SEOUL– Rep. Tae Yong-ho, a North Korean defector-turned-lawmaker of the ruling People Power Party (PPP), has caused a controversy by insisting that a civilian uprising on Jeju Island in the late 1940s was obviously triggered by the instruction of North Korea’s late founder, Kim Il-sung.
Tae, who defected to South Korea in 2016 and was elected to the National Assembly in 2020, said on his Facebook page that he made the remarks at a PPP event on the southern resort island Sunday.
The uprising, widely known as the Jeju April 3 incident, occurred on April 3, 1948, when Jeju islanders began protesting against U.S. military-led rule following Korea’s liberation from Japan’s 1910-1945 colonial rule. The then government distorted the uprising as a communist riot and massacred up to an estimated 30,000 civilians in armed crackdowns over the subsequent years.
Tae argued that the April 3 incident was clearly an atrocity committed by the family of the North Korean founder.
“As a defector who once served in the Kim regime, I feel infinite responsibility and ask for forgiveness from the victims,” said the lawmaker, who visited Jeju as part of his ongoing campaign to become a member of the PPP’s Supreme Council.
Tae also posted a photo of him kneeling in front of a memorial stone dedicated to the uprising victims.
An association of bereaved families of the Jeju uprising victims and other relevant organizations have issued statements condemning Tae’s remarks as an absurd distortion of history.
On Tuesday, the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) decided to report Tae to the parliamentary ethics committee over the remarks.
“Rep. Tae should immediately apologize for his senseless remarks that once again wounded the victims of the Jeju April 3 incident and the already wounded bereaved families of the victims and step down as a member of the ruling party’s supreme council,” Rep. Wi Seong-gon, DP’s vice floor leader, said in a party meeting.
“Rep. Tae should properly study South Korea’s history again … He should take to heart the historical responsibility as a South Korean lawmaker, not a defector, and ask for forgiveness in front of history.”
Source: Yonhap News Agency