Driven by Growth by Morley James William

Author:Morley, James William
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781317472780
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

The Chun Era of Democratization Postponed: 1979–87

The authoritarian system of Yushin collapsed in 1979 with the assassination of President Park Chung Hee by his chief intelligence aide, who claimed that he acted to save the nation from a revolutionary “bloodbath.” It is not certain that the opposition could have succeeded had the assassination not taken place. It is clear, however, that serious strains had begun to appear in the regime and that a major crisis was brewing. Its popularity was at an all-time low, measured even by the results of elections heavily distorted by government interference. For example, Park’s Democratic-Republican Party had suffered a serious loss in December 1978 when it obtained only 31 percent of the popular vote in the National Assembly election. Large-scale riots took place toward the end of his regime in such major cities as Pusan and Masan.

Park’s death was greeted with the popular expectation that authoritarian rule would come to an end and full democracy would be restored. A period of active anticipation and live political activity by various groups and individuals was followed, however, by the declaration of full martial law in 1980. In August, with the support of key military leaders, General Chun Doo Hwan, who had headed the Military Security Command under the Park government, took over the post of acting president, after which the rubber-stamp National Conference for Unification elected him as president. In October, a new constitution, which retained many of the key features of the Yushin Constitution, was put to a national referendum. It was approved by an overwhelming vote. Under the new constitution, Chun was elected president without competition for a seven-year term in January 1981. Chun promptly disbanded all political parties of the previous regime, purged their leaders, and placed under political ban hundreds of politicians and other activists. In addition to his own Democratic Justice Party, he allowed the formation of several parties by political personalities and organizations that could not challenge the ruling group in any effective way. Instruments of “power and control” such as the KCIA (renamed the National Security Planning Agency) and the Military Security Command were retained or strengthened. The new National Assembly and the interim Legislative Council that had preceded it in 1978 enacted laws that enabled the government to effectively control the press and the labor movement. In short, another cycle of authoritarian rule devoid of political competition and civil rights began (Lee Chong-sik 1981).

There was nothing inevitable about the fact that in 1980 South Korea’s democratization process would face another serious setback and authoritarian rule would be restored. It is possible, however, to offer a few explanations as to why the transition to democracy, which had been so ardently and overwhelmingly desired by South Koreans after nearly two decades of authoritarian rule, had to be postponed once again.

First, even though Park had died, the power structure—the military, the bureaucracy, and other groups that had a vested interest in the status quo—remained intact. Only the ruling Democratic-Republican Party was seriously weakened, although it did not collapse.

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