[107] December 22, 1995, Friday, Final Edition - The Washington Post

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Document 107

Copyright 1995 The Washington Post The Washington Post
December 22, 1995, Friday, Final Edition

SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A24
LENGTH: 668 words
HEADLINE: 2 Former S. Korean Leaders Indicted
BYLINE: Kevin Sullivan, Washington Post Foreign Service
DATELINE: SEOUL, Dec. 21
BODY:

South Korea’s two immediate past presidents, one in prison and the other hospitalized from a 19-day jailhouse hunger strike, were indicted today for their roles in a coup 16 years ago, and prosecutors said they would probably face charges for a massacre that occurred several months later.

Prosecutors are investigating the roles Chun Doo Hwan and Roh Tae Woo played in the shootings at Kwangju in May 1980, in which at least 200 people died. A special law passed by the National Assembly this week will allow them to be prosecuted even though the statute of limitations has expired.

Chun, the former army general who ruled from 1980 to 1988, faces the death penalty on charges of masterminding the December 1979 coup in which he came to power. Chun, 64, was hospitalized Wednesday night from a defiant hunger strike in which he has lost 22 pounds. He is reportedly refusing even intravenous feedings.

Roh, president from 1988 to 1993, another former general who has known Chun since their school days, is charged with aiding Chun by ordering troops from the North Korean border to help in the coup. He also faces the death penalty, although it is highly unlikely that either former president would be executed.

Roh, 63, has been in jail since his Nov. 16 arrest on charges of accepting bribes to accumulate a $ 650 million political slush fund while he was president. He is accused of taking $ 369 million from 35 industrialists.

Chun, who grew up poor as the son of a farmer, has taken only barley tea, milk and water since his Dec. 3 arrest, which he claims is political revenge against him by President Kim Young Sam. Kim was a young opposition politician who spent two years under house arrest during Chun’s dictatorial rule.

There has been little public sympathy for Chun, who was a particularly hard-line leader who also orchestrated the crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators at Kwangju.

Prosecutors are continuing to question Chun in his hospital bed. Today they said they expected to add treason charges against him, Roh and six or seven others by mid-January.

Prosecutors said they would indict Chun as early as Dec. 29 on charges that he, like Roh, amassed a secret slush fund while in office. They said Chun took at least $ 400 million from at least 20 businessmen.

At the hospital today, about 30 riot police guarded Chun’s room and dozens more surrounded the building in case of protests by students, dissidents and relatives of the Kwangju massacre victims.

Today’s charges stem from the events of Dec. 12, 1979, a night that changed the course of modern Korean history. President Park Chung Hee had been assassinated by his security chief six weeks earlier, and the country had been under martial law since then.

On the night of Dec. 12, Chun, Roh and six other young rebel officers arrested several key officers, including Gen. Chung Seung Hwa, who was army chief of staff and the nation’s martial law commander.

Under Chun’s leadership, the coup leaders called troops south from the Demilitarized Zone to assist in the arrests, a move that left South Korea vulnerable to North Korean attack and infuriated U.S. military officials in Seoul. Several soldiers were killed in the fighting that night.

A new cabinet was named on Dec. 14, and the country moved forward with a largely figurehead president and with Chun, Roh and the other young generals wielding great power behind the scenes.

The charges issued today against Chun and Roh stop with that incident.

After the coup, protests against martial law continued over the next few months, intensifying with students protests after the beginning of a new school year in March.

In May, a huge pro-democracy protest began in Kwangju, 175 miles south of Seoul. Before the protest was over 10 days later, at least 200 protesters had been killed by elite soldiers called in by Chun and his supporters to put down the demonstrations.

Special correspondent Lee Keumhyun contributed to this report.