Park, an ex-general who seized power in a coup in 1961, is arguably the most important single figure in the country’s post-war development. Photo: AFP / Chosun IlboĪny understanding of today’s bright and shiny South Korea must be informed by the country’s turbulent economic and political development under both pre- and post-democratic leaders.Ĭoincidentally, the day Roh died, October 26, was the exact same day Park Chung-hee was assassinated in 1979. Any return of the kind of military juntas that ruled South Korea between 19 – the year Roh, himself an ex-junta member who won a dramatic election against a divided opposition – is today unthinkable.įormer presidents Chun Doo-Hwan (front right) and Roh Tae-Woo (next to him) in Seoul Appellate Court with their former army generals in December, 1996, to answer for their role in the Gwangju massacre. Still, the democratic governance Roh ushered in has proven durable. Subsequently, he largely disappeared from public view.
He only escaped a 17-year prison term for past misdeeds thanks to a presidential pardon. Some also attribute the surprise rise of SK Telecom, which would become one of the country’s key digital companies, to Roh’s favor.Īfter ensuring governmental continuity by allying with a former political foe, he hoped to join the circuit of retired global statesmen after leaving office. His greatest tangible legacy is his introduction of a national healthcare service.
In the presidential Blue House, he oversaw the 1988 Summer Olympics, and subsequently, the opening of South Korea’s diplomatic engagement with ex-communist states.
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Though has was the third member of a triumvirate of ex-generals who ruled Korea, he also won a landmark, legitimate plebiscite under a one-man, one-vote direct election system and went on to serve a full term as president from 1988 to 1993. He was a central, bridging figure in the country’s modern history, for he bestrode two camps. Roh died in a Seoul hospital after a long illness and a virtually non-existent public profile for well over a decade. SEOUL – Roh Tae-woo, a general who would go on to become Korea’s first democratically elected president after decades of authoritarian rule, died Tuesday aged 88.