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Leadership in the Two Koreas, 1948-2009 Use this table as a study
guide & time line. |
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| DPRK Presidents | ROK Presidents |
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KIM IL SUNG (1948-1994) [*Postwar-mid '90s: "Kim Il Sung era"]  Kim Il Sung was the founding president of the DPRK in 1948. He was a charismatic man, whose unique brand of communism shaped North Korea into one of the most isolated and ideologically homogenous nations in history. Kim had been famous among Koreans as an anti-Japanese guerilla, spending the late 1930s and World War II fighting alongside the Chinese Communist Party forces which resisted the Japanese invasion of North China. The Soviet Union identified him as the most promising Korean leadership candidate after the war, and he was effectively leader of the North by 1946, although elections were held only in 1948. Kim Il Sung was the force that shaped the first 50 years of North Korea's existence. His ideology of Juche gave the DPRK a social/political ideology of such power that society seemed to reach a vast conformity of thought unique in the world. He initiated the almost- successful invasion of the South in 1950, that was stopped only through massive US intervention. He established an ambitious program to make the DPRK a leading international power, which included the development of a nuclear arsenal -- a military threat that Kim and his successors were able to use as a tool to blackmail the US and the South into granting many different kinds of concessions (most famously in negotiations with ex-president Jimmy Carter, in 1994). While apparently retaining true popularity for his revolution and himself -- a cult of personality grew around Kim that even outstripped that of Mao in China -- he kept so absolute a grip on power that upon his sudden death in 1994, no viable alternative leadership existed, other than Kim's own son, whom he had groomed for "dynastic" succession since childhood.
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 SYNGMAN RHEE (1948-1960)
Syngman Rhee was the conservative, authoritarian leader of the ROK during the Korean War. With US backing, he sustained the privileges of much of the right-wing colonial era elite, took an aggressive stance against the communist North, and used the emergency of the Korean War to greatly expand the domestic powers of the ROK government. His rigid, closed style of rule ultimately led to popular protest, which brought down his government.
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 PARK
CHUNG HEE (1961-1979)
After a brief period of tumultuous liberal government in 1960-61, the ROK military staged a coup and established a military government. Park Chung Hee, a senior officer and a leader among the Japanese-trained Korean officer corps, became the head of state, and gradually acquired dictatorial powers, engineering a rewriting of the constitution to make him president for life. Park tied his rule to economic development, and sustained popular support by coordinating chaebol activity to create the Korean "economic miracle." This model of "authoritarian development" became widespread in Asia. Park was assassinated at a dinner by his Korean CIA chief. [*1960s-1970s: Period of Park Dictatorship] |
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 Chun
Doo Hwan (1979-1987) Prospects of political liberalization after Park's death were stifled when Chun Doo-hwan, the head of Security Forces, managed to seize power and preserve military rule. To do so, he ordered a bloody suppression of student and popular protests in the city of Kwangju (the Kwangju Massacre, 1980* ). Growing opposition in the late 1980s forced Chun to allow free elections. [1980s Continuation of miltary authoritarian rule] |
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 Roh
Tae Woo (1987-1993) [shown here with Chun Doo Hwan, in detention at their trial]The opposition liberal forces, led by two Kims (Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung) could not unite for the 1987 elections, and the result was that power remained in military hands with the election of Chun Doo Hwan's close associate Roh Tae Woo, with only 37% of the vote. Roh, a much more liberal man, relaxed domestic control while continuing the economic policies of Park and Chun. Roh nevertheless lost the next election, in 1993. After his defeat, he and Chun were brought to trial on charges of treason (for the Kwangju Massacre of 1980) and financial corruption. Escaping the death penalty, both were jailed for long terms, but later released. |
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KIM JONG IL (1994 -
) Relatively
little is known
about Kim Jong Il, the son and successor of Kim Il Sung. In the closed and
secretive structures of the DPRK political world, Kim has been presented to
citizens and outsiders only through wildly idealized descriptions of his
astonishing greatness of heart, mind, and body. Rumors outside the DPRK
have portrayed him as feckless and lust-crazed. In an interview several years ago, a woman refugee who had once lived in the
presidential palace and who knew Kim Jong Il well, described his personal
qualities, and the picture that emerges is of a kind and
unremarkable man. After his father's death, although no challenge to his power was
visible, it required a period of five years before Kim Jong Il's succession
was officially confirmed, suggesting that his power may have initially been
far more limited than his father's was. During those years, the DPRK was plagued by an
extended famine that ruined its economy. This, and the election of Kim Dae Jung's liberal government
in 1998,
led many to anticipate that a peace treaty between North and South would finally be
signed, and that steps towards reunification might begin. This has not, however,
happened. Instead, the focus of attention has shifted to Kim's policy of aggressively developing nuclear weapons and his truculent attitude towards the US, especially after being identified as part of President Bush's "axis of evil." Despite the attempts of China to broker a settlement of these issues, no progress has been made, and the situation on the Korean peninsula is, and will remain, tense, until the nuclear issue reaches a resolution.
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 Kim Young Sam
(1993-1998)
[*1990s: "Transition to democracy"]Kim Young Sam led the Democratic Liberal Party to victory in 1993. Originally seen as an outsider to power, Kim had previously allied with Roh in a coalition government in 1990. After his 1993 victory, Kim was damaged by the trial of his former associate, Roh, and his popularity slipped. His government was a transitional one, leading towards more democratic structures in Korea. |
 KIM DAE JUNG (1998-2003)Kim Dae Jung is a remarkable man, often called "Korea's Mandela." For many years, his was the loudest voice raised against the oppressive dictatorships of Park and Chun, and he lived much of his life in jail and in exile, hunted by the Korean CIA, which attempted to assassinate him on several occasions. (In one famous episode, US CIA helicopters hovered above a ship on which Kim had been kidnapped, so that there would be photos of Kim's body being dumped into the ocean -- this clear threat of exposure kept the KCIA from killing Kim.) Ironically, when Kim was finally elected president in 1998, in one of history's most dramatic turn-arounds, his political goals for Korea were displaced by the need for an emergency to the 1998 Asian financial crisis, which hit Korea very hard. However, Kim did engineer a major change in ROK policy towards North Korea - his "Sunshine Policy" - which led to a dramatic meeting between him and Kim Jong Il which riveted Koreans and raised hopes of peaceful reunification (hopes that have yet to be strengthened further). For this, Kim received the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize. |
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 Roh Moo
Hyun
(2003-2008)Roh Moo Hyun succeeded Kim Dae Jung and the policy positions on which he was elected had much in common with Kim's. He intended to pursue negotiations with the North and to reexamine the security relationship with the US. In the wake of the financial crises that plagued Korea in the late '90s, Roh sought reform and transparency in business. However, a confused political situation developed a few months after he came to office, when he was impeached for violating a relatively minor campaign law. Although his impeachment was overturned by the judiciary, his presidency was sidetracked by a variety of politically volatile issues. |
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 Lee Myung-bak (2008 - )Lee Myung-bak's election in 2008 represented a turn against the "Sunshine Policy" initiated by Kim Dae Jung, the policy of engagement with North Korea in order to create the conditions for rapprochement and ultimate reunification. Lee has curtailed programs developed by the Kim and Roh governments to create a joint industrial enterprise zone in the Northern city of Kaesong, and has pulled back on other initiatives with the North during a period of increased international tension around the North's nuclear program. A self-made man born to a poor Korean family in wartime Japan, Lee rose to prominence as a Hyundai Corporation leader, rising with the company, and is a business-oriented free market conservative. |
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