Democratization In Korea Essay, Research Paper

Democratization

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9824055 Russian and Russian Literature

(Kim Suh Jin) ???? e-mail : [email protected]

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.