Death of former South Korean president Roh Tae-woo
Former South Korean President Roh Tae-woo shortly after his release from prison in 1997.
REUTERS - STRINGER
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
The 88-year-old Roh Tae-woo played a pivotal role in the 1979 coup and the bloody crackdown on the democratic uprising in Gwangju, before exercising power democratically from 1988 to 1993.
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Roh Tae-woo, who suffered from prostate cancer, died Tuesday, October 26, Yonhap reported.
This general, who had succeeded his friend
dictator Chun Doo-hwan
in 1988
, was instrumental in the coup that followed the assassination of military dictator Park Chung-hee in 1979. Then commander of the special forces , he had helped Chun Doo-hwan, met at military school during the Korean War, to seize strategic points in Seoul.
Repression of pro-democracy demonstrations
Having become Chun's right-hand man, Roh then orchestrated, in 1980, the crushing in the blood of
the pro-democratic uprising in Gwangju
, in the South-West.
The repression had left some 200 dead and missing according to official figures, three times more according to the opposition at the time.
Roh Tae-woo had never expressed the slightest remorse for his role in this emblematic episode of the fight for democracy in South Korea.
“
Tens of millions of Chinese suffered and shed their blood during the Cultural Revolution.
In comparison, the Gwangju incident is nothing,
”he even said in 1995.
Sentenced for "treason"
Divisions within the opposition led to Roh's victory in the 1987 election with just 36.6% of the vote.
During his tenure, he had overseen the Seoul Olympics in 1988 and forged a rapprochement with China and Russia.
His successor to the presidency in 1993, former pro-democracy activist Kim Young-sam, had him brought to justice along with Chun Doo-hwan.
The two men were convicted of "treason" in 1996 after a cathartic trial in which they appeared hand in hand in their prison uniforms.
Chun Doo-hwan had been sentenced to death and Roh Tae-woo to 22.5 years in prison, but both were released the following year following a presidential pardon.
(with
AFP
)
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