[Korea Encounters] Enjoying 'open and liberalized way of life' as nighttime curfew lifts in 1982

People read about the lifting of curfew, published in The Korea Times Dec. 29, 1982. / Korea Times Archive

By Matt VanVolkenburg

From the 1950s to the 1970s, at 10 p.m., radio stations would begin telling listeners to begin thinking about heading home, and within an hour, public transportation would become crowded as people tried to rush home before curfew began. At midnight a curfew siren would sound, and police would set up barricades in the streets and detain anyone caught outside.

This continued in Seoul until Jan. 5, 1982. Before that, the curfew had only been lifted on specific evenings, such as President Syngman Rhee's birthday (in the 1950s), or Christmas Eve, but from that night on, people would be free to move about after midnight for the first time in 36 years.

While precedents for the curfew existed in Seoul during the 1392-1910 Joseon Kingdom, during which a gendered curfew system allowed men to take to the streets during the day, and women in the evening, South Korea's curfew was first imposed in Seoul and Incheon on Sept. 8, 1945, by the U.S. military government. It was expanded nationwide on July 8, 1950, after the outbreak of the Korean War, and shortened to four hours on April 1, 1955.

Some places were not always subject to the curfew. It was lifted on Jeju Island and Ulleung Island in early 1964, in the inland province of North Chungcheong Province in 1965 and at tourism resorts in Onyang and Gyeongju in 1966.

As well, even in Seoul, various bars and teahouses would close their doors at midnight with the patrons still inside, who would then while away the hours over food, drink and conversation. Go-go clubs in hotels also remained open throughout the curfew.

Things began to change in late 1981. The unpopular authoritarian government of Chun Doo-hwan, having come to power the year before in a military coup, managed to earn some respectability when it was awarded the right to host the 1988 Summer Olympics.

In early November 1981, the ruling party decided to submit a proposal to the National Assembly urging that the nighttime curfew be lifted the following year. On New Year's Day, the Korea Times noted that "The year 1982...will see the removal of the 67-year-old curfew sometime in the spring." To "boost the festive mood," curfew was lifted for three days after New Year's Eve.

During his New Year's Day speech, however, Chun Doo-hwan surprised everyone by announcing that the curfew would be lifted permanently on the evening of Jan. 5. "As a Korea Times editorial put it, "Noting the fact that no serious troubles had taken place during the no-curfew hours on Christmas Eve and during the New Year holidays, President Chun told the Cabinet to take action and procedures necessary to lift the curfew".

A map shows shaded regions where the curfew will remain in place, published in The Korea Times Jan. 5, 1982.

Not all areas were to have the curfew lifted, however. Districts near the DMZ and along the coast would continue the curfew out of military necessity, though 16 port cities along the coast, including Sokcho, Ulsan, Busan, Mokpo and Incheon were exempted from this rule.

More surprises followed the next day, when Chun "instructed the Education Ministry to moderate, if not get rid of, decades-old rules under which middle- and high-school students of the nation have had to wear more or less identical school uniforms and their hair cut short."

The day after that, the public was presented with a major Cabinet reshuffle in which six high-level officials were replaced. As Stars and Stripes put it, "The presidential pronouncements took most South Koreans and foreigners by surprise."

An editorial cartoon depicts surprise at Chun Doo-hwan's many surprise changes, published in The Korea Times Jan. 5, 1982.

The Korea Times argued that "what is significant about the [school] measure ― together with the removal of curfew ― is that the government has amply demonstrated its determination in action to set the national life on a course of liberalization, wiping out restrictive vestiges of the past."

The Washington Post, on the other hand, described these measures as being "part of a bid by President Chun Doo Hwan to enhance his popularity," and quoted a diplomatic analyst in Seoul as saying, "Lifting the curfew was intended primarily for foreign consumption… Can you imagine a country that has a curfew sponsoring the Olympics?"

On Jan. 5, people in Seoul experienced their first night of freedom. City bus and subway schedules were extended for an extra 30 minutes, taxis operated throughout the night and gas station hours were lengthened.

Stars and Stripes printed the thoughts of a 28-year-old Seoul resident who said, "I always got nervous around midnight… I'm glad it's over. It's fantastic."

An American infantryman agreed. "I think it will cut down on tension," he said. "Police won't have to rush people off the streets now. It will just be a more relaxed atmosphere."

Though the streets were no longer off limits, not as many people were on the streets after midnight as might have been expected. In Itaewon, most bars were closed by 1 am. Though they hoped for more business on weekends, no club owners expected that business would boom immediately.

Seoulites stroll around after midnight following the lifting of the nightly curfew, published in The Korea Times Jan. 6, 1982.

Stars and Stripes had spoken earlier in the evening with Tom Casey, the owner of Sportsman's Club in Itaewon, who said, "I don't even know if anyone will even be here at 11:30," and predicted that people had so "adapted to the curfew and that they will leave early."

The next day, UPI reported that crime in the capital area dropped nearly 40 percent without the curfew in place. The Washington Post reported a decrease in the number of late-night traffic accidents due to the fact that taxi drivers no longer had to rush to get their passengers home by midnight. Though the government had suggested that lifting the curfew could create thousands of jobs, the Post reported that taxi drivers "have actually lost money because it's no longer necessary for people to make the rush home and pay three to five times the going rate when buses and subways are now operating longer hours."

In a Jan. 6 editorial, the Korea Times described the lifting of curfew as "undeniably a tangible move by the government to make a bold approach to an open, free society based on democratic principles patterned after advanced societies in the contemporary age."

At the same time, however, it toed the government line by writing that "any citizen of good sense should be concerned about possible loopholes in the anti-infiltration posture" by the military caused by lifting the curfew. It also urged citizens "to feel a sense of civil responsibility to a corresponding degree" to prove that "they are really entitled to enjoy an open and liberalized way of life from now on."

According to the Washington Post, others had different opinions, in that they felt that lifting the curfew encouraged more upright behavior. According to Kim Mi-ja, a Seoul housewife, "I'm glad my husband won't have the excuse any more to stay out all night to avoid a curfew violation."

Matt VanVolkenburg has a master's degree in Korean studies from the University of Washington. He is the blogger behind populargusts.blogspot.kr.