Min Jeong-gi, former public communications secretary to former President Chun Doo-hwan, declined to directly comment on whether Chun ordered soldiers to fire on Gwangju citizens during the 1980 pro-democracy uprising and should be held legally accountable.

Min told Yonhap News Agency on Monday, the 40th anniversary of the May 18 uprising, that former Gen. Lee Hui-sung, the martial law commander at the time, had claimed responsibility in detail for the shootings.

Former President Chun has repeatedly denied his alleged ordering of the helicopter gunfire, stressing that he was not in a position to know about it. Asked whether Chun held any responsibility for the shootings, Min said the former dictator can't apologize for something he did not do.

The former secretary added that Chun stated everything there is to say about the incident in his 2017 memoir, in which he refuted late activist priest Cho Chul-hyun's testimony about the helicopter gunfire.

Min's interview comes as President Moon Jae-in reaffirmed his resolve to find the truth behind the bloody military junta crackdown that claimed more than 200 lives and wounded one-thousand-800 others.