Chun Doo-hwan

Born in Hapcheon County in 1931 under Japanese rule, Chun graduated from Korea Military Academy in 1955. After president Park Chung Hee was assassinated in 1979, Chun orchestrated a coup on 12 December that year, then cemented control with a second coup on 17 May 1980, declaring martial law and setting up a concentration camp for what he called "purificatory education". He established the Fifth Republic on 3 March 1981 and governed with broad executive power maintained through extreme violence, though under a constitution somewhat less authoritarian than his predecessor's. South Korea's economy grew at its highest rate during his tenure, posting the country's first trade surplus in 1986. After the June Struggle of 1987 forced his hand, he allowed a free presidential election that December, won by his ally Roh Tae-woo. In 1996 the Seoul High Court convicted him of treason and insurrection; the Supreme Court upheld it the following year, but he was pardoned in December 1997 and fined $203 million he never paid. He died in November 2021 at 90, having expressed no remorse.