Lee Hae-rin is a City Desk reporter at The Korea Times, covering social issues, tourism and taekwondo. She is passionate about speaking up for the rights of minorities, including women, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities and animals as well as discovering the latest makgeolli trend in town. Feel free to reach her at lhr@koreatimes.co.kr.
Chun Woo-won apologizes to Gwangju victims, calls grandfather 'criminal'
Former dictator Chun Doo-hwan's grandson Woo-won, right, wipes dust off the tombstone of an anonymous martyr of the 1980 pro-democracy movement in Gwangju, Friday. Yonhap
By Lee Hae-rin
By Lee Hae-rin
Former dictator Chun Doo-hwan's grandson Woo-won became the first in his family to kneel down and apologize to the people who suffered during the 1980 Gwangju pro-democracy movement, Friday. Some of the bereaved families accepted the apology from the strongman's descendant.
Woo-won met with the bereaved families and surviving victims of his grandfather's deadly suppression of the pro-democracy movement at the May 18 Memorial Culture Center in the southern city of Gwangju. He called his grandfather a “criminal” who “stamped on heroes who fought against the military dictatorship with military boots, instead of promoting the development of democracy.”
The younger Chun, 27, admitted to receiving inaccurate and distorted history education from his family in his childhood.
"Out of fear of suffering consequential damage, my family and I had looked away from the hideous crime we had committed," he admitted. He explained that as a child, he was taught that the democratic uprising had been a riot, and that his grandfather and family members were heroes and victims.
He appreciated the bereaved families' warmhearted welcoming gestures towards the “criminal” that he is and vowed to “repent and express regrets (for his) family's wrongdoings for the rest of (his) life.”
Former dictator Chun Doo-hwan's grandson Woo-won makes a deep bow of apology in lieu of his grandfather to the bereaved families of those who were killed in the 1980 Gwangju pro-democracy movement, at the May 18 Memorial Culture Center in Gwangju, Friday. Yonhap
Some of the bereaved family members burst into tears at Chun's apology and accepted it.
Several elderly mothers who lost their loved ones over 40 years ago hugged Woo-won and said they appreciated his courage to make such an apology. Kim Gil-ja, whose son Moon Jae-hak was killed while in the student militia in 1980, said she hopes Chun would “think of Gwangju as his second home” and work on unweaving the historic event.
“We are willing to humbly accept Woo-won's brave apology as it is. However, (the younger) Chun should not be seen as a hero," said Yang Jae-hyuk, the leader of the May 18 Bereaved Families Union.
After making the apology, Woo-won visited the May 18 National Cemetery to pay his respects to the fallen.
“I appreciate brightening up the darkness that I am,” he wrote in the visitors' log at the cemetery. “All those resting in peace here are the true fathers of democracy.”
Woo-won arrived in Korea from New York where he lives via Incheon International Airport on Tuesday morning to apologize to the victims and bereaved families of the Gwangju pro-democracy movement. He was arrested upon arrival on a charge of using illegal drugs but released after 38 hours of investigation.