Korea, South

Korea, South A country created as the Republic of Korea on 15 August 1948, in the southern half of the peninsula of Korea. Its subsequent politics were shaped by the constant perceived need to defend the country against the aggressive Communist regime of Kim Il Sung in North Korea. In the first years of its existence under President Syngman Rhee, it was sustained by crucial US military, political, and economic support, enabling it to overcome successive Communist insurrections supported by North Korea. US troops had left the country by 29 June 1949, but returned little more than a year later, upon the outbreak of the Korean War (1950–3). In the following years, South Korea remained dependent on US economic aid to help it overcome human and economic devastation, and to cope with around 1.5 million refugees from the North. A backward country in desperate need of social and political cohesion, it was ruled autocratically by Rhee, who used his country's vulnerability to Communism as a justification for the limitation of political freedom. In 1960, his blatant fraud in the presidential elections caused a student uprising, which forced him to resign.

Despite the passing of a new Constitution in the Second Republic (August 1960), political freedom was still limited, again under the pretext of restricting Communism and other hostile political movements. This led to further political demonstrations, and ultimately to the May Military Revolution of 1961. Its leader, General Park, restored some (though by no means all) political liberties, and proclaimed the Third Republic on 17 December 1963. Park increased his authority in the constitutional changes of 1972, making his power unlimited.

From 1961 until his assassination in 1979, Park used his powers to effect the country's fundamental economic transformation. Given the country's dearth of mineral resources, economic change was created through an export-oriented industrialization, whereby South Korea imported raw materials to focus on value-added finished goods. This depended crucially on the channelling of resources from consumption to investment, and the maintenance of Korea's central advantage, its cheap labour force. The implementation of these policies arguably required an authoritarian approach, especially as the economic benefits of most of them were not evident at the time: most investment came from abroad, whence most profits flowed, while wages had to be kept at a low level.

During the 1980s the country's economy developed to the visible advantage of the population, which in turn enabled some political liberalization. Park was succeeded by Choi Kyu Ha, who a few months later was succeeded by General Chun Doo Hwan. During the 1980s, the country was able to make use of its cheap and by now well-educated labour force, as well as the acquisition of knowhow and capital by some domestic companies, in order to benefit from the boom in technological and computer industries. This generated not only greater prosperity but also greater self-confidence, which had hitherto been over-reliant on an ideological superiority over its Communist rival, North Korea. Chun stayed in office until 1987, when the regime's customary authoritarianism became untenable in the face of rising student demonstrations, and growing international pressure pending the 1988 Olympic Games in the capital, Seoul.

A sixth new constitution was passed on 12 October 1987, with Roh Tae Woo as Chun's successor. Roh gained considerable popularity through supervising a process of political liberalization and an anti-corruption campaign directed against his own party. Following the first free parliamentary elections of 1988, Roh also managed to broaden his political base through the creation of the Democratic Liberal Party (DLP) in 1990, while his opposition continued to be fragmented. Roh was succeeded in February 1993 by Kim Young Sam. The election of this former opponent to the regime, to become the country's first civilian President in over three decades, was a further indication of the country's gradual political transformation. Similarly, the conviction in August 1996 of Roh Tae Woo and Chun Doo Hwan on charges of corruption and masterminding the 1979 coup was an attempt to come to terms with Korea's illiberal past. In 1998, Kim Dae Jong was elected President, but his term of office coincided with a deep economic recession in the region. He relaxed some of the country's restrictive business laws to enable foreign direct investment. This enabled major South Korean companies to escape outright bankruptcy, even if a number of conglomerates such as Daewoo were split up, with parts bought by foreign companies (in this case General Motors). Under Kim's leadership, many political prisoners accused of maintaining illegal links to the North were released in a number of amnesties. Contrary to his intentions, Kim Dae Jong was frustrated in his attempts to bring about a lasting improvement in relations with the North. His successor from 2003, Roh Moo-hyun, continued Kim's policies of careful rapprochement with the North, even though he was faced with the resumption of North Korea's nuclear weapons programme.

Kwangju Uprising