Present there were Koreans in New York, Washington, Boston, Virginia and other parts of the U.S.

Through the commemoration, memorial address, memorial poem and report on action, the participants remembered the spirit of the May 18 popular resistance and expressed their will to struggle to record a history of justice and turn south Korea into the society where human rights and lives are respected.

Then a statement was read out.

It said that Koreans in the U.S. have honored so far the memory of the martyrs who were killed by the fascists during the May 18 Kwangju movement for democracy in 1980 and held a commemoration event every year with the desire for the peaceful reunification of the country and full democracy.

Koreans in various countries of the world are commemorating the May 18 movement for democracy in single mind, it noted.

The statement declared that they would denounce the brutal action against democracy and carry on the struggle to achieve the country's reunification and social democracy in solidarity with democratic forces of south Korea and overseas Koreans.