Sabuk Incident survivors renew demands for apology, fulfillment of TRC recommendations as third commission begins work

Dressed in their old helmets and uniforms, elderly former coal miners gathered in front of Cheong Wa Dae in central Seoul, April 14, joined by families of their deceased former co-workers. They called for the president and the government to immediately apologize to survivors of state violence. They also demanded the prompt implementation of measures for restoration of honor and support for commemorative projects, as laid out in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) nonbinding recommendations. The gathered people, now in their 70s and 80s, are survivors of an incident in Sabuk, a mountainous mining town in Gangwon Province, that saw a labor union standoff turn violent in April 1980. Ahead of the 46th anniversary of the incident, known among participants as the Sabuk Uprising, calls are being renewed for remedies that both promote the process of healing and directly reckon with the damage inflicted by state violence in suppressing the miners’ struggle and in its subsequent investigation. The Sabuk Incident was centered on the Sabuk Mining Office of the Dongwon Coal Company in

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