Korea: The Politics of Change

Abstract

For the Republic of Korea, 1962 was a year of building for the future. The year began with the inauguration of a new Five-Year Economic Plan, and thus was launched the first sustained effort to consider the problems of Korean economic development in long-range and coordinated fashion. The year ended with public approval, via a referendum, of maj or constitutional amendments, and the intensive preparation for the restoration of civilian government in 1963. Since the coup of May 1961, South Korea has been ruled by a small group of dedicated young military men. Most of them had had little previous political or administrative experience, nor did they have a firm ideological position. Essentially, these men were and are nationalists, determined to save their country from chaos, corruption, and communism. A number of them received their basic education under the Japanese. The Japanese modernization experience has had a substantial influence upon them. In many respects, they represent the least Westernized elite to govern postwar Korea. At the same time, however, they have consistently paid homage to the ultimate goal of liberal democracy, while also insisting that a Korean form of democracy must be developed, a set of institutions and values attuned to the needs and nature of Korean society. Junta ideology (perhaps hopes and dreams would be a better term) was spelled out in General Pak's Our Nation's Path, a book published in 1962 and widely distributed. Its prominent themes were the need for a great human revolution in Korea that would produce a basic change in national ethics and character; the liberation of Korea from poverty via a major developmental program; and the establishment of a welfare democracy free from the historic curses of corruption, factionalism, and class fixation. The road has been a rocky one, and a balance sheet at this point is not easily drawn. Until December 6, 1962, martial law prevailed in South Korea. Immediately after the 1961 coup, a 25-man Supreme Council of National Reconstruction (SCNR) was established as the supreme governing authority. This Council, headed by General Pak Chung-hi, was superimposed on top of the regular ministries, and has been responsible for all of the basic political and economic decisions. The National Assembly has been inoperative, and all political parties indeed, all organizations of whatever type-have been disbanded on the grounds that they were corrupt, factionalized, or for some other reason, inadequate to the tasks at hand. To an unprecedented extent, the average Korean citizen has been cut off from formal organization in recent months.