The children of South Korea’s former dictator will pay more than A$165 Million to settle Chun Doo-Hwan’s fines for the rampant corruption during his violent and repressive regime.

“I bow my head in apology on behalf of the family for having caused concerns regards to the issue of penalty payment,” said Chun’s eldest son Chun Jae-kook, who at one point over the years had priceless artworks and artifacts stashed away in his warehouses on behalf of his father.

The family will hand over assets that includes that artwork, as well as an expensive house in the capital Seoul. 

Chun Doo-Hwan took over South Korea in a coup in 1979, following the assassination of dictator Park Chung-Hee, father of the current democratically-elected president.  Chun was responsible for the murderous repression of a pro-Democracy movement at a cost of 2,000 lives.  His rule also saw as many as 60,000 South Koreans arrested without warrant and forced to toil in “reeducation camps”.  Chun ruled until 1988.

In 1996 he was convicted for treason, corruption and mutiny, but pardoned in 1997 and ordered to pay compensation for the slush fund he had amassed.