The 1983 Rangoon bombing was an attack aimed to kill the South Korean President, Chun Doo Hwan.

On October 9, 1983 President Chun Doo Hwan was on an official visit to Rangoon (now called Yangon), the capital of Burma (now known as Myanmar.) During the visit, he planned to lay a wreath at the Martyr’s Mausoleum in that city, to commemorate Aung San, who founded the independent Burma and was assassinated in 1947.

As some of the President’s staff began assembling at the Mausoleum, one of three bombs concealed in the roof of the memorial exploded. The huge blast ripped through the crowd below, killing 21 people and wounding 46. Among the dead were the Korean foreign minister, Lee Bum Suk, the economic planning minister and deputy prime minister, Suh Suk Joo , and the Minister for Commerce and Industry, Kim Dong Whie . The rest of those killed were presidential advisers, journalists, and security officials, mostly all of them South Korean.

President Chun was saved because his car had been delayed in traffic and was just minutes from arriving at the memorial. The persons who detonated the bomb likely saw the South Korean ambassador’s large car pull up and presidential-sounding music begin to play, and detonated the bomb early. Had Chun been killed, the consequences of that event on the Korean peninsula might have culminated in another Korean War.

Police arrested several suspects days later, including people who tried to commit suicide with hand grenades. They admitted they had been sent to kill President Chun, and links to Kim Jong Il of the DPRK (North Korea) were suspected. No direct evidence has emerged to link Kim or the DPRK to the bombings.