Hostname: page-component-f554764f5-rvxtl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-15T02:22:41.176Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

South Korea, the United States and Emergency Powers During the Korean Conflict

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

Su-kyoung Hwang
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

This essay is a comparative legal study of the use by the United States and South Korea of state of emergency powers before and during the Korean War. Beginning with the violent suppression of the Cheju Uprising in 1948, a succession of states of emergency was proclaimed in South Korea and the United States throughout the Korean conflict (1948-1953). The essay examines the context in which these emergency laws were conceived and their relationship to state-sponsored mass violence against the civilian population.

Keywords

Korean warstate of emergencyCheju UprisingSyngman RheeHarry Truman
Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 12 , Issue 5 , January 2014 , e1
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2014

References

Agamben, Giorgio. 2003. State of Exception, trans. Kevin Attell, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Armstrong, Charles K. 2010. The Destruction and Reconstruction of North Korea, 1950-1960. The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 8, Issue 51 No 2, (December 20) or At Japan Focus.Google Scholar
Bradley, Mark Philip. 2009. The Ambiguities of Sovereignty: the United States and the Global Human Rights Cases of the 1940s and 1950s in The State of Sovereignty: Territories, Laws, Populations, eds. Howland, Douglas and White, Luise, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Capua, J. V. 1977. The Early History of Martial Law in England from the Fourteenth Century to the Petition of Right, The Cambridge Law Journal 36 (1): 152–173.Google Scholar
Casey, Steven. 2010. Selling the Korean War: Propaganda, Politics, and Public Opinion in the United States, 1950-1953, New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cheju 4.3 Sakŏbn Chinsang Kyumyŏbng mit Hŭisaengja Myŏbngye Hoebok Wiwŏbnhoe. 2002. Cheju 4.3 sakŏbn charyojip [Collected Materials on the Cheju April 3rd Incident], Seoul: Tosŏbch'ulp'an Sŏbnin.Google Scholar
Cheju 4.3 Sakŏbn Chinsang Kyumyŏbng mit Hŭisaengja Myŏbngye Hoebok Wiwŏbnhoe. 2003. Cheju 4. 3 sakŏbn chinsang chosa pogosŏb [A Report into the Investigation of the Truth about the Cheju April 3rd Incident], Sŏbul: Cheju 4.3 Sakŏbn Chinsang Kyumyŏbng Mit Hŭisaengja Myŏbngye Hoebok Wiwŏbnhoe.Google Scholar
Conway-Lanz, Sahr. 2005. Beyond No Gun Ri: Refugees and the United States Military in the Korean War, Diplomatic History 29 (1): 50–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conway-Lanz, Sahr. 2006. Collateral Damage: Americans, Noncombatant Immunity, and Atrocity after World War II, New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Cosgrove, Richard A. 1980. The Boer War and the Modernization of British Martial Law. Military Affairs 44 (3): 124–127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cumings, Bruce. 1981. The Origins of the Korean War: Liberation and the Emergence of Separate Regimes, 1945–1947, Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Cumings, Bruce. 2001. Occurrence at Nogŭn-ri Bridge: An Inquiry into the History and Memory of a Civil War. Critical Asian Studies 33 (4): 509–526.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cumings, Bruce. 2002. The Origins of the Korean War, Volume 2: The Roaring of the Cataract, 1947–1950, Seoul: Yuksabipyungsa.Google Scholar
Cumings, Bruce. 2004. American Airpower and Nuclear Strategy in Northeast Asia since 1945 in War and State Terrorism: The United States, Japan, & the Asia-Pacific in the Long Twentieth Century, eds. Selden, Mark & So, Alvin Y., eds. Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.Google Scholar
Cumings, Bruce. 2010. The Korean War: A History. New York: Modern Library.Google Scholar
Downes, Alexander. 2008. Targeting Civilians in War, Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Feldman, William. 2005. Theories of Emergency Powers: A Comparative Analysis of American Martial Law and the French State of Siege. Cornell International Law Journal 38 (3): 1021–1048.Google Scholar
Han, In-sŏbp. 2000. Han'guk chŏbnjaeng gwa hyŏbngsabŏbp: puyŏbkja ch'ŏbbŏbl mit minganin haksal kwa kwallyŏbn tŏben pŏbpjŏbk munje rŭl chungsim ŭro [The Korean War and Criminal Law: With a Focus on Legal Problems concerning the Punishment of Traitors and the Massacre of Civilians], Sŏbul Taehakkyo Pŏbphak 41 (2): 135–179.Google Scholar
Hanley, Charles J. and Mendoza, Martha. 2007. The Massacre at No Gun Ri: Army Letter Reveals U.S. Intent, The Asia-Pacific Journal (April 15), (accessed May 19, 2010).Google Scholar
Hartigan, Richard Shelly. 1982. The Forgotten Victim: A History of the Civilian, Chicago: Precedent Publishing.Google Scholar
Hogan, Michael J. 1998. A Cross of Iron: Harry S. Truman and the Origins of the National Security State, 1945-1954, New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunt, Lynn. 2007. Inventing Human Rights, New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.Google Scholar
