Park Chung-hee
Encyclopedia
Park Chung-hee was a Republic of Korea Army
Republic of Korea Army
The Republic of Korea Army is the largest of the military branches of the South Korean armed forces with 520,000 members as of 2010...

 general and the leader of South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...

 (the Republic of Korea) from 1961 to 1979. He seized power in a military coup and ruled until his assassination in 1979
Park Chung-hee assassination
Park Chung-hee, president of South Korea, was assassinated by Kim Jae-kyu, his security chief as the director of Korean Central Intelligence Agency , on Friday, October 26, 1979 at 7:41pm during a dinner at a KCIA safehouse inside Blue House presidential compound in Gungjeong-dong, Seoul. It is...

. He has been credited with the industrialization of the Republic of Korea through export-led growth
Export-oriented industrialization
Export-oriented Industrialization sometimes called export substitution industrialization or export led industrialization is a trade and economic policy aiming to speed up the industrialization process of a country by exporting goods for which the nation has a comparative advantage...

. However, he is still a controversial figure in the country's history due to his authoritarian way of ruling the country, especially after 1971.

He was named one of the top 10 Asians of the Century by Time magazine (1999).

Early life

Park was born in Gumi-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do
Gyeongsangbuk-do
Gyeongsangbuk-do or shortly Gyeongbuk is a province in eastern South Korea. The province was formed in 1896 from the northern half of the former Gyeongsang province, remained a province of Korea until the country's division in 1945, then became part of South Korea.The Gyeongsangbuk-do Office is...

 during the Japanese occupation
Korea under Japanese rule
Korea was under Japanese rule as part of Japan's 35-year imperialist expansion . Japanese rule ended in 1945 shortly after the Japanese defeat in World War II....

. His father was Park Seong-bin (age 46 at the time) and his mother was Baek Nam-hui (age 45). His eldest brother was Park Dong-hee (age 22); second brother was Park Mu-hee (age 19); eldest sister was Park Gwi-hee (age 15); third brother was Park Sang-hee (age 11); fourth brother was Park Han-saeng (age 7); and his youngest sister was Park Jae-hee (age 5).

Park came from an undistinguished local branch of the Goryeong Bak clan.

Park won admission to the Daegu Teacher's Gymnasium, which was a favored high school for prospective primary teachers. He entered on April 8, 1932 and graduated on March 25, 1937, after five years of study. His formative years coincided with the Japanese invasion of China, starting with the Manchurian incident in 1931 and culminating in the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. From 1937 to 1941, China fought Japan with some economic help from Germany , the Soviet Union and the United States...

 in 1937. Park went on to teach for several years in Mungyeong
Mungyeong-eup
Mungyeong-eup; ; is an eup in Mungyeong city in Gyeongsangbuk-do. It was formerly the seat of government of Mungyeong County, until its merger with Jeomchon in 1995 to form Mungyeong city. The eup contains the provincial park of Mungyeong Saejae. It also takes in a strip of the southern reaches...

, where the primary school has been preserved as a museum.

In April 1940, Park enrolled in the Manchukuo Imperial Army
Manchukuo Imperial Army
The Manchukuo Imperial Army was the armed force of the Japanese dominated puppet state of Manchukuo, serving as the land forces, along with the Manchukuo Imperial Guards...

 Academy, and on completing his studies with top marks in 1942, was selected for officer training at the Army Staff College
Army War College (Japan)
The ; Short form: of the Empire of Japan was founded in 1882 in Minato, Tokyo to modernize and Westernize the Imperial Japanese Army. Much of the empire's elite including prime ministers during the period of Japanese militarism were graduates of the college....

 in Japan. After graduating third in his class, he was commissioned as a lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...

 in the 8th Infantry Division of the Manchukuo Army, and served during the final stages of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. At the time he used his Japanese name
Japanese name
in modern times usually consist of a family name , followed by a given name. "Middle names" are not generally used.Japanese names are usually written in kanji, which are characters of usually Chinese origin in Japanese pronunciation...

