76 Facts About Park Chung-hee

In 1972, Park Chung-hee declared martial law and introduced the highly authoritarian Yushin Constitution, ushering in the Fourth Republic.

Political opposition and dissent was now constantly repressed and Park Chung-hee had complete control of the military, and much control over the media and expressions of art.

In 1979, Park Chung-hee was assassinated by close friend Kim Jae-gyu, director of the KCIA, following the Bu-Ma student demonstrations.

Park Chung-hee ruled South Korea as an authoritarian dictator, and remains 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.

Park Chung-hee was born on 14 November 1917, in Gumi, North Gyeongsang, North Gyeongsang Province, Korea to parents Park Chung-hee Seong-bin and Baek Nam-ui.

Park Chung-hee was the youngest of five brothers and two sisters in a poor Yangban family.

The ambitious Park Chung-hee decided to enter the Manchukuo Army Military Academy in Changchun with help from Colonel Arikawa, a drill instructor at the teaching school in Daegu who was impressed by Park Chung-hee's military ambitions.

Park Chung-hee graduated top of his class in 1942 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.

Park Chung-hee was posted to a Japanese Army regiment in Manchuria and served there until Japan's surrender at the end of World War II.

Park Chung-hee returned to Korea after the war and enrolled at the Korea Military Academy.

Park Chung-hee graduated in the second class of 1946 and became an officer in the constabulary army under the United States Army Military Government in South Korea.

Park Chung-hee was sentenced to death by a military court, but his sentence was commuted by Rhee at the urging of several high-ranking Korean military officers.

Right after the Korean War began and with help from Paik Sun-Yup, Park Chung-hee returned to active service as a major in the South Korean Army.

Park Chung-hee was promoted to lieutenant colonel in September 1950 and to colonel in April 1951.

Park Chung-hee was the head of the Army's Artillery School and commanded the 5th and 7th Divisions of the South Korean army before his promotion to major general in 1958.

Park Chung-hee was then appointed Chief of Staff of the First Army and made the head of the Korean 1st and 6th District Command, which gave him responsibility for the defense of Seoul.

In 1960, Park Chung-hee became commander of the Pusan Logistics Command before becoming Chief of the Operations Staff of the South Korean Army and the deputy commander of the Second Army.

Against this backdrop of social instability and division, Major General Park Chung-hee formed the Military Revolutionary Committee.

One of Park Chung-hee's very first acts upon coming to power was a campaign to "clean up" the streets by arresting and putting the homeless to work in "welfare centers".

All of Park Chung-hee's friends told Eckert that to understand him, one needed to understand his Ilbonsik sagwan kyoyuk as they all maintained Park Chung-hee's values were those of an Imperial Japanese Army officer.

General Park Chung-hee, who remained chairman of the Supreme Council for National Reconstruction, consolidated his power by becoming acting president; he was promoted to full general.

Park Chung-hee agreed to restore civilian rule following pressure from the Kennedy administration.

Park Chung-hee appointed Park Myung-keun, the Vice Leader of the party as the chief of the President's Office.

Park Chung-hee would be re-elected president in 1967, defeating Yun with somewhat less difficulty.

In June 1965 Park Chung-hee signed a treaty normalizing relations with Japan, which included payment of reparations and the making of soft-loans from Japan, and led to increased trade and investment between South Korea and Japan.

At the request of the United States, Park Chung-hee sent approximately 320,000 South Korean troops to fight alongside the United States and South Vietnam during the Vietnam War; a commitment second only to that of the United States.

Park Chung-hee was eager to send South Korean troops to Vietnam and vigorously campaigned to extend the war.

Park Chung-hee oversaw transitional changes between the two Koreas from conflict to consolidation.

However, in order to dissipate the suspicions about his Communist leanings and assure Americans his firm stance as an ally, Park Chung-hee decided to execute Hwang as a spy.

In October 1966, Park Chung-hee ordered the Korean Army to stage a retaliatory attack without seeking the approval of General Charles Bonesteel.

Park Chung-hee believed Park's administration could be undermined if armed provocation by North Korea was directed against US troops.

On 15 August 1974, Park Chung-hee was delivering a speech in the National Theater in Seoul at the ceremony to celebrate the 29th anniversary of the ending of colonial rule when a man named Mun Se-gwang fired a gun at Park Chung-hee from the front row.

Park Chung-hee continued his speech as his dying wife was carried off the stage.

The Park Chung-hee administration negotiated for a total of 360 million dollars in compensation for the 1.03 million Koreans conscripted into the forced labor and military service during the colonial period but received only 300 million dollars.

Park Chung-hee is credited with playing a pivotal role in the development of South Korea's tiger economy by shifting its focus to export-oriented industrialisation.

One of Park Chung-hee's reforms was to bring in 24 hour provision of electricity in 1964, which was a major change as previously homes and businesses were provided with electricity for a few hours every day.

On 3 August 1972, Park Chung-hee made the so-called "Emergency financial act of August 3rd" which banned all private loans to make the foundation of economic growth, and supported Chaebols even further.

