(Seoul, Suwon = Yonhap News) Reporter Kim Hyo-jeong and Kim Ji-won = Former Minister of National Defense Jeong Ho-yong, the only survivor among the 'core five' of the new military regime and convicted of involvement in the suppression of the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement, has been confirmed dead.
According to Yonhap News coverage on the 13th, former Minister Jeong died at the age of 94 on this day. The funeral was set up at the funeral hall of Ajou University Hospital in Suwon. The funeral home refused to officially confirm former Minister Jeong's death, and Yonhap News directly confirmed the funeral.
Former Minister Jeong, born in 1932, was a classmate of former Presidents Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo at the 11th Military Academy, and was selected as one of the 'five important figures of the new military administration' along with Chun Doo-hwan, Roh Tae-woo, former Army Chief of Staff and martial law commander Lee Hee-sung, and former Army Deputy Chief of Staff Hwang Young-si.
He participated in the December 12 military rebellion in 1979 and was appointed commander of the Army Special Forces Command the day after the rebellion.
He was indicted in 1996 after democratization on charges of participating in the December 12 military uprising and the suppression of the May 18 democratization movement, and was sentenced to seven years in prison in 1997. At the time of indictment, the charges included engaging in important civil war duties, murder for the purpose of civil war, engaging in important rebellion duty, and violating the law on aggravated punishment for specific crimes (aiding and abetting bribes).
He, who was a special forces commander during the May 18 Democratization Movement, was found to have visited Gwangju at least four times during the uprising.
He has denied responsibility for the bloody suppression, claiming that the airborne troops deployed to Gwangju were assigned to a different operational command chain and that his visit to Gwangju was intended to provide administrative and logistics support to subordinate units. However, the claim that the May 18 suppression operation was carried out through unofficial command from 'new military government (Chun Doo-hwan, etc.) → special forces commander → airborne brigade commander' has been consistently raised.
His responsibility for supporting the martial law army's operation to re-enter Jeonnam Provincial Office ('Operation Sangmu Chungjeong') on May 27, 1980 was later recognized by the Supreme Court.
As he was at the core of the new military government's power, he was successful throughout the Fifth Republic. After rising to the rank of Army Chief of Staff and retiring as a general, he served as Minister of Home Affairs and Minister of National Defense in 1987, at the end of the Chun Doo-hwan administration.
In 1988, he was elected to the 13th National Assembly (Daegu, Seo-gu-gap) as a member of the Democratic Justice Party (DJ), but resigned from the National Assembly in December of the following year amidst public opinion that the 5th party was liquidated. Afterwards, he ran again as an independent in the same constituency in the 14th general election in 1992 and was elected.
Afterwards, he served as chairman of the Military Development Fund and chairman of the Special Forces Comrades Association.
During last year's presidential election, the National Election Committee of People Power Party candidate Kim Moon-soo appointed former Minister Jeong as a standing advisor, but canceled the appointment after five hours as controversy grew.
It is assessed that it has become more difficult to uncover the truth about the bloody suppression of May 18th as former Minister Jeong, who was the last surviving member of the five core members of the new military regime, died without an apology for the suppression or cooperation in uncovering the truth.
In particular, there are concerns that it has become difficult to directly confirm the decision-making process within the new military government, including the firing command system at the time of May 18, directly from the mouths of key figures in the new military government.
