Wife of ex-president Chun Doo-hwan calls her husband “father of democracy”

Posted on : 2019-01-03 16:46 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
S. Korean politicians denounce comments as “absurd”  
Ex-president Chun Doo-hwan and his wife
Ex-president Chun Doo-hwan and his wife

Four of South Korea’s five major political parties denounced as “absurd” remarks by ex-President Chun Doo-hwan’s wife Lee Soon-ja calling her husband the “father of [South Korean] democracy” – the lone exception being the Liberty Korea Party (LKP).

Lee’s remarks have also resulted in growing calls to quickly launch a committee to investigate the truth of the brutal efforts by Chun’s military administration to suppress the Gwangju Democracy Uprising of May 1980.

“Former President Chun is an inheritor of a military dictatorship who threatened the people’s lives with guns and swords and trampled them with combat boots,” said Democratic Party spokesperson Lee Jae-jung on Dec. 2.

In a message directed at Lee Soon-ja, she added, “Do not play around with the word ‘democracy,’ something the public claimed for itself with its blood, sweat, and tears.”

In a Jan. 1 interview with the conservative-leaning website News Town TV, Lee Soon-ja stressed that her husband “was the first to apply the single term [under the presidential system].”

“Now, presidents don’t even consider staying longer once their five years have finished,” she added.

“Who is the father of democracy? I think it is my husband,” she said.

Chun was indicted on charges of defaming victims of the Gwangju Uprising massacre in his memoirs and is currently awaiting trial at Gwangju District Court on Jan. 7. He originally petitioned for a change in jurisdiction, asking to be tried at Seoul Central District Court rather than in Gwangju, but his request was dismissed. Lee has claimed her husband should not be tried because he is currently suffering from dementia.

Sul Hoon, a member of the Democratic Party supreme council who suffered torture in 1980 in connection with an “insurrection conspiracy” incident involving Kim Dae-jung, made tearful reference the same day to his past forgiveness of Chun.

“I made the decision to forgive Chun Doo-hwan after spending day after day being tortured and crying out behind bars,” Sul said in a supreme council meeting. “Looking back at it now, that decision was a mistake.”

In a telephone interview with the Hankyoreh, Sul said, “I forgave Chun Doo-hwan because I hated the feeling that cursing him and wishing he would be killed was turning me into a monster, but it was a mistake.”

“Forgiveness is only possible when the other party admits they were wrong,” he stressed.

In response to Lee’s remarks, four of the main political parties pressed for a position from the fifth: the LKP, which has been delaying its nominations for the Gwangju investigation committee.

“Even though the May 18 Special Act has been passed, the investigation committee has yet to be launched because of the LKP’s uncooperativeness. The matter of investigating the truth is now more urgent than ever,” said Party for Democracy and Peace spokesperson Kim Jung-hyun, who called for the LKP to “state its position.”

A special law for the investigation of the events in Gwangju in 1980 was passed by the National Assembly in Feb. 2018 and went into effect as of Sept. 14, but the LKP alone has yet to provide a list of investigation committee members it plans to recommend.

By Song Gyung-hwa, staff reporter

Please direct comments or question to [english@hani.co.kr]

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