Former Korean President Stops His Hunger Strike

Former President Chun Doo-hwan ended a nearly month-long hunger strike Saturday but pledged to continue fighting charges that he masterminded the 1979 coup that brought him to power.

“I am sorry for causing uneasiness among the people,” Chun said after ending the strike that so weakened him that he was hospitalized and put on intravenous drips when he showed signs of slipping into a coma.

The 64-year-old politician would become the second former president to face trial after Roh Tae-woo, his immediate successor and childhood friend, who has admitted amassing a huge political slush fund.

Chun said his decision to end the strike does not mean that he won’t fight the charges.

“Under the present political circumstances, I will continue to defend the legitimacy of the fifth republic,” as his government was known, he said through spokesman Lee Yang-woo.

Chun became so weak that he was transferred from jail to a Seoul hospital on Dec. 20. Doctors gave him an oxygen mask and intravenous drips on Friday.

Doctors said the ex-president was recovering and appeared to have no complications. Justice Ministry officials said Chun will be sent back to prison when he recovers enough to go on trial, expected in about one month.