The April Revolution, sometimes called the April 19 Revolution or April 19 Movement, was a popular uprising in April 1960, led by labor and student groups, which overthrew the autocratic First Republic of South Korea under Syngman Rhee. It led to the peaceful resignation of Rhee and the transition to the Second Republic. The events were touched off by the discovery of a body in Masan Harbor, that of a student killed by a tear-gas shell in demonstrations against the elections of March.
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During the elections of 1960, Syngman Rhee was determined to see Gibung Lee elected as the independent Vice President. He ran against Chang Myon, former ambassador to the United States during the Korean War. On March 15 Gibung Lee won the elections with an abnormally wide margin.
It became clear that the vote was fraudulent and this prompted unrest among students. At its aftermath, President Rhee stepped down from power and his Prime Minister Gibung Lee committed suicide along with his family.
On March 15, 1960, a protest against electoral corruption took place in Masan. The protest, sparked by Democratic Party members' exposure of electoral corruption, led to about a thousand residents of Masan gathering in front of the Democratic Party Headquarters in Masan around 7:30 in the evening. As the citizens faced off against the police, the city was blacked out. The police started shooting at the people and the people responded by throwing rocks at the police.
On April 11, Kim Ju-yul's body was found on the beach at Masan by a fisherman. Kim had been a student at Masan Commercial High School who had disappeared during the Masan rioting of March 15. Authorities announced that an autopsy confirmed that the cause of his death was drowning, but many rejected this explanation. Some protesters forced their way into the hospital. They found that Kim's skull had been split by a 20 centimeter-long tear gas grenade which had penetrated from Kim's eyes to the back of his head. This fact reported by Korean major press along with a picture of Kim when his body was first found, and delivered to the world through AP. This incident eventually shocked the nation and became the basis of a national movement against electoral corruption on April 19.
President Rhee claimed that the Communist Party of North Korea had been behind the Masan protests trying to shift the focus. Later a National Assembly investigating committee found that the firing into the crowd by the police had not been intended to disperse the crowds, but rather to kill protesters. And it was revealed at a criminal trial that Park Jong-pyo, the Chief of Public Security who ordered firing against protesters, tied rocks up on Kim Ju-yul's dead body and threw him away into the Masan shore to prevent him floating up on the shore. Then on April 28, Minister of Interior Choi In-Kyu and the Chief of Security resigned taking responsibility for the Masan incident.
There are many different reasons why the April Revolution took place. The most commonly known reason why the Revolution took place was because of the corruption in government during the rule of President Rhee Syng-man. What tipped off the movement into quick motion was the discovery of Kim Ju-yul, a high school student involved in the protests and riots, dead on the shore of Masan beach. Although Kim Ju-yul’s death was the main turning point, there were several other reasons why the movement progressed to the outcome of the April Revolution. Along with corruption in the government, there was also discontent in Korea involving the election riggings, economic difficulties, Rhee being in power too long, Police attacking Korea University students, and Rhee’s support of the vice president that was not popular among the general public.[1]
In more detail, the Republic of Korea’s first president, Rhee Syng-man was considered a corrupt man because he constantly amended the constitution as he pleased to extend his political power and extend his presidency.[2] During the 1960 election, two main parties were running against Rhee Syng-man. A small progressive party was represented by Cho Pong-am and the leader of the Democratic party was represented by Cho Pyong-ok. Cho Pong-am was put in prison before the 1960 election and was soon executed afterward. Cho Pyong-ok went to America for a stomach operation but died of a heart attack in the States. The death of these two contestants seemed too much of a coincidence to the Korean public and they assumed that the deaths were the result of corruption. The election of the vice president, which was done separately in Korea, was also considered unfair. According to the Korean Report, Democratic rallies were prohibited throughout the nation and hundreds of pre-marked ballots were stuffed into ballots on election day.[1] When protesting started to become prominent, the military stayed neutral, but the police officers and thugs of the “anti-communist league” showed extreme violence leading to several deaths. These events were what ignited discontent among Korean students and citizens. The violence against the demonstrators was a catalyst for action among students and citizens.[2]
Students marched from Korea University to the Blue House, located about three miles away. As they marched past other universities, their numbers grew. Finally, arriving at the Presidential Mansion, the students outnumbered the soldiers. The soldiers fired on the demonstrators, who were calling for Rhee’s resignation. The soldiers killed approximately 200 students and wounding thousands. The April 19 Movement refers to the demonstrations that brought down the South Korean President Syngman Rhee.
On April 25, 1960 professors joined students and citizens in the large-scale protest outnumbering the soldiers.
After violent rallies and demonstrations continued into the end of April, the rallies started to grow and the violent aspect of the rallies started to slowly disappear. By the April 25, 1960, more citizens and professors started to join the demonstrations, and the police started to withdraw, refusing to attack the protestors.[1] President Rhee Syng-man stepped down from his presidency soon after these events. Lee Ki-poong, Rhee’s hand-picked running mate for the vice presidency was blamed for most of the corruption in the government. Syng-man Rhee was not as blamed as Lee Ki-poong. The public’s main criticism of Rhee Syng-man was that he was too old (being 85 at the time) and was too out of touch for politics. Lee Ki-Poong and his entire family committed suicide after the April Revolution.[3] After the resignation of Rhee Syng-man and the death of Lee Ki-poong, the rule of the Liberal Party government came to an end. When the reign of the Liberal Party ended there was not a direct transfer of power to the Democratic Party government, which was the largest party to oppose the Liberal Party. Instead, the government being taken over by the opposite political party, General Park Chung-hee and a group of soldiers under his military command, established a military government on May 19, 1961. Korea eventually regained its president-centered government after the Democratic Republican party took control and changed the constitution, but transition to full democracy came as late as 1987.[2][4]