Chun Doo Hwan
[key], 1931–2021, Korean military leader, president of South Korea
(1980–88), b. Hapcheon, Korea. An army officer, Chun rose to power in
a coup following the murder (1979) of South Korean President Park Chung Hee. As president, Chun
banned many of his opponents from politics and passed (1980) a new
authoritarian constitution. In 1981 he lifted martial law, in effect since
1979. In 1987 he picked Roh Tae Woo to be his party's presidential candidate
and subsequently endorsed Roh's democratization policies. Chun and Roh were
both indicted in 1995 and 1996 on corruption charges, as well as for their
roles in the 1979 coup and in the massacre of prodemocracy demonstrators in
Gwangju (Kwangju) in 1980. Sentenced to life in prison, Chun was pardoned in
Dec., 1997, by President Kim Dae Jung, as a national
reconciliation gesture. The same year that he was pardonned, the Korean
Supreme Court ordered him to repay $220 million in funds he had taken from
the Korean government, and the government subsequently collected about half
of that amount.
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