The history of South Korea formally begins with the Japanese surrender on 2 September 1945. Noting that, South Korea and North Korea are entirely different countries, despite still being the same people and on the same peninsula.
Syngman Rhee was a South Korean politician who served as the first president of South Korea from 1948 to 1960.
Presidential elections were held in South Korea on 19 December 2002. The result was a victory for Roh Moo-Hyun of the ruling Millennium Democratic Party, who defeated Lee Hoi-chang of the Grand National Party by just over half a million votes.
The first Republic of Korea was the government of South Korea from August 1948 to April 1960. The first republic was founded on 15 August 1948 after the transfer from the United States Army Military Government that governed South Korea since the end of Japanese rule in 1945, becoming the first independent republican government in Korea. Syngman Rhee became the first president of South Korea following the May 1948 general election, and the National Assembly in Seoul promulgated South Korea's first constitution in July, establishing a presidential system of government.
The 1948 South Korean Constitutional Assembly election took place on 10 May 1948. It was held under the American military occupation, with supervision from the United Nations, and resulted in a victory for the National Association for the Rapid Realisation of Korean Independence, which won 55 of the 200 seats, although 85 were held by independents. Voter turnout was 95.5%.
The April Revolution, also called the April 19 Revolution or April 19 Movement, were mass protests in South Korea against President Syngman Rhee and the First Republic from April 11 to 26, 1960 which led to Rhee's resignation.
Chang Myon was a South Korean statesman, educator, diplomat, journalist and social activist as well as a Roman Catholic youth activist. He was the only prime minister of the parliamentary Second Republic. In addition, during the First Republic he was the fourth and last vice president of South Korea. His styled name (ho) was Unseok. His English name was John Chang Myon.
Presidential elections were held in South Korea on 18 December 1997. The result was a victory for opposition candidate Kim Dae-jung, who won with 40.3 percent of the vote. When he took office in 1998, it marked the first time in Korean history that the ruling party peacefully transferred power to the opposition party.
Presidential and vice-presidential elections were held in South Korea on 15 March 1960. Shortly after winning reelection to a second term in the 1952 presidential election, Rhee had the legislature pass a constitutional amendment exempting himself from the two-term limit, allowing himself to run for and win a third term in 1956 and in March 1960.
The May 16 military coup d'état was a military coup d'état in South Korea in 1961, organized and carried out by Park Chung-hee and his allies who formed the Military Revolutionary Committee, nominally led by Army Chief of Staff Chang Do-yong after the latter's acquiescence on the day of the coup. The coup rendered powerless the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Chang Myon and President Yun Posun, and ended the Second Republic, installing a reformist military Supreme Council for National Reconstruction effectively led by Park, who took over as chairman after General Chang's arrest in July.
Presidential and vice presidential elections were held in South Korea on 5 August 1952. The result was a victory for Syngman Rhee, who won 74.6% of the vote. Voter turnout was 88.1%. The election was held during the Korean War, which played an important role in consolidating Rhee's support.
Presidential elections were held in South Korea on 15 October 1963. They were the first elections since the 1961 May Coup, and the first during the Third Republic. The result was a narrow victory for the acting incumbent and leader of the governing military Supreme Council for National Reconstruction, Park Chung Hee, who won 46.6% of the vote, securing a transition to civilian rule under his Democratic Republican Party. Voter turnout was 85.0%.
Presidential elections were held in South Korea on 3 May 1967. The result was a victory for Park Chung-hee, who won 51.4% of the vote. Voter turnout was 83.6%.
Presidential elections were held in South Korea on 27 April 1971. The result was a victory for incumbent president Park Chung-hee, who won 53.2% of the vote. Voter turnout was 79.8%. Within a year of his re-election, Park declared martial law and introduced the Yushin Constitution, which vested him with sweeping and near-dictatorial powers.
Parliamentary elections were held in South Korea on 29 June 1960. They were the first and only direct elections of the Second Republic and saw the first election of members of the new House of Councillors, together with the fifth election of members of the House of Representatives. They were also the first relatively free and fair national elections held in the country, but would be the last free elections until the 1987 presidential elections. Voter turnout was 84.3%.
Legislative elections were held in South Korea on 27 February 1973 to elect 146 members of the National Assembly. Another 73 members appointed by President Park Chung-hee were indirectly elected by the National Conference for Unification on 7 March 1973.
Indirect presidential elections were held in South Korea on 12 August 1960, which saw the election of Yun Posun as President of the Republic of Korea, a ceremonial political position in the Second Republic. Held after the April Revolution which had forced the resignation of Syngman Rhee, it was the only presidential elections to be held during the short era of the Second Republic, as the Republic folded after Park Chung-hee's May Coup the next year. The election was indirect, with a joint session of the House of Commons and Senate, which had been elected in July, acting as the electors. The winning candidate required the assent of two thirds of the members of both houses.
Presidential and vice- presidential elections were held in South Korea on 20 July 1948, following the Constitutional Assembly elections in May. The president was to be elected by the members of the National Assembly, as instructed by the 1948 Constitution. Of the 198 members of the National Assembly, 196 were present for the vote. A candidate required two-thirds of the votes cast to win. Syngman Rhee was elected with 180 votes, and took over the government to oversee the transfer of power from the United States Army Military Government in Korea.
Hong Jin-Ki was an entrepreneurial journalist and South Korean high-ranking official of the Syngman Rhee government who served as the 9th Ministry of Justice from 1958 to 1960.
Cho Bong-am was a South Korean independence activist and politician, who ran for president in the South Korean presidential election in 1956. He was a founding member of the Communist Party of Korea and the Progressive Party, a moderate socialist democratic party in South Korea which was one of the country's major political forces.
