Ex-President Chun to Skip Seoul Games

SEOUL — Former President Chun Doo Hwan, whose government successfully campaigned to bring the 24th Olympic Games to South Korea, declined an invitation Saturday to attend the Games’ opening ceremony next weekend. He said he did so to ensure “a successful hosting” of the event.

“I don’t want any noise to occur at the opening ceremony because of my presence,” Chun told Park Seh Jik, president of the Seoul Olympic Organizing Committee. Park visited Chun’s home in Seoul to extend a joint invitation from him and from Juan Antonio Samaranch, president of the International Olympic Committee.

Officials of the ruling Democratic Justice Party, which Chun founded after coming to power in a 1980 coup d’etat , were reported to have urged their former leader to stay away lest the audience boo him and mar next Saturday’s opening ceremony, which will be telecast live around the world. (Because of the international time difference, the ceremony will be seen in the United States on Friday night.)

The former president, who led an authoritarian government for eight years until his term expired last Feb. 25, told Park that he had “exerted every effort to host and prepare for the Seoul Olympic Games while serving as president with the conviction that the Games will be a springboard toward a new glorious national history.”

“But since a successful hosting of the Games is the nation’s paramount task now, I politely decline your invitation,” he said.

Chun’s action occurred as Yoon Giel Joong, the ruling party’s chairman, recommended that President Roh Tae Woo ask Chun to make some kind of gesture to try to quiet public condemnation of widespread scandals reported to have been committed by Chun’s relatives during his rule.

Last Monday, for example, his younger brother, Chun Kyung Hwan, was convicted of embezzlement and bribery involving more than $10 million and sentenced to seven years in prison. The younger Chun, who headed the government-backed Saemaul (Community Development) movement, appealed the verdict.

Yoon told Roh that “liquidating the unsavory legacy” of Chun’s administration must be made a priority issue after Oct. 2, when a political truce declared by South Korea’s four major political parties ends as the Olympics close.

The opposition-dominated National Assembly is scheduled to launch investigations next month into allegations of scandal during Chun’s rule.

Korean newspapers reported that Chun’s aides say that after the Olympics, the ex-president will issue a public apology for the wrongdoings of his rule.