'Chun not eligible for National Cemetery burial'

By Kim Bo-eun

Chun Doo-hwan

Former President Chun Doo-hwan is not eligible to be buried at the National Cemetery, according to the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs.

“A person who has been convicted of one of the crimes stipulated in clause 1 of article 79 of the Act on the Honorable Treatment of and Support for Persons of Distinguished Service to the State cannot be buried at the National Cemetery,” the ministry said in response to an inquiry by Rep. Chun Jung-bae of the minor opposition Party for Democracy and Peace.

Chun, who served as president from 1980 to 1988, was convicted of multiple charges including treason, for his December 1979 coup d'etat and suppressing a pro-democracy uprising in Gwangju on May 18, 1980.

Over 600 people are estimated to have died in government troops' violent suppression of the movement.

Chun, 87, was sentenced to life imprisonment and a 220 billion won fine in 1997, but he was pardoned by President Kim Young-sam the same year. He only paid a quarter of the fine.

Earlier, a national poll conducted by Realmeter showed 61.5 percent of respondents were against Chun's burial at the National Cemetery.

Currently, Chun is embroiled in a legal battle over his refusal to appear in a Gwangju court for a trial on charges of defamation.

He was indicted on charges of defaming victims of his crackdown on the Gwangju Uprising in his memoir.