[Reading Science] The KAIST Ipteulmak Incident as the Beginning of Violence

"Violence was something that could trample all of us. But it cannot silence all of us. Now, no one can drag all of us out like back then."

During the KAIST graduation ceremony in Daejeon, a master's graduate shouted, "Restore the R&D budget," at which moment a security guard covered his mouth to stop him. Photo by Daejeon Chungnam Joint Photo Coverage Team

Professor Jeon Jun of the Department of Digital Humanities and Social Sciences at KAIST argued this in a contribution to the KAIST newspaper after President Yoon Seok-yeol’s impeachment motion was rejected in the National Assembly. The violence Professor Jeon referred to is likely twofold. First, the ‘mouth-covering’ incident that occurred at the KAIST graduation ceremony last February attended by President Yoon. Second, President Yoon’s statement to ‘drag out the members of the National Assembly.’

The image of a presidential security officer covering the mouth of a graduate protesting the drastic cuts to research and development (R&D) budgets?following President Yoon’s mention of a ‘science and technology cartel’?remains a trauma for science and technology researchers. Since then, dissatisfaction had been building within KAIST, with voices suppressed under the president’s authority, and this emergency martial law incident became the catalyst that exploded those grievances. The discontent appeared in the form of large posters, and students boarded buses to Seoul to join protests for President Yoon’s impeachment instead of going to their labs or libraries.

KAIST students study on national scholarships. There is a prevailing view that they feel a stronger sense of duty to contribute to national development than students at any other university in the country. It is not only KAIST; students at other science and technology institutes such as UNIST, DGIST, and GIST share the same sentiment. Therefore, they may have hesitated to resist the violence that occurred at the graduation ceremony. When they realized through this emergency martial law incident that such actions only invited trouble, the young scientists became enraged.

It was not only the scientists. As many as 430 current and former KAIST professors signed a declaration on the emergency situation. Professors who had scattered to drinking gatherings to calm their anger after the mouth-covering incident came together 10 months later to call for change.

Professor Jeon said, "When the graduate who protested at the graduation ceremony was subdued and dragged out by the presidential security office, we were angry, but at the same time, we tried to find reasonable reasons not to be angry." He mentioned that there were attempts to criticize the graduate and to ‘rationally’ understand the security office’s position. Professor Jeon added, "This movement seemed to align with our collective norm as scientists, who have regarded taking a ‘neutral’ stance as a virtue."

As Professor Jeon put it, when the signs of ‘small violence’ were rationalized and forgotten, the seeds of violence grew. The head of the security office who subdued the graduate later became the Minister of National Defense and became an instrument of martial law, while the president who stood by became the darkened leader of a rebellion that caused national chaos.

Professor Jeon said, "Now, no one can drag all of us out like back then." As he argued, citizens headed to the National Assembly after the martial law declaration and stopped the violence. The soldiers who entered the National Assembly probably did not want to use violence either. Ultimately, President Yoon’s order to ‘drag everyone out’ was not carried out, and South Korea escaped the crisis created by silence and indifference.

Science is the path to the future, but the current turmoil shakes the way forward. The Park Geun-hye administration’s Creative Economy, the Moon Jae-in administration’s nuclear phase-out policy, and the Yoon Seok-yeol administration’s R&D budget cuts all caused confusion in the scientific community. The president’s agenda must no longer dictate science and technology.

Key figures in Silicon Valley in the United States are said to be shifting their support from the Democratic administration to President-elect Donald Trump. This may be a surrender to Trump’s power, but it is also interpreted as a reaction against the existing politics’ interference in science and technology. This change shows that there is no future on the path where politicians shake science.