Park Chung Hee

His Excellency Park Chung Hee
박정희
Official presidential portrait
3rd President of South Korea
In office March 24, 1962 – October 26, 1979 Acting to December 17, 1963
Prime Minister	Himself[a] Kim Hyun-chul[a] Choi Tu-son Chung Il-kwon Paik Too-chin Kim Jong-pil Choi Kyu-hah
Preceded by	Yun Po-sun
Succeeded by	Choi Kyu-hah
Prime Minister of South Korea[a] Acting
In office June 16, 1962 – July 10, 1962
President	Himself
Preceded by	Song Yo-chan
Succeeded by	Kim Hyun-chul
Chairman of the Supreme Council for National Reconstruction
In office July 3, 1961 – December 17, 1963
Preceded by	Chang Do-yong
Succeeded by	Position abolished
Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Council for National Reconstruction
In office May 16, 1961 – July 2, 1961
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Lee Ju-il
Personal details
Born	(1917-11-14)November 14, 1917 Gumi, Keishōhoku-dō, Korea, Empire of Japan
Died	October 26, 1979(1979-10-26) (aged 61) Jongno District, Seoul, South Korea
Manner of death	Assassination
Resting place	Seoul National Cemetery
Political party	Democratic Republican
Other political affiliations	Workers' Party of South Korea (1946–1948)[1]
Spouse(s)	Kim Ho-nam [ko] ​ ​ (m. 1936; div. 1950)​ Yuk Young-soo ​ ​ (m. 1950; died 1974)​
Children	Park Jae-ok Park Geun-hye Park Geun Ryeong [ko] Park Ji-man [ko]
Parents	Park Sŏng-bin [ko] (father) Paek Nam-ŭi [ko] (mother)
Relatives	Park Sang Hee [ko] (brother)
Education	Manchukuo Army Military Academy Imperial Japanese Army Academy Korea Military Academy
Religion	Buddhism[2]
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	Manchukuo Empire of Japan Second Republic of Korea
Branch/service	Manchukuo Imperial Army (1944–1945) Republic of Korea Army (1945–1963)
Years of service	1944–1963
Rank	General
Battles/wars	World War II Korean War
Korean name
Hangul	박정희
Hanja	朴正熙
Revised Romanization	Bak Jeong(-)hui
McCune–Reischauer	Pak Chŏnghŭi
IPA	Korean pronunciation: [pak̚.tɕ͈ʌŋ.çi]
Art name
Hangul	중수
Hanja	中樹
Revised Romanization	Jungsu
McCune–Reischauer	Chungsu

Park Chung Hee (Korean: 박정희; November 14, 1917 – October 26, 1979) was a South Korean politician and army officer who served as the 3rd President of South Korea from 1962 to 1979 after he seized power in the May 16 coup of 1961. He is regarded as one of the most consequential leaders in Korean history, although his legacy as a military dictator continues to cause controversy.

Before his presidency, Park was the second-highest-ranking officer in the South Korean army. His coup brought an end to the interim Second Republic of Korea. After serving for two years as chairman of the military junta, he was elected president in 1963, ushering in the Third Republic. Park began a series of economic reforms that eventually led to rapid economic growth and industrialization, a phenomenon that is now known as the Miracle on the Han River. This made South Korea one of the fastest growing economies of the 1960s and 1970s, albeit with costs to labor rights. This era also saw the formation of chaebols: family companies supported by the state similar to the Japanese zaibatsu. Examples of significant chaebols include Hyundai, LG, and Samsung.

Although popular during the 1960s, Park's popularity started to plateau by the 1970s, with closer than expected victories during the 1971 presidential election and the subsequent legislative elections. In 1972, Park declared martial law after carrying out a self-coup. He then introduced the highly authoritarian Yushin Constitution, ushering in the Fourth Republic. Now ruling as a dictator, he constantly repressed political opposition and dissent and completely controlled the military. He also had much control over the media and expressions of art. In 1979, Park was assassinated by his close friend Kim Jae-gyu, director of the KCIA, following the Busan–Masan Uprising.^[3] Whether the assassination was spontaneous or premeditated remains unclear to this day. Economic growth continued in spite of the 1979 coup d'état and considerable political turmoil in the wake of his assassination. The country eventually democratized with the June Democratic Struggle in 1987.

Park 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. While some credit him for sustaining economic growth, which reshaped and modernized South Korea, others criticize his authoritarian way of ruling the country (especially after 1971) and for prioritizing economic growth and social order at the expense of civil liberties and human rights. A Gallup Korea poll in October 2021 showed Park, Kim Dae-jung (an old opponent of Park whom he tried to have executed), and Roh Moo-hyun as the most highly rated presidents of South Korean history in terms of leaving a positive legacy, especially among South Korean conservatives and the elderly.^[4] Park's daughter Park Geun-hye later served as the 11th president of South Korea from 2013 until she was impeached and convicted of various corruption charges in 2017.

