ABSTRACT
Our team from the Kukje Shinmun (the Kukje Daily) covering Kwangju left from our Pusan head office at 6 A.M. on May 21. We were four: I, a general news reporter; Uhm Choi Min and Kang Yong Bom, also reporters; and Kim Tag Don, a photographer. The order to cover Kwangju came from Lee Choi Ho, our editor-in-chief. In our assigned Pony car, driven by someone called Lee, our driver for this occasion, we took the Namhae Expressway. Army men stopped us on a bridge over the Sumjin River. We therefore turned about and left the expressway. We passed by Hadong, sticking to highways 18 and 19, traveling via Gurye and Gogsong, to finally reach a highway ramp near Kwangju Penitentiary. A road junction there offered a choice of several destinations, but not Kwangju. Our Pony could go no further. Soldiers blocking the road there, I noted, were from Regiment 8004, one of five army reserve regiments under Division 31.