 Takagi Masao. After the war, he went on to serve in the military of the Republic of South Korea but was expelled in 1948 when it was discovered that he had participated in a communist cell organized within the South Korean army. During the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...

 he rejoined the military and became an expert at logistics. He received a year of special training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He rose steadily through the ranks, eventually reaching the rank of general.

Personal life

He was married to Kim Ho Nam and got divorced. Later, he was married to Yuk Young-soo
Yuk Young-soo
Yuk Young-soo was the wife of the former president Park Chung-hee and the mother of Korean politician, Park Geun-hye.-Biography:...

, with whom he had two daughters and one son. The elder daughter Park Geun Hye later became a politician.

Ascent to presidency

Syngman Rhee
Syngman Rhee
Syngman Rhee or Yi Seungman was the first president of South Korea. His presidency, from August 1948 to April 1960, remains controversial, affected by Cold War tensions on the Korean peninsula and elsewhere. Rhee was regarded as an anti-Communist and a strongman, and he led South Korea through the...

, the first president of the Republic of Korea, was forced out of office on April 26, 1960 as an aftermath of the April 19 Movement, a student-led uprising. A new government took office on August 13. This was a short-lived period of parliamentary rule in Republic of Korea with a figurehead president, Yun Bo-seon
Yun Bo-seon
Yun Bo-seon was a Korean former independence activist and politician, and the President of South Korea from 1960 to 1962. Studying in the UK, he graduated from the University of Edinburgh and gained an M.A., After returning home in 1932...

; the real power was vested in Prime Minister Chang Myon
Chang Myon
Chang Myon , or John Myun Chang, was a South Korean politician and educator. He was the Vice President of the First Republic and the Prime Minister of the Second Republic...

.

Yun and Chang did not command the respect of the majority of the Democratic Party. They could not agree on the composition of the cabinet and Chang attempted to hold the tenuous coalition together by reshuffling cabinet positions three times within five months.

Political background

Meanwhile, the new government was caught between an economy that was suffering from a decade of mismanagement and corruption by the Rhee presidency and the students who had led to Rhee's ousting. The students regularly filled the streets, making numerous and wide-ranging demands for political and economic reforms. Law and order could not be maintained because the police, long an instrument of the Rhee government, were demoralized and had been completely discredited by the public. Continued factional wrangling caused the public to turn away from the party.

Coup d'état

Park then led a military coup (called the 5.16 coup d'état) on May 16, 1961, a coup largely welcomed by a general populace exhausted by political chaos. Although Prime Minister Chang resisted the coup efforts, President Yun sided with the junta and persuaded the United States Eighth Army and the commanders of various South Korean army units not to interfere with the new rulers. Soon, Park Chung-hee was promoted to Lieutenant General.

The Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) was created on June 19, 1961 to prevent a countercoup and to suppress all potential enemies, domestic and international. It was to have not only investigative power, but also the power to arrest and detain anyone suspected of wrongdoing or harboring antijunta sentiments. The KCIA extended its power to economic and foreign affairs under its first director, Colonel (retired) Kim Jong-pil
Kim Jong-pil
Kim Jong-pil is a South Korean politician and founder of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency , who served as Prime Minister twice, from 1971–1975 and from 1998–2000.-Early life:‎...

, a relative of Park and one of the original planners of the coup.

President Yun remained in office to provide legitimacy to the regime, but resigned on March 24, 1962. Park then became Acting President as well as chairman of the Supreme Council for National Reconstruction
Supreme Council for National Reconstruction
The Supreme Council for National Reconstruction, initially named the Revolutionary Committee, was a military junta that oversaw the government of South Korea from May 16, 1961 until the inauguration of the Third Republic of South Korea in 1963...

 and was promoted to full general. Following pressure from the Kennedy administration
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....

 in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, Park finally relented and agreed to restore civilian rule. He narrowly won the 1963 election as the candidate of the newly created Democratic Republican Party
Democratic Justice Party
The Democratic Justice Party was the ruling party of South Korea from 1980 to 1990.It was formed in 1980 as the Democratic Republican Party and was the political vehicle for Chun Doo-hwan....

 over Yun, candidate of the Civil Rule Party. He was re-elected in 1967, again defeating Yun by a narrow margin.

