Jailed Ex-Presidents Go Free in South Korea

SEOUL —  Imprisoned former Presidents Chun Doo Hwan and Roh Tae Woo were freed this morning after South Korea’s Cabinet approved a pardon issued by President Kim Young Sam.

The decision to release Chun and Roh, who have been imprisoned since 1995 for mutiny, treason and bribery, was reached jointly by Kim Young Sam and his newly elected successor, veteran opposition leader Kim Dae Jung, at a meeting Saturday over lunch at the presidential Blue House.

“I deeply apologize to the people for the anxiety and concern I and those around me caused, and I thank the people for their warm encouragement and love shown to me during the past two years,” Chun, dressed in a suit and overcoat, said at the gate of Anyang Detention Center after his release.

Chun expressed sadness about South Korea’s current economic crisis but added: “When I took office in September 1980, our country was in a crisis, but our people made a miracle that surprised the world. United under President-elect Kim Dae Jung, I’m sure our people will again turn this crisis into an opportunity to build a great nation.”

Roh, upon his release from Seoul Detention Center, said: “I hope the president-elect will lead the people to rebuild our economy and to eliminate regional and class disputes, and I am sure he will succeed in this.”

Chun, 66, and Roh, 65, are potent symbols of the military dictatorships that for nearly three decades brutally crushed dissent in South Korea. The two Kims were the top dissident leaders of the pro-democracy fight against military rule. Even a superficial reconciliation among the four men could do much to mend this nation’s bitter emotional wounds and regional antagonisms.

Chun had immediate praise for Kim Dae Jung, declaring: “I’m relieved to see that the experienced and dependable Kim Dae Jung has been elected president.”

Chun and Roh will not be allowed to recover ill-gotten wealth they accumulated during their presidencies, but they will have their civil rights restored, the government said.

The two ex-presidents will have the legal right to engage in political activities and to receive security protection at taxpayer expense. They will not, however, receive other ex-presidential perks such as secretarial service. Whether they get their presidential pensions will be decided by the courts, according to Korean media reports.

Chun was president from 1980 to 1988, while Roh held office from 1988 to 1993, when he was succeeded by President Kim.

Asked by a reporter to describe his prison life, Chun laughed: “Don’t go to prison. That’s all I can say.”

While the pardons have occasioned some bitter criticism, they appear to be widely accepted through much of South Korean society.

“For the goal of national harmony, we can understand and even welcome their being pardoned for their crimes,” said Park Jung Ki, whose college-sophomore son, Park Jong Chul, was tortured to death while under police interrogation Jan. 14, 1987. That case, in which five police officers were convicted, triggered a months-long wave of increasingly massive protests that forced Chun to accept a more democratic constitution later that year.

Restoration of the former presidents’ civil rights, however, “is absurd, and much too soon,” the elder Park added.

“We at the association are enraged that the two will have their rights restored,” said Park, who is an official of the Democratic Family Assn., a group of people who lost relatives in the democracy struggle of the 1970s and 1980s.

Some other citizens organizations sharply protested the pardons. The prominent human rights group Mingahyup called it “a backward step in our history” that will not help to heal the nation’s wounds.

By supporting the pardons, Kim Dae Jung--who is scheduled to formally take office Feb. 25--seems sure to lessen antagonism toward his presidency from citizens of the country’s southeastern Kyongsang region, the political home base for both Chun and Roh, where the two former presidents are still well-respected.

“It’s not surprising,” Chang Woon Sok, a businessman in Taegu, the main city of the Kyongsang area, said of the decision to grant pardons. “We should now forget the past and start anew to achieve harmony and unity.”

Chun and Roh were convicted for their roles in a 1979 mutiny and a 1980 massacre and coup, as well as for amassing huge slush funds while in office. Chun was condemned to death, but that sentence was reduced on appeal to life imprisonment. Roh’s original 22-year sentence was reduced to 17 years.

Both former generals, Chun and Roh masterminded a “creeping coup” that began with the 1979 army mutiny and culminated in the massacre of hundreds of demonstrators in Kwangju, the main city of the Cholla region in the southwest that is Kim Dae Jung’s political base.

Kim Dae Jung himself was sentenced to death for treason in 1980, just three weeks after Chun assumed the presidency. Kim’s life was saved partly through pressure from the United States. He was released from prison in 1982.

The death sentence against Chun--which few South Koreans had ever expected to see carried out--was commuted last year on the grounds that Chun’s role in building up South Korea’s economy and his peaceful hand-over of power to Roh justified clemency.

Fifteen others imprisoned in cases linked to Chun and Roh, including 12 former military officers, were also granted pardons and freed today.

Chi Jung Nam of The Times’ Seoul Bureau contributed to this report.