S. Korea’s Chun Denies Crackdown Role

TOKYO —  Former South Korean President Chun Doo Hwan on Monday told a court trying him for sedition that he was not responsible for the use of troops to violently suppress a 1980 pro-democracy protest in the city of Kwangju.

“The deployment of troops is done through the normal line of command,” Chun testified in answer to prosecution questioning. “I was in charge of intelligence. It was not a matter for me to be involved in.”

Chun, 65, a former general, is on trial in Seoul with other former top military officers, including his successor, former President Roh Tae Woo, for a Dec. 12, 1979, military mutiny and a May 1980 martial law crackdown.

It is widely accepted in South Korea that Chun was the leader of the 1979 mutiny and that it gave him control over the armed forces. It is also widely believed that the nationwide declaration of martial law on May 17, 1980, and the use of troops to crush protests that broke out the next day in Kwangju gave Chun the power base to assume the presidency later that year.

But at his trial Monday, Chun insisted that his position at the time as head of the Army Security Command did not give him power to order troop movements and that he was not aware of the effort to put down protests in Kwangju until the day after the operation began.

“I think May 18 was Sunday, so I received such information only the following morning,” Chun said.

Chun acknowledged attending a May 18 meeting of martial law authorities but denied prosecution charges that plans for a crackdown in the southwestern city were a topic.

“Student protests in Kwangju at the time were not very serious,” he said. “I did not have interest in the matter, and it was not discussed in the meeting.”

While denying that he had anything to do with the decision to crush the 10-day Kwangju protests, Chun said the crackdown--which took at least 240 lives and, some believe, possibly even 1,000--was necessary to reestablish order in the face of a possible military attack by Communist North Korea.

“In a situation of intense South-North confrontation, the crackdown was inevitable,” he said.

Also in court Monday, Hwang Young Si, a co-defendant who was deputy commander of martial law troops at the time of the Kwangju massacre, testified that the martial law command did not draft the text of a radio broadcast that warned demonstrators troops would use force in “self-defense” against them.

When asked whether he meant that the Army Security Command headed by Chun had drafted the warning--something that could link Chun more closely to the massacre--Hwang replied, “Yes, it’s possible.”

Chun and Roh are also facing separate trials on corruption charges stemming from their accumulation of huge slush funds while in office.

Chun was president from 1980 to 1988, Roh from 1988 to 1993.

Chi Jung Nam of The Times’ Seoul Bureau contributed to this report.