Let's start by talking about why I wrote the history of modern Korea. Inspired by a Korean drama "The Fifth Republic" recently recommended by a friend, this drama is really very interesting. How interesting it is, the students who often play Zhihu will definitely know more than me, and everyone can also experience it from my future updates.
Let's briefly talk about the characteristics of modern Korean history:
Modern politics in the Republic of Korea (South Korea) is an anti-pendulum movement. Since its break from Japanese colonial rule and the failure of the Shikoku International Mandate, Korea's North-South division has continued to this day as a product of Cold War geopolitics. Of course, South Korea is clearly inclined to the capitalist democratic world, both supported by the United States and manipulated by the United States. On the surface, South Korea has played the banner of democratic government since the establishment of the government, and its political system is highly referenced to the Establishment of the United States.
However, the facts are very different from the theory, from 1948 to 2018, 43 years were under the dictatorship agreed by The Korean academic circles, where there is oppression, there is resistance, demonstrations, collective riots, bribery and fraud can be said to be commonplace.
With our habitual thinking, two kinds of understanding may arise
First: South Korean politics is too dirty, the government is easy to change, and the nature is difficult to move. The officials forced the people to rebel, and the kuomintang revolutionaries ordered their orders, but each revolution ended in failure, because the fruits of the revolution fell into the hands of the new clique, and the new government was as corrupt and incompetent as ever, and waited for the next wave of democracy to overthrow them.
Second, the Korean people generally do not have a sense of the overall situation, and the Kim clan of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in the north is looking at the tiger and does not want to complete the great cause of reunification all the time. The masses in South Korea do not consider the difficulties of the government, and they oppose the government at both ends for three days, and it is uncomfortable not to make big news for one day.
Responsibly, both of these understandings are extremely biased. South Korea's modern politics can indeed be said to be a combination of corruption and power plots, and south Korea's early politics were really very bad, with kidnappings and murders, martial law suppression, election bribery, and coups d'état to seize power.
The tree of freedom must be watered with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is a natural fertilizer for the Tree of Freedom. Even so, South Korea's working people, intellectual grassroots, media scholars, and moral figures have not succumbed, but have continued to fight, and generation after generation has paid a great price before South Korea's democratization has been able to advance with difficulty and move closer to a mature modern democracy.
The Owl is born
Park Chung-hee is the former president of South Korea and the father of the previous South Korean president, Park Geun-hye, and can be said to be the strongest person in South Korea's modern history. In order to have a more complete understanding of the modern history of Korea, I decided to spend a few articles to briefly summarize the history of the Republic of Korea since the founding of the Republic of Korea from the perspective of Park Chung-hee.
Father and daughter of the president – Park Geun-hye (left) and Park Chung-hee (right)
Park Chung-hee's achievements are strongly related to his early character development, he was deeply influenced by Japanese militarist education during the Japanese colonial period and World War II, and he himself also threw himself into the Japanese military training he received at the then Manchurian Shinjing Non-Commissioned Officer School (Changchun). In his days in the Japanese puppet army, he also took a Japanese name called "Masao Takagi".
Park Chung-hee has a clear fascist tendency in his thought, believing that force is the basis of all power and politics, and also has a clear idea of "lower and upper". After Japan's defeat, Park Chung-hee joined the Korean Restoration Army, later joined the South Korean Garrison Regiment, and was incorporated into the Republic of China National Army after Syngman Rhee established the Republic of Korea (First Republic).
Park Chung-hee was famously known as the "army-whole faction" during the Rhee period. He saw that the Lee government ruled no way, the military top level was corrupt and incompetent, and he had repeatedly plotted to persuade the commander to launch a military coup, and as a result, before the military coup could be planned and perfected, a nationwide uprising occurred in April 19, and the Rhee regime collapsed instantly.
The subsequent Second Republic continued to use Syngman Rhee's set in the hands of the Democrats, who had achieved nothing to govern the country and had no economic improvement at all. Park Chung-hee again instigated the governor Jang Do-young to stage a coup d'état. On May 16, 1961, after months of meticulous planning, Park Chung-hee finally got what he wanted and successfully launched a military coup to take over the government of Jang Myong, who was considered weak and incompetent in the Democratic Party of the Second Republic at the time, and began the rule of the military government.
