Republic of Korea, 1990 — military coup conspiracy
Event Summary
This entry is coded 21 August 1990, during a period of political tension and factional infighting under President Roh Tae-woo of the Republic of Korea, following the January 1990 three-party merger that created the ruling Democratic Liberal Party. Roh, a former general who had played a key role in the December 1979 military coup that brought Chun Doo-hwan to power and in the 1980 suppression of the Gwangju Uprising, had been elected president in 1987 and pursued democratization while his party lacked a legislative majority. On 22 January 1990 his Democratic Justice Party merged with Kim Young-sam's Reunification Democratic Party and Kim Jong-pil's New Democratic Republican Party to form the Democratic Liberal Party, commanding a supermajority but soon fraught with factional infighting that undermined his administration, amid labor strikes and an austerity program.
The old military network known as Hanahoe remained influential until its purge under Roh's successor in 1993. The 21 August 1990 coding sits in this period of political instability and lingering military-faction influence during Roh's presidency.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
73208211990
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Roh completed his single term and was succeeded by Kim Young-sam in 1993.
Baseline coding: Plot discovered and disrupted before execution. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
CSP
Ottawa Citizen
Globe and Mail
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →