Who is the most respected president in Korean history? Why, its Park Chung-hee.
Of course, it’s not like he is facing an A-list of competitors, although I would have thought that KDJ would have done a little better:
Park has never failed to come top in the popular evaluation of past presidents. When Gallup surveyed Korea’s favorite presidents in June 2004, Park was no. 1 with 48 percent, followed by Kim Dae-jung with 14 percent, Roh Moo-hyun with 7 percent, Chun Doo-hwan with 2 percent, Kim Young-sam and Syngman Rhee with 1 percent.
Now I realize that Rhee was a corrupt despot, but you would think that the Saviour of Dokdo would get more than one percent.
I also see that Roh Tae-woo didn’t even make the list.
24 Comments
You got a point there. They’ve got slim pickings to chose from. It’s no surprise that Park Jung Hee makes the list every time.
But Roh is an expert on North Korea.
I’d forgotten some of the climactic events of the PCH Presidency.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_Chung_Hee
Glad to see that not all Koreans has been deluded by DJ’s sunshine bullshit and his totally undeserved and worthless Nobel Prize.
Park Jung-Hee was a dictator, but a rare one - clean, uncorrupt and firmly committed to national development. Without him South Korea would probably in the same league as Thailand or Philippines. On the other hand, without DJ Kim or Roh South Korea would have been much better off.
Roh only has an approval rating right now of around five percent. How can he be the all time favorite of seven percent of the people?
I’m curious about the 2% that liked Chun Doo-Hwan, what were they thinking? Other than the hardest of hard core rightist, who I would expect them to go with Park, what Korean would pick him? Is this the statistical 2% that will agree to anything, like infanticide? Or the joke percent?
As for Syngman Rhee, well let’s just say I suspect theres a special level in hell for anyone who will announce to the nation they are entrusted with “everything is fine, no no… what North Korean attack?! just stay home… its really nothing” then flee across the Han River and blow the bridge behind themselves leaving millions stranded.
I wish Dosan and Kim Gu had lived instead of Rhee. I am sure Rhee is shoveling coal in hell just now.
I am very surprised with 2% favor on Chun. What the..
Park Chung-Hee was not corruption free as Zzoozzoo says but he was extremely practical and even visionary at times. His innate grasp of foriegn policy was impressive considering that he was never trained to be a policy wonk. The battalions he sent to Vietnam were so effective that just the thought of Korea withdrawing them forced America to maintain troop strength in Korea. He single-handedly forced the construction of the Seoul to Busan highway which opened up a massive modernation of the interior. Just follow the line, Seoul, Taejon, Daegu, Pusan. The real legacy was his committment in making money, mostly because he wanted money for national defense, and it worked. At the time, North Korea had a stronger economy, superior forces and stronger leadership. At the time of Chung-Hee’s death, South Korea had undeniably an edge over the Nork’s. No wonder he is remembered as a great leader.
To be fair, Roh is a high school graduate, delivering high school results and with all the mood swings of a pimply high schooler.
It’s hard to not vote for Park as Korea’s finest leader when you consider that he was directly responsible for increasing Korea’s per capita GDP by 20X!
Imagine if David Duke or Al Sharpton became American president, and while they were sigining some trully crazy executive orders, they managed to increase US per capita GDP by 20X. We would call them the greatest American president of all time, well heads and shoulders above Abraham Lincoln. Just imagine your personal savings or your salary increasing by a multiple of 20. and think that all Americans have that same level of wealth.
The relative “poverty” of Park Chun Hee’s children are also legendary, as well as the stories of him never allowing air conditioning at work to save money. I think a lot of Korean people feel that he went downhill only after his wife was assassinated by DPRK agents. But lucky for the Korean Kim Jae Gyu. If Park lived longer, maybe he would deserve more villification. But in the end, he gets to die a martyr.
I will admit that KDJ and Roh both had a lot in improving Korean political system, but as Park said ages ago, democracy is for people whose stomachs are full. Roh Moo Hyun’s political rating is a direct result of the above sentiment.
This isn’t a question of “slim pickings” either. Even considering ROK is a recent political entity, you can’t really say Syngman Rhee or Chun Doo Hwan/Roh Tae Woo were bad leaders. In the end Rhee did step away from political power rather than turning into a dictator–being the president during one of the worst moments of Korean history. Chun Doo Hwan/Roh Tae Woo were facing DPRK artillery but managed to continue the economic miracle, strenghten the military, strengthen US-ROK ties, and in the end, opted to give ROK true democracy. Like right now, I would like to switch the current Roh with the previous Roh.
