Fifth to ninth President of South Korea
| Life | 1917 ~ 1979 |
| Era | 현대 |
| Clan | 고령 박씨 |
He was born on 14 November 1917 in Gumi-myeon, Seonsan County, North Gyeongsang (today's Gumi). After graduating from Daegu Normal School and working as a teacher, he studied at the Manchukuo military academy and the Japanese Army Academy; after liberation he graduated in 1946 from the Joseon Constabulary Academy, predecessor of the Korea Military Academy, and continued his military career. Clan genealogy places him in the Goryeong Park line.
On 16 May 1961, as a major general, he led a military coup, formed the Supreme Council for National Reconstruction and chaired it. He won the 1963 election and took office as the fifth president in December, was re-elected in 1967 and, after the 1969 constitutional amendment allowing a third term, won again in 1971. Evaluations of the coup differ, with some stressing the interruption of constitutional order and others the start of an economic development drive.
He was born on 14 November 1917 in Gumi-myeon, Seonsan County, North Gyeongsang (today's Gumi). After graduating from Daegu Normal School and working as a teacher, he studied at the Manchukuo military academy and the Japanese Army Academy; after liberation he graduated in 1946 from the Joseon Constabulary Academy, predecessor of the Korea Military Academy, and continued his military career. Clan genealogy places him in the Goryeong Park line.
On 16 May 1961, as a major general, he led a military coup, formed the Supreme Council for National Reconstruction and chaired it. He won the 1963 election and took office as the fifth president in December, was re-elected in 1967 and, after the 1969 constitutional amendment allowing a third term, won again in 1971. Evaluations of the coup differ, with some stressing the interruption of constitutional order and others the start of an economic development drive.
He pursued Five-Year Economic Development Plans from 1962; normalization of relations with Japan (1965), the dispatch of troops to Vietnam from 1964, the opening of the Gyeongbu Expressway (1970) and the start of the Saemaul Movement (1970) are recorded in his tenure. Export-led growth and heavy-industry promotion are credited by many with laying the base of Korea's growth, while others point to labor conditions, regional imbalance and limits on freedoms.
On 17 October 1972 he declared extraordinary measures, dissolved the National Assembly and revised the constitution to launch the Yushin system; he was elected eighth president by the National Conference for Unification in December 1972 and again ninth president in 1978. Critics say the system greatly strengthened presidential powers and curbed dissent through emergency decrees, while supporters describe it as necessary for security and economic construction; evaluations differ.
He died on 26 October 1979 in Seoul, shot by Kim Jae-gyu, director of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, in what is called the 10.26 incident, which ended the Yushin system. He is buried at the Seoul National Cemetery.
Seoul National Cemetery