South Korea INTERNAL SECURITY
Armed Forces Day parade
Courtesy Embassy of the Republic of Korea, Washington
Checkpoint at the Demilitarized Zone
Courtesy Robert L. Worden
Tank trap north of Seoul
Courtesy Robert L. Worden
From the founding of the Republic of Korea, its leaders,
while professing liberal democratic ideals, consistently held
that the security threat posed by an aggressive, communist North
Korea required some modification of Western democracy to fit
Korean realities. Confronted with a heavily armed enemy
determined to reunify the peninsula on its own terms--by force,
if necessary--successive South Korean governments gave top
priority to external and internal security, guaranteed by large
and well-organized security services. The need for social order
and discipline in the face of this threat remained central to the
government's approach. Faced with a divided country, even "loyal"
opposition often was suppressed as dangerously disruptive. On
more than one occasion, political opposition was confused with
communist subversion. The communist threat at times provided
political justification for authoritarian regimes to maintain
power and to suppress public criticism or demands for democracy.
In both 1961 and 1980, the military cited these concerns to
justify its interventions in South Korean politics.
Data as of June 1990
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