The real weak link is the most recent political leader. Koreans are used to giving up political freedoms for economic growth. Roh gave political freedom at the expense of economic growth. In the end, Korean people cannot accept this from Roh. The right to burn american flags and wear red bandanas just isn’t that important when push comes to shove.
I was surprised in reading the wikipedia article that they failed to mention one of his best initiatives, the Saemaul movement. Easily the best damned thing done for people at the village level. My understanding of its history is that it began as a scheme to distribute a huge glut of cement in the early 1970’s.
In the late 1970’s and early 80’s, Saemaul flags and posters were everywhere. A movement leadership school was set up at Suweon, and the whole thing was rightfully held up as a model of rural and urban neighborhood grassroots development. A lot of third world people even went through Suweon for training.
Neighborhoods were cleaned up, sidewalks built, and a sense of responsibility inculcated in people who otherwise would not have given a shit. At 0600 every damned morning, the loudspeakers began blaring music, and households had to send somebody out to sweep and pick up litter.
IN fishing villages, ice houses, piers and launch ramps and all-weather roads were built. In farming areas, flood control projects, roads, and schools were put in.
All projects were conceived, planned, and executed at the local level.
Chun Doohwan put his brother in charge of Saemaul when he came to power, and the movement was run into the ground in a few short years.
I’d suspect that there are definitive histories written on Saemaul, and some of my facts may be wrong. But it was a highly visible and effective movement, and arguably one of Park’s best legacies.
Saemaul brought out the very best in Koreans. I always thought we could have used something like it back in Arkansas, to foster a sense of gumption and “give-a-shit”.
I still have a collection of Saemaul leadership pins and a big-ass flag. Used to fly it on the antenna of my track whenever we went to the field.
One Park initiative I did not like that WAS continued by Chun was suppression of unions in general, but also of the Catholic Farmer’s Union in particular. The CFU did a lot of good work in protecting girl factory workers from what was in effect debt bondage. An untold story is probably that of the CFU ladies from Catholic colleges who infiltrated factories to organize; those who were found out were beaten and thrown out, or worse.
One day in 1981, I sat in on my KATUSA’s monthly “cheongshin kyoyuk” thought control sessions, put on by a ROKA captain, and was dismayed to hear the vilification of the CFU as a communist front organization. As many of my KATUSA’s happened to be Catholic we discussed it at some length later, and called it for the bullshit that it was.
Saemaul. I heard through a ROK Vietnam War veteran, who happens to be very fond of President Park Chung Hee, that Saemaul was copied from what Kim Il Sung was doing in North Korea.
I, too, remember Saemaul being pretty visible in the late 80’s.
Whether or not it was copied from Juche World or not, the difference was being under the free world economics. That was a huge difference, and it was thanks to US interests, good or bad, in Korea.
Economic miracle - it was possible by favorable global economic boom not by Chun’s leadership.
Strengthen the military - He was the military coup leader who had, needed, strong back up from military.
Strengthen US-ROK ties - One of his tactic to get a recognition from US.
opted ROK true democracy - ….You must be kidding….
Roh tae woo? What did he do? Yea ..I only remember one thing, Gave an opening speech on 1988 Seoul Olympic.
If they did remained in the army and retired as they supposed to be …I would imagine…I wouldn’t get a stress from No Moohyun and he would just has served as a civil rights lawyer up to now.
Don’t knock Sungman Rhee. I used to think he was a pretty bad man myself but ,after seeing the shameful duo(Kim Daejung and Rho Muheyn) corrupt the whole nation, I respect the man as the anti-Communism fighter.
After seeing these Commies crawl out from dark places and rewriting history to praise Kim IlSung as the hero, I really see what jerks Koreans are.
If Rho Muheyn were the first president of Korea and had to fight Commies, he would have lost. He doesn’t speak English and doesn’t understand the US. He wouldn’t know how to lead the country. Total country would have become Communists under Kim IlSung.
Rhee is a bad man because he assassinated KimKu? Hey, to keep the country from Commies, I would kill hundreds of KimKus who had no idea about the world where things were going.
Rhee did some bad things like not warning people about the possibility of NK military strength and re-writing constitution for third presidency. But, I buy his anti-Communism effort highly and give him B.
Chun, as well, B. Kim DaeJung and Rho Muheyn, F for being anti-American and pro-North. Are they for SKs or for KJI? I wonder.
Park? B+. He was a brute near the end of his presidency. Yet, he continued anti-Communism fight.
Most of Park Jung Hee’s policies were inspired by Japanese and Russian policies. I guess you could say he was wise enough to pick and chose the ones that would work for Korea. By the way, I know for a fact that the Semaeul movement still exists in one form or another (my father-in-law was/is deeply involved in it (he’s an agronomist)).
