The Park Chung Hee Era: The Transformation of South Korea

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In 1959 South Korea was mired in poverty. By 1979 it had a powerful industrial economy and a vibrant civil society in the making, which would lead to a democratic breakthrough eight years later. The transformation took place during the years of Park Chung Hee’s presidency. Park seized power in a coup in 1961 and ruled as a virtual dictator until his assassination in October 1979. He is credited with modernizing South Korea, but at a huge political and social cost.

South Korea’s political landscape under Park defies easy categorization. The state was predatory yet technocratic, reform-minded yet quick to crack down on dissidents in the name of political order. The nation was balanced uneasily between opposition forces calling for democratic reforms and the Park government’s obsession with economic growth. The chaebol (a powerful conglomerate of multinationals based in South Korea) received massive government support to pioneer new growth industries, even as a nationwide campaign of economic shock therapy—interest hikes, devaluation, and wage cuts—met strong public resistance and caused considerable hardship.

This landmark volume examines South Korea’s era of development as a study in the complex politics of modernization. Drawing on an extraordinary range of sources in both English and Korean, these essays recover and contextualize many of the ambiguities in South Korea’s trajectory from poverty to a sustainable high rate of economic growth.

Contents

Introduction ｜ Byung-Kook Kim

Part I Born in a Crisis

1. The May Sixteenth Military Coup ｜ Yong-Sup Han

2. Taming and Tamed by the United States ｜ Taehyun Kim and Chang Jae Baik

3. State Building: The Military Junta’s Path to Modernity ｜ Hyung-A Kim

Part II Politics

4. Modernization Strategy: Ideas and Influences ｜ Chung-in Moon and Byung-joon Jun

5. The Labyrinth of Solitude: Park and the Exercise of Presidential Power ｜ Byung-Kook Kim

6. The Armed Forces ｜ Joo-Hong Kim

7. The Leviathan: Economic Bureaucracy under Park ｜ Byung-Kook Kim

8. The Origins of the Yushin Regime: Machiavelli Unveiled ｜ Hyug Baeg Im

Part III Economy and Society

9. The Chaebol ｜ Eun Mee Kim and Gil-Sung Park

10. The Automobile Industry ｜ Nae-Young Lee

11. Pohang Iron & Steel Company ｜ Sang-young Rhyu and Seok-jin Lew

12. The Countryside ｜ Young Jo Lee

13. The Chaeya ｜ Myung-Lim Park

Part IV International Relations

14. The Vietnam War: South Korea’s Search for National Security ｜ Min Yong Lee

15. Normalization of Relations with Japan: Toward a New Partnership ｜ Jung-Hoon Lee

16. The Human Rights Conundrum and the United States, 1974-1979 ｜ Yong-Jick Kim

17. The Search for Deterrence: Park’s Nuclear Option ｜ Sung Gul Hong

Part V Comparative Perspective

18. Nation Rebuilders: Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Lee Kuan Yew, Deng Xiaoping, and Park Chung Hee ｜ Ezra F. Vogel

19. Reflections on a Reverse Image: South Korea under Park Chung Hee and the Philippines under Ferdinand Marcos ｜ Paul D. Hutchcroft

20. The Perfect Dictatorship? South Korea versus Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico ｜ Jorge I. Dominguez

21. Industrial Policy in Key Developmental Sectors: South Korea versus Japan and Taiwan ｜ Gregory W. Noble

Conclusion ｜ Byung-Kook Kim