Chun Doo-hwan

Chun Doo -hwan ( born January 18, 1931 in Hapcheon, former Japanese Empire, present-day South Korea) was South Korean President from September 1, 1980 to 24 February 1988. He finished the short tenure of his predecessor Choi Kyu -ha by a military coup and came in December 1979 to power.

Demonstrations against his regime in May 1980 in Gwangju, Gwangju Uprising see, Chun sat down bloodily. The incident is now known as the Gwangju Massacre. Due to pressure from the population specified in the Constitution adopted under it, that the term of the President is limited to seven years and re-election is not possible. Park Chung -hee in 1972 the Yunshin Constitution introduced which did not limit the term of office of the President and had allowed him a one-man dictatorship. As before, the President was however - elected by 2500 supposedly non-partisan delegates - as in the Yunshin Constitution.

On October 9, 1983 Chun survived a bomb attack on a South Korean government delegation in Rangoon ( Burma), in which 17 members of the government ( including four ministers, including the foreign minister ) killed and 15 others were injured. The author of the attack North Korea was suspected, without this could previously be proven.

1996 Chun Doo -hwan was sentenced by his distant successor Kim Young- sam to 17 years in prison.