Chun Doo-hwan
11th and 12th President of the Republic of Korea (1931~2021)
Chun Doo-hwan (Korean: 전두환; pronounced [tɕʌn duβwan]; 18 January 1931 – 23 November 2021) was a South Korean army general and politician who served as the fifth president of South Korea from 1980 to 1988. A member of the Democratic Justice Party, he ruled the country as a military dictator following a successful coup in December 1979. The period encompassing his presidency is known as the Fifth Republic of Korea.
Born in Hapcheon County, Korea, Empire of Japan, Chun graduated from Korea Military Academy in 1955 with a bachelor's degree in science. He usurped power after the 1979 assassination of president Park Chung Hee, who was himself a military dictator who had ruled since 1961. Chun orchestrated the 12 December 1979 military coup, then cemented his military rule in the 17 May 1980 military coup in which he declared martial law and later set up a concentration camp for "purificatory education". He established the Fifth Republic of Korea on 3 March 1981. He governed under a constitution somewhat less authoritarian than Park's Fourth Republic, but still held very broad executive power, and used extreme violence to maintain it. During his tenure, South Korea's economy grew at its highest rate ever, achieving the country's first trade surplus in 1986. After the June Struggle democratization movement of 1987, Chun conceded to allowing the December 1987 presidential election to be free and open.
“Chun Doo-hwan” enters the record as 11th and 12th President of the Republic of Korea (1931~2021). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Chun, Doo-hwan and 11th can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q14362. VIAF identifies the subject as 2468277. The Library of Congress control number is n81048898. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1931, 2021, 1980 and 1988.
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