The National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee on Friday passed a special bill aimed at restoring honor to the victims of a massive crackdown of citizens carried out by the government over 70 years ago amid an impregnable ideological rift on the Korean Peninsula. 

The special bill on the so-called Yeo-sun incident will take effect if it passes a plenary session of the parliament. The Assembly is scheduled to hold a plenary session on Tuesday of next week. 

The incident refers to the authorities’ violent crackdown on the anti-government movement in Yeosu and Suncheon in South Jeolla Province in 1948 and 1949. 

Over two-thousand civilians were presumed to have been killed in the incident according to a survey by the South Jeolla Provincial Government. However, ruling Democratic Party Representative So Byung-chul, who proposed the bill, said the number of deaths may be as high as 11-thousand, according to some reports. 

Similar bills were proposed to the parliament on four previous occasions but were all scrapped. The latest draft was proposed in July of last year and was co-sponsored by around 150 other DP lawmakers.