Chun Doo-hwan
Chun Doo-hwan (born 18 January, 1931) was a Korean military officer and President of South Korea 1980–1988. He established an authoritarian constitution.
The road to power
Chun was a graduate of the eleventh class of the Korean Military Academy in 1955. As head of the Army Security Command, he was in charge of the investigation into the assassination of President Park Chung-hee. On 12 December 1979, in what became known as the 12-12 Incident, Chun ordered the arrest of Army Chief of Staff General Jeong Seung-hwa without authorisation from then-President Choi Kyuha, alleging involvement in the assassination. This lead to a bloody shoot-out at the Army Headquarters and the Ministry of Defense. By the next morning, Chun and his fellow eleventh class military academy graduates Roh Tae-woo and Jeong Ho-yong were in charge of the Korean military.
On 17 May 1980, Chun expanded martial law to the entire country and dissolved the National Assembly. Many politicians were arrested, including opposition politician Kim Dae-jung, who was later sentenced to death despite protests from the U.S. (Kim eventually avoided execution through a secret deal with the U.S. The U.S. would support Chun's regime in return.) Protests across the nation were ruthlessly suppressed, most brutally in Gwangju, where hundreds were killed.
Chun was de facto the man in power by then. By August, an embattled Choi had resigned; in Febrary 1981 Chun was elected president under a revised constitution, having resigned from the army after promoting himself to four-star general.
Years in office
As president, Chun promoted strong centralised government, and the strong economic growth of the Park Chunghee era continued. Chun pledged that he would step down in 1988 instead of seeking another term as president. It became clear that Chun had hand-picked Roh Tae-woo to succeed him, however. By 1986, there was much public antipathy against Chun's regime due to the lack of political freedom and Chun's strongman tactics.
Ordinary citizens of South Korea's newly-prospering middle class joined in the nationwide, student-led June 1987 protests. In response, on 29 June, Roh announced a programme of reform that made major concessions to the protesters. This included direct presidential elections, restoration of banned politicians including Kim Dae-jung, and other liberalising measures. Chun accepted the reforms. This won Roh instant popularity, and he won the following elections (helped by a divided opposition) to become the next president of South Korea. It later became known that this was a move orchestrated by Chun.
An embattled ex-President
After he stepped down, under the freer political atmosphere, much public scrutiny of the faults of Chun's regime (including massive corruption involving Chun's family) followed. On 23 November 1988, the embattled Chun chose to go into the Baekdamsa Buddhist temple as a symbolic gesture of repentance for the excesses of his regime. He spent two years in Baekdamsa.
In 1996, the two (by then) former presidents Chun and Roh were jailed on charges of corruption. On 16 December, they were also convicted of treason and mutiny connected with their takeover of power. Chun was initially sentenced to death, later commuted to a life sentence. He and Roh were pardoned a year later in a move of conciliation initiated by President-elect Kim Dae-jung.