5.16 Park Chung-hee (front row left), Cha Ji-cheol (front row, right) in the military coup
Park's term of office covered the entire Third Republic (1963-1972) and the Fourth Republic (1963-1979), and there are also "pre-Park Chung-hee eras" and "post-Park Chung-hee eras". Although both periods carried the banner of the Republic, they were in fact under park Chung-hee's personal dictatorship and authoritarian bureaucracy of a clique loyal to him.
During his tenure, Park Chung-hee showed extraordinary political power and governing skills that were different from those of his predecessors, which led to his 17-year reign, surpassing the 12-year reign of The First Republic dictator Syngman Rhee. During the period of military trusteeship, the country's major affairs were decided by the Supreme Reconstruction Council, and Park Chung-hee initially ungratefully deprived his superior, Jang Do-young, who had sheltered and promoted him, of power, and then won the power struggle with the old-school generals with the support of his son-in-law Kim Jong-bi and other young generals, becoming the chairman of the reconstruction committee.
Park Chung-hee had just stabilized the situation, and he also showed a radical "anti-communist and anti-North" attitude to win the approval of the United States for his coup, and ostensibly promised to carry out the "civil administration transfer" of returning the government to Congress. In fact, they mobilized the military to establish a Republican Party and used intelligence services and the military to interfere in democratic elections. Park (Chung-hee) and Kim (Jong-hee) arrested South Korea's Liberal Democratic Party candidate Song Yong-chan (Syngman Rhee's army chief of staff during the period and also cared for Park Chung-hee) before the general election, suppressed the KMT candidate Heo Jung-jeong by means of suppressive speech, and finally defeated the KMP candidate Yoon Seo-sun by a slight margin in the general election and was elected president of the Republic of Korea.
Laying the foundation for the "Miracle of the Han River"
In the early days of the Third Republic, the Park Chung-hee government appointed a group of technocrats to formulate a national macro development plan and revitalized the Korean economy. Through the formulation of industrial roads, science and education to revitalize the country, multilateral trade, imports to exports, improve investment and financial markets and other economic policies suitable for The Rokkinese national conditions. The two five-year plans completed from 1962 to 1971 were the most successful economic development programs in South Korea's history, with GDP increasing by 2.5 times in 10 years, with an average annual growth rate of 9.9%, and merchandise exports increasing from $56.7 million to $1.352 billion.
Entering the Fourth Republic period, the economy continued to strengthen, with South Korea's GDP only half that of the Philippines in 1964 and reaching $67 billion in 1979, nearly three times that of the Philippines, when the Fourth Five-Year Plan was nearly completed.
GDP comparison between South Korea and the Philippines, 1961-1979
1950-2008 GDP comparison between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea
South Korea became the first of the four Asian tigers in the economic take-off of the 60s and 90s, and it was also a developed country that entered the ranks of developed countries. The transformation of the industrial structure that can be completed by European and American countries in 100 years, South Korea has been close to completion in 40 years. Therefore, the take-off of the Korean economy is called the "Miracle of the Han River" by the world, and the foundation of this miracle was laid in the Park Chung-hee era. Economic success naturally became one of the pillars underpinning Park Chung-hee's authoritarian bureaucracy.
Long-term high economic growth did bring prosperity, but it was also accompanied by many new problems for Korean society, and eventually an economic and social crisis broke out. Heavy industry, the industrialization of science and technology and export-oriented policies have led to the decline and poverty of rural areas and the agribusiness sector.
The rise of the state-supported chaebols of large groups has created a general monopoly in the industry, with the top 10 consortiums in South Korea accounting for more than 20% of the output value of all industrial sectors, and the top 30 consortiums accounting for 50% of the country's enterprises.
The chaebols also created a serious wealth distribution and a corrupt relationship between the government and the chaebols, who used economic power to obtain political preferences and then pass the benefits to key government officials. In 1965, South Korea's status earners (those whose incomes are below 40% of the national income level) accounted for 46% of the middle and high income (groups above the income level) belonged to countries with high distribution, and by 1975 this value had become 36%, belonging to countries with unequal distribution.
