The Korean Student Movement and Ideological Circles from the 1960s to 1980s

It would be difficult to find a country where the student movement has impacted political, social, and cultural change to the extent it has in Korea. The student movement in South Korea was one of the most important drivers of Korea's historical development. In addition, the activists produced through the student movement have advanced into various fields of society where their legacy continues to be felt to this day. The core source of ideological resources and manpower for the student movement from the 1960s to 1980s were university ideological circles or clubs called "academic societies" (hakhoe). These circles became wedges that cracked the ideological uniformity of the state. In the 1970s and early 1980s, when the state's surveillance and control of universities were particularly severe, university student councils were dismantled and the freedom of assembly and demonstration suppressed. As a result, academic societies operated secretly and produced the ideological resources and leadership of the student movement, becoming the mechanism of organization and mobilization. However, after 1983, the organization of student councils was again permitted, and as the student movement became an open mass movement, the need for an ideological circle that secretly trained small groups of students into key activists weakened. Finally, around 1986, the academic societies were dismantled in most schools by the student leadership.