Korea's History as a Democracy

Firstly, South Korea is officially known as the Republic of Korea or 대한민국 (Daehanminguk). Human activity started in the Korean Peninsula in the Palaeolithic Era, and the kingdom of Gojoseon was established in 2333 BCE until it fell to the Han dynasty (1). Afterwards was the 3 kingdom era of Korea. The kingdoms were known as Baekjae, Silla, and Goguryeo. They fought each other for the control of the peninsula until Silla allied with Tang China and unified the peninsula. After the unified Silla civilisation, there was the Goryeo dynasty. Then the Joseon dynasty was established by 이성계 (Lee Seonggae). He became the king 태조 (Taejo). A pattern you will see is that kings would have a given name, but they would use another name as their reign as king. This was because it was considered disrespectful in Sino-Confucian culture to call someone by their given name directly, so they would instead use a 호/nickname (2). There were 26 kings during the Joseon Dynasty, and there were great changes, such as the fostering of a Korean script (세종/ King Saejong). After the Joseon Dynasty was the Korean Empire. Then came the Japanese invasions, which were repelled by the important turtle ships of Admiral 이순신 (Lee Sunshin) until there was an eventual period of colonial rule under Japan since the country became weakened. Koreans fought back with the March 1st movement and many others demanding their independence. Korea was liberated after the end of WW2; however, it was split into North and South, with the Soviets occupying the North and the Americans occupying the South. South Korea was established as the Republic of Korea in 1948, and in 1950, the Korean War started. 

이승만 was in office from 1948 till 1960 (12 years) and during his time in office, he oversaw the beginning of the Korean War. He was originally the first president of the Korean Provisional Government until he was impeached after 7 years in 1925 for misuse of his authority. His policies were independence and unification of the country until his party won the election, allowing him to take office as the first Korean president. As a president, he continued to misuse his authority and remove anyone who opposed him in the National Assembly. He also executed the leader with the reason of treason. A shocking factor of his was that during the Korean War, he went against what the United Nations planned. He hindered the truce talks and released North Korean prisoners when these prisoners were supposed to be returned to North Korea. This caused the communists to attack the South Korean troops before signing a truce. Later on, he was protested against by students who claimed he enacted election fraud, with demands for his resignation. He then returned back to Hawaii. He is known to be a coward who ran away. 

윤보선 served as president for only 1 term (1960-1963) and was initially appointed to be a mayor underneath Lee Seungman. He, however, disagreed with his dictatorship and became one of the founders of the Democratic Party. His term didn't really amount to much notice, and he resigned after 3 years in office. This was attributed to the inside fighting within the Democratic Party. During his term, a coup brought the 3rd president (박정희) into power. He tried to oppose the terms of 박정희/Park Jeonghui twice, and both times he was convicted of the crime of trying to overthrow the government and was imprisoned. 

박정희 was president until his death in 1979, starting from 1963 (16 years). He was known for many things, but one of the most important facts was that during his reign, the country greatly changed South Korea from one of the most impoverished countries in the world to its current advancement. Some of the reforms that he initiated were increased interest rates and efficient tax collection. This leads to many South Korean citizens appreciating his terms as president (5 of them); however, just as many citizens claim that he was not the catalyst for the change and that it would happen regardless of 박정희 being the person in control. Moving back to the fact that he was president for 5 terms, this was because of voter fraud. He repeatedly used political violence, voter fraud, and state-sponsored repression. He was known for being an authoritarian that limited South Korea. He put himself in power on May 16, 1961, through a coup and became a part of the military. He and other officers dissolved the National Assembly and developed multiple institutions, such as the Economic Planning Board, to gain more control. Originally, there was a constitutional provision that stated that a president could only be president for 2 consecutive 4-year terms; however, his party, the Democratic Republican Party, passed an amendment that would make a president eligible for 3 4-year terms. During the 3rd term, he suspended and dissolved the constitution and implemented a system that gave him more power as a dictator. He then made a new constitution that allowed the president to be elected continuously for unlimited 6-year terms. I can't imagine anybody condoning that. And the citizens didn't. Although he helped develop the industries and economy, the protests against his government greatly increased. His terms ended when he was assassinated by a close friend. 

Choi Gyuuha served one term from the years 1979 to 1980. He was appointed the prime minister under Park Jeonghui's terms. After the death of Park Jeonghui, he became the acting president and was later elected the 4th president. A difficulty of his term was that the public wanted there to be democracy while those who were gaining power in the military wanted to reinstall military authoritarianism. To appease the protests, he made some attempts at political liberalisation, which did not appease either side. There even was a thing called "Seoul Spring/서울의 봄" in which there was a demand for democracy. This demand fueled some riots and revolts.

Jeon Doohwan was president from 1980 to 1988 (a total of 2 terms). He was an army general and a military dictator. He was the one in power during Choi Gyuuha's term. In 1980, he declared martial law and suppressed an opposition in 광주 (Gwangju) from the democratic civilians. He also set up a concentration camp. He continued the prosperous economic growth of Park Jeonghui but dealt with a finance scandal and an assassination attempt. 

Noh Taewoo served 1 term in the years 1988 to 1993 (5 years). Jeon Doohwan chose him to be a candidate for the Democratic Justice Party and was later elected president. He proposed a new constitution that would allow for the direct election of the president through the popular vote. Many of the actions of Noh Taewoo led to the democratisation of the country. He fostered ties between China and Russia, obtained admission into the United Nations, and signed an agreement for anti-aggression between North and South Korea. 2 years after his presidency, he gave a public apology for illegally obtaining billions of Won. 

