Nov 12, 2026
How a close friend of labor activist Jeon Tae-il keeps his legacy alive
Choi Jong-in, 78, still aches for his friend Jeon Tae-il, who was just 22. When Jeon set himself on fire in the middle of Pyeonghwa Market in Seoul's Jung District on Nov. 13, 1970, Choi was the first to rush to his side, taking off his jacket to smother the flames. “His hair was burning and curling like nylon fabric, his lips were turning inside out, but he sprang back to his feet and shouted, ‘We are not machines!” More than half a century has passed, and one might expect Choi to recount the incident with the composure of an elderly man who has come to terms with life. But for a while, he cannot bring himself to continue. He has never really given an interview about Jeon. While Jeon's mother, the late Lee So-sun (who died in 2011), was alive, Choi says he held back because he did not want to cause her further grief. Even after she passed away and was reunited with her son, he found it too painful to speak. The trauma never entirely left him, but it did not break him. Instead, he turned his guilt over losing Jeon, chairman of the Samdong Friendship Association (Samdonghoe), into a
