Aung San Suu Kyi to visit South Korea

Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is due to visit South Korea, where she will meet South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and President-elect Park Geun-hye, before speaking at a Global Development Summit in Pyeongchang. The Nobel Peace Laureate will also attend a Special Olympics event and receive the Gwangju Prize for Human Rights, an award she won in 2004 while she was under house arrest in Rangoon. The award was given by the May 18 Memorial Foundation, which commemorates the 1980 uprising in the southwestern city of Gwangju, considered by many to be a turning point in South Korea's hard-won transition from dictatorship to democracy. The uprising was suppressed by the military, but the brutal massacre enraged the country's population and unified movements led by students, labour activists and religious figures, ultimately leading to the downfall of then-president Chun Doo-hwan. Suu Kyi will also give a lecture at Chonnam National University and pay her respects to the civilians who were killed during the uprising at the May 18 National Cemetery.