Word: roh
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...young military officer, he wore a small brown identification tag with his name inscribed in English as NO. It was the most common pronunciation of his surname. Quickly, however, the unpropitious English meaning of no got to him. Using a less frequent but acceptable pronunciation, No Tae Woo became Roh Tae Woo. Said Roh: "N-o is negative, and I am a positive person. So I prefer R-o-h." He will need that kind of flexibility to lead his country on the still bumpy path toward democracy...
...Roh Tae Woo was born Dec. 4, 1932, in a modest three-room farmhouse in the tiny rural town of Yangjinmal, ten miles from the industrial city of Taegu. His was an impoverished childhood, made worse by the severity of the Japanese occupation. Every day the young Roh walked five miles to elementary school classes. The future army general liked to play war games, reserving the leading roles for himself...
...Roh entered the Korea Military Academy outside Seoul. There he befriended Chun Doo Hwan, who would later become South Korea's President. The two graduated in 1955, members of the first class to complete the school's new four-year program. The friends had different temperaments. Where Chun was cold, Roh was affable. Where Chun was imposing, Roh was self-effacing...
Still, Chun's and Roh's lives ran almost parallel. They were together at a six-month special warfare course at Fort Bragg, N.C., and both saw action in + Viet Nam as unit commanders with South Korea's Tiger Division. In December 1979, after both had become generals, Roh's infantry division came to his friend's aid when Chun overthrew South Korea's ruling clique of senior military officers and eventually took over the country...
...National Coalition for Democracy issued a statement calling for anti-government protests to reverse the election result. "We will not accept Mr. Roh Tae-woo's election through such a rigged election and will counter the undemocratic plot by rallying the peoples' power," the opposition alliance said...