Today, Yonhap News Agency Chinese.com for the first time sent a quick message with only a title: former South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan has died.
South Korean presidents have been derided as the world's most "high-risk" profession because being liquidated after they step down is the norm and few people die well. As the 11th and 12th presidents of South Korea, Chun Doo-hwan, too, could not avoid the fact that he had once "entered the palace twice". But today's ending, dying at home, is a good ending for the 90-year-old.
How much South Koreans hate Chun Doo-hwan is evident from the reckoning of South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
At that time, all the media in South Korea were "cheering and cheering", and it is not too much to describe it as a big happy heart. What Chun Doo-hwan has left in the memory of South Koreans is a lot of crimes and evil deeds, the suppression of massacres within, the glory of foreign countries, and the betrayal of a large number of Korean interests to the Americans.
Chun Doo-hwan's life, from soldier to president, from president to prisoner, and then back and forth between the Blue House and the classroom.
In 1996, Chun Doo-hwan was sentenced to death on suspicion of military rebellion, which was later commuted to life imprisonment;
In 1997, he was pardoned by President-designate Kim Dae-jung;
In 1998, Chun Doo-hwan was released;
In 2013, the house was raided to repay the stolen money;
In 2018, a non-custodial proceeding was filed.
Chun Doo-hwan, a military man, was able to rise to power in politics thanks to Park Geun-hye's father, the assassinated former South Korean president Park Chung-hee. Chun Doo-hwan was a young soldier hand-picked by Park Chung-hee who served as a presidential guard.
Just last year, South Korea's political thriller film "The Ministers of Namsan", based on the "Assassination of Park Chung-hee", won the box office for 13 consecutive days. The film, starring South Korean power actor Lee Byung-hyun, features Chun Doo-hwan, the biggest beneficiary of Park Chung-hee's assassination and the one who stole the political fruits of Park Chung-hee's assassination.
Chun Doo-hwan inherited Park Chung-hee's military line of government, became president by relying on a military coup, and then imposed a dictatorship. The use of the army to suppress the protests of the people of Gwangju and the inhumane and bloody massacre of ordinary people also became his biggest political stain, laying the groundwork for future liquidation.
After Mr. Park's death, he even privately distributed $600 million in stolen money from other officials. Later, Park Geun-hye could become the president of South Korea, which was also inseparable from his operations.
If life is like a drama, Chun Doo-hwan is also an acting school that has been delayed by soldiers.
After Chun Doo-hwan stepped down that year, the South Koreans demanded blood debt. At this time, he showed the outside world the appearance of chanting the Buddha's atonement. He even spread a story to the outside world that he smelled the osmanthus flowers in the courtyard when he was chanting the Buddha in the temple, and reflected that he had lived in the Blue House for many years and had never smelled the fragrance of osmanthus flowers. Only by letting go of political struggle can we feel the fragrance of birth.
It seems that he became a Buddha on the spot, but unfortunately, he was later discovered by Koreans that he was duplicitous.
In 2017, Chun Refused to appear in court on the grounds that Alzheimer's disease, also known as Alzheimer's disease, had worsened. But leaked video showed him playing golf for 2 hours and still radiant, which once again provoked the anger of South Koreans.
In any case, good and evil will eventually be rewarded, and Chun Doo-hwan and Park Geun-hye have ushered in the end of being liquidated, and it is difficult to say that this is not the doomed ending. Just the day before Chun Doo-hwan died of illness at the age of 90, Park Geun-hye, who still had to go to prison for more than a decade, was sent to the hospital for kidney disease.
As south Korea's last great dictator, the death of Chun Doo-hwan may mean that military interference in politics and dictatorship has finally become history for South Korea.