#ChunDooHwan #HiddenAssets #HongSaHoon #HerbVillage #Confiscation #JeonWooWon

This year marks the 43rd anniversary of the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement. We commemorate the spirits of those who sacrificed themselves for democratization in Gwangju and South Jeolla Province from May 18 to 27, 1980. In 1980, the Chun Doo-hwan military junta monopolized political power through a coup and martial law, controlled the media and the National Assembly, and suppressed citizens.

The Gwangju May 18 Democratization Movement can be considered the most significant chapter in the history of South Korea's democratization and human rights movements, standing against the atrocities of this new military regime. To mark the 43rd anniversary of May 18, ‘KBS Sisa YouTube’ recommends three documentaries previously broadcast on [Sisa Gijeok Chang] to our viewers.

These are Reporter Hong Sa-hoon’s passionate pursuit of Chun Doo-hwan’s hidden assets on May 1, 2012; the documentary “Chun Doo-hwan” on November 28, 2021, which captures the secretive life of Chun Doo-hwan and his family in the Blue House; and the work “Crimes Against Humanity” on May 16, 2020, which paved the way for the punishment of perpetrators through the ratification of the “Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.”

[Note] Some statistics and laws may differ from the current situation (2023).

The forfeiture fine that former President Chun Doo-hwan is still refusing to pay amounts to 167.3 billion won. The production team tracked the suspicious assets of former President Chun Doo-hwan’s family, for which the statute of limitations for the forfeiture fine is set to expire next October (2013). Suspicious land transactions by the second son. Late last year, the National Tax Service seized former President Chun Doo-hwan’s annex in Yeonhui-dong. The reason the annex registered under the name of brother-in-law Lee Chang-seok was seized stems from a suspicious land transaction between the second son, Jeon Jae-yong, and Lee Chang-seok. The deal, in which maternal uncle Lee Chang-seok attempted to effectively gift land worth tens of billions of won at an absurdly low price to his nephew Jeon Jae-yong and transfer the land without leaving a record in the registry, was caught in an unexpected place. We delve into the strange land transaction between the former president's son and brother-in-law that led to the seizure of even the home where the former president lives.

Real estate inherited from his maternal great-grandfather. It is the ‘Herb Village’ farm located in Yeoncheon-gun, Gyeonggi-do. Local residents call it a paradise. It is an ecological park built in 2006 by the eldest son, Jeon Jae-guk, who achieved great success with his publishing business. The land for Herb Village was purchased not only by Jeon Jae-guk but also by his wife and eldest daughter. The reason the eldest daughter, who had just turned twenty, was able to purchase such a large plot of land was thanks to the inheritance she received from her maternal great-grandfather. Mr. Jeon Jae-guk's son also inherited a vast amount of real estate from his maternal great-grandfather. It has been confirmed that his great-grandfather lived as a tenant in a small 13-pyeong public housing apartment until his death in 1997. What is the story behind how he was able to inherit such a massive fortune from a great-grandfather who was not even a wealthy individual?

Collecting forfeitures is a matter of will. Has too much time already passed to collect the illicit assets of former presidents? Since current regulations regarding forfeitures are not mandatory provisions, one can simply choose not to pay if they claim they have no money. The "system to detain forfeiture defaulters in forced labor camps," promoted by the Ministry of Justice in 2007, was expected to be a practical measure not only for the two former presidents but also for corruption offenders delaying the payment of large fines; however, it was abandoned during the legislative process. We investigated the reasons for the bill's failure and whether it could be reinstated into law.