At least 5 involved in military coup buried in national cemetery

SEOUL, Sept. 29 (Yonhap) -- At least five former military officials involved in a coup decades ago were buried in the South Korean national cemetery, a private foundation said Thursday, part of its efforts to revise the law to prevent such interments.
The five officials joined then Army Maj. Gen. Chun Doo-hwan when he staged a coup in 1979 following the assassination of President Park Chung-hee. Chun later took power and brutally quashed a pro-democracy uprising in the southwestern city of Gwangju in 1980.
The bloody crackdown killed about 200 people and wounded 1,800 others, according to government data, though unofficial figures put the death toll at more than 2,000.
Still, the five officials were buried in the national cemetery in Daejeon, about 160 kilometers south of Seoul, according to the May 18 Memorial Foundation, an organization honoring the pro-democracy uprising.
The five included Ahn Hyun-tae, who served as presidential chief of staff for Chun. Ahn was buried in the national cemetery last month, a move that sparked angry public protests.
The foundation unveiled the report at a parliamentary public hearing calling for a revision of the law to prevent those involved in the military coup from being buried in the national cemetery.
entropy@yna.co.kr
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