South Korea: ex-dictator Chun Doo-hwan dies at 90

Published on : 11/23/2021 – 11:17

Former South Korean dictator Chun Doo-Whan, who ruled the country with an iron fist by silencing all political opposition, died Tuesday, November 23 at the age of 90.

The former general died at his home in Seoul, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.

The Chun Doo-Whan military regime oversaw the strong economic growth of South Korea and secured Seoul to host the Olympic Games in 1988. He was the first South Korean leader to hand over power peacefully.

The “butcher of Gwangju”

Chun Doo-hwan seized power following a military coup in 1979, when President Park Chung-hee was assassinated.

He ruled the country with an iron fist between 1980 and 1988, brutally crushing all political opposition. He remains one of South Korea’s most hated personalities.

The ex-dictator is known as the “Butcher of Gwangju” for ordering his troops to suppress by force an uprising against him in this southwestern city.

The official death toll and missing in Gwangju is around 200, but activists say the number could be three times as high.

In 1996 he was convicted of treason and sentenced to death, partly for the events in Gwangju, but his execution was commuted on appeal and he was released following a presidential pardon.

With AFP