Economic reform

Park is generally credited with playing a pivotal role in the development of South Korea's economy by shifting its focus to export-oriented industrialization
Export-oriented industrialization
Export-oriented Industrialization sometimes called export substitution industrialization or export led industrialization is a trade and economic policy aiming to speed up the industrialization process of a country by exporting goods for which the nation has a comparative advantage...

. When he came to power in 1961, South Korea's per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...

 was only USD
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....

 72. North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...

 was the greater economic and military power on the peninsula due to the North's legacy of Japanese-built facilities such as the power and chemical plants, and also the large amounts of economic, technical and financial aid it received from other communist bloc countries such as the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

, East Germany and Poland
People's Republic of Poland
The People's Republic of Poland was the official name of Poland from 1952 to 1990. Although the Soviet Union took control of the country immediately after the liberation from Nazi Germany in 1944, the name of the state was not changed until eight years later...

.

South Korean industry saw remarkable development under Park's leadership. He had seen the development of Manchukuo
Manchukuo
Manchukuo or Manshū-koku was a puppet state in Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia, governed under a form of constitutional monarchy. The region was the historical homeland of the Manchus, who founded the Qing Empire in China...

 based on Japanese investment in infrastructure and heavy industries when he was an officer in the Manchukuo imperial army. Intending to acquire money and technology for South Korea via Japanese grants and soft loans, Park normalized diplomatic relations with Japan in 1965 (Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea
Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea
The Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea was signed on June 22, 1965 to establish basic relationship between Japan and the Republic of Korea .-History:...

). Many South Koreans questioned Park's decision, which was extremely unpopular
Anti-Japanese sentiment in Korea
The Anti-Japanese sentiment in Korea is complex and multi-faceted. Anti-Japanese sentiment attitudes in the Korea can be traced back to the effects of Japanese pirate raids and the Japanese invasions of Korea , such as dismembering more than 20,000 noses and ears from Koreans and bringing them back...

 due to vivid memories of Japan's colonization of Korea
Korea under Japanese rule
Korea was under Japanese rule as part of Japan's 35-year imperialist expansion . Japanese rule ended in 1945 shortly after the Japanese defeat in World War II....

; it resulted in widespread unrest. However, Park's strategy succeeded in attracting Japanese capital and technology, along with American aid, to develop South Korea's heavy industry and infrastructure, although many Koreans criticized it as too meager recompense for the long Japanese occupation. Government-corporate cooperation on expanding South Korean exports helped lead to the growth of some South Korean companies into today's giant Korean financial conglomerates, the chaebol
Chaebol
Chaebol refers to a South Korean form of business conglomerate. They are global multinationals owning numerous international enterprises. The term is often used in a context similar to that of the English word "conglomerate"...

s.

Creation of economic development agencies

  • Economic Planning Board (EPB)
  • Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI)
  • Ministry of Finance (MoF)

Foreign policy

Park's government deployed over 300,000 South Korean troops in the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

, a commitment second only to that of the United States. The stated reasons for this were to help maintain good relations with the U. S., prevent the further advance
Domino theory
The domino theory was a reason for war during the 1950s to 1980s, promoted at times by the government of the United States, that speculated that if one state in a region came under the influence of communism, then the surrounding countries would follow in a domino effect...

 of communism in East Asia and to enhance the Republic's international standing. In January 1965, on the day when a bill mandating a major deployment passed the National Assembly (with 106 votes for and 11 against), Park announced that it was "time for South Korea to wean itself from a passive position of receiving help or suffering intervention, and to assume a proactive role of taking responsibility on major international issues."

In the 1960s, Park made speeches in which he blamed the Anglo-Japanese Alliance
Anglo-Japanese Alliance
The first was signed in London at what is now the Lansdowne Club, on January 30, 1902, by Lord Lansdowne and Hayashi Tadasu . A diplomatic milestone for its ending of Britain's splendid isolation, the alliance was renewed and extended in scope twice, in 1905 and 1911, before its demise in 1921...

 and the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...

 generally for Japan's takeover of Korea.