The struggle for interests in the process of urbanization has led to very dirty political struggles and mafia-type struggles, the soaring real estate and financial speculation. More and more workers feel that the country's economic development has not benefited them, and the vast majority of the benefits have fallen into the pockets of big business and corrupt politicians. The source of all economic and social contradictions points to the Park Chung-hee regime and the interest groups that surround it.
"Unfortunate Soldier"
In August 1973, after Park Chung-hee left a message that "never again will there be an unfortunate soldier like me," he took off his military uniform and demobilized himself to civilians. South Korean academics generally believe that Park Chung-hee's move is entirely a play, and judging from his series of activities before and after, including prolonging the military regime, excluding dissidents, building a Republican Party, and using intelligence services to cheat in the presidential campaign, his ambitions have long ceased to be a soldier.
In the middle and late period of Park Chung-hee's reign, social contradictions in Korea deepened, and more and more people realized the root of the problem and joined the ranks of opposition to Park Chung-hee, among which faculty and students from Seoul National University, Korea University, Kyung Hee University, Yonsei University and other institutions of higher learning have been at the forefront of the anti-government movement.
The biggest threat to Park Chung-hee is the leader of the opposition party, because the Third Republic has developed somewhat due to the apparent return of power to the National Assembly and the democratic electoral system, such as Kim Yong-sam and Kim Dae-jung of the New Democratic Party of the Democratic Party (both of whom later served as presidents) have a high support rate in academic circles, the public and the localities.
In addition, there are divisions within the Republican Party, and Kim Jong-bi, a key figure who helped Park Chung-hee plan the 516 coup, was also suppressed by Park for his excessive influence in the party. In 1969, some small-characters in the Republican Party launched a constitutional reform campaign at the behest of Park Chung-hee, with the intention of abolishing the presidential term limit and guaranteeing Park Chung-hee a third term, which was immediately opposed by Kim Jong-hee. As a result, Kim Jong-bi was forced to resign as party president and travel abroad, after which Kim Jong-bi was also investigated and monitored for a long time by the South Korean CIA (kcia, a secret service intelligence agency that completely copied the CIA in the United States, ironically Kim Jong-bi himself was the first director of Kcia). In addition, there are 20 members of Congress in the Republican Party who openly support the opposition.
The anti-Park "three golds" of the past: Kim Young-sam (left), Kim Dae-jung (middle), Kim Jong-bi (right)
Among the many problems and objections, park Chung-hee almost lost to the New Democratic Party candidate Kim Dae-jung in the 1971 general election, and the two sides only lost 900,000 votes, but the New Democratic Party won 89 seats in the 204 seats in the National Assembly, and the Republican Party only had 113 seats, and the Republican Party lost 2/3 of the advantage, which indicated that many legal bills would not be able to pass smoothly according to Park Chung-hee's arrangement.
South Korea, in big cities, has expressed widespread skepticism about the election results, as electoral fraud is a common occurrence for South Korean politicians. In addition to the conventional tactics of bribing voters, forging citizenship votes, and reversing vote counting, there have also been hired thugs to disrupt the election scene, send people to hijack ballot boxes in the middle of the way, and fake news of the death of relatives to deceive opposition voters into going home to mourn and not be able to vote. Even after winning the election, Park Chung-hee felt widespread pressure from society to get rid of Kim Dae-jung and in August had the CIA arrange a car accident that almost succeeded.
Hiding from the yin did not work, and Park Chung-hee decided to openly play rogue after determining the loyalty of most party members, intelligence services, and the military to him.
In 1971, as a result of the Nixon Doctrine, the United States began to adopt a "strategy of moderation" against the communist camp, bent on withdrawing from the quagmire of Vietnam and withdrawing 20,000 U.S. troops from South Korea. Park Chung-hee seized the opportunity to suddenly announce that the United States would ignore them, Kim Il-sung could march south at any time, and the country would enter an extraordinary state in order to prevent the invasion of the North Korean People's Army and impose strict control.
