Acting Korean National Police Agency Commissioner Yoo Jae-sung said on the 30th that police will correct their description of the Yeosu-Suncheon Oct. 19 incident (the Yeosu-Suncheon incident) as a "rebellion."
At a comprehensive audit of the Public Administration and Security Committee at the National Assembly that day, Acting Commissioner Yoo answered "No" to a question from Rep. Jeong Chun-saeng of the Rebuilding Korea Party asking, "Was the Yeosu-Suncheon incident a rebellion?"
Earlier, it belatedly became known that at the publicity hall of the North Jeolla Provincial Police Agency, the Yeosu-Suncheon incident was labeled as the "Yeosu-Suncheon rebellion." The title was later revised to "Yeosu-Suncheon incident," but Rep. Jeong noted that the promotional text stating, "They achieved many results by moving to suppress the rebellion and disturbances by leftist forces on the scene," remains unchanged.
Rep. Jeong said, "Police are promoting as an achievement a history of civilian massacres for which they should repent. It is historical distortion and secondary victimization." In response, Acting Commissioner Yoo said, "We will clearly correct it," adding, "We will conduct a full review of other metropolitan and provincial police agencies as well."
The Yeosu-Suncheon incident took place on Oct. 19, 1948, when soldiers of the 14th Regiment of the Joseon National Defense Guard stationed in Yeosu joined with members of the South Korean Workers' Party in the Yeosu-Suncheon area and occupied the Yeosu-Suncheon region, saying they were refusing the Rhee Syng-man government's order to deploy troops to "suppress the Jeju April 3 incident." In the process of suppressing the 14th Regiment, civilians were massacred by both the rebel forces and the government suppression forces.
Although the official name was once the "Yeosu-Suncheon rebellion," the term is no longer used as the official name because it was a rebellion started by soldiers, not by the residents of Yeosu and Suncheon, and the residents were victims.