The South Korean court has accepted a retrial request by a group of people who were convicted of aiding rebels during the Jeju Uprising of 1948. 

The Jeju District Court on Thursday decided to launch a retrial as requested last October by eight survivors of the bloody incident, including 94-year-old Kim Du-hwang, who was incarcerated for over a year through February 1950 after allegedly being forced by police to confess to having joined a left-wing political party accused of participating in the uprising. 

It marks only the second time the court ordered a retrial for civilians convicted of similar charges regarding the incident and the first time a retrial is being granted for those convicted through general trials. In January of last year, Jeju District Court declared innocent 18 people who were convicted by military courts. 

The Jeju Uprising took place amid deepening ideological divisions on the Korean Peninsula ahead of the Korean War and is estimated to have claimed the lives of as many as 30-thousand people, many of them civilians.

Marking the 71st anniversary of the uprising last year, President Moon Jae-in vowed to help reveal the truth behind the incident.