South Korea Revokes State Awards for 1979 Coup Participants and State Violence Perpetrators

SEOUL, July 21 (Yonhap) -- The government on Tuesday revoked state awards given to more than 150 individuals who were found to have been involved in a 1979 military coup and acts of state violence, the interior ministry said.

The Cabinet approved the cancellation of a total of 198 awards presented to 167 individuals after the government uncovered their involvement in unconstitutional activities and acts of state violence, according to the ministry.

Of the total, 76 individuals were stripped of military merit awards for their involvement in the 1979 coup led by then Maj. Gen. Chun Doo-hwan, the suppression of the 1980 pro-democracy uprising in Gwangju, and martial law operations at the time.

Chun, who died in 2021, seized power through the 1979 coup and became president the next year.

The remaining 91 individuals had their awards revoked for their involvement in cases involving state violence, including fabricated espionage cases between the 1960s and the 1990s.

The move comes after the defense ministry in March canceled military merit awards for 10 individuals involved in the 1979 military coup.

The National Police Agency and the National Intelligence Service also separately began reviewing in March government awards given for past cases that were later determined to have involved acts of state violence.

They included a 1979 case where over 80 people were apprehended for violating the National Security Act. In retrials in 2024 and 2025, the defendants were acquitted after they were found to have been illegally held and suffered abuses.

In a briefing, the National Police Agency and the spy agency apologized to those who suffered human rights abuses by the state's illegal activities.