Park Chung-hee viewed Japan's development model, in particular the Ministry of International Trade and Industry and the Keiretsu, as an example for Korea.

Park Chung-hee emulated MITI by establishing the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Economic Planning Board.

Park Chung-hee had an affinity for Germany due to its history of having strong leadership like that of Bismarck and Hitler, and wanted to create ties with West Germany to deal with the problems of increasing population growth and economic hardships and to receive an inflow of foreign capital for domestic development.

Park Chung-hee was close friends with the last Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who had established diplomatic relations in 1962 and following a visit to Iran in 1969, developed a close relationship with the two countries.

Park Chung-hee realized the importance of Iran in securing oil for South Korea's industrial development and by 1973, was their main and only source of oil during the Oil Crisis.

The relationship eventually expanded beyond oil as Park Chung-hee promoted other industries to operate in Iran.

Park Chung-hee invited the Shah in 1978 for a special "South Korea-Iran" summit to further deepen relations but due to the Iranian Revolution, it never materialized.

Park Chung-hee began to seek options to further cement his hold on the country.

Park Chung-hee recognized the reference to himself in Five Bandits with the character of the general while the fact that all of the bandits have a Chinilpa background was a reference to the social basis of Park Chung-hee's regime.

Later in 1970, Park Chung-hee launched his Saemaul Undong that set out to modernize the countryside by providing electricity and running water to farmers, building paved roads, and replacing thatched roofs with tin roofs.

However, Park Chung-hee used asbestos, which is harmful to humans, for fixing rustic houses.

In 1971, Park Chung-hee won another close election against his rival, Kim Dae-jung.

In October 1972, Park Chung-hee dissolved the legislature and suspended the 1963 constitution in a self-coup.

Park Chung-hee had drawn inspiration for his self-coup from Ferdinand Marcos, President of the Philippines, who had orchestrated a similar coup a few weeks earlier.

Park Chung-hee argued that Western-style liberal democracy was not suitable for South Korea due to its still-shaky economy.

Park Chung-hee believed that in the interest of stability, the country needed a "Korean-style democracy" with a strong, unchallenged presidency.

In 1975, Park Chung-hee ordered homeless people and children to be removed from the streets of Seoul.

Park Chung-hee abolished the usage of hanja or Chinese characters and established hangul exclusivity for the Korean language in the 1960s and 1970s.

Park Chung-hee often said that if an independent country cannot protect itself with its military, it is not an independent country.

Park Chung-hee tried to develop his homegrown nuclear weapons programs, announcing that they would be made by 1983.

Furthermore, the security service, the KCIA, retained broad powers of arrest and detention; many of Park Chung-hee's opponents were held without trial and frequently tortured.

On 26 October 1979, six days after the student protests ended, Park Chung-hee was shot in the head and chest fatally by Kim Jae-gyu, the director of the KCIA, after a banquet at a safehouse in Gungjeong-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul.

Kim claimed that Park Chung-hee was an obstacle to democracy and that his act was one of patriotism.

Park Chung-hee was buried with full military honors at the National Cemetery near the grave of former president Syngman Rhee who died in 1965.

Kim Jae-gyu, whose motive for murdering Park Chung-hee remains unclear, was hanged on 24 May 1980.

Park Chung-hee was married to Kim Ho-nam and the two later divorced.

Park Chung-hee was elected as South Korea's 11th president and first female president in 2012 and took office in February 2013.

Park Chung-hee was sentenced to 24 years in prison on 6 April 2018.

Park Chung-hee was released in 2021 from the Seoul Detention Center.

The eighteen-year Park Chung-hee era is considered to be one of the most controversial topics for the Korean public, politicians, and scholars.

Older generations who spent their adulthood during Park Chung-hee's rule tend to credit Park Chung-hee for building the economic foundation of the country and protecting the country from North Korea, as well as leading Korea to economic and global prominence.

Park Chung-hee has been recognized and respected by many South Koreans as an exceptionally efficient leader, credited with making South Korea economically what it is today.

Park Chung-hee led the Miracle on the Han River, a period of rapid economic growth in South Korea.

However, Park Chung-hee is regarded as a highly repressive dictator who curtailed freedoms and committed human rights abuses during his rule.

The new constitution President Park Chung-hee implemented after declaring the state of emergency in 1971 gave him the power to appoint one third of the members of the National Assembly and even outlawed criticism of the constitution and of the president.

Park Chung-hee is responsible for the beginning of a normalized relationship with Japan and today Japan is one of South Korea's top trading partners, surpassed only by the People's Republic of China and the United States.

Park Chung-hee's rule is believed to be one of the main causes of regionalism which is a serious problem in Korea today.

Kim Dae-jung, a pro-democracy chief opponent of Park Chung-hee who was kidnapped, arrested, and sentenced to death by the Park Chung-hee administration, later served as the 8th president of South Korea.

Park Chung-hee was impeached, removed from office, and later sentenced to 27 years in prison as a result of an influence-peddling scandal.