Ch'ang-nok, Kim. 1998. 1948-yŏbn Hŏbnbŏbp che 100-jo:4.3 kyeŏbmnyŏbng ŭl t'onghae pon ilje pomnyŏbng ŭi hyoryŏbk [Article 100 of the 1948 Constitution: The Persistence of the Japanese Constitution through the April 3rd Martial Law Decree], Pŏbphak Yŏbn'gu 39 (1): 477–493.Google Scholar
Dong-choon, Kim. 2010. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Korea: Uncovering the Hidden Korean War, The Asia-Pacific Journal, 9-5-10 (March 1).Google Scholar
Hak-jae, Kim. 2011. Han'guk chŏbnjaenggi taet'ongryŏbng kingŭp myŏbngryŏbng kwa yeŏbe sangt'ae ŭi pŏbpjehwa [The Legalization of the Presidential Emergency Order and the State of Exception during the Korean War Era] in Sahŏbe wa Yŏbksa 91: 217–254.Google Scholar
Ki-jin, Kim. 2002. Kkŭnnaji anŭn chŏbnjaeng, Kungmin Podo Yŏbnmaeng: Pusan, Kyŏbngnam chiyŏbk [The Unfinished War: The National Guidance Alliance, Pusan, South Kyŏbngsang Region], Sŏbul-si: Yŏbksa Pip'yŏbngsa.Google Scholar
Kim Sun-t'ae. 1999. Cheju 4.3 tangsi kyeŏbm ŭi pulbŏbpsŏbng [The Illegal Use of Martial Law at the time of the Cheju Uprising of April 3rd] in Cheju 4.3 yŏbn'gu, ed. Yŏbksa munje yŏbn'guso, Seoul: Yŏbksa Pip'yŏbngsa: 147–177.Google Scholar
Kim, Taewoo. 2012. War Against an Ambiguous Enemy. Critical Asian Studies 44 (2): 205–226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klieman, A. S. 1979. Preparing for the Hour of Need: Emergency Powers in the United States. The Review of Politics 41 (2): 235–255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kwon, Heonik. 2010. The Other Cold War, New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Lobel, Jules. 1989. Emergency Power and the Decline of Liberalism. The Yale Law Journal 98 (7): 1385–1433.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meade, E. Grant. 1951. American Military Government in Korea, New York: King's Crown Press.Google Scholar
Merrill, John. 1989. Korea: The Peninsular Origins of the War, Newark: University of Delaware Press.Google Scholar
Ninkovich, Frank. 1999. The Wilsonian Century: U.S. Foreign Policy since 1900, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Pak, Ch'an-sŭng. 2010. Maŭl ro kan Han'guk chŏbnjaeng [The Korean War that Went to the Village], P'aju-si: Tolbegae.Google Scholar
Pak, Myŏbng-nim. 1996. Han'guk chŏbnjaeng ŭi palbal kwa kiwŏbn I, II [The Outbreak and Origins of the Korean War, Vols. 1-2]. Sŏbul: Nanam Ch'ulp'an.Google Scholar
Phillimore, G. G. 1900. Martial Law in Rebellion. Journal of the Society of Comparative Legislation: 45–72.Google Scholar
Power, Samantha. 2002. “A Problem from Hell”: America and the Age of Genocide, New York: A New Republic Book.Google Scholar
Radin, Max. 1942. Martial Law and the State of Siege. California Law Review 30 (6): 634–647.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rossiter, Clinton L. 1948. Constitutional Dictatorship: Crisis Government in the Modern Democracies, Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Schmitt, Carl. 2005. Political Theology: Four Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty, trans. Schwab, George, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scott, Peter Dale. 2013. America's Unchecked Security State: Part I: The Toxic Legacy of J. Edgar Hoover's Illegal Powers, The Asia-Pacific Journal, 11‐17‐2 (April 29).Google Scholar
Sŏb, Chung-sŏbk. 2005. Yi Sŭng-man ŭi chŏbngch'i ideollogi [Syngman Rhee's Political. Ideology], Sŏbul-si: Yŏbksa Pip'yŏbng-sa.Google Scholar
Sŏbnwoo, Chongwŏbn. 1992. Sasang kŏbmsa [Ideology Prosecutor], Sŏbul: Kyemyŏbngsa.Google Scholar
Suh, Hee-Kyung. 2010. Atrocities Before and During the Korean War: Mass Civilian Killings by South Korean and U.S. Forces. Critical Asian Studies 42 (4): 553–558.Google Scholar
Townshend, Charles. 1982. Martial Law: Legal and Administrative Problems of Civil Emergency in Britain and the Empire, 1800-1940. The Historical Journal 25 (1): 167–195.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Unger David, C. 2012. The Emergency State: America's Pursuit of Absolute Security at All Costs, New York: The Penguin Press.Google Scholar
Watkins, Frederick Mundell. 1939. The Failure of Constitutional Emergency Powers under the German Republic, Cambridge: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weber, Max. 1958. Politics as a Vocation in From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology, ed. Gerth, H.H., trans. Mills, C. Wright, New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Yi, Sang-ch'ŏbl. 2001. Kyeŏbmpŏbp e kwanhan munjejŏbm Koch'al [An Inquiry into Problems Concerning Martial Law]. Anam Pŏbphak 12 (0): 29–56.Google Scholar
Yŏbksa Munje Yŏbn'guso. 1999. Cheju 4.3 yŏbn'gu [Cheju, April 3rd: A Study], Sŏbul-si: Yŏbksa Pip'yŏbngsa.Google Scholar
Yoo, John. 2006. War by Other Means: An Insider's Account of the War on Terror, New York: Atlantic Monthly Press.Google Scholar
Wasserstrom, Lynn Hunt, and Young, Marilyn B., Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.Google Scholar