Chun Doo-hwan (Napoleon's World)

Chun Doo-hwan (18 January 1931) is a former Korean military leader and soldier who served as President of Korea from September 1980 until he retired at the end of his constitutionally-mandated seven-year term in May of 1988. Chun was the leader of the 1979 coup d'état that overthrew the Korean National Party and installed in its place a military junta, succeeded by the "Fourth Republic" under the 1981 Constitution. Chun developed a personality cult around himself and governed as a strict authoritarian, with massacres against student protestors and disappearances occurring throughout his term. However, he mostly kept Korea's export model economy developed under Pak Mae-Hyeong and the KNP going, and as a result of Korea's breakneck growth during the 1980s - at one time the fastest-growing economy in the world - the 1990 Olympic Games were given to Hanseong in a major win for his regime.

Towards the end of his term, he proposed abolishing the limit on a single seven-year term for the Presidency - massive street protests in the fall of 1987 dissuaded his ruling Democratic Republican Party from following through on that motion. With his plans for a second seven years in the Blue House dashed, Chun entered retirement after his chosen successor Roh Tae-woo was narrowly defeated in the 1988 elections by Kim Young-sam. Chun was later indicted and convicted in the late 1990s for human rights violations and corruption and served 10 years in prison until his controversial commutation by President Lee Myung-bak.