Jeonnam Provincial Council Unanimously Calls for Enactment of the 21st National Assembly's First Bill, the 'Yeo-Sun Incident Special Act'

Assemblyman Kang Jeong-hee Leads Proposal to Urge Enactment of the Yeosun Incident Special Act

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Chunsu] On the 2nd, the Jeonnam Provincial Council announced that the “Petition to Urge the Enactment of the Special Act on the Yeosu-Suncheon October 19 Incident as the First Bill of the 21st National Assembly,” which was proposed by Representative Kang Jeonghee, was passed at the plenary session.

All members of the Jeonnam Provincial Council strongly urged the 21st National Assembly to enact the Special Act on the Yeosu-Suncheon Incident as the first bill of the National Assembly immediately after the organization of the National Assembly is completed in accordance with the National Assembly Act.

The Special Act on the Yeosu-Suncheon Incident, which has been proposed since the 16th National Assembly, has not been enacted for 20 years as it was repeatedly automatically discarded or left pending without proper deliberation in the National Assembly.

The Jeonnam Provincial Council has petitioned the government and the National Assembly for the enactment of the special law five times in the past to investigate the truth of the Yeosu-Suncheon Incident and restore the honor of the victims.

Also, the Jeonnam Provincial Council’s Yeosu-Suncheon Incident Special Committee frequently met with lawmakers from both ruling and opposition parties and government officials to persuade them of the necessity of enacting the special law and sought their assistance. Last year, they held a meeting on the enactment of the special law with Lee Chaeik, chairman of the Legal Affairs Subcommittee of the Liberty Korea Party, and the bereaved families’ association.

In the 20th National Assembly, although 139 lawmakers participated as co-sponsors in the bills proposed by five lawmakers from both ruling and opposition parties, the bills were left pending in the standing committee and automatically discarded.

However, on January 20th, the Suncheon branch of the Gwangju District Court acquitted the late railroad worker Jang Bonghwan, who was executed during the Yeosu-Suncheon Incident, after 72 years, officially recognizing the Yeosu-Suncheon Incident as a “massacre of civilians committed by state authority under the pretense of trial,” marking a new turning point for the enactment of the special law.

Representative Kang Jeonghee stated, “Before the last general election, the Jeonnam Provincial Council’s Yeosu-Suncheon Special Committee requested all elected lawmakers from Jeonnam constituencies to make the passage of the special law a key pledge immediately after the opening of the 21st National Assembly, and received written promises.”

Representative Kang emphasized, “More than ten thousand innocent civilian victims were unfairly sacrificed in the Yeosu-Suncheon Incident itself, but the impact this incident had on our modern history is truly enormous. After the Yeosu-Suncheon Incident, the all-powerful National Security Act was wielded like an invincible weapon, and the ‘Bodo League Incident’ and the Korean War, the greatest national tragedies, were profoundly influenced by this state-level event.”

She added, “This year marks the fourth year of the Moon Jae-in administration, with more than half of its term passed, and considering that most of the bereaved families are elderly in their 70s and 80s, and that the Jeju 4·3 Incident took about seven years just for the first victim investigation after the enactment of the special law, there is no more time or justification to delay the enactment of the special law.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.