Pro-democracy labor activist Chang Ki-pyo dies at 78

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Pro-democracy labor activist Chang Ki-pyo dies at 78

Published: 22 Sep. 2024, 18:11 Updated: 22 Sep. 2024, 18:25

A memorial altar for the labor activist Chang Ki-pyo at the funeral hall at Seoul National University Hospital in central Seoul on Friday [YONHAP]

Chang Ki-pyo, who was a prominent pro-democracy and labor activist in the 1970s, has died. He was 78.

Chang died of gallbladder cancer early Sunday at a hospital in Ilsan, Gyeonggi, according to his family.

Iconic 1970s student activist continues to go his own way

Chang, who was born in 1945 and enrolled at Seoul National University in 1966, began actively campaigning for democracy and labor rights in 1970 in the wake of the self-immolation of Jeon Tae-il.

Jeon burned himself to death in 1970 in protest of brutal working conditions at a Seoul sewing factory.

Chang had been in jail for nine years under the then notorious National Security Law.

However, Chang refused to receive compensation for the treatment he had undergone.

In a media interview in 2019, Chang said he had not received compensation because he'd played a role as a "citizen and an intellectual."

Since 1989, Chang had created some minor political parties, but he had never become a lawmaker.

President Yoon Suk Yeol mourned Chang's death. "Chang Ki-pyo was a true role model of the labor and democratization movement of our time. We will remember him," Yoon was quoted as saying by his spokesperson Jeong Hye-jeon.

Yonhap