Former South Korean military dictator Chun Doo-hwan dies at 90
SEOUL: Former South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan, whose
iron-fisted rule of the country following a 1979 military coup sparked massive
democracy protests, died on Tuesday at the age of 90, his former press aide
said.
Chun had multiple myeloma, a blood cancer which was in
remission, and his health had deteriorated recently, his former press secretary
Min Chung-ki told reporters. He passed away at his Seoul home early in the
morning and his body will be moved to a hospital for a funeral later in the
day.
A former military commander, Chun presided over the 1980
Gwangju army massacre of pro-democracy demonstrators, a crime for which he was
later convicted and received a commuted death sentence.
His death came about a month after another former president
and his coup comrade Roh Tae-woo, who played a crucial but controversial role
in the country's troubled transition to democracy, died at age 88.
An aloof, ramrod-straight Chun during his mid-1990s trial
defended the coup as necessary to save the nation from a political crisis and
denied sending troops into Gwangju.
"I am sure that I would take the same action, if the
same situation arose," Chun told the court.
Chun was born on March 6, 1931, in Yulgok-myeon, a poor
farming town in the southeastern county of Hapcheon, during Japanese rule over
Korea.
He joined the military straight out of high school, working
his way up the ranks until he was appointed a commander in 1979. Taking charge
of the investigation into the assassination of President Park Chung-hee that
year, Chun courted key military allies and gained control of South Korea's
intelligence agencies to headline a Dec. 12 coup.
"In front of the most powerful organisations under the
Park Chung-hee presidency, it surprised me how easily (Chun) gained control
over them and how skilfully he took advantage of the circumstances. In an
instant he seemed to have grown into a giant," Park Jun-kwang, Chun's
subordinate during the coup later told journalist Cho Gab-je.
Chun's eight-year rule in the presidential Blue House was
characterised by brutality and political repression. It was, however, also
marked by growing economic prosperity.
Chun resigned from office amid a nationwide student-led
democratic movement in 1987 demanding a direct electoral system.
In 1995, he was charged with mutiny, treason and was
arrested after refusing to appear at the prosecutors' office and fleeing to his
hometown.
At what local media dubbed the "trial of the
century", he and coup co-conspirator and succeeding President Roh Tae-Woo
were found guilty of mutiny, treason and bribery. In their verdict, judges said
Chun's rise to power came "through illegal means which inflicted enormous
damage on the people".
Thousands of students were believed to have been killed at
Gwangju, according to testimonies by survivors, former military officers and
investigators.
Roh was given a lengthy jail term while Chun was sentenced
to death. However, that was commuted by the Seoul High Court in recognition of
Chun's role in the fast-paced economic development of the Asian
"Tiger" economy and the peaceful transfer of the presidency to Roh in
1988.
Both men were pardoned and freed from jail in 1997 by
President Kim Young-sam, in what he called an effort to promote "national
unity."
Chun made several returns to the spotlight. He caused a
national furore in 2003 when he claimed total assets of 291,000 won ($245) of
cash, two dogs and some home appliances - while owing some 220.5 billion won in
fines. His four children and other relatives were later found to own large
swaths of land in Seoul and luxurious villas in the United States.
Chun's family in 2013 vowed to pay off the bulk of his debt,
but his unpaid fines still totalled some 100 billion won as of December 2020.
In 2020, Chun was found guilty and received an eight-month
suspended sentence for defaming a late democracy activist and Catholic priest
in his 2017 memoirs. Prosecutors have appealed, and Chun had faced a trial next
week.
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