He served 1 term between the years of 1993 and 1998. He was against Park Jeonghui, which led to his expulsion. Through his expulsion, it snowballed into the resignation of all of the 66 opposition members. He was a contender for presidency until the military takeover of Jeon Doohwan, who put him under house arrest, banned his political party, and banned his political activity for 8 years. He ran for presidency and was unsuccessful in 1987 and eventually formed a political party that dominated the political sphere. 

When he was president, he had reforms to eliminate abuse of power and corruption. In his presidency, wages increased, the economy grew, the standard of living improved, the government was more responsive to the electorate, and there was the establishment of civilian control over the military. 

His political party, the Democratic Liberal Party, had a lot of corruption scandals, and there was increasing instability near the end of his presidency due to the financial crisis through SEA and East Asia. 

He served 1 term between the years of 1998 and 2003. He opposed the policies of Lee Seungman and was removed from his seat in the National Assembly after the coup by Park Jeonhui. He then opposed many of Park Jeonhui's policies and tried to run against him. When he was in office, he attempted to improve relations with North Korea, overcome the financial crisis, and restructure many economic structures. He had a policy that gave South Koreans the ability to visit relatives in North Korea: 햇볕정책/Sunshine Policy. He met with the political leader of North Korea, 김정일 (Kim Jeong Il), to talk about the reunification of the countries. 

He served 1 term from 2003 to 2008. He criticised Jeon Doohwan's military control. He used diplomacy to dissuade North Korea from its nuclear weapons policy. He was also critical of what the United States' policy towards South Korea was. He was impeached in 2004 because of allegations of law violations and mismanagement of funds. However, he was reinstated after the overturn of the impeachment. North Korea still did a nuclear war test, and he eventually committed suicide. 

He served one term for the years 2008 to 2013. He wanted to open South Korea to beef imports from the United States, which were stopped because of mad cow disease. This caused the public opinion of him to decrease. He was also dealing with the unstable financial conditions of the country. His administration continued the free trade agreements with the United States. The relationship with North Korea during his administration was worse than with Noh Moohyun. He had a history of crimes before his term, and after his term was convicted on many charges. 

She served one term in the years 2013 to 2017. She is known as the first female president of South Korea. She is the daughter of Park Jeonghui. She apologised to those who suffered under his administration and promised to bring back his high rate of economic growth. She received some negative backlash from the public over the sinking of a ferry named 세월 (Saewol) because of her response to the disaster and how they tried to downplay the government's blame. A member of her administration was threatening companies to donate to foundations that were connected to a friend of Park Geunhae. They then found that the close friend and her associates would benefit at the expense of the government. She was impeached and held accountable for her actions now that she could be prosecuted. 

He was president for 1 term, from 2017 to 2022. He was criticised for continuing the sunshine policy towards North Korea, but his actions were seen as pragmatic. He entered talks with 김정은/Kim Jeong Eun and ended up declaring for a nuclear-free Korean peninsula. However, as talks with Trump did not persist, the talks with North Korea stalled. He had a great increase in public opinion after his response to COVID-19, in which he greatly reduced the projected activity of the virus. This caused a great amount of voter participation, the highest in about 30 years. 

He was president for 1 term, 2022 to 2025. Prior to his presidency, he made a few claims, such as that the government should sell lesser-quality food so poor people have more options to choose from that are at lower prices (par from death), feminism caused low birth rates, there was no radiation with Fukushima, and the capped work week is a bad idea because workers should be allowed to work around 120 hours a week for the development of a video game before its release. When president, he made the Blue House (the housing for the South Korean president) into a public park and moved into the defence ministry compound. Many of his proposals were abandoned due to unpopularity, proving his difficulty in office in passing legislation domestically. There were issues with a severe cost of living crisis in which the public was displeased with how disconnected he was from the public. An example of this is when he went to a store and saw a discounted price on green onions and said it was a reasonable price. However, the actual price is 4.5 times greater than the discounted price and is one of the highest prices it's been in years. (17) He had more people asking him to step down and more protesters, with his approval rating reaching a low of 17 per cent. In December 2024, he declared martial law in the middle of the night. He made a lot of accusations and said that the martial law was to remove the "pro-North Korean, anti-state forces," since his opponents were 'allied' with North Korea. He banned protests and said that the media would be controlled by martial law authorities. Anyone who opposed would be arrested without a warrant. His opposition and his own party quickly stopped the martial law and opposed it in the country with their vote, causing Yoon Seukyeol to reverse his decision. He was voted to be impeached, and it did not go through once. They voted to impeach him again, this time gaining the 2/3 majority. The court issued an arrest warrant for him, but he ignored it. The police went to his place of residence and found resistance from the presidential security officers and a military unit, a fact that many citizens called him cowardly for. The second arrest attempt was successful. In April, he was unanimously voted to be impeached. 

Currently the president is limited to a single 5-year term without any re-election, a likely process due to the multiple terms and voting fraud conducted by previous presidents. However, presidents during this time have called for a change to the constitution to allow re-elections. (18). In Korea the parties aren't really divided blue or red; there are still 2 major parties of liberal and conservative, like many other nations in the global democratic sphere. However, these parties are often changing their names and use numbers for the voting procedure. A large reason why Yoon Seokyeol won was because the conservative party stuck to their vote for him, even though his remarks in the past were because he was the representative of the conservative party.