유월민주항쟁 33주년... 남영동대공분실에서 있었던 일
The very site where President Moon delivered his address has a painful, atrocious history of its own.
Our Kim Do-yeon files this report from the former police investigation building in Seoul.
Now known as Democracy and Human Rights Memorial Hall, this building in Seoul's Namyeong-dong was once used to directly suppress those principles.
This used to be a police investigations building during the dictatorship of the 1980s.
Anyone the police wanted to question for so-called "pro-communist activities" would be brought here.
In through a secretive back door and up a spiral staircase that led to the fifth floor directly, individuals were brought here for interrogation through torture.
One event in particular started to unite people against the dictatorship.
In January of 1987, a Seoul National University student died after being tortured by waterboarding... causing fury among the people.
"This is where the true dark side of dictatorship was revealed. The public thought to themselves that they cannot allow a government that kills innocent young students. That was one of the sparks that ignited the June Pro-Democracy Movement."
"The body was wet... there was a bathtub in the room.’ That's what the doctor who came to examine the body of Park Jong-cheol said to a journalist."
While the doctor only laid out the facts that he saw, it caused a national fury.
His words clarified some of the hidden cruelties that the government imposed on its citizens, and that was one of the driving forces behind the June 10 Pro-Democracy Movement.
Today, the doctor says he was just doing his job.
"My perspective is as a doctor. Democracy is important, but to me… if such deaths reoccurred, it would be like a disease, so I had the responsibility to stop it"
What happened in June 1987, and the events leading up to then, shaped the course of Korea's history.
In response to the citizens' efforts, the government finally decided to amend the constitution... allowing citizens to directly vote for the president... and, most importantly, have their basic rights protected.
Kim Do-yeon, Arirang News
