History of South Korea - SpeedyLook encyclopedia

The South Korea is resulting the August 15th 1948 from the partition of the Péninsule Korea, which had been occupied by the Empire of Japan of 1910 with 1945.

Independence and the partition

Savage Korean resistance to the Japanese occupation, carried out in particular in Korea, China and Soviet Union by the communist troops of Kim It-sung, is worth at the provisional government Korean in exile with Washington and directed by Syngman Rhee (이승만) to obtain great powers the independence of its country to the Conférence of Cairo (1943). With the Conférence of Potsdam, it is decided that the four Large ones (Soviet Union, the United States, China and the United Kingdom) will guarantee the independence of the country jointly.

But the fate of Korea appears soon: a little later the USSR and the United States decide to disarm the Japanese Armée together present in Korea, the first in north, the seconds in the south. The United States proposes the 38 {{E}} parallel like line of demarcation.

Entered in war against the Japan the August 9th 1945, the USSR crosses shortly after the Korean border, whereas the Americans unload in Korea only the September 8th 1945, after the Japanese capitulation having involved the departure of the Japanese troops of Korea.

In the southern zone, Yo Unhyŏng (nationalist of left) creates a " committee for the preparation of the independence of Corée" , with communist majority, which proclaims the establishment of a popular republic of Korea the September 6th opposed to the provisional government of Syngmann Rhee.

The United States then decides the installation of a military government in Seoul the 7. The general Hodge, chief of the American troops of occupation, removes the committees of national release, and maintains the civils servant Japanese and Korean of the administration imperial Japanese, while entrusting the maintenance of law and order to the Japanese police force. Contrary to the North Korea, the South Korea thus did not lead purification of the collaborators pro-Japanese of the new South Korean administration.

The American military government declares illegal the proclaimed republic the 6, and dislocates Yo Unhyŏng of its functions. Syngman Rhee returns to Korea in October.

The question of the independence of Korea cannot be solved between the two Large ones meeting within an American-Soviet commission, whose work begins in January 1946. The United States makes adopt by the General meeting of the the United Nations in 1947 the principle of elections organized under the aegis of UNO, in spite of the vote against the USSR which then regards the United Nations as an pro-American organization.

In answer, a conference joining together of the organizations of North and the South is taken place with Pyongyang, in North, in April 1948.

Elections organized in the only southern part, within the framework of the resolution adopted by UNO on the initiative of the United States, are held on May 10th, 1948 and lead to the election of Syngman Rhee like first president of the Republic of Korea (generally called South Korea), on August 15th, 1948, third birthday of the release. Guerillas of left, very active, oppose however the new South Korean mode as of its foundation and are highly repressed: in the island of Cheju, where the left took the weapons, according to Bruce Cumings at least 80.000 people (that is to say the quarter of the population) were massacred in 1948 by the American troops of occupation, with the support of the Korean forces of Syngman Rhee.

In the north of the country, the communist policy made far from making the hunanimity. For example, since 1947, of very many inhabitants of the province of Hwanghae, vast agricultural zone located just at the north of the parallel 38e on the west coast of the peninsula, against the system of Conscription set up by Kim It-sung had protested. Their family and cultural cultural fasteners with the South were so strong that some fled in the hills, some took the weapons and others crossed the border.

In North, legislative elections (organized clandestinely in the South) are held on August 25th, 1948. September 9th, 1948, the supreme Popular Assembly thus elected proclaims the democratic Popular republic of Korea (usually called North Korea) with Pyongyang.

The war of Korea

The origins of the War of Korea, of the June 25th 1950 with the July 27th 1953, give place to divergent interpretations in North and the South. For Seoul, the war was started by an aggression North-Korean according to a plan established beforehand in connection with Moscow, which was shown by the opening of the Soviet files. For Pyongyang, crossing by its troops of the parallel 38e is the response with a surprised attack of the South Korean army under the command of American advisers. In fact, the multiplication of the border incidents testified to an aggravation of the military tensions the day before the conflict.

The war of Korea is completed by a return to the Status quo handle bellum the July 27th 1953 (signature of an armistice). The war made two million victims, moved million people and separated from the hundreds of thousands of families.

