We dedicate another article from the series on the history of coups to South Korea.
Presidential elections were held in South Korea on March 15, 1960. Only one person claimed the highest post in the country: the current head of state, Lee Seung Man, who at that time had already become the country's president three times.
I must say that at one time, Rhee Seung Man enjoyed the sincere support of the population. In his youth, he participated in the anti-Japanese movement, for this he served in prison, when he was released, he again joined the struggle for Korean independence and looked like a hero in the eyes of the people. The United States relied on Rhee Seung Man and helped him rise to the top of power, but Rhee Seung Man did not succeed in economics. After the Korean War, the country was in complete ruin, and there was no way to effectively restore reconstruction.
And in the political sense, South Korea became a de facto US protectorate, and economically it was heavily dependent on American aid. Time passed, but the situation did not fundamentally change, poverty reigned in South Korea, little remained of the former support of the electorate, but the aged Rhee Seung Man stubbornly held on to power. In addition, he canceled the provision of the Constitution, which prohibited to be in power for more than three consecutive terms.
As noted in the literature, the 1960 elections became a real profanation. Not only did they go on an uncontested basis, but the very methods by which Rhee Seung Man intended to achieve victory had little to do with democracy. The results were falsified, the population was intimidated, and opposition observers were not allowed to go to polling stations. On election day, a protest rally against the fraud took place, which resulted in large-scale clashes with the police. People threw stones at the guards, they answered with bullets, and the protest was suppressed.
On March 17, the results of the vote were announced - as expected, Rhee Seung Man became president again, gaining an overwhelming majority of the votes. Everything seemed to be settled, but after almost a month the disfigured corpse of one of the participants in the opposition rally was found. A tear gas grenade splinter was found in his eye, and this led to an explosion of outrage among the public, immediately blaming the police, that is, the Rhee Seung Man regime.
A strange thing: several people died during the clashes with the police, but this did not lead to an increase in mass protests, and then after quite a long time a corpse is suddenly discovered, without any investigation the "culprit of the murder" is deliberately announced - the regime of Rhee Seung Man, and immediately a new one begins a much more powerful wave of popular protests.
On April 18, in Seoul, students gathered in the square in front of the National Assembly (parliament). The authorities did not obstruct them, and after holding a rally, the students began to return to their campuses, and suddenly their columns were attacked by several dozen unknown persons armed with chains and hammers. The carnage began, one person died. After that, a crowd of one hundred thousand people took to the streets of Seoul.
As usual, the Maidan activists demanded a meeting with the president. They did not talk to them, and the police undertook to disperse the rally, but this only angered the demonstrators. It should be noted that rallies and violent clashes with law enforcement officers took place not in Seoul alone, but in a number of Korean cities. The death toll has reached almost two hundred people.
On April 25, professors took to the streets of Seoul, demanding an investigation into the deaths of people and putting forward a slogan to review the election results. Other residents of the capital also joined the university teachers. On April 26, parliament demanded the president's resignation, and then Rhee Seung Man found that the police and the army were out of his control. His orders were simply ignored.
The US Ambassador to South Korea formally condemned the Rhee Seung Man regime, and on April 27, the Foreign Minister declared himself the country's leader (presumably with the consent of the US Embassy). And the right hand of Lee Seung Man, Vice President Li Gibong, along with his family, "committed suicide." As I understand it, they helped him a lot to leave for the next world, and not only him, but also the household. And it was done by those who in this way sent the president an unambiguous black mark. Lee Seung Man is not a fool, and immediately realized that he had to save himself while he was alive. The Americans took him out of the country, and the former president spent the last years of his life in the Hawaiian Islands.
On July 29, parliamentary elections were held, in which, obviously, the opposition won. According to the amended legislation, the president was elected by parliamentarians, and the opposition leader Yun Bo Son became the head of state. As you might have guessed, South Korea's dependence on the United States has increased dramatically. Already at the beginning of 1961, an agreement was concluded between Seoul and Washington, which legally enshrined the ability of the Americans to interfere in the affairs of Korea, which not only de facto, but already de jure was turning into an American colony.
As noted by the well-known Korean scholar Sergei Kurbanov, at the end of the reign of Rhee Seung Man, a group was formed among the senior officers who took to prepare a coup. Among them were Major General of the Ground Forces Park Chung Hee, Major General of the Marine Corps Kim Dongha, Brigadier General Yun Taeil, Major General Lee Zhuil, and Lieutenant Colonel Kim Jeong Phil.
It is believed that the April mass demonstrations that led to the fall of the regime took them by surprise and confused all the cards. The military would like to come to power on their own, but then the rally activity and US intervention brought to the presidency a completely different person whom they expected. This is not excluded, however, the moment when the army got out of control of Rhee Seung Man, I would associate with the sabotage organized by these people.
Be that as it may, the military did not abandon their goals. Interestingly, in the short period of liberalization of the regime in the south, a political movement arose for socialism, a planned economy and peaceful reunification with the DPRK. All this, of course, did not suit the Americans, and they did not like the fact that South Korea hung like a stone on the US budget, and demanded more and more financial injections. In America, they realized that the concept had to be changed. Let the Koreans earn a decent life themselves, then their sympathy for North Korea will diminish.
On the night of May 16, 1961, the "Military Revolution" began. The troops of the putschists approached the capital. Then everything follows the classic scheme: the buildings of the key authorities, the main post office, publishing houses and radio stations are captured. In such cases, every second is precious, and the military tried to address the people with a statement as early as possible. Early in the morning, the Koreans were informed that power was in the hands of the military. It is clear that the putschists presented themselves as the saviors of the nation, and the government was classified as helpless and worthless.
The junta declared its main goal to be the creation of a strong economy and the fight against communism. Moreover, they linked one thing to the other, explaining that only a developed economy would make it possible to give a worthy response to the challenge of the North. At the same time, the military lied that they would soon transfer power to the civilian military. Like they will steer a little, put things in order, achieve prosperity and transfer the control levers to any outsiders.
The existing regime surrendered immediately, which is not surprising, because it did not have any strength to resist the junta. The Americans did not defend "democracy", and for the sake of appearances, having slightly chided the Korean military for arbitrariness, they quickly recognized them as the new government. This is how a long period of dictatorship began in Korea.
On October 26, 1979, Park Jong Hee was shot and killed by the director of South Korea's Central Intelligence Agency, Kim Jae Kyu. Some experts see this as a coup attempt. Choi Kyu Ha became the new president, who announced a course for the democratization of the country, but he did not have a chance to rule for long. On December 12, 1979, a new coup followed, led by General Chon Doo Hwan.
On December 13, units loyal to him took over the Ministry of Defense and key media, after which Jung Doo Hwan concentrated real power in his hands, taking over as head of the National Intelligence Agency, although Choi Kyu Ha remained the formal head of state.
The new government immediately faced an opposition-minded pro-democracy movement. Mass demonstrations and student riots began, the peak of which went down in history as the uprising in Gwangju, and the events themselves were called the Seoul Spring. Jung Doo Hwan declared martial law and with the help of army units and aircraft suppressed all unrest.
In August 1980, decorative president Choi Kyu Ha resigned and new elections were held with a single candidate. Can you guess which one? That's right, it was Jung Doo Hwan, who, as expected, won and remained in the presidential dictatorial chair until the end of February 1988.
