The South Korean student movement: undongkwŏn as a counterpublic sphere

In the late 1980s, the South Korean student movement was considered one of the most important political actors next to the military. In 1986, a government official privately remarked that South Korea seemed to be “at the brink of choosing either a military republic or a student republic.”1 Leaders of national student organizations such as the National Students’ Alliance (Chonhangnyŏn, organized in 1985) and the National University Students’ Committee (Chondaehyŏp, organized in 1987) were portrayed as “heroes” and as “the year’s most important persons” by the mass media.2 Without the persistence and sacrifice of the students, South Korea would not have achieved the level of democracy nor seen the rise of civil society which occurred in the 1990s.3