The government Syngman Rhee (이승만)

The rebuilding of the South Korea, very affected by the war and having a rough National product per capita on the level of the nations of Black Africa, profits from the distributed American assistance in a selective way, in particular with the close relations of the new mode. As of its origin, the government of Syngman Rhee (이승만정권) (whose Korean name is Yi Seung Man) (이승만) is thus marked by the clientelism and corruption, while the South Korean economy does not progress and that its inhabitants remain among poorest of all Asia. The American, uninterrupted presence since the War of Korea, causes finally a strong resentment within the population, whereas the foreign troops withdrew themselves from North Korea since the end of the year 1950.

In 1952, in full war of Korea, Syngmann Rhee (이승만) made modify the constitution to be elected by the universal direct suffrage, and either by the assembly, in order to avoid being put in minority by its own party. It again makes modify the constitution in 1954 to be able to be re-elected once again.

In 1960, the handling of the elections allows the liberal party with the capacity to obtain 87% of the voices officially. Demonstrations of students, initiated by the students of Daegu and supported by their professors, then cause the fall of the First republic: Syngmann Rhee (이승만) resigns on April 26th and takes refuge with the the United States, with Hawaii.

The democratic experiment of 1960 and the Second Republic (1960-1962)

In April, a parliamentary mode is founded, and Yun Po-sun is elected president in August 1960.

The new capacity is however affected by the economic crisis and social, as well as dissensions between the new Head of the State and its Prime Minister Chang Myeon, while the North Korea proposes a peaceful reunification within a confederal State.

May 16th, 1961, a military coup d'etat carries to the capacity the general Park Chung-hee, new chief of the Supreme council for the national rebuilding, which dissolves the National Assembly democratically elected in 1961. A constitutional referendum, organized in December 1962, puts formally fine at the Second Republic: the Third (1962-1972) and Fourth (1972-1980) Republics are modes of Dictature dominated by the general Park Chung-hee.

Presidency of Park Chung Hee (박정희)

In October 1963, Park Chung Hee (박정희) carries it accuracy on the former Head of the State Yun Po-sun with the presidential election, but its party (democratic republican) obtains a very strong majority with the legislative elections of November. Park is re-elected in 1967 and 1971, this second time against Kim Dae-jung (김대중), removed in Tokyo the following year by South Korean agents and which must with the international pressure not be physically eliminated, after having been the target of an attack (which would have been made up in road accident) in May 1971.

The new mode in parallel sets up the bases of the economic modernization of Korea, among fastest of the modern economic history, while running up against the increasing opposition of the intellectuals. The economic advancement was supported by the important Japanese investments following the Traité nippo - South Korean of June 22nd, 1965.

The economy of South Korea explodes literally since 1970 and currently locating at the neighborhoods of the 13th world rank, In 2004, PNB/hab amounted to 19.000 $ per capita in purchasing power parity, which placed it at the 49ème world rank on the level of the Greece (North Korea: 1.745 $ per capita).

With the international plan, the relations with the Japan, old colonial power, are standardized in July 1965 and lead to the payment of repairs by Japan, without all the related aspects at the period of the occupation not being still regulated (in particular the question of the Femmes of Korean comfort, obliged prostituer for the Japanese soldiers during the occupation).

The South Korea in addition was one of allied most faithful of the the United States, and among most implied at their sides, in the Guerre of Vietnam.

Park (박정희) is assassinated on October 26th, 1979 (see Park Chung Hee).

The Fifth Republic (1979-1987) and the transition towards the democracy (1987-1993)

The December 12th 1979, the general Chon You-hwan (전두환), chief of the rival military security of KCIA (Central Korean Agency Intelligence), the South Korean secret police, makes carry out the arrest marked soldiers of high ranking to be implied in the assassination of Park. The August 27th 1980, Chon You-hwan (전두환) becomes president, after the ousting of the Head of the State by interim, the general Choe Kyu-ha, who was the Prime Minister for the general Park (박정희) and had initiated a policy of relative political liberalization (having in particular led to the release of the historical opponent Kim Dae-jung (김대중)).

In May 1980, the rising of the town of Kwangju (광주), revealing of the social inequalities and regional in the South Korean economic strong growth, is violently repressed (three hundreds died according to the official figures, at least two thousand according to semi-official sources).

South Korea since 1993

Elected official chair in 1993 with the support of outgoing president Roh (노무현), grace in particular to the sums diverted by the president with the capacity, Kim Young-Sam (김영삼) is the first civilian to occupy this station since 1961.

