In mid-March, Chun Woo-won, the grandson of the late former president Chun Doo-hwan, uploaded a series of whistleblowing posts on his Instagram. He called his grandfather a “slaughterer” and claimed that his family, including his parents, committed a series of crimes, such as accumulating slush funds and trying to conceal them abroad to avoid criminal charges in South Korea. Chun Woo-won’s exposure has since re-ignited the controversy over Chun Doo-hwan’s felonies during his presidency and the atonement he had not made before his death.

The assessment of Chun Doo-hwan is one of the few areas where we see a near universal bipartisan agreement in South Korea; he is regarded as the most inhuman dictator the republic has ever seen. He is most known for ordering the military to brutally suppress protesters during the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement and subjecting his citizens to violence, rape, and murder. Without any formal apology, Chun deemed the democratization movement an anti-government communist uprising. This is why Chun Woo-won’s visit to the May 18 National Cemetery was particularly meaningful; before him, no member of Chun Doo-hwan’s family had ever publicly acknowledged the dictator’s wrongdoings.

This is exactly where all other descendants of Chun, along with those of other dictators, should start holding responsibility for their immediate kin or ancestors. Being responsible does not mean the descendants are punished instead of their ancestors; it rather begins with them acknowledging their ancestors’ sins. Like it or not, the descendants were under the umbrella of the dictators’ wealth and position. Chun’s family, for instance, has accumulated enough affluence to run wineries, send children abroad to study for years, and own several buildings in the most expensive region of South Korea. It is an excuse that they were unaware of this. No, it is not rational to make them revoke all the fringe benefits they’ve enjoyed. However, once they realize that their privileged youth was grounded upon the dignity their ancestors’ have usurped from others, they should no longer take advantage of it. Their being born into the dictators’ family alone does not make them obliged to expiate for what their ancestors have done — it is the fact that they have indirectly shared what the dictators have earned through illicit and brutal means. If they have formally inherited from the dictators, it is also their commitment to pay whatever reparations the dictator has left unpaid.

Most dictators, like Chun, have not only committed serious crimes such as murder and treason; their actions have shaken the entire foundation of the nation and have confronted the ideologies that the nation has been founded upon. Their leadership has left students cut from education, opinions suppressed, and children parentless. Some were even mislabeled as traitors, making their families subject to taunts and punishments. For those affected, these repercussions do not end simply because the dictator died. In fact, the majority of dictators died before properly compensating the victims, both virtuously or financially, leaving them and their families with lingering regrets and economic difficulties. The descendants admitting that their ancestors have been in the wrong is an emotional compensation for those that remain, for the years they have spent under reproach from others labeling them as a traitors’ family. This is the bare minimum that the beneficiaries can do to pay consolation for the victims. 

Without an end, nothing ever ends. Asking the descendants to admit that they, unlike the majority, have been on the privileged pole and atone for the sins of their parents and grandparents that have enriched their lives are justified rights of the victims. This is not “an eye for an eye”, nor will it prolong the chain of revenge —  descendants fulfilling their moral responsibility will mark a proper end to the remorse of those that were exploited by oppressors.