Jeon Taeil

Jeon Tae-il (1948-1970) was a Korean garment worker who became a labor and human rights activist. In the 1960s he worked as a sewing machinist in the factories of Seoul's Peace Market, where he sought to make the rights of workers known amid harsh conditions. Calling for the Labor Standards Act to be observed, he took his own life by self-immolation, a death that became a turning point for the labor movement in Korea. He is remembered to this day as a symbol of that movement.