A spokesman from the USA State Department says: "Our situation, for better or worse, is that Korea is a treaty ally, and the USA has a very strong security interest in that part of the world". A year later, USA president, Ronald Reagan, would toast Chun with the words: "You've done much to strengthen the tradition of 5000 years' commitment to freedom". In 1996, a Korean court would convict Chun for the massacres in Kwangju.
