55 Facts About Syngman Rhee

Syngman Rhee was the first and last president of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea from 1919 to his impeachment in 1925 and from 1947 to 1948.

Syngman Rhee became a Korean independence activist and was imprisoned for his activities in 1899.

In 1919, following the Japanese suppression of the March First Movement, Syngman Rhee joined the right-leaning Korean Provisional Government in exile in Shanghai.

Syngman Rhee then returned to the United States, where he advocated and fundraised for Korean independence.

Syngman Rhee was president during the outbreak of the Korean War, in which North Korea invaded South Korea.

Syngman Rhee refused to sign the armistice agreement that ended the war, wishing to have the peninsula reunited by force.

Syngman Rhee was reelected uncontested in March 1960, after his opponent Chough Pyung-ok died from cancer before the election took place.

Syngman Rhee spent the rest of his life in exile in Honolulu, Hawaii, and died of a stroke in 1965.

Syngman Rhee was born on 26 March 1875 as Rhee Syng man in Daegyeong, a village in Pyeongsan County, Hwanghae Province, Joseon.

Syngman Rhee was the third but only surviving son out of three brothers and two sisters in a rural family of modest means.

Syngman Rhee's family traced its lineage back to King Taejong of Joseon.

Syngman Rhee was a 16th-generation descendant of Grand Prince Yangnyeong through his second son, Yi Heun who was known as Jangpyeong Dojeong.

Syngman Rhee's mother was a member of Gimhae Kim clan.

When Syngman Rhee was six years old a smallpox infection rendered him virtually blind until he was treated with western medicine, possibly by a Japanese doctor.

Syngman Rhee was portrayed as a potential candidate for the gwageo, the traditional Korean civil service examination, but in 1894 reforms abolished the gwageo system, and in April he enrolled in the Paechae School, an American Methodist school, where he converted to Christianity.

Syngman Rhee became involved in anti-Japanese circles after the end of the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895, which saw Joseon passed from the Chinese sphere of influence to the Japanese.

Syngman Rhee acted as one of the forerunners of the Korean independence movement through grassroots organizations such as the Hyeopseong Club and the Independence Club.

Syngman Rhee organized several protests against corruption and the influences of the Japan and the Russian Empire.

Syngman Rhee attempted to escape on the 20th day of imprisonment but was caught and was sentenced to life imprisonment through the Pyeongniwon.

Syngman Rhee was imprisoned in the Hanseong Prison.

In 1904, Syngman Rhee was released from prison at the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War with the help of Min Young-hwan.

In November 1904, with the help of Min Yeong-hwan and Han Gyu-seol, Syngman Rhee moved to the United States.

Syngman Rhee continued to stay in the United States; this move has been described as an "exile".

Syngman Rhee obtained a Bachelor of Arts from George Washington University in 1907, and a Master of Arts from Harvard University in 1908.

In 1912, Syngman Rhee was implicated in the 105-Man Incident, and was shortly arrested.

However, he fled to the United States in 1912 with M C Harris's rationale that Rhee was going to participate in the general meeting of Methodists in Minneapolis as the Korean representative.

However, Syngman Rhee failed to efficiently act in the capacity of Acting President due to conflicts inside the provisional government in Shanghai.

In November 1924, Syngman Rhee was appointed the position of president for life in the Korean Comrade Society.

In March 1925, Syngman Rhee was impeached as the president of the Provisional Government in Shanghai over allegations of misuse of power and was removed from office.

Syngman Rhee focused on writing the book Japan Inside Out and published it during the summer of 1941.

Syngman Rhee refused to join the US-Soviet Joint Commission as well as the negotiations with the north.

Syngman Rhee, who had lived for decades in the United States, was a figure known only from afar in Korea, and therefore regarded as a more or less acceptable compromise candidate for the conservative factions.

Rhee was "acerbic, prickly, uncompromising" and was regarded by the US State Department, which long had dealings with him as "a dangerous mischief-maker", but the American General John R Hodge decided that Rhee was the best man for the Americans to back because of his fluent English and his ability to talk with authority to American officers about American subjects.

Once it became clear from October 1945 onward that Syngman Rhee was the Korean politician most favored by the Americans, other conservative leaders fell in behind him.

Syngman Rhee was elected without competition to serve in the South Korean Constitutional Assembly and was consequently selected to be Speaker of the Assembly.

Syngman Rhee was highly influential in creating the policy stating that the president of South Korea had to be elected by the National Assembly.

Syngman Rhee allowed the internal security force to detain and torture suspected communists and North Korean agents.

Syngman Rhee was absolutely committed to reunifying Korea under his leadership and strongly supported MacArthur's call for going all-out against China, even at the risk of provoking a nuclear war with the Soviet Union.

The entire Syngman Rhee regime was notorious for its corruption, with everyone in the government from the President downwards stealing as much they possibly could from both the public purse and from United States aid.

The Syngman Rhee regime engaged in the "worst excesses of corruption", with South Korean soldiers going unpaid for months as their officers embezzled their pay, equipment provided by the United States being sold on the black market, and the size of the army being bloated by hundreds of thousands of "ghost soldiers" who only existed on paper, allowing their officers to steal pay that would have been due had these soldiers actually existed.

Syngman Rhee created the National Defense Corps in December 1950, intended to be a paramilitary militia, comprising men not in the military or police who were drafted into the corps for internal security duties.

However, Syngman Rhee strongly opposed the armistice, fearing it would leave South Korea vulnerable to future aggression and believing it failed to ensure the country's long-term security.

On June 18,1953, Syngman Rhee unilaterally ordered the release of over 27,000 anti-communist POWs held in camps across South Korea, including those in Busan, Masan, and Daegu.

Syngman Rhee was deeply dissatisfied with the armistice negotiations being conducted without active participation from the South Korean government.

Syngman Rhee's actions aimed to ensure South Korea's security through the signing of the Korea-US Mutual Defense Treaty.

However, the Republic of Korea, under Syngman Rhee's leadership, refused to sign the agreement.

Syngman Rhee was easily re-elected for what should have been the final time in 1956, since the 1948 constitution limited the president to two consecutive terms.

In March 1960, the 84-year-old Syngman Rhee won his fourth term in office as president.

Syngman Rhee's wife offered the pilot a valuable diamond ring in thanks, which was declined.

Syngman Rhee died of stroke complications in Honolulu on 19 July 1965.

Syngman Rhee was married to Seungseon Park from 1890 to 1910.

In February 1933, Syngman Rhee met Austrian Franziska Donner in Geneva.

At the time, Syngman Rhee was participating in a League of Nations meeting and Donner was working as an interpreter.

Syngman Rhee imbued South Korea with a legacy of authoritarian rule that lasted with only a few short breaks until 1988.

Syngman Rhee began to be reevaluated after democratization in 1987, and in particular came to be associated with the so-called New Right movement, some members of which have argued that Syngman Rhee's achievements have been wrongly undervalued, and that he should be viewed positively as the founding father of the Republic of Korea.