Gwangju Mangwol-dong 5·18 Mass Graves Site Reborn as a 'Citizen-Friendly Park'

City-Business Promotion Council Finalizes Agreement on Project Direction and Basic Plan

New Underground Passage and Integrated Management Building Connecting National Cemetery...Improved Entry and Exit Routes

The 5·18 Old Burial Site in Mangwol-dong, Gwangju, is being reborn as a citizen-friendly park.

Gwangju Metropolitan City (Mayor Kang Gi-jung) announced on the 13th that it has completed an agreement on the contents of the ‘5·18 Old Burial Site Citizen-Friendly Park Development Project’ with the project promotion council and will proceed in earnest.

The ‘5·18 Old Burial Site Citizen-Friendly Park Development Project’ is a project to develop the 5·18 Old Burial Site, a representative historic site of 5·18, into a citizen-friendly park equivalent to the National 5·18 Democratic Cemetery.

To ensure smooth progress of the project, Gwangju City formed a promotion council consisting of the 5·18 Memorial Foundation, 5·18 Public Law Organizations, Gwangju-Jeonnam Memorial Solidarity, Federation of Civic Groups, and Gwangju City Council. They discussed the project direction and basic plan (draft) over more than ten sessions.

During this process, conflicts arose over the location of the integrated management building and whether to demolish the management office, but Gwangju City made efforts to actively reflect the opinions of the promotion council and finalized the project plan.

The project plan includes ▲ the construction of an underpass considering connectivity with the National 5·18 Democratic Cemetery ▲ adjustment of the integrated management building location considering the underpass plan ▲ improvement of entry and exit routes.

Park Yong-su, Director of the Human Rights and Peace Bureau, said, “It is a meaningful achievement that the 5·18 organizations and civil society have agreed on the direction of the ‘5·18 Old Burial Site Citizen-Friendly Park Development Project.’ We will nurture the 5·18 Old Burial Site as a shared asset of humanity visited by people worldwide.”

Meanwhile, the 5·18 Old Burial Site is a symbolic place of 5·18 where victims were transported by garbage trucks and handcarts for burial during the 5·18 incident, and it is the origin of the investigation into the truth of 5·18. Every year, about 700,000 domestic and international visitors pay their respects there.

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