Kim Ji-won’s ‘doctor X’ Faces Cancellation Petition Over Gwangju Uprising Storyline

A petitioner alleges political bias after episode six follows a survivor of the May 18 democracy movement.

SBS’s Doctor X: The Age of the White Mafia is facing a petition demanding that it stop airing after an episode explored the lasting wounds of the 1980 Gwangju Democratic Uprising.

The petition challenges the inclusion of the historical event in the medical drama, alleging that the storyline expresses a political position. That allegation represents the petitioner’s view, rather than a finding by a broadcasting regulator.

Kim Ji-won’s ‘Doctor X’ Sparks Debate With Story of Gwangju Survivor / SBS

A patient’s injury connects the hospital to history

Episode six, broadcast on October 24, introduces Oh Sang-beom, a survivor who has lived with a bullet lodged in his head since being shot during the May 18 uprising.

He experiences chronic pain and hallucinations, including visions of his deceased older brother.

Surgeon Gye Su-jeong, played by Kim Ji-won, offers to perform the dangerous operation. Sang-beom initially refuses because treatment could mean losing the visions through which he still encounters his brother.

The storyline places a difficult medical decision alongside grief and trauma that have endured for decades.

Later, a fictional former president, Ji Du-seok, arrives at the hospital unconscious. The episode brings him into the same space as Sang-beom, linking their contrasting roles in the drama’s account of the violence.

Petitioner objects to the adaptation’s direction

According to October 25 reporting, a petition titled “Petition Regarding the Suspension of SBS Drama Doctor X” was submitted through the National Assembly’s public petition system.

The petitioner argued that the May 18 material was unrelated to the drama’s central story and accused the Korean adaptation of introducing a political stance absent from the Japanese original.

They requested scrutiny of the production and a halt to broadcasts.

Reports on October 25 said the petition had obtained the 100 preliminary endorsements required for a review of whether it could be publicly opened. Further endorsements were temporarily restricted during that review.

That procedural step did not constitute approval of the petition’s demands or an order to suspend the drama.

Kim Ji-won’s ‘Doctor X’ Sparks Debate With Story of Gwangju Survivor / Capture

Producer posts ‘no fear’

The discussion continued after Studio S chief producer Lee Ok-gyu shared a Doctor X poster on Instagram with the words “no fear,” according to subsequent reporting.

The post appeared on October 24 following the broadcast. It was a brief public message, rather than a detailed response addressing the petition’s individual claims.

Editor’s Note

The May 18 Democratic Uprising took place in Gwangju from May 18 to 27, 1980, against military rule. UNESCO describes it as a pivotal event in South Korea’s democratization. Archives documenting the uprising, its victims and subsequent accountability efforts were inscribed on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register in 2011. Debate about a fictional drama’s treatment of that history should be distinguished from the documented historical event itself.