On April 28, 1948, Kim Ikryeol (on behalf of USAMGIK) met with Kim Dalsam (leader of the armed resistance) to discuss a peace agreement to stop the fighting. The two reached an agreement. However, one of the agreements stated that all fighting should be stopped within three days. An incident on May 1 - three days after the peace agreement - ultimately derailed any hopes for peace.

On April 29, 1948, members of the armed resistance group kidnapped and presumably killed two members of the Daedong Youth Corps (대동청년단) in Ora-ri (오라리). The next day the armed resistance group kidnapped the two wives of the two brothers. They beat one woman to death, but the other managed to escape and told the police what had happened.

The next day on May 1, a funeral was held for the woman who had been killed. The funeral was attended by a few police officers and several members of the Daedong Youth Corps and Seobuk Young Men's Association (서북청년단) After the funeral, several of the Daedong Youth Corps members were from Ora-ri and they went back and lit 12 buildings on fire at houses that they believed were leftist homes in response to what had happened.

Members of the armed resistance group showed up to chase the Daedong Youth Corps members away before they too withdrew. An hour after that, the police arrived in Ora-ri, having been informed of the incident by Seobuk Young Men's Association and Daedong Youth Corps members. However, the armed resistance members had already left.

Shortly after, Kim Ikryeol (김익렬) learned of the incident and hurried to Ora-ri in order to protect the peace agreement. Kim Ikryeol reported to USAMGIK that the Seobuk Young Men's Association and Daedong Youth Corps were responsible for the arson, but the police reported that the arson was the work of the armed resistance. Ultimately USAMGIK sided with the police, and a few days after harsher repression measures were ordered as they viewed the peace negotiations to ultimately be a failure.

Curiously, a US Army film team plane was flying above Ora-ri on the day of the arson, and the US Army would later produce a silent film titled "May Day on Cheju-Do".

References

The National Committee for Investigation of the Truth about the Jeju April 3 Incident - "The Jeju 4.3 Incident Investigation Report" (downloadable here in English)