Woo Bum-kon incident

Background

Woo Bum-kon (also romanized as Wou Bom-kon; Korean: 우범곤; Hanja: 禹范坤; born November 5, 1955) was born in Choryang, located in Dong District, Busan. His father was also a policeman, and he aspired to follow in his footsteps. He had served in the Marines, where he was recognized as a skilled marksman until his discharge in 1978.

In December 1980, Woo joined the National Police in Busan. He was reportedly still well-regarded for his marksmanship and from April to December 1981, Woo was assigned to "special duty" as a guard at the Blue House. However, Woo was informally demoted due to complaints regarding his "severe drinking habits and violent temper", and stationed to Gungnyu myeon in Uiryeong County. He lived in Apgok ri, where he began dating a local woman, Chun Mal-soon.……

Attack

On the afternoon of April 26, 1982, Woo had an argument with his live-in girlfriend, Chun Mal-soon (전말순; 全末順), after she had woken him by swatting a fly on his chest. Enraged, Woo left the house and went to the Gungnyu police station, where he reported for duty at 4:00 p.m. According to early reports, he began drinking heavily, though eyewitnesses later said that he did not appear drunk during his rampage. According to local officials, he would have been unable to cover 4 km (2.5 mi) of difficult, rocky terrain while intoxicated.

At about 7:30 p.m., Woo returned home, assaulted Chun and smashed their furniture before making his way to the reservists' armory and gathering several weapons, including two M2 carbines, at least 180 rounds of ammunition, and seven hand grenades.……

Chronology

At approximately 9:30 p.m., Woo shot and killed a pedestrian before entering the local post office in Togok, where he killed three people, including a telephone operator, and cut the phone lines.……

Victims

Besides Woo, 56 people died in the shooting while 35 others were wounded. Six of the deaths were of people mortally wounded who died several hours later in hospitals, including a child who died on May 8. At that time, the injured were being treated in hospitals in Jinju and Masan. The youngest victim was a one-week-old infant, while the oldest was a woman in her 70s. In total, 4 people were killed in Togok, 6 in Agok, 15 in Ungye and 28 in Pyeongchon.

The death toll is disputed from source to source. 57 people were confirmed dead initially, and 6 were later confirmed dead due to related injuries, but some South Korean sources state that the death toll may have risen to at least 79 after multiple injured victims succumbed to their wounds. Despite the conflicting reports on the death toll, the injury count consistently remains around 35 or more from all available sources.……

Investigation

At the time, local police concluded that the shootings were committed in an intoxicated state due to anger stemming from Woo's argument with his girlfriend. However, this motive was challenged and a later re-examination by the Incident Cause Investigation Unit instead determined that Woo had acted out of dissatisfaction with his demotion.

Aftermath

The state-controlled Yonhap News Agency did not report on the incident on orders of the government under President Chun Doo-hwan, which contributed to a lack of commemoration for the victims until 2024. Earlier, on April 10, 1982, the Chun government had launched the National Movement for Consciousness Reform, due to which South Korean authorities viewed the killings, which were reported as the worst incident of mass murder in history, as bad publicity for both domestic and international politics. Reports only began in the evening of April 27, with articles containing little information and the incident only became widely known when independent press reporters arrived in Uiryeong.

After the shootings, it was found that the four other officers of the Gungnyu police station, including the chief of police, had not been working that night and secretly spent time at a hot spring.……

Memorial

In 2018, a petition for a memorial was launched by Jeon Byeong-tae, whose 19-year-old son was killed in the incident.……