Roh Tae-woo was a major player in a 1979 coup who later became president in a landmark democratic election before ending his tumultuous political career in prison
Former South Korean President Roh Tae-woo, a major player in a 1979 coup who later became president in a landmark democratic election before ending his tumultuous political career in prison, died on Tuesday. He was 88.
Roh led his army division into Seoul and joined other military leaders for operations to seize the capital. The coup – and a subsequent crackdown by the Chun-controlled military on pro-democracy protesters in the southern city of Gwangju in 1980 – are two of the darkest chapters in South Korea’s turbulent modern history. About 200 people were killed in the military-led crackdown in Gwangju, according to government records.
During his five-year term, Roh aggressively pursued ties with communist nations under his “Northward Diplomacy” as communism fell in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union dissolved. Earlier, Roh oversaw the hosting of the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul, the final Olympics of the Cold War era that showed how South Korea had rebuilt itself from the ashes of the 1950-53 Korean War. North Korea boycotted the 1988 games.
After his successor, Kim Young-sam, investigated the coup and military-led crackdown, Roh was arrested, convicted of mutiny, treason and corruption and received a 22-year and six-month prison term. Chun was sentenced to death. Last April, his daughter, Roh So-young, wrote on Facebook that her father had been bed-bound over the past 10 years without being able to speak or move his body. She said her father sometimes made eye gestures for communications but looked to “have a tearful face” when he failed to express his feelings and thoughts properly.
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