Former South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan was released from prison on December 22, 1997.
SEOUL, Former South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan, who ruled the country with an iron fist after a military coup sparked massive pro-democracy protests in 1979, died Tuesday at the age of 90, his former press aide said.
Chun has multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that is in remission, and his health has recently deteriorated, his former press secretary, Min Chung-ki, told reporters. He died early in the morning at his home in Seoul, and his body will be transferred to the hospital for a funeral later in the day.
A former military commander, Chun, who presided over the 1980 Gwangju army massacre of pro-democracy demonstrators, was later found guilty and sentenced to a reduced sentence.
About a month ago, another former president and his coup comrade, Roh Tae-woo, played a key but controversial role in the country's troubled transition to democracy at the age of 88.
At the trial in the mid-1990s, an indifferent, outspoken Chun defended the coup, arguing that it was necessary to save the country from a political crisis and denying sending troops into Gwangju.
"I believe that if the same situation arises, I will take the same action," Chun told the court.
Chun was born on March 6, 1931, during Japanese rule over Korea, in The poor agricultural town of Yulgok-myeon in Hacheon Prefecture, southeast of Japan's rule of Korea.
On August 9, 2021, former South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan traveled to Seoul to attend a court hearing.
He joined the army after graduating from high school and rose through the ranks until he was appointed commander in 1979. Chun Chun investigated the assassination of President Park Chung-hee that year, co-opted important military allies and took control of South Korean intelligence agencies, making headlines in the December 12 coup.
"In the face of the most powerful organization of Park Chung-hee's presidency, I was amazed at how easily (Chun) took control of them and how cleverly he exploited these environments." In an instant, he seems to have grown into a giant," Chun's subordinate Park Jun-kwang during the coup later told Cho Gab-je.
Chun Chun's eight-year reign at the presidential palace, the Blue House, was characterized by brutality and political repression. However, it is also marked by increasing prosperity.
In 1987, during a nationwide student-led democracy movement, Chun resigned to demand the establishment of a direct electoral system.
In 1995, he was charged with treason and treason and arrested after refusing to go to the prosecutor's office and fleeing back to his hometown.
In a trial that local media called the "Trial of the Century," he and coup conspirators and successor President Lo Tae-woo were convicted of rebellion, treason and bribery. In his judgment, the judge said Chun's rise to power was "causing great harm to the people through illegal means."
U.S. President Ronald Reagan pointed to attractions from the Truman Balcony of the White House to South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan and his wife in 1981.
According to the testimony of survivors, former officers and investigators, thousands of students are believed to have been killed in Gwangju.
Roh Moo-hyun was sentenced to long prison terms, while Chun was sentenced to death. However, the Seoul High Court recognized Chun's role in the fast-paced economic development of Asia's "tiger" economy and in the peaceful transfer of the presidency to Roh Moo-hyun in 1988.
In 1997, President Kim Young-sam pardoned the two men and released them from prison, calling it an effort to promote "national unity."
Chun returned to the spotlight a few times. In 2003, he claimed total assets of 291,000 won ($245), two dogs and some household appliances, and owed a fine of about 220.5 billion won, causing outrage across the country. His four children and other relatives were later found to own large tracts of land in Seoul and luxury villas in the United States.
Chun's family vowed to pay off most of his debts in 2013, but as of December 2020, the total amount of his unpaid fines remains about 100 billion won.
In 2020, Chun was found guilty and sentenced to eight months' probation for defaming the late democracy activist and Catholic priest in a 2017 memoir. Prosecutors have appealed and Chun will face trial next week.