Dictatorial rule

Park clamped down on personal freedoms under the provisions of a state of emergency
State of emergency
A state of emergency is a governmental declaration that may suspend some normal functions of the executive, legislative and judicial powers, alert citizens to change their normal behaviours, or order government agencies to implement emergency preparedness plans. It can also be used as a rationale...

 dating to the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...

. Constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech
Freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak freely without censorship. The term freedom of expression is sometimes used synonymously, but includes any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used...

 and the press
Freedom of the press
Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the freedom of communication and expression through vehicles including various electronic media and published materials...

 were often curtailed. The KCIA retained broad powers of arrest and detention, and opponents were frequently tortured.

Yusin Constitution

The Constitution of 1963 limited the president to two consecutive terms, and Park had promised after being sworn in for his second term that he would leave office in 1971. However, with the assistance of the KCIA, his allies in the legislature succeeded in amending the Constitution to allow the current president—himself—to run for three consecutive terms. In 1971, he won another close election, this time over Kim Dae-jung.

Just after being sworn in for his third term, Park declared a state of emergency "based on the dangerous realities of the international situation." In October 1972, he dissolved Parliament and suspended the Constitution. In December, a new constitution, the Yusin Constitution, was approved in a heavily rigged plebiscite after a vigorous campaign on its behalf by the heavily censored press. It borrowed the word "Yusin" from the Meiji Restoration
Meiji Restoration
The , also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution, Reform or Renewal, was a chain of events that restored imperial rule to Japan in 1868...

 (Meiji Ishin; ) of Imperial Japan. He drew inspiration for his self-coup
Self-coup
A self-coup or autocoup is a form of coup d'état that occurs when a country's leader, who has come to power through legal means, dissolves or renders powerless the national legislature and assumes extraordinary powers not granted under normal circumstances. Other measures taken may include...

 from Ferdinand Marcos
Ferdinand Marcos
Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos, Sr. was a Filipino leader and an authoritarian President of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He was a lawyer, member of the Philippine House of Representatives and a member of the Philippine Senate...

' similar move a few weeks earlier.

The new document dramatically increased Park's power. It transferred the election of the president to an electoral college
Electoral college
An electoral college is a set of electors who are selected to elect a candidate to a particular office. Often these represent different organizations or entities, with each organization or entity represented by a particular number of electors or with votes weighted in a particular way...

, the National Conference for Unification. The presidential term was increased to six years, with no limits on reelection. In effect, the constitution converted Park's presidency into a legal dictatorship. In the elections of 1972
South Korean presidential election, 1972
The South Korean presidential election of 1972 took place on 23 December 1972, after the promulgation of the Yushin Constitution, and was won by Park Chung Hee without opposition. Under the terms of the Constitution, the President was elected not by direct vote, as had been the case formerly, but...

 and 1978
South Korean presidential election, 1978
The South Korean presidential election of 1978 took place on 6 July 1978 and was the second election held under the framework of the Yushin Constitution. Park Chung Hee was elected, as in 1972, without opposition...

 he was re-elected without any opposition.

Dictatorship

The growth of the South Korean economy secured a level of support for the Park Chung-hee presidency in the 1960s, but that support started to fade after economic growth started slowing and because of the authoritarian measures taken by Park. By the late 1970s, demonstrations against the Yushin system erupted throughout the country indicating Park’s rising level of unpopularity.

A demonstration that hurt Park’s popularity was the “Pu-Ma struggle.” On October 16, 1979, student demonstrations calling for the end of dictatorship and the Yushin system began at Busan National University and moved into the streets of the city. Students and the riot police fought all day, and by the evening, 50,000 people had gathered in front of the city hall. After several public offices were attacked and around 400 protesters were arrested, the government declared martial law in Busan
Busan
Busan , formerly spelled Pusan is South Korea's second largest metropolis after Seoul, with a population of around 3.6 million. The Metropolitan area population is 4,399,515 as of 2010. It is the largest port city in South Korea and the fifth largest port in the world...

 on October 18. On October 18, the protests spread to Masan
Masan
Masan was a formerly a municipal city in South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea. The city was situated on Masan Bay , approximately 35 km west of Busan. It was known for its textile industry, and it was the site of Hite Brewery's production facilities.During the control of the Mongolians, the...

