Ex-dictator Chun Shows No Remorse for 1980 Massacre in Gwangju Trial [photos]

Former President Chun Doo-hwan was forced to show up at a courtroom in Gwangju, Monday, for a hearing in a libel case brought against him. Gwanju is where hundreds of pro-democracy activists were gunned down or beaten to death almost four decades ago during a military crackdown he ordered on the 1980 Gwangju Democratic Uprising.

Chun, 87, showed no signs of remorse as he left his home in Yeonhui-dong, western Seoul, with his wife Lee Soon-ja, and before entering the Gwangju District Court at 12:30 p.m. ? two hours before the scheduled hearing.

"What do you think you are doing!" he angrily snapped at a reporter who asked him if he denied having ordered the military to open fire on civilian protesters, as he made his way into the court with his aides.

Earlier, as Chun left his house, he was given loud vocal support from ultra-conservative groups who claimed the former president was being forced into a "communist trial."

Chun, who ruled the country from 1980 to 1988, was previously sentenced to death by the Seoul Central District Court in 1996 after being found guilty of treason for his role in a 1979 military coup, the massacre of the hundreds of pro-democracy demonstrators in Gwangju, and bribery.

The sentence was later reduced to life in prison by an appeals court, and in December 1997, then-President Kim Dae-jung granted Chun and another former president, Roh Tae-woo, special pardons in a gesture of political reconciliation.

This time, Chun faces the charge of defaming in his 2017 memoir a key eyewitness of the massacres, the now deceased priest Cho Bi-oh, who testified about troops in helicopters machine gunning civilians.

In his book ? now subject to a court-ordered ban ? Chun called Cho a "masked Satan" and a "shameless liar unworthy of the ecclesiastical title." He also referred to the pro-democracy uprising as a "revolt caused by North Korean military intervention."

One of the main points of contention in the libel case is whether Chun knew about the helicopter attacks on the civilians, and whether he criticized Cho even though he was aware of them. He has so far maintained in written testimony that there...