The April 19 Revolution4.19 혁명: 학생들이 바꾼 나라

The April 19 Revolution of 1960 was the first time in modern Korean history that ordinary citizens brought down a government — and it set the template for every democratic movement that followed. The trigger was a blatantly rigged presidential election on March 15, 1960, held to keep the aging President Syngman Rhee in power. Protests erupted in the southern port city of Masan, and outrage exploded nationwide when the body of Kim Ju-yul, a teenage student protester (aged 15) killed by police, was found in Masan harbor in April. On April 19, tens of thousands of students and citizens marched in Seoul; police opened fire, and about 186 people were killed during the uprising. Yet the protests only grew — professors joined the students — and on April 26, Rhee resigned and went into exile, ending twelve years of increasingly authoritarian rule. Though the democratic Second Republic that followed was cut short by a military coup a year later, the revolution proved something Koreans never forgot: that power ultimately answers to the people. The current Korean constitution's preamble explicitly upholds the ideals of April 19. The National April 19 Democratic Revolution Cemetery in northern Seoul, at the foot of Bukhansan, honors the fallen students.