. Students from Kyungnam University
Kyungnam University
Kyungnam University is a private university located in Changwon, the capital city of Gyeongsangnam-do, South Gyeongsang or Gyeongnam province for which the school is named in Southeastern South Korea. Kyungnam University alumni are widely considered to be the most powerful group in Gyeongsangnam-do...

 in Masan also participated in protests, which spread and resulted in 10,000 mostly students and workers joining the struggle against the Yushin System. They began attacking the police station and city offices of the ruling party, and a city-wide curfew was put into place.

The rising unrest in the public contributed to the sense of urgency in the government, and hence, to Park Chung-hee’s assassination.

Vietnam war

At the request of the United States, Park Chung-hee sent approximately 320,000 South Korean troops to fight alongside the United States and South Vietnam
South Vietnam
South Vietnam was a state which governed southern Vietnam until 1975. It received international recognition in 1950 as the "State of Vietnam" and later as the "Republic of Vietnam" . Its capital was Saigon...

 in the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

. He wanted to strengthen the military alliance with the United States. But there were also financial incentives for South Korea's participation in the war. Soldiers were paid by the United States government and their salaries were remitted directly to the South Korean government. Park was eager to send troops and vigorously campaigned to extend the war. In return for troop commitments, South Korea received tens of billions of dollars in grants, loans, subsidies, technology transfers, and preferential markets, all provided by the Johnson and Nixon administrations.

The Blue House Raid

On January 21, 1968, the 31-man Unit 124
Unit 124
Unit 124 was a North Korean Special Operation Forces unit, part of the Reconnaissance Bureau of the Korean People's Army , under the operational control of the Liaison Department of the Worker's Party of Korea....

 of Korean People's Army
Korean People's Army
The Korean People's Army , also known as the Inmin Gun, are the military forces of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Kim Jong-il is the Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army and Chairman of the National Defence Commission...

 (North Korean) special forces
Special forces
Special forces, or special operations forces are terms used to describe elite military tactical teams trained to perform high-risk dangerous missions that conventional units cannot perform...

 commando
Commando
In English, the term commando means a specific kind of individual soldier or military unit. In contemporary usage, commando usually means elite light infantry and/or special operations forces units, specializing in amphibious landings, parachuting, rappelling and similar techniques, to conduct and...

s attempted to assassinate Park and nearly succeeded. They were stopped just 800 metres from the Blue House by a police patrol, and all but two were killed or captured. Three days later, January 23, the USS Pueblo
USS Pueblo (AGER-2)
USS Pueblo is an American ELINT and SIGINT Banner-class technical research ship which was boarded and captured by North Korean forces on January 23, 1968, in what is known as the Pueblo incident or alternatively as the Pueblo crisis or the Pueblo affair. Occurring less than a week after President...

 was captured by North Korea. In response to the assassination attempt, the South Korean government reportedly organized the ill-fated Unit 684. This group was intended to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Il-Sung, but was disbanded in 1971.

Second attempt

On August 15, 1974, Park was delivering a speech in the National Theater
National Theater of Korea
The National Theater of Korea is a national theatre located in the neighborhood of Jangchung-dong, Jung-gu, South Korea. It is the first federally managed theater in Asia.- Affiliation :...

 during a ceremony to celebrate the nation's deliverance from Japanese colonial domination 29 years before, when a presumed North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...

n agent Mun Se-gwang fired a gun at Park from the front row. The bullets missed the president, but a stray bullet struck his wife Yuk Young-soo
Yuk Young-soo
Yuk Young-soo was the wife of the former president Park Chung-hee and the mother of Korean politician, Park Geun-hye.-Biography:...

, who died later in the day, and one choir girl. The incident was filmed on video. Park continued his speech as his dying wife was carried off of the stage.

Assassination

On October 26, 1979, Park was shot by Kim Jae-kyu, the director of the KCIA. Kim claimed that Park was an obstacle to democracy and that his act was one of patriotism. After Kim shot the president to death and the leader of his guards, his agents quickly killed four more of the presidential bodyguards before the group was apprehended. The entire episode is usually considered either a spontaneous act of passion by an individual or as part of a pre-arranged attempted coup by the intelligence service.

