III. Historical background
7. The Yushin Dictatorship (1972-1979)
In October, 1972, President Park abruptly declared emergency measures to suspend the existing constitution and announced the Yushin (revitalising) Constitution to allow himself a life-term of the presidency with statist supremacy through indirect presidential elections. Yushin is literally the same character as Japan’s Meiji Restoration. It is not clear if Park borrowed the name from Japan’s Meiji Restoration. However, it definitely recalls the repercussions of Meiji Japan. Through the Yushin Constitution, Park restructured the state apparatus like a wartime political economy to strengthen the executive power of the president to deal with national security and economic performance more effectively. The aim of the new Constitution included ‘minimising national dependence on the United States on the one hand, and maximising centralised governing structure on the other’ for performing Park’s
On the 17th of October, 1972, President Park took drastic measures in his declaration of martial law. Park asserted that ‘extensive reform is necessary to cope with international politics, North and South Korean relations in drastic transition and internal political situations. Therefore, it is inevitable to take emergency measures that suspend the effects of the Constitution partially for two months’ (Park, C. H., 17 October 1972).
The measures involved the dissolution of the National Assembly, suspension of the existing Constitution, censorship of the media, the shut-down of universities, and a ban on all political activities. Accordingly, a national referendum was conducted to approve the new constitution on the 21st of November 1972 (Nam, J.-h., J.-h., 1982, 95).
The new constitution established the National Conference for Reunification, a new constitutional body which was a supreme constitutional body chaired by President Park. Its members were directly elected on condition that they are not affiliated by any political party or members of the National Assembly. The Conference had the function to elect the president and one third of the lawmakers, and confirm amendments to the constitution. Park mobilised government control on the composition of the National Conference. The new constitution abolished restrictions on presidential terms and extended the term of presidential office from four to six years. The president was established to be above the legislative and the judiciary. The president was empowered to dissolve the National Assembly as well as to appoint one- third of the National Assembly. The President also had the authority to appoint and dismiss all judges, which weakened the independence of the judiciary (Kleiner, 2001, 154-155).
Furthermore, the President had extensive powers over society. ‘In the case of a threat to national security or public safety, he has the right to take emergency measures ‘in the whole range of state affairs’ (Article 53). Under an emergency, the freedoms and rights of the people could be suspended as:
In case the national security of the public safety and order is seriously threatened or anticipated to be threatened... the President shall have the power to take emergency measures which temporarily suspend the freedom and rights of the people as defined in the present Constitution and enforce emergency measures with regard to the rights and powers of the executive and judiciary (cited in Nam, J.-h., 1982, 95-96)
As to the background of his incorporation of authoritarianism, Park argued that Western European style democracy was not appropriate for South Korea to overcome its backwardness and lack of modernity. His view was that democracy failed in Korea because
there lacked the necessary conditions such as economic development and modernisation. According to Park, Korea’s adoption of democracy since the liberation from Japan was ‘borrowed clothes’ that does not fit Korea in its confrontation with crises. The institutions established by democracy exacerbated the problems of Korea. Blaming ‘borrowed clothes’ and democracy as a cause of social unrest, Park coined ‘Korean-style democracy’ to justify his suspension of democracy and his institution of authoritarianism. Park stressed the role of the military in creating social order and pursuing anti-Communism (Pak Chŏng-hŭi Taet’ongnyŏng Yuk Yŏng-su Yŏsa Kinyŏm Saŏphoe, 1990, 52).
Throughout the Yushin era, Park’s cardinal priority was to strengthen the economic structures by making alliances with big business in pursuit of heavy industrialisation. Park deployed an expanded presidential power to perform the HCIP and to broaden the elite coalition between the military and business to repress the labour class. In particular, the roles of technocrats played a significant role. In contrast to the high ratio of military officers in the cabinet, Park put a cadre of technocrats under his direct control over the ministries. Park’s technocrats applied an engineering approach to economic and land development planning at the state level. Combined with the authoritarian political form, Park’s regime had produced a socio-economic structure in affinity to the Japanese techno-fascism (Kim, H.-a., 2004).
In spite of deepening industrialisation and economic prosperity, the civilian resistance to Park’s authoritarianism also increased. Park consistently responded to the opposition with harsh state violence. In contrast to student’s demonstrations in the 1960s, Park was confronted with different types of civilian opposition that coalesced into a church group- labour activist-student –disgruntled politician and journalist nexus (Gleysteen, 1999, 13).
With the increasing population of Christians, mainly young urbanites, in South Korea, the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches had begun to lead the civilian dissent against the dictatorship. Park’s abuses of human rights were criticised by South Korea’s Christian community alongside the social complications that Park had created from his economic development based on low-wages that provided little in exchange for the lost human rights (Kleiner, 2100, 1581-59).