Presidency of Kim Young-Sam (김영삼) (1993-1998), first Head of State of the Sixth Republic, is marked by the construction (by France) of the TGV in Korea (KTX), at the time of which old manuscripts are restored in South Korea without the dispute on these elements of the Korean cultural heritage not being entirely solved (in particular, France did not restore the oldest work printed in mobile characters in the world, dated from XIVe century, which is Korean).

Among several revealing catastrophes in particular of the corruption of the mode, the collapse of the department store Sampoong (삼풍백화점), due to the non-observance of the construction standards, causes five hundred dead. The law of December 26th, 1996 limiting trade-union freedoms involves expressed several hundreds of thousands of people. Lastly, the Asian crisis results in the need for requesting a loan in the IMF of 58 billion dollars, which the Koreans interpret like a national humiliation; the crisis leads to the beginning of the dismantling of the industrial and financial conglomerates Korean, the Chaebol S (재벌).

The opponent Kim Dae-jung (김대중) (with the capacity of 1998 to 2002) succeeds Kim Young-Sam (김영삼), become very unpopular. It continues economic liberalization and operates a bringing together with the North Korea.

In 2002, the president Roh Moo-hyun (노무현), pertaining to the Democratic party of the millenium (열린우리당) (PDM), like Kim Dae-jung (김대중), succeeds this last of which it continues the policy of opening to North, criticized by the right-wing opposition. Following the dismissal on March 12th, 2004 of president Roh, accused of corruption, by the Parliament, the anticipated legislative elections of April 15th, 2004 mark the success of the party Uri (열린우리당), resulting from the minority of the PDM remained favorable to the Head of the State. Following several reverses of the party Uri (열린우리당) at the time of bys-election, the relative parliamentary majority of president Roh (노무현) needs the supplement of the Democratic party of the work of Korea.

Mediatized protests of South Korean peasants at the time of the top of OMC which was held in Hong-Kong, or the launched general strike in February 2006 by the Korean confederation of the Korean workers (KCTU) against precarious work (see the article) testify to an important social mobilization in South Korea.

At the beginning of the summer 2006, South Korea carried out a mission of study in water around the islands Dokdo (독도) under its control but whose sovereignty is also claimed by the Japan (source).

Relations with the North Korea: between relaxation and tensions

From 1962 to 1968, the mode North-Korean had believed that the south would raise itself. To hasten the appearance of the " decisive moment, " it had sent in the south of the agents subversive and the teams of guerillas who were quickly neutralized. On their side, the South Korean secret services of the Unité of military information (AIU) would have recruited, alone, 40.000 spies in North Korea since more than one half-century. Their families are unaware of what number of them became.

The two countries developed quickly, and in the years 1970, had the same level of equipment. The slowdown in economic growth in North Korea then led to an unhooking with the profit of South Korea.

Rival states claiming each one to represent the whole of the Korean peninsula, South Korea and the North Korea started a dialog only as from 1972, on the initiative of the North Korea, after the proposal formulated by Pyongyang (평양) of a confederal republic under the Second republic (1960-1962).

The two States entered jointly to UNO after the end of the Cold war.

Several serious fixings however occurred still at the end of the years 1990, of the spies or claimed such having been cut down as well by North as by the South:

in September 1996: a submarine North-Korean is failed on the South Korean coasts: according to the South Korean government, it was about an attempt at unloading of a heavily armed commando: 24 North-Koreans are killed as 16 South-Koreans in a hunting for the 49 day old man;
in June 1998, a Sous-marin North-Korean is cast in Mer of the East;
in June 1999, the South Korean navy runs several ships North-Korean which had called in question the dividing line of the fishing zones while penetrating in the water asserted by the South: thirty sailors North-Korean are reported missing;
in December 1999, a Sous-marin North-Korean is cast in the Détroit of Korea.

Since the joint statement of the June 15th 2000 between Kim Dae-jung (김대중) and her counterpart North-Korean Kim Jong-il (김정일), both Korea began a new phase of bringing together without preceding history, marked by an intensification of the exchanges human and, the meeting of separate families and the installation of devices intended to prevent the military incidents (see the article on the Histoire of the North Korea and the articles detailed Relations inter-Corées and Réunification of Korea).

However, the North Korea drew seven ballistic missiles the July 4th 2006, and thus involved a situation of international tension which was prolonged with the first underground nuclear test North-Korean the October 9th 2006. This test started a judgment of the international community (including the Popular republic of China, principal support of the North Korea).

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