Park Chung-hee and the Miracle on the Han
A military coup brings Park Chung-hee to power; under his authoritarian rule South Korea industrialises at breathtaking speed.
- The Park Chung Hee Era: The Transformation of South Korea — Byung-Kook Kim and Ezra F. Vogel (eds.), Harvard University Press (2011)
- Korea's Place in the Sun: A Modern History — Bruce Cumings, W. W. Norton (1997)
- A Concise History of Korea: From Antiquity to the Present — Michael J. Seth, Rowman & Littlefield (2016)
After students toppled the autocratic Syngman Rhee in April 1960, a weak democratic government lasted a year. On 16 May 1961, Major General Park Chung-hee seized power in a coup. He was elected president in 1963, 1967 and 1971, and in 1972 imposed the Yushin constitution, which let him rule indefinitely.
- A Concise History of Korea: From Antiquity to the Present — Michael J. Seth, Rowman & Littlefield (2016)
- The Park Chung Hee Era: The Transformation of South Korea — Byung-Kook Kim and Ezra F. Vogel (eds.), Harvard University Press (2011)
Park staked everything on exports. The state directed cheap credit to favoured family-run conglomerates, the chaebol, and set them targets: first textiles and wigs, then steel, ships, chemicals and electronics. The 1965 normalisation treaty with Japan brought capital, and South Korea sent more than 300,000 troops to fight alongside the Americans in Vietnam in return for aid and contracts. The economy grew at around 9–10% a year, and the country began its transformation from one of the poorest in the world.
- The Park Chung Hee Era: The Transformation of South Korea — Byung-Kook Kim and Ezra F. Vogel (eds.), Harvard University Press (2011)
- Korea's Place in the Sun: A Modern History — Bruce Cumings, W. W. Norton (1997)
The cost was paid by workers on long shifts, especially young women in textile mills, and by dissidents. In 1970 the garment worker Jeon Tae-il burned himself to death in protest at labour conditions. On 26 October 1979, Park was shot dead at dinner by his own intelligence chief, Kim Jae-gyu.
- A Concise History of Korea: From Antiquity to the Present — Michael J. Seth, Rowman & Littlefield (2016)
- Asia's Unknown Uprisings, Volume 1: South Korean Social Movements in the 20th Century — George Katsiaficas, PM Press (2012)
Park gave a desperately poor country discipline, purpose and a plan. Export-led growth, the Saemaeul (New Village) movement and heavy industry made Korea modern, and authoritarianism was the price of survival against the North.
- The Park Chung Hee Era: The Transformation of South Korea — Byung-Kook Kim and Ezra F. Vogel (eds.), Harvard University Press (2011)
Growth came from the sweat of workers paid little and forbidden to organise, and from US aid, the Vietnam War and Japanese money. Park rigged the system to rule for life, jailed and tortured dissidents and left a legacy of collusion between state and big business.
- Korea's Place in the Sun: A Modern History — Bruce Cumings, W. W. Norton (1997)
- Asia's Unknown Uprisings, Volume 1: South Korean Social Movements in the 20th Century — George Katsiaficas, PM Press (2012)
Why it matters today
Park's legacy splits South Korea more than almost anything else. For many older and conservative Koreans he is the leader who lifted the nation from poverty; for many others he is a dictator who tortured opponents and served Japan as a young officer. The chaebol conglomerates he nurtured, such as Samsung and Hyundai, still dominate the economy.