Chosun Ilbo's report on martial law
The following year, Park Chung-hee staged another coup d'état, promulgated the Restoration Constitution, dissolved the Diet, banned all partisan and political activities, and ordered university students to return home on vacation. South Korea thus entered the era of the "Restoration System" of the Fourth Republic, where the president had the power to issue emergency decrees without the unification of the National Assembly, the power to act on behalf of the legislature, and the virtual unlimited term of office. The Republic of Korea's design for separation of powers was already in name only.
With the promulgation of the restoration of the constitution, Park Chung-hee was sworn in as the eighth president again
A voice for democracy
Since then, Park Chung-hee's restoration government has wantonly trampled on human rights and repeatedly dragged down political downplays. Park instructed South Korea's CIA to create the "Kim Dae-jung kidnapping incident" that shocked the world. Kim Dae-jung was kidnapped and threatened with death in Tokyo, Japan. Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka criticized this as South Korea playing that set of practices on Japanese soil, Park Chung-hee initially denied it, but was caught by the Japanese police and the evidence of the South Korean intelligence personnel involved in the case was handed over to the media, exposed to the international community, and finally apologized to Japan without a face, and had to let people go under the pressure of the United States. 、
Park Chung-hee deliberately used the "northern threat" to create tensions, intimidate the population, and provide a legitimized explanation for his terror politics and repressive policies. Kim Dae-jung told the American media when he was in exile in the United States: "In Korea at that time, anti-communism was a panacea, and as long as a person was charged with treason against the communists, killing him did not count as murder." The Park Chung-hee government used the Anti-Communist Law to suppress domestic opposition groups, creating a number of "public safety incidents," and those arrested were severely tortured, sent to military courts, and executed immediately.
In 1975, the president of Yonsei University issued a letter of proposal to rescue professors and students who had previously been arrested in the student federation movement, organized a strike march, and the authorities distinguished Yonsei University president Park Dae-sun as a dereliction of duty. Subsequently, 20 institutions of higher learning, including Seoul National University, Korea University, Sogang University, Hanyang University, Sogang University, Korea Chinese University, Ewha Womans University, Chung-Ang University, Kyungpook University, and Kyung Hee University, went on strike.
Things have changed greatly, and the demands of students and faculty members have gradually developed from the release of arrested classmates and teachers, the return to the position of president, to "suspension of speech suppression", "academic freedom in colleges and universities", "autonomy of universities", etc., and finally to the political slogans of "abolishing the new constitution" and "restoring parliamentary democracy" directly at Park Chung-hee. Kim Sang-jin, a fourth-year student at Seoul National University, committed suicide after issuing a proclamation at a university denouncing the "restoration of tyranny" and woke up the people with his death, which made all the academic circles in South Korea and major cities excited, and Park Chung-hee issued the infamous Presidential Decree No. 9 in horror and announced the re-imposition of martial law. First, all news broadcasts were banned, then the university was blocked and announced the suspension of schools, and then the police, the capital police and the national army security force were sent to the university to arrest the leading teachers and students. The second NYPD campaign was launched to address the arrest of teachers and students for the first time, but ended with the entry of the army into the school and the arrest of more students and teachers.
The more Park Chung-hee strengthens the restoration dictatorship, the more extensive and intense the people's resistance becomes. In addition to some young students, democrats and opposition leaders, South Korea's Christian pastors are also a force. At a prayer meeting held at the Myeongdong Church in Seoul in 1976, Pastor Moon Yee-hyun drafted the 3.1 Declaration of Democracy and National Salvation, signed by 18 celebrities, including former President Yoon Seoon, stating that South Korea is under the iron shackles of dictatorial soldiers and is moving step by step towards total collapse. The country's departure from the rule of law and democracy of the modern state would make it an international orphan and would eventually be abandoned by the United States and Western liberal democracies, and only Park Chung-hee's departure from power could save the situation.
Park Chung-hee then arrested both clergy and signatories for "subversion of the government" in an attempt to convict them of felonies, but was sentenced to 5 years each for Kim Young-sam and several arrested New People's Party MPs because of the sympathy of the Justices. Korean society has reached the point where it cannot stand the restoration system, and people from almost all strata of society have spontaneously joined the democratic united front that overthrew the restoration system.