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- <text id=90TT0101>
- <title>
- Jan. 15, 1990: World Notes:South Korea
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1990
- Jan. 15, 1990 Antarctica
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- WORLD, Page 43
- World Notes
- SOUTH KOREA
- Exercise in Exorcism
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p> "I'm ashamed that I have to revive dark memories and reopen
- old wounds," said South Korea's former ruler Chun Doo Hwan,
- finally breaking the silence that followed his retirement in
- early 1988. Appearing before a special panel of the National
- Assembly, Chun, 58, accepted "moral responsibility" for the
- excesses of his seven-year rule. But members of the opposition
- exploded in protest when Chun denied responsibility for the
- 1980 deaths of 200 demonstrators in Kwangju and argued that the
- army had rightfully fired on a crowd. One legislator dashed to
- the witness stand, grabbed Chun by the arm and shouted,
- "Murderer!"
- </p>
- <p> Chun's testimony was the last act of a public exorcism
- staged by government and opposition leaders to erase the final
- traces of the Chun era. But the angry response to Chun
- indicates that Koreans are not yet willing to forgive or
- forget.
- </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
-
-