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- South Korean military ruler who seized power
- 1979; president 1981-88 as head of the newly
- formed Democratic Justice Party. Chun,
- trained in Korea and the USA, served as an
- army commander from 1967 and was in charge of
- military intelligence 1979 when President
- Park was assassinated by the chief of the
- Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA).
- General Chun took charge of the KCIA and, in
- a coup, assumed control of the army and the
- South Korean government. In 1981 Chun was
- appointed president, and oversaw a period of
- rapid economic growth, governing in an
- authoritarian manner. In 1988 he retired to a
- Buddhist retreat.
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