Chun Doo-hwan is a former South Korean politician and army general who served as President of South Korea from 1980 to 1988.
From December 1979 to September 1980, he was the country's de facto leader, ruling as an unelected military strongman with civilian president Choi Kyu-hah largely as a figurehead. Chun was sentenced to death in 1996 for his role in the Gwangju Massacre but was later pardoned by President Kim Young-sam, with the advice of then President-elect Kim Dae-jung, whom Chun's administration had sentenced to death some 20 years earlier.