Jeong Ho-yong, last survivor of new military junta's 'core five,' dies at 94

Jeong Ho-yong, a former defense minister who was the last surviving member of the so-called "core five" of South Korea's new military junta and was convicted for his role in suppressing the May 18 Gwangju pro-democracy uprising, has died.

Jeong died Sunday morning at the age of 94, according to Yonhap. A funeral hall has been set up at Ajou University Hospital in Suwon.

Born in 1932, Jeong was a classmate of former presidents Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo at the Korea Military Academy's 11th class. Along with Chun, Roh, former Army Chief of Staff and Martial Law Commander Lee Hee-sung, and former Army Vice Chief of Staff Hwang Yeong-si, he was counted among the five key figures of the new military junta.

Jeong took part in the Dec. 12, 1979 military mutiny and was appointed commander of the Army Special Warfare Command the following day. As special warfare commander during the May 18 Gwangju pro-democracy uprising, he was convicted of involvement in the violent suppression of civilian militias defending the South Jeolla Province government building, receiving a seven-year prison sentence finalized in 1997.

Although he was not part of the official chain of command when martial law was declared, he visited Gwangju at least four times during the uprising. The Supreme Court later recognized his responsibility for supporting the martial law forces' operation to retake the South Jeolla Province government building on May 27, 1980 — known as "Operation Sangmu Chungjung."

Under the Fifth Republic, Jeong rose to Army chief of staff and retired with the rank of general before going on to serve as minister of home affairs and then defense minister.

In 1988, he was elected to the 13th National Assembly from Daegu's Seo-gu Gap district on the Democratic Justice Party ticket, but resigned his seat the following December amid public pressure to reckon with the Fifth Republic's legacy. He ran again in the same constituency as an independent in the 1992 general election and won.

He later served as chairman of the Korea Military Academy Development Fund and president of the Special Warfare Command Veterans Association.

During last year's presidential election, the People Power Party campaign of candidate Kim Moon-soo appointed Jeong as a standing adviser, only to rescind the appointment five hours later after the move drew sharp criticism.

With Jeong's death, efforts to fully establish the truth about the May 18 Gwangju pro-democracy uprising are expected to become even more difficult, as he was the last surviving member of the junta's core five.

He had consistently denied responsibility, submitting a statement to the May 18 Truth Investigation Commission in 2021 asserting that he had no connection to the uprising.