, AND THE POLITICS OF MEMORY IN SOUTH KOREA, 1948-1961 by Brendan Wright A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (History) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) September 2016 © Brendan Wright, 2016 Abstract This thesis explores the history and memory of three incidents of massacres committed by South Korean government forces during the Korean civil war (1948-1953) against alleged "communists"—the Cheju Incident, the National Guidance League Incident, and the Kŏch'ang Incident. These three episodes were part of a broader "politicide" that was organized and facilitated by the nascent South Korean National Security State. Drawing from sources unearthed by the South Korean Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the National Committee for the Investigation of the Truth about the Cheju 4.3 Incident, and various bereaved family associations, this dissertation demonstrates that this politicide was rooted in processes of anticommunist ideological consolidation and state building that were predicated upon the obliteration of the "communist" other, in the context of a fratricidal civil war. From 1953 to 1960, in the aftermath of this period of mass violence, survivors and bereaved families were subjected to legal, economic, and social discrimination from the state, which threatened these families with "social death". Most profoundly, state prohibitions on the burial and mourning of "communists" engendered a social crises within these communities. However, some families were granted the right to mourn, and through the construction of mass graves honouring the victims, these families articulated an alternative identity than that imposed by the anticommunist state: one that was rooted in the notion of a unified bereaved subject. In 1960, the authoritarian First Republic collapsed, leading to a brief period of liberation. In this context, victims formed Bereaved Family Associations. Through petitions, advertisements, private and public mourning practices, and the establishment of "truth" committees, the Bereaved Family Associations offered a radical rethinking of the Korean War past. The lynchpin of this strategy was an alternative nationalist narrative in which the alleged "communists" were reconceived as patriotic martyrs for a not-yet-authored unified democratic state. However, in the wake of the military coup of May 16, 1961, these efforts were brutally repressed, as the military junta arrested and tortured the Bereaved Family Associations' leadership, destroyed monuments dedicated the atrocities' victims, and desecrated the mass graves built to honour the spirits of the dead. ii Preface This work is the original, independent work of the author. Elements of the author's article, "Politicidal Violence and the Problematics of Localized Memory at Civilian Massacre Sites: The Cheju 4.3 Peace Park and the Kŏch'ang Incident Memorial Park", Cross Currents: East Asian Culture and History Review. 4, no. 1, (2015): 204-233, appear in the introduction and conclusion. A section of the author's article "Raising the Korean War Dead: Bereaved Family Associations and the Politics of 1960-1961 South Korea", The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 13, Issue 40, No. 2, October 12, 2015, appears in Chapter Four. Both articles are the copyright of the author. iii Table of Contents ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................................. ii PREFACE ..................................................................................................................................................... iii TABLE OF CONTENTS.............................................................................................................................. iv INTRODUCTION: A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE CASTS ITS SHADOW ........................................... 1 CHAPTER ONE: THE CHEJU INCIDENT AND THE ORIGINS OF THE ANTICOMMINIST LEVIATHAN ............................................................................................................................................. 29 PRELUDE TO A MASSACRE .......................................................................................................................... 37 THE WINTER SLAUGHTER .......................................................................................................................... 57 STATE CREATION, RIGHTIST CONSOLIDATION, AND THE SPRAWLING ARCHITECTURE OF A POLITICIDE .. 66 CONCLUSION: THE TRIUMPH OF ANTICOMMUNISM AND A PRELUDE TO A POLITICIDE ............................. 81 CHAPTER TWO: THE KOREAN WAR LIQUIDATION OF THE SOUTHERN LEFT ................ 87 LEFTIST LIQUIDATION, REFORM, AND THE RISE OF THE NATIONAL GUIDANCE LEAGUE ........................... 91 THE NATIONAL GUIDANCE LEAGUE INCIDENT: A DE-TERRITORIALIZED POLITICIDE ............................. 106 THE GUERRILLA CAMPAIGNS AND THE KŎCH'ANG INCIDENT: A CRITICAL BACKGROUND ..................... 122 THE SECOND GUERRILLA UPRISING AND THE ROUTINE NATURE OF THE KŎCH'ANG MASSACRE............ 130 CONCLUSION: CIVIL WAR, POLITICIDE, AND THE QUESTION OF MEMORY .............................................. 145 CHAPTER THREE: SOCIAL DEATH AND POLITICIDAL HAUNTINGS (1951-1960) .............. 149 THE LEGAL AFTERMATH OF THE KŎCH'ANG INCIDENT ........................................................................... 154 IDEOLOGICAL CONSOLIDATION AND THE CONDITIONS OF SURVIVORS AND BEREAVED FAMILIES .......... 167 WRONGFUL DEATHS AND THE POLITICIZATION OF MOURNING ............................................................... 176 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................................... 190 CHAPTER FOUR: THE GHOSTS OF THE KOREAN WAR PAST ................................................ 194 THE APRIL 19 STUDENT MOVEMENT ...................................................................................................... 201 RAISING THE KOREAN WAR DEAD .......................................................................................................... 220 THE RISE OF PARK CHUNG-HEE AND THE BEREAVED FAMILY INCIDENT ................................................ 239 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................................... 243 EPILOGUE: RESIDUES OF VIOLENCE IN THE POLITICAL PRESENT ................................... 246 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................................................... 258 APPENDIX ............................................................................................................................................... 267 iv Introduction: A History of Violence Casts its Shadow In December 2014, South Korea's Constitutional Court ordered the full disbanding of the United Progressive Party (T'ongap Chinpodan) in an 8 to 1 ruling. At the heart of the court's decision was the allegation that the United Progressive Party was effectively under the control of the "Revolutionary Organization", led by Lee Sŏk-ki. Lee had been convicted in February of the same year for allegedly plotting a rebellion (naeran ŭmmo), through a clandestine network of 130 individuals with "Pro-North" (chongbuk) sympathies. The primary evidence for Lee's conviction and the UPP's disbanding came from a transcript of a secretly recorded assembly held in May 2013. Obtained through a recording given to the National Intelligence Service (NIS) by an disgruntled member of the Revolutionary Organization, Lee is alleged to have announced to his followers that the Revolutionary Organization should "prepare for war". The verdict was the first time since South Korea's 1987 democratization that a political party had been disbanded by the judiciary. It ignited a political firestorm, with debate predictably polarized. An editorial in the conservative Chosun Ilbo applauded the verdict, noting that Lee and his "Pro-North" comrades represented a clear and present danger to the national security of South Korea. Conservative activists in the street, meanwhile, were less circumspect. Outside the courthouse in Suwŏn where Lee was convicted, supporters of the ruling were heard chanting "let's exterminate the Chongbuk!" and held mock executions of Lee. The progressive Hankyŏrye, on the other hand, questioned the verdict on the grounds that clear evidence was not offered against Lee that he had the means to incite the overthrow of the government, and that banning the UPP set a dangerous precedent for democracy. The series of incidents garnered 1 international attention as well, with publications such as the New York Times and The Guardian covering the story. The Guardian's Justin McCurry referred to the ruling as "echoes of Pyongyang" and compared the government of Park Gun-Hye's (Pak Kŭn-hye) with its oppressive neighbour to the north. Amnesty International, meanwhile, framed the ruling as another sign of the "shrinking space for freedom of expression" in South Korea. Independent analysts likewise questioned the neutrality and timing of the investigations and rulings. Hyun Lee of the Korea Policy Institute noted that the NIS transcript was littered with translation errors and distortions which exaggerated the level of subversion advocated by Lee. In Hyun Lee's reading, the use