There are two reasons for the emergence of churches in their opposition to Park’s regime. First, anti-communism is a common view in South Korean Protestant Christianity due to the American-backed growth. Since the 1960s, South Korea had witnessed an upsurge of the young labour class employed in the labour-intensive industries, originally from the
propaganda. The churches responded to the influx of this new young urban population in such a way as to fend off the sway of Communism (Clark, 2007, 174). Secondly, in particular, the socio-political participation of the Korean Catholics was influenced by the Second Vatican Council. The Second Vatican Council (1962-65) promoted the commitment of the Church to play an active role in the advancement of justice, human rights, and freedom (Kim, N.-y., 1993, 40).
Park’s regime had difficulty suppressing the alliance between church and dissenting political powers in the 1970s. First, for Park, the suppression of Christianity was a heavy burden due to the connections of Korean churches with foreign Christian institutions like the Vatican and American missionaries who served in South Korea. Secondly, churches had institutional strengths as an opposition force to authoritarianism, which was composed of normative (church function for a religious and moral system), structural (church as a viable institution), and behavioural (church as functioning as an influencer of the laity) components (Kin, N.-y., 1993, 130).
For example, in the 1970s and 1980s, South Korean Catholics took the lead in confrontations with the authoritarian government. ‘Cardinal Stephen Kim Suh-wan allowed the grounds of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of St. Mary in Myŏng-dong [located in the centre of Seoul] to be used as a sanctuary for dissidents and demonstrators’. During the authoritarian period, the police force never trespassed into the Cathedral in Myŏng-dong to repress the dissidents demanding for the end of the dictatorship, while Catholic Church continued to provide lodging and food to the demonstrators (Clark, 2007, 168).
Churches played leading roles in disseminating the ideals of human rights and arousing labourer’s consciousness. Many of the activities of the church involved intervening in industrial disputes to support the workers, which escalated into serious conflicts with Park’s regime (Kim, N.-y., 1993).
The labour class regarded the students’ demonstration against the military regime in the 1960s as an elite conflict between the military and the universities. So the student demonstrations failed to obtain the support of the masses. In contrast, the churches as religious institution in the 1970s were more effective in fomenting mass participation in their human rights struggles. (Kleiner, 2001, 167).
In addition to internal conflicts, the shift in Korea-US relations in the 1970s became detrimental to the viability of Park’s regime. In the 1960s, the US supported Park’s regime in overcoming its lack of popular support. However, Park had impaired the relationship, which
ultimately led to the loss of the strongest protector of Park’s political power, in three ways: (1) Park’s creation of a clandestine nuclear program; (2) Park’s frequent violations of human rights; and (3) Park’s illegal payments of cash to some members of the US Congress.
In pursuit of the HCIP, Park also prepared a secret plan for developing a nuclear weapons and missile program (Kim, H.-a., 2004). According to a declassified CIA document, Park had authorised a nuclear program in 1974. But under strong US pressure to terminate it, it was suspended in 1976. During the negotiations for suspending the nuclear program between Korea and the US, relations deteriorated (USA. Central Intelligence Agency, 1978).
In 1973, Kim, Dae Jung, later President of South Korea (1998-2002), who almost defeated Park in the presidential election in 1971, was abducted by KCIA from a Tokyo Hotel to assassinate him. Kim was saved by US intervention, which produced an international clamour subsequent to the ‘East Berlin Spy Incident’ in 1967. Due to this incident, Park became a target of international human rights activities (Gleysteen, 1999, 13).
Finally, ‘Koreagate’ occurred with ‘leaked news’ in the American media during presidential and congressional elections in the US in 1976. South Korean agents had attempted to bribe ninety members of Congress, which the alleged aim of reversing President Richard Nixon’s decision to withdraw troops from South Korea. This event triggered a huge scandal and ultimately poisoned the Korea-US alliance in the late 1970s (USA. Congress, 1978; Lee, H.-j., 1993).
The denouement of the Yushin dictatorship resulted from the abrupt demise of Park in 1979. Much remains mysterious as to Park’s death. At the time South Korea was suffering from an economic recession. On the 7th of August 1979, the owner of Y.H. Industrial Co. for exporting wigs shut down his factory and fled to the US without paying wages to 350 young women. The fired women contacted Kim, Young Sam, a leader of the opposition party and later President of South Korea (1993-1997) to be allowed to demonstrate at the headquarters of the opposition party. In this event, the police attacked the protestors to force them away, which resulted in the suicide of a woman. The workers contacted the Urban Industrial Mission, a Protestant Korean-American labour group. The US Administration denounced Park’s suppression as ‘excessive and brutal’ in an official statement on the 13th of August 1979. Park responded to the US statement by removing Kim, Young Sam out of the National Assembly, which triggered massive student protests in Kim’s hometown in Pusan. The student protest had developed into a massive civil uprising through the massive participation
building. During the dinner party, Director Kim, Jae-kyu of the KCIA, an old friend of the President had a dispute with Park on the governmental measures to the uprising. Kim abruptly assassinated Park and other members (Kleiner, 1979, 166-167). After the sudden death of Park, another military coup broke out on the 12th of December, which dismantled the Fourth Republic of the Yushin Constitution and ushered in the Fifth Republic.