hankyoreh

Chun Woo-won, the grandson of former dictator Chun Doo-hwan, posted this photo on March 14 of himself as a child with Chun Doo-hwan. (from Chun Woo-won’s Instagram page)

The grandson of Chun Doo-hwan, the former military dictator of South Korea, has caused an uproar on social media after calling his grandfather a “slaughterer” and promising to expose the criminal behavior of the family and their acquaintances.

With the financial penalties that the late Chun owes having still not been fully paid, the focus is on whether the grandson’s revelations will affect the search for the Chun family’s black money.

On Wednesday, Chun Woo-won, the grandson of Chun Doo-hwan, took to social media to expose his family’s wrongdoings by posting photos and videos of the family on Instagram and YouTube.

Chun revealed that his father was currently “in the process of obtaining US citizenship by fabricating documents that show he is not a criminal in South Korea.” Chun also claimed his father and stepmother, Park Sang-a, live their lives by using “suspicious black money.”

Chun also posted a video of a person believed to be the late Chun Doo-hwan’s wife, Lee Soon-ja, playing screen golf, saying the screen golf facility is in the house she used to share with her husband in Seoul’s Yeonhui neighborhood.

Chun Woo-won, the grandson of former dictator Chun Doo-hwan, posted this photo on March 14, saying that the former president’s home in Seoul’s Yeonhui neighborhood had an indoor screen golf facility. (from Chun Woo-won’s Instagram page)

The grandson also posted a photo of his aunt Chun Hyo-sun’s children’s wedding and a picture of his uncle Chun Jae-man, saying, “I wonder where the money for such an event came from” while accusing them of “running a winery in California’s Napa Valley with black money.”

In 1997, Chun Doo-hwan was sentenced to life in prison and a penalty of 220.5 billion won (around US$195 million) by the Supreme Court on charges of treason and bribery. While he was alive, Chun continuously delayed the payment of the penalty. As a result, the prosecution has only received 127.92 billion won, or 58% of the penalty, as of October 2022.

In a phone call with the Hankyoreh on Wednesday, Chun Woo-won talked about how his “grandmother paid school expenses using the accounts of the housekeepers who worked at her home in Yeonhui.” Chun also revealed that his mother talked about there being a “huge amount of slush funds” in the safe of the Yeonhui house.

Regarding the nature of the Chun family, Chun explained how no one had come to see him after he was discharged from the hospital where he stayed for more than 10 days after attempting suicide.

His father, Chun Jae-yong, however, told Yonhap News in a phone call that his son had been “hospitalized repeatedly due to severe depression,” adding that “it’s my fault as a father for not taking proper care of my son.”

By Lee Woo-yun, staff reporter

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