[Interview] Honoring the life of Yoon Sang-won, activist who died for democracy

Former Minister of Health and Welfare Lee Tae-bok (third left), chair of the Yoon Sang-won Memorial Project Association, views a bust of democratization activist Yoon Sang-won along with Yoon’s mother (fourth left), Yoon’s brother (far left), and head of Gwangju’s Gwangsan District at the Gwangsan District Office on May 14. (provided by the Gwangsan District Office)

“The reason I’ve kept putting things off despite the need to leave some records behind may be because of how terribly painful it is to recall those memories and how unspeakably ashamed I am to be alive.”Former Minister of Health and Welfare Lee Tae-bok, who chairs the Yoon Sang-won Memorial Project Association, recently published a piece titled “Gwangju in May: Missing Yoon Sang-won,” in which the 70-year-old recalled his relationship with Yoon (1950-80), a spokesperson for the citizens’ militia during the events of the May 1980 Gwangju Democratization Movement.The piece was written to support the compilation of “A Critical Biography of Yoon Sang-won” by Kim Sang-jip, an executive director with the Gwangju-South Jeolla June Struggle Memorial Project Association.Yoon fatally shot while fighting martial law forces on May 27, 1980