Sikminji: How the U.S. Colonized South Korea

Sikminji: How the U.S. Colonized South Korea

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Ever wonder why U.S. soldiers are stationed in South Korea? How about why there is even a "South" and "North" Korea? This documentary features interviews from a Korean War vet who is one of the longest imprisoned political prisoners in the world and political activists in South Korea. Watch to learn how South Korea became a U.S. colony. 

Sources:

Everyday Life in the North Korean Revolution, 1945–1950 - Suzy Kim

The Korean War: A History - Bruce Cumings 

Origins of the Korean War, Vol. 1: Liberation and the Emergence of Separate Regimes, 1945-1947 - Bruce Cumings 

*not everything is listed so if you want help finding a source please hit me up! 

Thank you for watching!

Special thanks to every person and organization in Korea that helped me build this video.

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Transcript

By August 14th of 1945, Nazi Germany and the Japanese Empire surrendered.

World War II came to an end. The Korean people who had suffered the brutal occupation of the

Japanese Empire were finally liberated. However, the celebration was short-lived.

The entire Korean peninsula, was soon occupied by foreign powers yet again. The US claimed Korea south of the 38th parallel while the Soviet Union

occupied Korea north of the 38th Parallel. This marked the beginning of a new chapter of Korean history.

For some, revolution and self-determination. And the others, the beginning of the fight against the most

powerful empire in the world.

Koreans in northern Korea celebrated liberation and welcomed 33 year old Kim Il Sung as the new leader of Liberated Korea.

Kim Il Sung was a well-known figure who earned his fame through his guerilla campaigns against Japanese troops in Manchuria.

However, even before Sung's return to the Fatherland on October of 1945,

the Korean people took action to reclaim control over their country.

After Japan retreated from Korea, one might expect chaos and confusion. However, the opposite happened.

Within days of liberation, localized and autonomous organizations called People's Committees formed in all provinces, cities, and villages across Korea.

Declassified U.S. intelligence documents reveal reveal that Americans knew just how organized and

effective the People's Committees were. The People's Committees elected leaders, distributed food and property,

collected necessary taxes, and established infrastructure and borders.

This was not only in the north, but in the south as well. 80 percent of all Koreans by liberation were peasants.

Naturally, they were mostly left leaning, and the People's Committees reflected this.

For example, the People's Committees of South Gyeonsansan Province, which is in current day South Korea, established the following platform.

Most People's Committees across the entire Korean Peninsula shared similar or identical platforms.

Under the leadership of Kim Il Sung, People's Committees across northern Korea unified to create one political system.

People's Committees were eventually adopted into the central government and are still the local governing bodies in North Korea today.

It is important to note here that northern Korea did not become a sort of colony of the Soviet Union.

Even according to American sources, Koreans were governing themselves.

And in 1946, the new Northern Korean government introduced groundbreaking laws that Koreans had never seen before.

Under the slogan of "Land To The Tillers", peasants landowners were granted ownership of the very land they worked.

Most wealthy landowners maintained their wealth by collaborating with the Japanese occupation and were viewed as national traitors.

However, the landowners were given a choice. Join the farmers as equals or flee to the south.

One landowner recollected his experience during the reform.

Workers also reaped the benefits. Under the new labor law, North Korean workers received benefits

that South Korean workers are still fighting for today.

And for the first time in Korean history, a gender equality law was established.

Mr. Ahn Hak Seop, born on April of 1930, lived and witnessed liberation and the aftermath.

Although he was born and raised south of the 38th parallel, he joined the Korean People's Army during the Korean War.

He received education and training in Pyongyang and fought as a guerrilla fighter in the South.

For his actions, he served 42 years and 4 months in South Korean prison,

making him one of the longest imprisoned political prisoners in the world.

From end to end of the Pacific, the work of liberation continues. The city of Seoul, capital of Korea, is occupied by American forces.

Initially, Koreans south of the 38th parallel welcomed the United States. However, Koreans quickly realized that the U.S. troops

came to occupy, not liberate.

General of the U.S Army Douglas MacArthur very clearly announced his intentions to the Korean people as the

U.S. began its occupation of southern Korea.

U.S. objectives in southern Korea were clear from the beginning. Creating a colony where American interests will be fulfilled.

However, there was a problem. The vast majority of Koreans did not want another occupation.

And the few that cooperated with the U.S. occupation were wealthy landowners who thrived Japanese occupation.

Americans were fully aware that most Koreans were left leaning and hated the Koreans who collaborated with the Japanese.

To address this problem, the U.S. occupation created the Korean National Police or the KNP.

