Chun Doo-hwan Dies at 90

[경향신문]

Chun Doo-hwan leaving the court. Kim Ki-nam

Former President Chun Doo-hwan died on November 23, less than a month after the death of former President Roh Tae-woo, who joined him in the December 12 coup d’etat.

His former secretary Jeon Gwang-pil conveyed that the former president died at around 8:45 this morning in his home in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul in a phone conversation with the Kyunghyang Shinmun reporter this day. Chun’s body will be moved to the Yonsei University Severance Hospital in Seoul.

Chun was born in Hapcheon-gun, Gyeongsangnam-do on January 23, 1931. He walked the path of a soldier after he graduated in the eleventh class of the Korea Military Academy in 1955. When former President Park Chung-hee was assassinated on October 26, 1979, Chun became the head of the joint investigation headquarters that oversaw the case at the time. Chun then came into power with the coup d’etat on December 12.

Chun is the man responsible for the bloody suppression of the pro-democracy demonstrations in Gwangju. On May 18, 1980, Chun had soldiers open fire on the participants of pro-democracy demonstrations in Gwangju. In 1981, he was elected president by an electoral college and was inaugurated as the twelfth president of the Republic of Korea. After he stepped down in 1988, he was sentenced to life in prison for rebellion and murder but was released on a special pardon in December 1997.