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| ▲ President Yoon Suk Yeol delivers a speech during a ceremony to mark the 63rd anniversary of the April 19, 1960, pro-democracy uprising by students at the April 19th National Cemetery in Seoul on April 19, 2023. (Yonhap) |
Yoon-democracy uprising
Yoon vows to defend freedom, democracy from 'swindlers'
By Lee Haye-ah
SEOUL, April 19 (Yonhap) -- President Yoon Suk Yeol vowed Wednesday to defend freedom and democracy from "swindlers" as he marked the anniversary of a 1960 pro-democracy civil uprising that led to the ouster of South Korea's first President Rhee Syng-man.
In an address on the 63rd anniversary of the "April 19 Revolution," Yoon offered his condolences to the families of the students and civilians killed in the uprising and promised to remember and pass on their deeds to future generations.
"The democracy that we have defended with blood and sweat is constantly under threat and challenged," Yoon said during a ceremony at the April 19th National Cemetery in northern Seoul, which holds the remains of 186 people killed in the uprising.
"It can be challenged by dictatorships, violence and buyouts with money. But in today's world, false incitement, fake news, threats, violence, incitement, and such things are distorting and threatening democratic decision-making systems, which must be rooted in truth and the free formation of public opinion," he said.
Yoon denounced threats to democracy as a threat to freedom, and a crisis for democracy as a crisis for freedom, saying the world has frequently borne witness to forces that threaten democracy with fake incitement and fabrication, pretending to be democracy or human rights activists while siding with dictatorships and totalitarianism.
"We must not be deceived by such lies and disguise," he said. "The freedom and democracy that the patriotic martyrs of the April 19 Revolution defended with blood must not be made into a mockery by swindlers."
The civil revolt was touched off by public anger over vote rigging in the presidential election by the Rhee government in power at the time.
A series of nationwide student protests culminated on April 19 with hundreds of demonstrators killed or wounded in clashes with armed police.
The uprising ultimately forced Rhee to step down after 12 years in office. Rhee was the first president of South Korea, which was founded in 1948 after its liberation from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule. Rhee later went into exile in Hawaii and died there in 1965.
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