The events surrounding Park's assassination inspired the 2005 black comedy 그때 그사람들/"Geuddae geusaramdeul" (English title: The President's Last Bang
The President's Last Bang
The President's Last Bang The original title refers to a famous Korean song of a similar title – "That Man of those Days". According to official sources, this song was performed by Sim Soo-bong during the party the night of Park's assassination. In the movie, however, Sim Soo-bong is summoned to...

) by Korean director Im Sang-soo.

A devout Buddhist, Park is buried at Seoul National Cemetery
Seoul National Cemetery
The Seoul National Cemetery is located in Dongjak-dong, Dongjak-gu, Seoul, South Korea. When established by presidential decree of Syngman Rhee in 1956, it was the country's only national cemetery. An additional national cemetery was established in 1974 in Daejeon...

.

Legacy

A large number of South Koreans, especially those from Park's native Yeongnam
Yeongnam
Yeongnam is the name of a region that coincides with the former Gyeongsang Province in what is now South Korea....

 region, consider Park to be one of the greatest leaders in Korean history and continue to hold Park in high regard in great part due to the industrial and economic growth experienced by South Korea under his regime. He is often credited as one of the main influences responsible for bringing economic prosperity to South Korea. Today, Park is recognized and respected by some Koreans as his country's most efficient leader who is credited for making South Korea what it is today in economic terms.

There are also many Koreans who condemn him for the brutality of his dictatorship and for his service to the Japanese army during World War II. There were widespread human rights abuses in South Korea during his rule. Thousands were arrested and imprisoned to long sentence terms merely for criticizing him in workplaces or bars. The Yusin Constitution of 1972 was widely interpreted as Park's intention to rule South Korea as a dictator for life.

His daughter Park Geun-hye
Park Geun-hye
Park Geun-hye is a South Korean politician. She is a member of the Korean National Assembly and was the head of the conservative Grand National Party. She is now in her fourth parliamentary term, having first been elected in 1998. Her father was Park Chung-hee, president of South Korea from 1963...

 was elected the chairman of the conservative Grand National Party
Grand National Party
The Grand National Party is a conservative political party in South Korea. Its Korean name, Hannara, has a double meaning as "Great National" and "Korean National." The GNP holds a majority of seats in the 18th Assembly, lasting from 2008 to 2012....

 in 2004. She later resigned her post in order to prepare a presidential bid for an upcoming election. However, she lost her bid to her intra-party rival, Lee Myung Bak.

On October 24, 2007, following an internal inquiry, South Korea's National Intelligence Service
National Intelligence Service (South Korea)
The National Intelligence Service is the chief intelligence agency of South Korea. The agency was officially established in 1961 as the Korea Central Intelligence Agency , during the rule of President Park Chung-hee's military Supreme Council for National Reconstruction, which displaced the...

 (NIS) has admitted that its precursor, the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA), undertook the kidnapping of Kim Dae-jung, saying it had at least tacit backing from then-leader Park Chung-hee.

Further reading

  • Our Nation's Path: Ideology of Social Reconstruction, by Park Chung-hee. (Hollym Publishers
    Hollym (publishing house)
    Hollym is a publishing house with offices in Seoul, Korea and New Jersey, USA. It has been publishing books on Korea and Korea-related topics since 1977. Its CEO is Ham Ki-man. The company is divided between Hollym International, which handles international distribution, and Korea-based Hollym...

    , 1970.)
  • Troubled Tiger: Businessmen, Bureaucrats, and Generals in South Korea, by Mark Clifford
    Mark Clifford
    Mark L. Clifford is an author and former journalist who worked for BusinessWeek, the Far Eastern Economic Review, and Forbes. He was the publisher and editor-in-chief of The Standard newspaper in Hong Kong from January 2004 to February 2006, and the Editor-in-Chief the South China Morning Post, its...

    . (M. E. Sharpe, 1994.)
  • Developmental Dictatorship and the Park Chung-hee Era (Changbi Publishers, 2003), a collection of essays edited by Lee Byeong-cheon. (English translation published by Homa & Sekey Books, 2006.)

External links

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