However, the recruits of the KNP weren't ordinary Koreans. They were former members of the Japanese Colonial Police Force.

Under U.S. direction, 80 percent of the colonial force was reinstated

Detective Choi was terminated from the KNP after he delivered this report.

The biggest threat to U.S. objectives in southern Korea were the Korean people themselves and the People's Committees.

As the interests of the colonizer and the interests of the colonized are inevitably the opposite, Koreans fought back.

On September of 1946, 8,000 railroad workers in Busan went on strike.

Due to labor policies enforced by the American occupation, the workers and their families were starving.

The workers demanded increase in rice rations, higher wages, housing and rice

for jobless workers, better working conditions, freedom to organize, and a labor reform law like the one that passed in northern Korea.

U.S. troops and the KNP suppressed the protests, and on October 1st, a demonstrator tor was killed.

This ignited a series of violent rebellions that spread across southern Korea like wildfire.

This rebellion is known as the Autumn Uprising.

What began in Busan quickly spread to the rest of South Gyeongsang Province, then North Gyeongsang Province, and in less than a month, Gwangju, where 34

years later, South Korean troops under U.S. command would kill over 2, 000 protesters.

The riots pushed south through Chungcheong province, Gangwon province, and even to Seoul and the nearby cities.

In areas where the uprising took control, rice was confiscated and shared among the people.

Koreans, even children, led by their local people's committees, were marching for Korea free from U.S. imperialism.

A peasant from a town in South Gyeongsang Province wrote to his fellow peasants.

Protesters in Jinju demanded to "North Koreanize South Korea."

Seongju People's Committee members told the Americans, "We do not want our country to be a colony of the U.S"

The U.S. responded by mobilizing U.S. troops and the KNP and opened fire on the protesters, killing many.

The U.S. occupation recorded the following deaths in the following provinces. South Gyeongsang Province, 202 killed.

North Gyeongsang Province, 72 killed. and in South Jeolla Province, 82 killed.

These are only the recorded and known deaths. We can only imagine how many more Koreans really died at the hands of

U.S. troops and U.S. trained police Ultimately, the uprising failed in expelling the U.S. occupation

The uprising was a spontaneous and sporadic movement with no real central leadership.

However, the autumn uprising was not the final armed resistance from Koreans who wanted an independent Korea free from U.S. imperialism

Two years later, U.S troops and U.S. led south Korean police would commit massacres in Jeju Island where tens of

thousands of civilians were butchered. By 1948. the U.S. was preparing to officially create

a separate South Korean regime by holding U. N. elections. The U.S. was fully aware that this was against the wishes of the Koreans in the South.

The People's Committee of Jeju Island led an armed rebellion to fight this decision.

They did not want a separate Southern regime. that would sever Korea in half. U.S. troops and South Korean troops under

U.S. command invaded the island. The death toll is estimated to be between 30,000 to 100,000.

And when the people of Yeosu refused to partake in the massacre in Jeju, again up to 2, 000 were killed.

And on August 15, 1948, the Republic of Korea was founded, which formalized South Korea as a U.S. colony

with ultra-right Syngman Rhee as the very first president.

Then, on September 9, the North responded by founding the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Contrary to popular belief, the fighting between Northern and Southern Korean troops did not start with a surprise attack by

North Korea on June 25th of 1950. Fighting actually began almost a year prior,

with Southern forces under U.S. control instigating most of the battles.

Australian journalist Wilfred Burchett, who was present in Korea before and during the war, recalled:

The Korean War was a civil war, instigated by American occupation and division of Korea and its people.

While most of the Northern forces fought as the Korean People's Army, some, like Mr. Ahn Hak Seop

fought in special guerilla units behind enemy lines.

People like Mr. Ahn Hak Seop fought the U.S. during the Korean War to fight against colonialism.

So how is South Korea now, in the 21st century, a colony of the United States?

On the outside, South Korea appears to be an independent country. You don't see Americans holding government positions or American

troops patrolling South Korean streets. However, in the 21st century, colonialism can fully operate

much more quietly, while projecting an image of sovereignty From Syngman Rhee of 1948 to Chun Doo hwan in 1988,

South Korea was ruled by a series of military dictatorships. During these 40 years, countless Koreans were killed in the name of anti communism.

These dictatorships would not have been possible without the permission and support of the United States.

Because to the United States, it did not matter who was in charge, as long as South Korea remained a U.S. colony

To learn more about how South Korea remains a U.S. colony to this day, I spoke with Mr. Won Jin wook from the Pan Korean Alliance for Reunification.