Park was born around 11 am on November 14, 1917,^[5] in Sangmo-dong [ko], Gumi, Keishōhoku-dō (North Gyeongsang Province),^[6] Korea, Empire of Japan to father Park Sŏng-bin [ko] and mother Paek Nam-ŭi [ko].^[7] He was the youngest of five brothers and two sisters.^[8] He was of the Goryeong Park clan [ko].^[7]

Park's family was extremely poor and consistently lacked food.^[9][5] According to Park, his father was upper-class (yangban) and set to inherit the family's moderate holdings, but the clan banished him after he participated in the 1894–95 Donghak Peasant Revolution.^[10][11][b] In 1916,^[11] the elder Park moved to his wife's village of Sangmo-dong, where he was given a small plot of land. According to later interviews, he did not work the land with his wife and instead drank alcohol and wandered around. The scholar Chong-Sik Lee speculates that the elder Park did not wish to be seen working to avoid showing acceptance of his lost yangban status.^[10]

Park's mother was seen by her contemporaries as diligent and focused. She managed both the household and farming.^[12] She was around 43 at the time of Park's birth.^[13][5] Due to her advanced age and disastrous economic situation, she tried to abort the pregnancy on a number of occasions.^[13][5] When her son was eventually born, however, she was reportedly deeply affectionate toward him.^[14][12][c]

Park had a number of health concerns in his youth. For much of his early life, he did not eat well and was often described as sickly. When he was two years old, he crawled off a raised floor and landed in a smouldering fire pit. He was quickly rescued from the pit, but his forearms were significantly burned. For the rest of his life, he reportedly intentionally wore shirts with long sleeves to hide his scars.^[5]

A significant biographer of Park,^[16] Cho Gab-je, interviewed many people who knew him and got the impression that Park's childhood was otherwise fairly happy. According to Cho, Park had many close friends, his parents got along well, and his family was affectionate toward him.^[12][17]

Park was the second person in his family, after his older brother Park Sang Hee [ko], to attend elementary school.^[19] He enrolled on April 1, 1927, at age 9 and eventually graduated on March 25, 1932.^[20] His school, Gumi Elementary School [ko], was 6 kilometers (3.7 mi)^[d] away from his home.^[20][23] The long daily walk and his hunger took a toll on his body.^[23][20] Park wrote of this in his memoirs:^[24][e]

[Class started at 8 a.m...] If I suspected I was late,^[f] I'd run the [6 km] to school... During the winter, food in my school lunch box would freeze. If I ate it anyway, my stomach would become upset, and I'd sometimes vomit. During these times, I'd sometimes go [without eating for days]...^[21]

— Park Chung Hee, My Boyhood (1970)

Park was consistently among the shortest students at each school he attended,^[g] and was often described as sickly in his school records.^[20] In sixth grade, he was 135.8 cm (4 ft 5+1⁄2 in) tall and weighed 30 kg (66 lb). In spite of his physical challenges, he was a diligent student who got good grades.^[25][20] Park was made class leader for several years; his classmates later recalled that he could be overbearing in enforcing discipline, even slapping a number of them.^[26]

On Sundays, Park attended a seodang (traditional school), where he received an education in the Confucian classics.^[20] Also around this time, he attended the Presbyterian Sangmo Church in Gumi. His family teased him for this, as they did not attend church, though he stopped at the end of elementary school. Decades later, he donated money to repair the church after it was damaged during the Korean War.^[27]

People who knew Park as a child described him as competitive and persistent. His classmates later recalled that even after he lost in competitions of strength, such as arm wrestling or ssireum (Korean wrestling), he would taunt his opponents and demand rematches until he won.^[17]

Park's friends remembered him as a voracious reader of history, who frequently talked excitedly about his historical heroes.^[17] When he was around 13,^[28] Park became an admirer of the French leader Napoleon.^[29][30] Around this time, he also came to idolize the famed Korean Admiral Yi Sun-sin (who fought the Japanese during the Imjin War). Park read a biography about the admiral by Yi Gwangsu which moved him deeply. According to Lee, a significant part of the biography is disparaging toward politicians and even Koreans in general, as the competent admiral was treated poorly by these groups during his lifetime. Lee speculated that this later influenced Park's authoritarian leadership style.^[31][h]

In 1932, Park was admitted to Taegu Normal School [ko], a secondary school that trained elementary school teachers. Admissions were highly competitive, as it was the third such school in Korea, tuition was free, and teaching positions were historically seen as prestigious. Park was accepted from among 1,070 applicants into a class of 10 Japanese and 90 Korean students; he was ranked 50th at time of admission.^[33]

Despite the prestige and free tuition, his mother had hoped that he would not be accepted. The living expenses his education incurred (at a time when currency was scarce and bartering was the norm), as well as the loss of his help on the farm, created a significant burden for the family. According to Lee, Park's family was about to go through their worst economic struggles yet. Around this time, Asia was experiencing the effects of the Great Depression and Japanese colonial policies mandated that Koreans send to Japan a significant portion of their agricultural output for what was seen as inadequate compensation.^[34]

Park's schooling at Taegu was militaristic, especially as Japanese military officers were involved in running it. In fall, the entire school participated in enshū (演習)—military training programs. According to Lee, Park enjoyed and excelled in these aspects of the school. He took up kendo and became a trumpeter. His enthusiasm caught the eye of Lt. Col. Arikawa Keiichi (有川圭一, 1891–1945) of the Kwantung Army, who ran the military training programs and became fond of Park.^[35]

Park became interested in quitting teaching and joining the military. But to his contemporaries, his chances seemed slim;^[i] entrance into the Japanese Military Academy was highly competitive for Koreans, and Park's grades were plummeting.^[37][6] In 1935, he was ranked last among the 73 students in his class and missed more days of school each year.^[37] Park's teachers attributed this to his dire economic situation. Lee theorizes that the absences were caused by his parents' inability to gather enough money for his expenses at the school in time, which caused him to miss the first several weeks of each term. In addition, Park's older brother Sang Hee lost his job (and two children to disease) in 1935, making him unable to assist the rest of the family.^[38]

By contrast, many of Park's classmates came from financially comfortable families. Several of them recalled that Park felt humiliated by his situation. When they pooled their money to buy snacks, Park would excuse himself and sulk alone. One classmate recalled finding Park in tears one evening. He was being sent home to collect money for his living expenses, despite knowing that his family would not have it. Lee speculates that Park became more pragmatic and calculating during this time, as they were traits that were needed for not only staying enrolled, but also to avoid starving.^[39]

In 1934, Park began secretly^[j] dating Yi Chŏng-ok (