Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 28. Chapters: President of South Korea, Syngman Rhee, Kim Dae-jung, Roh Tae-woo, Lee Myung-bak, Roh Moo-hyun, Chun Doo-hwan, Park Chung-hee, List of Presidents of South Korea, Kim Young-sam, Yun Bo-seon, Heo Jeong, Choi Kyu-hah, Goh Kun, List of Presidents of South Korea by time in office. Excerpt: Lee Myung-bak (pronounced, Korean: born 19 December 1941) is a South Korean politician and the President of South Korea. Prior to his presidency, he was the CEO of Hyundai Engineering and Construction and the mayor of Seoul. He is married to Kim Yoon-ok and has three daughters and one son. His older brother is Lee Sang-deuk, a South Korean politician. He attends the Somang Presbyterian Church. He received a honorary degree from Paris Diderot University on May 13, 2011. Lee altered the South Korean government's approach to North Korea, preferring a more hardline strategy in the wake of increased provocations from the North, but is also supportive of regional dialogue with Russia, China, and Japan. Under Lee, South Korea weathered the Global Financial Crisis and has emerged as a major player on the international scene through hosting the 2010 G-20 Seoul summit. Lee Myung-bak was born on December 19, 1941 in Osaka, Japan. The Lee family had emigrated to Japan during the Japanese colonization of Korea. His father, Lee Chung-u (; ), was employed as a farm hand on a cattle ranch in Japan, and his mother, Chae Taewon (; ) was a housewife. Lee is the fifth of seven children, with three brothers and three sisters. After the end of World War II in 1945, his family returned to his father's hometown of Pohang, in Gyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea. Lee's sister, Lee Ki-sun, made it known that they smuggled themselves into the country in order to avoid the property they acquired in Japan being confiscated by the...

Introduces readers to the political career of South Korean President Moon Jae-in. Engaging infographics, thought-provoking discussion questions, and eye-catching photos give the reader an invaluable look into South Korea and the office of its current leader.

This volume is the only global analysis of each individual Korean President and his Presidency as well as the only current assessment of the success of the institution of the Korean Presidency as a positive role model for emerging nations. "Dr. Choong Nam Kim has written an important and penetrating study of the Korean presidents from Syngman Rhee to Roh Moo Hyun in the context of their eras. His analysis of their influence and leadership styles is required reading in the continuing reassessment of their respective roles in the remarkable changes and development of politics and economics in the Republic of Korea. This will no doubt be a controversial study in some circles. for it provides an alternative approach to some contemporary scholarship. but it will contribute both to the rise of sophisticated scholarly concern and popular interest in understanding the various roles of Korean presidents during critical periods in modern Korean history. This volume is a highly relevant and singular contribution to the literature on the peregrinations of the Republic since its founding." --David I. Steinberg, Director, Asian Studies Program, School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University

The only full-scale history of Syngman Rhee’s (1875–1965) early career in English was published nearly six decades ago. Now, in The Making of the First Korean President, Young Ick Lew uncovers little-known aspects of Rhee’s leadership roles prior to 1948, when he became the Republic of Korea’s first president. In this richly illustrated volume, Lew delves into Rhee’s background, investigates his abortive diplomatic missions, and explains how and why he was impeached as the head of the Korean Provisional Government in 1925. He analyzes the numerous personal conflicts between Rhee and other prominent Korean leaders, including some close friends and supporters who eventually denounced him as an autocrat. Rhee is portrayed as a fallible yet charismatic leader who spent his life fighting in the diplomatic and propaganda arena for the independence of his beleaguered nation—a struggle that would have consumed and defeated lesser men. Based on exhaustive research that incorporates archival records as well as secondary sources in Korean, English, and Japanese, The Making of the First Korean President meticulously lays out the key developments of Rhee’s pre-presidential career, including his early schooling in Korea, involvement in the reform movement against the Taehan (“Great Korean”) Empire, and his six-year incarceration in Seoul Prison for a coup attempt on Emperor Kojong. Rhee’s life in the U.S. is also examined in detail: his education at George Washington, Harvard, and Princeton universities; his evangelical work at the Seoul YMCA; his extensive activities in Hawai‘i and attempts to maintain prestige and power among Koreans in the U.S. Lew concludes that, despite the manifold shortcomings in Rhee’s authoritarian leadership, he was undoubtedly best prepared to assume the presidency of South Korea after the onset of the Cold War in the Korean Peninsula. Essential reading for anyone with an interest in modern Korean history, this work will serve as a lasting portrait of one of the pivotal figures in the evolution of Korea as it journeyed from colonial suppression to freedom and security.

In 1961 South Korea was mired in poverty. By 1979 it had a powerful industrial economy and a vibrant civil society in the making, which would lead to a democratic breakthrough eight years later. The transformation took place during the years of Park Chung Hee's presidency. Park seized power in a coup in 1961 and ruled as a virtual dictator until his assassination in October 1979. He is credited with modernizing South Korea, but at a huge political and social cost. South Korea's political landscape under Park defies easy categorization. The state was predatory yet technocratic, reform-minded yet quick to crack down on dissidents in the name of political order. The nation was balanced uneasily between opposition forces calling for democratic reforms and the Park government's obsession with economic growth. The chaebol (a powerful conglomerate of multinationals based in South Korea) received massive government support to pioneer new growth industries, even as a nationwide campaign of economic shock therapy-interest hikes, devaluation, and wage cuts-met strong public resistance and caused considerable hardship. This landmark volume examines South Korea's era of development as a study in the complex politics of modernization. Drawing on an extraordinary range of sources in both English and Korean, these essays recover and contextualize many of the ambiguities in South Korea's trajectory from poverty to a sustainable high rate of economic growth.

A biography of the man who survived imprisonment and attempts on his life during his efforts to bring democracy to South Korea and was elected President in 1997.

These essays support the argument that strong and effective presidential leadership is the most important prerequisite for South Korea to sustain and project its influence abroad. That leadership should be attentive to the need for public consensus and should operate within established legislative mechanisms that ensure public accountability. The underlying structures sustaining South Korea’s foreign policy formation are generally sound; the bigger challenge is to manage domestic politics in ways that promote public confidence about the direction and accountability of presidential leadership in foreign policy.