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South Korea THE TRANSITION
Soon after Park's October 26, 1979 assassination, South Korea
went through kaleidoscopic changes--intense and open competition
for power, student upheavals, a military takeover, a gruesome
massacre, and the emergence of a new authoritarian order. Since
Park had concentrated virtually all political power around
himself, his assassination created a political vacuum. One of his
main pillars of power, the director of the Presidential Security
Force, was assassinated with him; the director of the other major
political instrument, the KCIA, was quickly arrested by the
Martial Law Command for conducting the assassinations. In
addition, the National Assembly, one-third of its members
presidential appointees, had been rendered impotent by the
yusin constitution.
Ch'oe Kyu-ha, premier under Park, was elected president in
December 1979 by the National Conference of Unification, a rubber
stamp electoral college. Ch'oe had no independent political base.
He reaffirmed the need for a new constitution in his December 21
inaugural speech, stating that a new constitution supported by a
majority of the people would be adopted within a year and that a
fair general election would be held soon afterward.
Even before his inauguration, Ch'oe, as acting president, had
abolished Emergency Measure Number Nine. Several hundred
individuals serving prison terms or being investigated on charges
of violating that decree were released on December 8. One of
those benefiting from the release was Kim Dae Jung, who had been
under house arrest and whose civil rights were to be restored on
February 29, 1980. Also affected were student activists who had
been arrested for staging campus demonstrations.
Lieutenant General Chun Doo Hwan, the head of the Defense
Security Command was responsible for conducting the investigation
of Park's assassination. Chun used the factionalism rife within
the military to assert his control over the army on December 12,
1979. He promptly set about uprooting the Park-era power elite
and building a new political base. This power play, combined with
increasing social and labor unrest, economic instability, and the
factionalism within and between the ruling and opposition
parties, set the scene for the military's consolidation of power
and culminated in Chun's assumption of the presidency in August
1980.
Politics in South Korea in 1980 mainly revolved around
framing a new constitution. The principal opposition party, the
New Democratic Party under Kim Young Sam, advocated concluding
the process by August 15, but President Ch'oe, evidently under
military pressure, was not ready to expedite the constitutional
process. The scheduling issue led to a major student upheaval in
May 1980, followed by a military takeover.
Data as of June 1990
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