The role that the National Security Law plays in enforcing U.S. colonialism in South Korea cannot be understated.

The National Security Law was enacted almost immediately after the founding of the Republic of Korea in 1948.

This draconian law was inspired by the Japanese Peace Preservation Law, which was used to suppress Koreans who fought for independence from the Japanese occupation.

Since then, the National Security Law has been weaponized to suppress education,

politics, and labor movements that threaten the status quo. The National Security Law states that any person who praises, incites, or propagates

the activities of an anti government organization is subject to punishment

The definition of the crime is loose, and it is so by design. To the South Korean government, the primary anti government

organization is North Korea. This has allowed the South Korean state for decades to frame

individuals and organizations as North Korean spies or sympathizers. Countless student protesters during the military dictatorship era were killed

and tortured under the accusation of them being North Korean spies. Today, despite claiming to be a democracy, the South Korean government frames

pro-reunification and labor rights activists as North Korean spies and imprisons them.

The National Security Law goes beyond punishing activists. It restricts South Koreans from having any kind of exposure to North Korea

outside of government propaganda. If you write the wrong poem, you can be imprisoned.

In 2023, a South Korean man was sentenced to 14 months in prison for writing a poem about the free healthcare,

housing, and education in North Korea. And if you listen to the wrong music, you can be imprisoned.

In 2010, a woman was sentenced to two years in prison for storing North Korean music on a USB storage device.

The U.S. occupation of South Korea is maintained by U.S. troops Currently, there are over 28,000 U.S. troops in South Korea.

And most of these troops are stationed in Camp Humphreys, which is the largest overseas U.S. military base in the world.

To learn more about the ongoing struggle for expelling U.S. troops from Korea, I spoke with

Ms. Kim Eun hye, the student chairman of the People's Democracy Party.

The relationship between South Korea and the United States is advertised as an alliance. However, the reality paints a picture of master and slave

rather than equal partners. The South Korean president does not have wartime operational control

over the South Korean military. In the event of a war, South Korean soldiers would follow the

orders of an American general. And not only are American soldiers occupying South Korea,

U.S. soldiers can commit crimes against Koreans on Korean soil and walk away unpunished.

The Status of Forces Agreement, or SOFA, was enacted by South Korea and the United States in 1967.

Under SOFA, any crimes committed by a U.S. soldier on South Korean soil is handled under U.S. jurisdiction--

given that the soldier in question was performing "official duty". The most heinous example of this occurred in 2002, when two

U.S. soldiers operating a military vehicle ran over. and killed two middle school students, Hyo Soon and Mi Seon,

while they were walking to a birthday party. The two U.S. soldiers who killed the teenage girls were investigated

under U.S. jurisdiction and were cleared of any wrongdoing.

Although SOFA technically does grant South Korea some level of jurisdiction over the crimes of US soldiers, most crimes go unpunished

According to South Korea's own Ministry of Justice in 2017, 7 out of 10 criminal offenses committed by

U.S. soldiers end up with no charges by South Korean authorities. And the rate for violent crimes is even higher,

with 8 out 10 crimes committed by U.S. soldiers going unpunished. From the first invasion of U.S. troops into Korea in 1945 to current day,

U.S. troops have treated Koreans as second class and colonial subjects. During the Japanese occupation, hundreds of thousands of Korean women

were kidnapped and enslaved to serve as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers. However, even after the U.S. replaced Japan, this practice continued.

From 1945 to the 1980s, almost a million South Korean women were lured or otherwise

forced to serve as prostitutes for U.S soldiers If the relationship between South Korea and the United States was in fact an

alliance or friendship, would the U.S. tolerate South Korean troops being stationed all across the U.S?

and behaving in the same ways U.S. troops have behaved in Korea? Would the U.S. government offer up American women for the pleasure of South Korean soldiers?

Would the U.S. tolerate South Korean soldiers murdering American citizens? And would the U.S. ever give up control of its soldiers to South Korea?

The most reasonable and obvious explanation of the relationship between South Korea and the United States is a colonial one.

South Korea serves the U.S. as a major strategic foothold in Asia, while Koreans pay the price in blood and sovereignty.

However, the struggle to free Korea from U.S. imperialism lives on.

Koreans have not given up on their freedom and continue to fight to this day. Despite living under the constant threat of the National Security Law,

Koreans in the occupied South have relentlessly fought the U.S. occupation and continue to fight.

From Jeju Island to Seoul, Koreans have fought and will continue to fight until

the U.S. Empire leaves Korea.

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