In the previous section, we made the really sketchy overview of 5,000 years of Korean history. Now let us really focus on the more contemporary dimensions of Korean politics. Let us first focus on First and Second Republic. First Republic was founded on August 15, 1948. That was really beginning of the Republic of Korea. In the northern part of Korea, Kim Lee Sung, the real leader of North Korea also declared the new government. And North Korea started Democratic people sweep over Korea on September 9, 1948. But they’re not the real beginning of Korean Republic, but here you gotta see the real difference in North and South Korea. As I've pointed out, the South Korea was under the American military government. But America did its three years of occupation is two things. First, America really implanted capitalists way of running the economy. Now the South Korea get into capitalist path to [INAUDIBLE]. Meanwhile North Korea adopted Soviet North of North Korea ended up choosing socialist path to economic development that made a big difference between North and South Korea. Now, another difference is this. The American military government literally forced South Korea to accept the Constitution that reflect the ideas of liberal democracy. Therefore liberal democracy became institutional foundation of South Korean politics. But on the other hand, North Korea adopted socialist path to North Korean future. Communism was basic organizing principle of North Korea. Therefore in South Korea liberal democracy and North Korea is a communist way of organizing politics which in fact led to totalitarianism in North Korea. We've got to really pay attention to these two different paths toward democracy and capitalism in South Korea Socialism and totalitarians in North Korea. The three years from 1945 to 1948 made the big difference between north and south, from an institutional point of view. But South Korea started a new republic in 1948. But after years of tranquility, South Korea was invaded by North Korea. North Korea's all out invasion in South Korea lasted for three years from June 25, 1950 to July, 1953. The Korean War was a devastating. Obviously, you all know that the North Korean invading of South Korea was kind of masterminded by Stalin in Moscow. Okay obviously the Stalin and Kim II Sung of North Korea, he wanted to unify the Korean peninsula in their own terms so that they can expand socialism in the southern part of Korea. But the three years' war was devastating. As you can tell, in the table, okay human casualties quite extensive. Almost, South Korean casualties alone, South Korean South Korean forces and UN forces, their casualties quite expansive. More than 700 people were either killed or injured during the Korean war. Similar casualties much higher, okay? Almost 1 million South Koreans were either dead, or injured during the Korean War. There were often massive inflow, there was a massive inflow of refugees from North Korea amounting to almost 8 million. Now we call it 10 million refugees from North Korea. And most of the villages were Destroyed, and infrastructure and industrial facilities were destroyed by the Korean War. After war was over, Korea was brutally empty and virtually destroyed. Were it not for assistance from the United Nations and United States, the construction of South Korea could have never been possible. If you can think about today's Afghanistan or today's Syria, okay? War brought massive, massive destruction. However, the United States of America and the United Nations were kind enough to extend quite extensive economic assistance to South Korea. You can check those figures in the table. What was the nature of the First Republic? Syng-man Rhee was president, but he ruled First Republic which is Iron-Fist. Of course, when Syng-man Rhee became president at age 17, he is known as a founding father of the Republic of Korea. He spent quite a long time in the United States. He attended George Washington University, Princeton University, and Harvard University. He got his PhD from Princeton University when Woodrow Wilson was the President of Princeton University. Syng-man Rhee was a very unique person. He has Confucian training in his childhood and then he got the military education in his youth. Went to the United States and then he was representing colonized Korea to the world. Therefore, when he came back and become president, he has a more fatherly figure. I would say that Syng-man Rhee during the first republic was a kind of patriarchal rule. And, I would say that patriarchal rule cannot be really seen as a Democratic rule. If I were to say that the first republic characterized by soft authoritarians. And there was a very interesting debate on the nature of the First Republic. Some scholars argued that during the First Republic, the state was overdeveloped because as a result to war, Korean war, there were more soldiers and more police. Therefore soldier increase were quite disproportionately big, was bigger than civil society. But I would argue that that is some of this reinterpretation. Even though physical size of state was big, the first republic was literally run by Liberal Party. Liberal Party was kinds of party state system. Therefore, President Rhee Syng-man was a more symbolic figure. Meanwhile, Liberal Party winning the entire country. I would say that it's a very interesting case, but what Liberal Party did was this. It were because I argue that the First, Republic can be characterized by soft authoritarianism. Under the soft authoritarianism, South Korea had regular elections that in order to cope with electoral cycles, the ruling party had to mobilize political fund. It is mostly because the liberal party has a rather weak foundation among the rich people in South Korea. Therefore, the Liberal Party had to mobilize political funds to win elections. Presidential elections, vice presidential elections and National Assembly elections. In classes both party deeply involved in act of predation as well as rent-seeking. Corruption was quite pervasive and therefore there was a kind of public discontent over the government during the First Republic. And as you can see in the figure, there was a sharp increase in economic growth after Korean War in 1950s. But after mid 1950’s, the economy under the first republic began to sharply decline. Toward the end of 1950's, Korean economy was extremely hard and there was a political irregularities, economic hardship and social instability. But in that process, the Liberal Party engaging quite extensive election rigging and therefore in particularly March 15 1960. There's quite extensive students protest against this election rigging but the Rhee Syngman government violently repressed in student protest. And as you can see in the photo, all those students, particularly young student, high school student and college student, they were the major actors of those public protests against Isumon government. And the another in the photo shown here, he's a victim of repressive of government. His name is Chu Yin Kim. Mr Kim was a high school student in. But he was shot by riot police during a very peaceful demonstration. And his body was thrown into the sea, and his body was later recovered. That triggered a nationwide student protest against Isman government. Finally President Isman declared that he's resigning from the presidential post and also he took exile in Hawaii. And student protest was successful. It is now being called April 19th, Student Revolution of 1960. As Lee Seong Man government crashed, and then was the Second Republic. The man in the photo agent Chang Myon, he was the Prime minister of Second Republic. And we shall discuss later when we discuss political institutions of South Korea. One of the most important changes from the first republic to the Second Republic is that there was a constitutional amendment. According to the new constitution, the Second Republic adopted the parliamentary system as opposed to the presidential system. It wasn't Democratic party which was after revival of Liberal Party in 1950s, became the ruling party in the Second Republic. But Second Republic did not last long. And we shall discuss later and his [INAUDIBLE] undertook military coup in May 1961. The Second Republic lasted less than one year. The Second Republic failed which was one of the most beautiful democratic government at least in accordance with constitutional faith. And usually the demise of the Second Republic is called the failure of Korean Democracy. But obviously most important factor was intra-democratic party struggles. The party struggle between old faction and new factions of Democratic Party were so fierce that kinds of elite division within the ruling party sent the wrong signal to the military. Another important factor was economic hardship. Inflation was very high. Unemployment was pervasive. And economic hardship was much protracted. The upper people began to lose hope in the democratic government second republic, in reviving the economy. At the same time, there was social instability. As the Korean state, the first republic, lost legitimacy incredibly from the people. The Second Republic was not able to restore the loss of legitimacy and credibility. And that led to the social and political instability. There’s a quite frequent demonstrations and government simply failed to handle the political load.
