People's Revolutionary Party Incident

The first incident occurred on 14 August 1965. The Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) claimed Do Ye-jong (도예종, 都禮鐘), Yang Choon-woo (양춘우, 楊春遇), Park Hyun-chae (박현채) and ten other individuals organized the People's Revolutionary Party. According to the National Intelligence Service (successor to the KCIA in 1981), this was "an organization attempting to overthrow the Republic of Korea according to North Korean programs"^{[This quote needs a citation]} that "tried to recruit more people from various backgrounds to expand the party structure."^{[This quote needs a citation]} Do, Yang and Park and other six were sentenced to six years imprisonment, while the others were sentenced to a year of imprisonment and three years probation.^[1]

The second incident, also known as the "Committee for Re-establishment of the People's Revolutionary Party (PRP) Incident" (in Korean: 인민혁명당 재건위원회 사건) in South Korea, took place on 9 April 1975. In December 1972, the Park Chung-Hee government launched the "Yushin-system": an anti-constitutional system in favor of Park's autocracy named after the Meiji Restoration of Japan. Also, the abduction of Kim Dae-jung, a leading politician of the opposing party added to the anger of South Korean people caused by the Yushin system. From October 1973, demonstrations against the Park government gained strength.^[2]

Meanwhile, on 3 April 1974, Park announced the existence of an extreme socialist group: the "People's Revolutionary Party", and prohibited all activities related to the party.^[2]

As demonstrations increased against the Park dictatorship, the KCIA arrested 1024 individuals without warrant on 25 April 1974 under the National Security Law. 253 of them were imprisoned. On 9 April 1975, the Supreme Court of South Korea sentenced eight men to death. Only 18 hours after the announcement of the death penalty, the government executed the eight individuals:^[3]