FREE ESSAY ON DEMOCRATIZATION IN KOREA

DEMOCRATIZATION IN KOREA

Democratization
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9824055 Russian and Russian Literature 
(Kim Suh Jin) ?e?-A? e-mail : devotomil@hanmail.net
Usually when a country goes through democratic transition 
there are two side which conflict during the process. The present 
government which wields the power and challengers from opposition 
parties. In South Korea's case it was the authoritarian regime and 
the political opposition and the opposition experienced suppression 
and confrontation before reaching a compromise. The authoritarian 
regime has resources to obstruct or extend the democratic transition 
to ensure it's continued political domination, which was the case in 
South Korea. The road to democracy is rough and the authoritarian 
government had to choose from repression which was costly or a 
compromise with democratic demands.
In S. Korea after Rhee Syngman regimes fall, Jang became 
the prime minister. (The National Assembly changed the then 
presidential system to a parliamentary system). Four opposition 
parties were formed during the process: the Society and People's 
Party, the Association of Revolutionary Comrades, the Korea Society 
Party and the Social Reform party. Jang Myeon made plans for the 
economy and also proposed to cut military personnel. He also signed 
a treaty with United States which gave U. S. much power. This was 
signed because Korea badly needed U. S. economic aid. However 
this weakened Jang regime and it failed to consolidate democracy. 
Even though democracy had failed the yearning for democracy 
continued throughout the 60's and 70's, and students demonstrated 
against the authoritarian Park Chung Hee regime. In the 80's the 
student demonstrations became more violent. Despite the opposition 
president Chun sought to postpone presidential elections and to make 
sure that Roh Tae Woo could win without a properly contested 
election.
On June 29 Roh Tae Woo made an announcement on 
Democratic Reform. Roh's reforms included a fair and presidential 
elections and the release of political prisoners, at least partial 
freedom of the press, freedom of assembly and freedom to form 
political parties and this succeeded in making a concession with the 
opposition. Discontent towards the authoritarian regime and popular 
demonstrations of support for the opposition raised the cost of 
reversing the momentum for a democratic transition. Also the whole 
world's attention on the 1988 Seoul Olympic games played a major 
factor.
However the most important factor for Korea's democratic 
breakthrough was because of the opposition party members, Kim 
DAe Jung and Kim Young Sam. Disagreement within the NKDP led 
both members to break from the NKDP. (The dispute of choosing 
parliamentary system or direct presidential elections). Kim insisted 
on an immediate national referendum to decide between a 
parliamentary and a presidential system, release of all political 
prisoners so they could participate in the referendum, and on a 
restoration of the civil and political rights of opposition leader Kim 
Dae Jung. Roh agreed to the opposition's demand on June 29, 1987.
On January 22, 1990 three parties of Roh Tae Woo, Kim 
Young Sam, and Kim Jong Pil announced the creation of one 
dominant party, the Democratic Liberal Party. Kim Young Sam 
successfully broke away from the radical Kim Dae Jung and 
guaranteed him the top executive post in the next government thus 
the first civilian government in South Korea.
Democratization is a process that needs the consent of both 
the governing party and opposition party, as the case in S. Korea. 
However, preventing military from entering the politics and slowly 
removing regionalism from S. Korea is of major concern. Even 
though Roh curtailed the military's role in politics there still is a 
chance for it to emerge again. Also regionalism is a huge problem 
that affects the present political system. These are some of the 
problems that need to be worked out in the future.
Bibliography
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