On the morning of December 2, 1985 students of Jonnam University and Jonbuk University of south Korea brought the American Information Service in Kwangju City under their possession and called for meeting with the American ambassador and opening a joint forum with the Democratic Justice Party.
That day six of them in the guise of those who went there to read books entered the information service and then three others broke into the building after they were deterred by policemen who sensed out what the students were trying to do.
The students who earlier went into the building threw two dry batteries at the chasing policemen, shouting “Here are explosives”. When the horror-stricken policemen were at a loss what to do next, the intruders nimbly went into the room of the president of the information service.
They locked the door inside and posted on the window facing the street the placards which read, “We Want Adoption of Three People’s Principles,” and “Scrap the Policy of Opening Our Import Market, a Threat to People’s Right to Existence”. They then went over to a sit-in protest, wearing headbands bearing the letters “Three People’s Principles” written in red colour against a white background and shouting such slogans as “We turn down US demand for opening our import market!”
The demonstrators scattered out of the window four printed materials including Message to US Administration and Warning: Why We Had to Enter the American Information Service to the effect that the United States should apply pressure on south Korea for opening its import market no longer.
The puppet south Korean authorities encircled the American Information Service and threatened the students by mobilizing a huge number of police force. But the students responded to this by setting up a barricade and attacking the police with petrol bombs. The fight between the two sides lasted more than nine hours.
Similar incidents occurred on December 9, 1980 and November 20, 1982, with the result that the American Information Service was enveloped in flames by the attack of students and other people of south Korea.
The occupation of the American Information Service in Kwangju City greatly stimulated the south Korean people in their struggle for independence and democracy and against Americanism and fascism.
