Wife of late former president Chun Doo-hwan apologizes

SEOUL, Nov. 28 (Yonhap) – Lee Soon-ja, widow of former President Chun Doo-hwan, who died this week and heavily criticized for violently suppressing the democratization movement in Gwangju in the south in 1980 West of the country, on Saturday apologized for the “suffering and scars” inflicted during his presidency.

It was the first time that Chun’s family had issued such a message as the bereaved family prepared to remove the coffin from a Seoul hospital. Chun passed away on November 23 at the age of 90 from chronic illnesses.

“On behalf of my husband, I would like to extend a deep apology to you, especially to those who suffered pain and scars when he was president,” Lee said at Severance Hospital at Yonsei University.

Lee also reported that Chun often said, “It was all due to my faults and my lack of virtue.”

However, these apologies did not appear to relate to the victims of the brutal suppression of the May 18 uprising as Lee only spoke of the period during which Chun was president, from September 1980 to February 1988. Chun, a former general of army, seized power in a coup in 1979.

“(Lee) was not talking about the May 18 uprising,” a person close to Chun confirmed to reporters. “During his presidency, students were tortured to death by the police,” he added.

In addition, the widow said that Chun had told his family that he wanted his funeral to be kept to a minimum, to be cremated, and for his ashes to be scattered on a hill overlooking North Korea, without a grave. .

Later that day, Cho Jin-tae, a senior official at the May 18 Memorial Foundation dedicated to commemorating the 1980 movement, described Lee’s apology as “meaningless remarks made out of courtesy.” .

“Lee’s personal remarks will not bring comfort to those who have suffered,” he told the Yonhap News Agency by phone.

“If they are sincere, they must be followed by actions later in such a way that those who have suffered can accept them.”