Gwangju witness draws parallels between 1980 uprising and Yoon's martial law

A former U.S. Peace Corps volunteer who witnessed the 1980 Gwangju Uprising says the citizens who converged on South Korea's National Assembly in December 2024 to block President Yoon Suk Yeol's martial law declaration showed the same democratic resilience he saw 45 years ago — but this time it worked.

Courtright's account bridges two pivotal moments in South Korean democracy and carries particular weight for Korean Americans whose families lived through the political turbulence of the 1979–1980 era — a history still deeply felt in communities across Orange County.

Courtright served as a Peace Corps volunteer in South Jeolla Province from 1979 to 1981. He was in Gwangju on May 18, 1980, when Maj. Gen. Chun Doo-hwan's forces moved against pro-democracy demonstrators, and remained until May 25 before hiking out of the city. He afterward tried to reach the U.S. Embassy to report what he had seen. "I felt that there was nothing I could do to help," Courtright told The Korea Times.

The experience left wounds that took decades to surface. "After leaving Korea, I rarely spoke about Gwangju — when I did, I choked up and often started to cry," he said. He finally published "Witnessing Gwangju" in 2020, four decades after the crackdown.

When Yoon declared martial law on Dec. 3, 2024, Courtright said his mind went immediately to 1980. "My first reaction to hearing about Yoon's martial law declaration was of shock. Was this going to be a reenactment of 1980?" he said, according to The Korea Times. Unlike in 1980, the outcome diverged sharply: citizens surrounded the National Assembly, which voted within hours to rescind the decree. Yoon was subsequently impeached and imprisoned.

"I was incredibly proud of the citizen's actions, and it reminded me of the resilience that I witnessed in Gwangju in 1980," Courtright said.

Courtright will address the Royal Asiatic Society Korea on Tuesday, May 12, at 7:20 p.m. at the Seoul Public Activities Center. He plans to draw connections between both events and what he sees as democratic backsliding in countries beyond Korea. "I hope to get the participants engaged in a discussion of what America — and other countries sliding toward autocracy — can learn from these two events in Korean history," he said.

General admission to the lecture is 10,000 won; students pay 5,000 won. Royal Asiatic Society Korea members may attend free of charge.