Roh Tae-woo
Roh Tae-woo was the general who conceded South Korea's transition to democracy and was later imprisoned for how he had come to power. Born in 1932 near Daegu, he graduated from the military academy in 1955 in the same class as Chun Doo-hwan and served in Vietnam. He commanded the division that moved on Seoul in the coup of December 1979, after President Park Chung-hee's assassination, which put Chun in power, and he was among those responsible for the suppression of the Gwangju uprising in May 1980, in which at least two hundred people were killed. He retired from the army, held cabinet posts, ran the Seoul Olympics organising committee, and was designated as Chun's successor in 1987 by the electoral college system that made the presidency a gift. That announcement produced the June Democratic Uprising: weeks of protest by students and, decisively, by the urban middle class, over the beating to death of a student under interrogation and the tear-gas killing of another. On 29 June 1987 Roh issued a declaration accepting direct presidential elections, the release of the opposition leader Kim Dae-jung, press freedom and local self-government. It was the turning point of Korean democratisation. He then won the election in December with 36 per cent, because Kim Dae-jung and Kim Young-sam both ran. His Nordpolitik opened relations with the Soviet Union, China and Eastern Europe and brought both Koreas into the United Nations. He was convicted in 1996 of mutiny, treason and taking bribes, sentenced to twenty-two years, and pardoned in 1997.
- Lived: 1932 CE – 2021 CE
- Nationality: South Korean
- Roles: head_of_state, military_leader, politician