Oh my!! Oh my!! Baduk! I think I agree with you!!!
I agree. I think is Baduk is right as well.
Ji Mong, you wrote–>
“Economic miracle - it was possible by favorable global economic boom not by Chun’s leadership.”
ROK, which has no useful natural resources and no rivers which can tap hydro-electric power—the same ROK which had a very low level technical skills at the end of 1950, and had the same living conditions or worse than much part of Africa–and you say what? Are you really serious? Do you not even take a look at the rest of the world? You must be seriously biased to make the claim that “favorable global economic boom” resulted in 20x growth from Park Chung Hee’s years. Have you ever wondered why if there was such “favorable” global economic conditions, we don’t see this kind of explosive growth in other parts of the world which had a much favorable condition? You are just anti-Park, and no longer able to grapple with simple arithmatics.
You then wrote,
“Strengthen the military - He was the military coup leader who had, needed, strong back up from military.”
If you haven’t forgetten, in the late 60’s early 70’s, DPRK was a stronger militarily than the ROK, not to mention economically. You talk about Park’s infringement of personal rights during his time, and poo poo the idea that the only reason why he strengthened the military was to make himself more powerful. So what? Bottomline is that he did make the military more powerful, one that reached parity with DPRK. Moreover, the amount of personal freedom enjoyed by ROK citizens during this time far far FAR exceeds what was given by Kim Il Sung. Let’s go counter factual and assumed someone else was a leader. Do you seriously think that Kim Dae Jung could have strengthened the military? I think not. He would have increased personal liberty at the expense of economic growth and military strength. You really honestly think that would be the superior outcome? Or do you think that Kim Dae Jung/Kim Yong Sam was some kind of uberman who could have accomplished everything simultaneously?
Then you wrote,
“Strengthen US-ROK ties - One of his tactic to get a recognition from US.”
You write like an anti-american hanchongryun kid, so I will assume that you are. Of course it was a tactic! A damn smart one! One that would strengthen ROK military, ROK economy, and yes, despite what you don’t want to admit, pressure from US is also what lead to the establishment of real democracy in ROK.
You write,
“opted ROK true democracy - ….You must be kidding….”
That statement was meant for CHun Doo Hwan/Roh Tae WOo, not Park Chung Hee. If you look at military dictators around the world, most were lot worse than those two. Those two had the good sense to let the technocrats run the real government. Roh Tae Woo did eventually hand over power to Kim Yong Sam. And the 1988 Seoul Olympics was a very very big event for South Korea at the time. It was a big symbolic event of Korea’s progress. I’m sorry, but I much rather live under a military dictator who knows what his doing, rather than under a mob government where public policy is generated by a bunch of law breaking unions/students who enforce their undemocratic minority ideals on the majority of the population by use of violent actions.
You don’t have to like military dictators. But they did a damn fine job during a very difficult time. Park didn’t even pilfer the ROK treasury during his dictatorship. The fact that he used to be a Imperial Japanese Army officer, communist, and ROK officer, just shows that he was not bound by ideaology and was just a pragmatist.
Objectively speaking, Park’s accomplishments are trully astounding and dwarfs accomplishments made by any Korean leaders in it’s history including King Sae Jong.
woops, sorry, Ji Mong, I thought you were frisking Park. I should have read more carefully.
But I still strongly disagree that Chun shouldn’t be credited for economic growth during the 1980’s.
What I remember from the 1980’s is DPRK agents blowing up ROK cabinet members in Burma and the 1986 bombing of the KAL airliner.
This was Cold War and Korea was in the front line of it.
The 1988 Seoul Olympics was a mega big event, the first time when communist countries did not boycott this event–imbuing with political overtones.
Chun was no where the man Park was, but he did stay the course that Park had set. If you could go back to the night when Chun Doo Hwan seized power, would you really want a different president knowing what you know now? Kim Dae Jung? Who would you really want?
The Cold War certainly isn’t over. A treaty that would officially end the Korean War hasn’t been signed yet because both North and South Korea still hope to invade one another. The Sunshine Policy is a charade aimed at minimizing the worries of South Koreans and foreign investors in order to promote and ensure economic development and stability in South Korea.
…among other things.
Didn’t have time to read the other comments, but it dawned on me that since the current Roh’s approval rating stays in the single digits, what does the fact that 7% of the people feel he is the best president in Korean history? There must be some people with a Roh blowup doll under their beds they take out at night and …… well, I’ll stop there…..Let me just say I’m starting to get an interesting picture of the members of Nosamo in my head…..