Dictators of South Korea

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Dictators. I thought they were only existent in the evil, communist North! No, just like North Korea, South Korea had 3 dictators, in which 2 of them I've already mentioned in previous posts. But here are the names:

Syungman Rhee (이승만): 1st, 2nd, and 3rd President (1948-1960)
Chunghee Park (박정희): 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th "President" (1961-1979)
Doohwan Cheon (전두환): 11th, 12th "President" (1980-1988)

Rhee.    Wikipedia/ (CC)

Let's go with the first dude on the list. Rhee Syungman was the first president of the Republic of Korea (a.k.a. South Korea). He was the dude who shouted out for "At least there should be democracy somewhere, let's put it on the south part of Korea!". As he got elected the first president of Korea, the former leader of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea said in his election speech that he will lead the country with the words of the peoples. Yeah, and look how that turned out. He had two 6-year terms as being a really bad president, people called him a dictator, because he acted like one; he arrested all the senators that were against him in Busan, during the Korean War.  And at the 3rd presidential election in South Korea, he made a bunch of systems where some gangs threatened many to vote for Rhee, and somehow made the election system into a useless state, making sure that Rhee got EVERYONE's votes. And that's when the middle and high school students of Masan city rose up and protested. Yes, I did say MIDDLE school students. Other citizens joined as they saw their children protesting.
And sadly, the police, who were supposed to protect the people, killed many of their citizens. Many people even went missing, and their location in unknown even today.Then like a month later, the 11th day of April 1960, people found a body of a high school student who was killed by police then thrown into the ocean in order to hide it from media. The news spread and spread and people got mad and protested in the streets of Seoul. 100 citizens died that day, and more did in the coming days, however the protesters increased. In the 25th, 100,000 people came out to the streets, including professors, and that meant 1 in 250 people in the nation participated. The next day, Rhee resigned and got exiled to Hawaii, in which he lived there with his Austrian wife until he died 5 years later.

Park     Wikipedia/ (CC)

Onto the next dictator. When the Second Republic of Korea was established (but considered to be representing the past republic), with almost all powers going to the Prime Minister Chang Myun, and the new president Yoon Bosun was just a headless figure. Meaning= Yoon was the head of State and Chang was the head of Government. And they were full of pro-Japanese people that angered all the citizens. And soon there was a coup, as in May 16th, 1961, the military, led by Chunghee Park, took over all government buildings and arrested Chang Myun. 2 years later, this dude narrowly won presidency. His goal was to have low labor costs and... just go to the post about the "Miracle of the Han River", okay? Anyways, his two four-year terms ended, and right before the 7th presidential election in 1971, Park changed the constitution and let presidents have a 3-term presidency. Oh yes, the people were mad, as only the government was getting rich and many people were kept poor (Just like in some parts of the People's           Republic of China these days). Of course, he was reelected. A year later, Park added the Yusin Constitution, making him eternal leader of Korea (And the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th President) .Then to make sure he stayed in power, Park reelected himself again in 1978. He was assasinated a year later by Jaegyu Kim, the director of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (Currently the NIS, National Intelligence Service). Then finally, the fourth Republic came in and elected Choi Gyu Hwa in the 10th presidential election, who was the Prime Minister at the time and also the acting president. People were so happy that they threw away the picture of Park in the police stations.

Cheon, when he was a young person in his 50s (CC)

However, the Fourth Republic lasted shorter than the Second Republic. Only eight months later, Chun doohwan, who was an army general under Park's rule, lead another coup. And people got very, very mad. But from stop making students organize protests, he arrested many of them and closed the gates of all universities in Korea. That didn't stop the protests, though. The people of Gwangju got  into taxis, buses, or walked to the South Jeonla Province provincial building, and ran to the military. The military killed hundreds of people that day, however the citizens finally got control of the provincial buildings in the 21st of May. However, Cheon blocked all the media and even destroyed some companies, then went onto the 11th presidential election where he got all of the votes. He did the same thing in 1984 when he got 90% of the votes of the 12th presidential election. People still protested every day, only to get hit by bombs thrown by police. However, after the death of two students, people held up signs like, "Do not kill my child twice!" And thousands marched up and down the streets every day. Then Cheon began to worry that he might get assasinated, too, and gave his power to Roh Taewoo, who eventually betrayed him and brought democracy to the nation.

This post was a bit late; sorry!

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