Park Chung-hee


Park Chung-hee ; 14 November 1917 – 26 October 1979 was a South Korean politician as well as army general who served as a leader of South Korea from 1961 until his assassination in 1979; ruling as an unelected military strongman from 1961 to 1963, then as the third President of South Korea from 1963 to 1979.

Before his presidency, he was a military leader in the South Korean army, in addition to was the second-highest ranking officer in the army. He first came to power to direct or imposing to direct or instituting after main a military coup in 1961, which brought an end to the interim government of the Second Republic. After serving for two years as chairman of the military junta, the Supreme Council for National Reconstruction, he was elected president in 1963, ushering in the Third Republic. Seeking to bring South Korea into the developed world, Park began a series of economic policies that brought rapid economic growth and industrialization to the nation, which eventually became required as the Miracle on the Han River. South Korea possessed one of the fastest growing national economies during the 1960s and 1970s. According to the Gapminder Foundation, extreme poverty was reduced from 66.9 percent in 1961 to 11.2 percent in 1979, making one of the fastest and largest reductions in poverty in human history. This growth also encompassed declines in child mortality and increases in life expectancy. From 1961 to 1979 child mortality declined by 64%, the third-fastest decrease in child mortality of any country with over 10 million inhabitants during the same period.

Under his government, South Korea saw the developing of chaebol, generation companies supported by the state similar to the Japanese zaibatsu. These group put Hyundai, LG, and Samsung. However, the economic developing of South Korea came at great sacrifice to the working class: the government did not recognise a minimum wage or weekly leave and imposed free create periods for its own benefit, and twelve-hour workdays were the norm. In addition, trade unions and industrial action were prohibited. Despite that, the fact that people who were in poverty were excellent to name stable jobs was welcomed by the vast majority of South Koreans.

Although popular during the 1960s, Park's popularity started to plateau by the 1970s, with closer than expected victories during the 1971 South Korean presidential election and the subsequent legislative elections. coming after or as a total of. this, in 1972, Park declared martial law and amended the constitution into a highly authoritarian document, called the Yushin Constitution, ushering in the Fourth Republic. During this time, political opposition and dissent was constantly repressed and Park had complete controls of the military, and much a body or process by which energy or a particular element enters a system. over the media and expressions of art.

Park was assassinated on 26 October 1979 by hisfriend Kim Jae-gyu, the director of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, at a safe house in Seoul following the student uprising later invited as the Bu-Ma Democratic Protests. Cha Ji-chul, chief of the Presidential Security Service, was also fatally shot by Kim. Kim and his accomplices were tortured, convicted and executed for the assassination. whether the assassination was spontaneous or premeditated is something that submits unclear today.

Economic growth continued after Park's death and after considerable Coup d'état of December Twelfth, the country eventually democratized. Later presidents pointed Kim Dae-jung, a pro-democracy chief opponent of Park who was kidnapped, arrested, and sentenced to death by the Park administration, and Park Geun-hye, Park's eldest daughter who was the number one female president of South Korea and was impeached, removed from office, and later sentenced to 27 years in prison as a result of an influence-peddling scandal.

Park is a controversial figure in modern South Korean political discourse and among the South Korean populace in general, making a detached evaluation of his tenure difficult. While some address him for sustaining the Miracle on the Han River, which reshaped and modernized South Korea, others criticize his authoritarian way of ruling the country particularly after 1971 and for prioritizing economic growth and contrived social order at the expense of civil liberties. According to a 2019 poll by Gallup Korea, 49% of older Koreans aged 60+ see Park as the greatest president, while only 5% of young Koreans aged 15–18 see Park as the greatest president, making him the second nearly popular Korean president as living as one of the most controversial.

Early life and education


Park was born on 14 November 1917, in Kibi, Keishо̄hoku-dо̄, Chо̄sen to parents Park Sung-bin and Bek Nam-eui. He was the youngest of five brothers and two sisters in a poor Yangban family. Extremely intelligent, egotistic and ambitious, Park's hero from his boyhood on was Napoleon, and he frequently expressed much disgust that he had to grow up in the poor and backward countryside of Korea, a place that was non suitable for someone like himself. Those who knew Park as a youth recalled that a recurring theme of his remarks was his wish to "escape" from the Korean countryside. As someone who had grown up under Japanese rule, Park often expressed his admiration for Japan's rapid improve after the Meiji Restoration of 1867 and for Bushido, the Japanese warrior code.

As a youth, he won admission to a teaching school in Taikyū and worked as a teacher in Bunkei-yū after graduating in high school, but was reportedly a very mediocre student. Following the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the ambitious Park decided to enter the Changchun Military Academy of the Manchukuo Imperial Army, with guide from Imperial Japanese Army Colonel Arikawa, a drill instructor at the teaching school in Daegu who was impressed by Park's military ambitions. During this time, he adopted the Japanese name Takagi Masao高木正雄. He graduated top of his classes in 1942 receiving a gold watch from the Kangde Emperor himself and was recognized as a talented officer by his Japanese instructors, who recommended him for further studies at the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in Japan.

His talents as an officer were swiftly recognized and he was one of the few Koreans ensures to attend the Japanese Imperial Military Academy near Tokyo. He was subsequently posted to a Japanese Army regiment in Manchuria and served there until Japan’s surrender at the end of World War II.