 Former President Chun Doo-hwan shakes hands with Lee Hee-ho, former President Kim Dae-jung’s wife, at the Severance Hospital in Sinchon, Seoul, where Kim has been receiving treatment for about a month for pneumonia. Chun and Kim have had an acrimonious past where Chun ordered a death sentence on Kim to justifiy his military coup in the “Incident of December 12,”in 1979 immediately after the assassination of then-President Park Chung-hee. / Korea Times Photo by Kim Joo-sung |
By Do Je-hae
Staff Reporter
Ailing former president Kim Dae-jung's life-long philosophies of ``no political retaliation'' and forgiveness gained new historical significance when Chun Doo-hwan visited Seoul's Severance Hospital to meet the Nobel Peace Prize winner at his bedside Friday.
It was the 78-year-old Chun who ordered a death sentence on Kim to justify his military coup, known as the ``Incident of December 12," in 1979 immediately following the assassination of President Park Chung-hee.
When Kim was arrested, the citizens of Gwangju revolted, which led to a bloody confrontation between civilians and the military, killing more than 200 and injuring several hundred in 1980.
Under the Kim Young-sam administration, Chun was sentenced to death in 1996 for authorizing the Gwangju massacre and for charges of corruption. He was later pardoned through the efforts of then-President-elect Kim Dae-jung, who Chun himself had sentenced to death some two decades earlier.
During the 10-minute meeting, Chun held hands with Lee Hee-ho, Kim's wife and former first lady, and recounted Kim's display of magnanimity toward the former heads of states who had jeopardized his life.
``I am sure that Kim will eventually regain his health," Chun said as he comforted Lee, who has been receiving numerous well-wishers since her husband's hospitalization a month ago. He was unable to meet Kim, who is now in an intensive care unit.
After taking office in 1998, Kim invited Chun and former President Roh Tae-woo, both of whom attempted to have him killed, to Cheong Wa Dae and refrained from seeking vengeance.
``Kim used to organize a gathering of former and incumbent presidents. Such meetings have since become scarce," Chun said.
``Unlike others, his ears were open to the advice of former presidents. After coming back from an overseas visit, he used to invite them to Cheong Wa Dae to explain the outcomes."
During Kim's presidency from 1998 to 2003, Chun paid tribute to Kim's leadership during the financial crisis that swept the country in the late 1990s and Kim's trademark ``Sunshine Policy" of engagement with North Korea.
Since entering politics in 1954, Kim suffered intense oppression from the military regimes of Park and Chun and faced several death threats.
In 1980, he was arrested by the Martial Law Command led by then-Major General Chun on fabricated charges of treason for his alleged role in the Gwangju Democratization Movement and sentenced to death.
Due to international pressure, the sentence was commuted to imprisonment and then reduced to a 20-year prison term. In 1982, the sentence was suspended, after which Kim left for the United States and continued his pro-democracy activities.
It was despite strong objections from his deputies that Chun decided to save Kim's life, according to a former Cheong Wa Dae correspondent. Chun's decision not to kill Kim, although reluctant, might have changed Korean politics, observers said.
Chun is the second former president to visit the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, after Kim Young-sam, who ended years of animosity with his successor through a visit Monday.
Unlike Kim Young-sam, who articulated a message of reconciliation with Kim Dae-jung to the media, Chun did not speak with reporters following his visit.
The former President expressed his wish to visit the hospital on Thursday, and Lee Hee-ho happily accepted, according to Kim's secretary Choi Kyung-hwan.
Lee thanked Chun for the visit.
jhdo@koreatimes.co.kr
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