Jeju uprising

Jeju uprising
Hangul	제주 4·3 사건
Hanja	濟州四三事件
Revised Romanization	Jeju sasam sageon
McCune–Reischauer	Cheju sasam sakŏn

Jeju uprising
	Part of the division of Korea
	; Map of South Korea with Jeju highlighted at the bottom in red
Date	April 3, 1948 – May 13, 1949; (1 year, 1 month, 1 week and 3 days)
Location	Jeju Island, South Korea
Result	Uprising suppressed
Belligerents
Workers' Party of South Korea Local supporters;	United States Army Military Government in Korea (until August 1948); South Korea (from August 1948); Northwest Youth League; Korean Youth League
Commanders and leaders
Kim Dal-sam; Pak Hon-yong	William F. Dean; Syngman Rhee; Kim Ik-ryeol
Casualties and losses
Several thousand killed	162 soldiers killed; 289 policemen killed; 640 paramilitaries killed; Total:; 1,091 killed
	14,373 civilians killed (86% by security forces and 14% by insurgents); 30,000 total dead including combatants (The governor of Jeju at the time privately reported the death toll to be around 60,000; Bruce Cumings claim some source suggest death toll number 80,000; Spencer C. Tucker notes estimates as high as 100,000)

The Jeju uprising, known in South Korea as the Jeju April 3 incident (Korean: 제주 4·3 사건), was an uprising on Jeju Island from April 1948 to May 1949. A year prior to its start, residents of Jeju had begun protesting elections scheduled by the United Nations Temporary Commission on Korea (UNTCOK) to be held in the United States-occupied half of Korea, which they believed would entrench the division of the country. A general strike was later organised by the Workers' Party of South Korea (WPSK) from February to March 1948. The WPSK launched an insurgency in April 1948, attacking police and Northwest Youth League members stationed on Jeju who had been mobilized to suppress the protests by force.^{: 166–167} The First Republic of Korea under President Syngman Rhee escalated the suppression of the uprising from August 1948, declaring martial law in November and beginning an "eradication campaign" against rebel forces in the rural areas of Jeju in March 1949, defeating them within two months. Many rebel veterans and suspected sympathizers were later killed upon the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950, and the existence of the Jeju uprising was officially censored and repressed in South Korea for several decades.^: 41

The Jeju uprising was notable for its extreme violence; between 14,000 and 30,000 people (10 percent of Jeju's population) were killed, and 40,000 fled to Japan.^{: 139, 193} Atrocities and war crimes were committed by both sides, but historians have noted that the methods used by the South Korean government to suppress protesters and rebels were especially cruel, with violence against civilians by pro-government forces contributing to the Yeosu-Suncheon rebellion in South Jeolla during the conflict.^: 171^: 13–14^: 186 Some historians and scholars, including military historian Allan R. Millett, regard the Jeju uprising as the true beginning of the Korean War.

In 2003, the National Committee for Investigation of the Truth about the Jeju April 3 Incident chaired by South Korean prime minister Goh Kun described the event as a genocide. South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun issued an official apology on behalf of the South Korean government. In 2019, the South Korean police and the defense ministry apologized for their involvement in the massacres in Jeju.

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