S. Korea to Indict 2 Ex-Leaders, Including Hospitalized Chun

Hunger-striking former President Chun Doo Hwan was moved from prison to a hospital early today, but he will still be indicted this afternoon on charges stemming from a 1979 mutiny, authorities said.

Former President Roh Tae Woo, already on trial for bribery in connection with a $653-million slush fund he accumulated during his 1988-93 term in office, will also be indicted in connection with the mutiny, South Korean media reported.

Under police protection, Chun traveled via ambulance from Anyang Prison on the outskirts of Seoul to the National Police Hospital. He arrived shortly after midnight and was carried on a stretcher to a VIP room. Chun has refused all solid food since his arrest Dec. 3 and has subsisted on barley tea and water.

Chun is in good enough condition to undergo questioning, authorities said. He was interrogated at length on the day of his arrest but since then has apparently refused to answer any questions.

Chun Jae Kook, the former president’s son, told reporters after a prison visit Wednesday that his father “could barely talk because he was so weak.” He displayed an envelope with a birthday card for Chun Doo Hwan’s granddaughter on which the former president had written: “From Grandfather at Anyang Prison.”

Both Chun and Roh are former generals. Roh played a key role assisting Chun in the mutiny, which was followed by the nationwide imposition of martial law on May 17, 1980, and the bloody suppression of a pro-democracy uprising that began the next day in the southwestern city of Kwangju. Chun assumed the presidency later that year and held it until 1988.

Meanwhile, Roh’s daughter, Roh So Yong, and her husband, Chey Tae Won, the son of a corporate chairman, appeared before prosecutors today for questioning about whether they received illicit funds from the former president, local media reported.

The couple pleaded guilty at a 1990 hearing in San Jose to illegally depositing $192,576 in American bank accounts in violation of U.S. currency control laws. Prosecutors are trying to determine whether this money came from the slush fund.