Chun Doo-hwan

Chun Doo-hwan (Hangeul 전두환) is a general and a South Korean politician , born on January 18th, 1931 with Naechonri.

Formation and the military career

Resulting from a country family, Chun Doo-hwan entered to the Korean Military academy in 1951 of which it was graduate in 1955. He then exerted functions of command of the South Korean troops, engaged at the sides of the United States at the time of the Guerre of Vietnam.

The accession with the capacity

After the assassination on October 26th, 1979 of the general Park Chung-hee, president of the Republic, by the chief of the South Korean secret services Kim Jae-kyu, the South Korea enters a short phase of democratization, to which puts an end the military coup d'etat of December 12th, 1979 led by Chung Seung-wha and Noh Jae-yun. Having been named in April 1980 chief of the South Korean secret services by Chung Seung-wha, Chun Doo-hwan takes part in the repression of the Soulèvement of Kwangju which protests against the extension of the martial law.

Become the new strong man of the military regime, Chun Doo-hwan is elected president on August 27th, 1980 by a restricted electoral college.

Presidency of Chun Doo-hwan

The military regime of the general Chun Doo-hwan is marked by the continuation of the " miracle économique" South Korean, characterized by high rates of economic growth but also by a strong debt and the repression of the trade union movements.

In spite of the meeting of members of Parliament of both Korea on July 23rd, 1985, the South Korea refuses the North-Korean proposal Co-to organize the Olympic Games envisaged in Seoul in 1988.

Impelled by the students, the demonstrations for the democratization of the mode stress the election of the president of the Republic by the vote for all like on the departure of the American troops of South Korea. Vis-a-vis the extent of the protest movements, the general Chun Doo-hwan accepts the behavior of the presidential election by the universal direct suffrage in December 1987. The candidate whom it supports, the general Roh Tae-woo, is elected with the favor of the division of the opposition. The old right-hand man of Chun Doo-hwan breaks however with the policy of its predecessor by taking measures of political liberalization.

The judgment after the restoration of the democracy in South Korea

Continued for its implication in the coup d'etat of 1979 and the repression of the Rising of Kwangju in 1980, like for corruption, Chun Doo-hwan is condemned to the life imprisonment in August 1996, but is released after being imprisoned two years, on the intervention of the new president Kim Dae-jung elected at the end of 1997. This decision was made in a will of national reconciliation by the former opponent Kim Dae-jung, itself condemned to died by the military regime in May 1980.

Random links: