The history of South Korea begins with the Japanese surrender on 2 September 1945. At that time,South Korea and North Korea were divided,despite being the same people and on the same peninsula. In 1950,the Korean War broke out. North Korea overran South Korea until US-led UN forces intervened. At the end of the war in 1953,the border between South and North remained largely similar. Tensions between the two sides continued. South Korea alternated between dictatorship and liberal democracy. It underwent substantial economic development.
The politics of South Korea take place in the framework of a presidential representative democratic republic,whereby the president is the head of state,and of a multi-party system. To ensure a separation of powers,the Republic of Korea Government is made up of three branches:legislative,executive,and judicial. The government exercises executive power and legislative power is vested in both the government and the National Assembly. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature and comprises a Supreme Court,appellate courts,and a Constitutional Court.
The president of the Republic of Korea,also known as the president of Korea,is both the head of state and head of government of the Republic of Korea. The president is elected by citizens of the Republic of Korea and pledges to execute the duties of their office,chief among others "to defend the State,pursue peaceful unification of the homeland." The president leads the State Council,is the chief of the executive branch of the national government and the commander-in-chief of the Republic of Korea Armed Forces.
Han Duck-soo is a South Korean diplomat,economist,and politician who has served as the 48th prime minister of South Korea since May 2022. Han is the fifth person to hold the office twice,having previously served as the 38th prime minister under President Roh Moo-hyun from 2007 to 2008. He also held office as ambassador to the United States from 2009 to 2012 and as chairman of the Korea International Trade Association from 2012 to 2015.
Lee Jae-myung is a South Korean lawyer and politician serving as a member of the National Assembly and the leader of the Democratic Party of Korea. Lee was the nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2022 South Korean presidential election. He was the 35th Governor of Gyeonggi Province from 2018 to 2022.
On 9 December 2016,Park Geun-hye,the President of South Korea,was impeached as the culmination of a political scandal involving interventions to the presidency from her aide,Choi Soon-sil. 234 members of the 300-member National Assembly voted to impeach and temporarily suspend Park's presidential powers and duties. This exceeded the required two-thirds threshold in the National Assembly and,although the vote was by secret ballot,the results indicated that more than half of the 128 lawmakers in Park's party Saenuri had supported her impeachment. Thus,Hwang Kyo-ahn,then Prime Minister of South Korea,became Acting President while the Constitutional Court of Korea was due to determine whether to accept the impeachment. The court upheld the impeachment in a unanimous 8–0 decision on 10 March 2017,removing Park from office. The regularly scheduled presidential election was advanced to 9 May 2017,and Moon Jae-in,former leader of the Democratic Party,was elected as Park's permanent successor.
Yoon Suk Yeol is a South Korean politician and attorney who has served as the 13th president of South Korea since 2022. A member of the People Power Party (PPP),he previously served as the prosecutor general of South Korea from 2019 to 2021 under his presidential predecessor,Moon Jae-in.
The People Power Party,formerly known as the United Future Party,is a conservative and right-wing political party in South Korea. It controls the South Korean presidency and is the second-largest party in the National Assembly. The PPP,along with its historic rival,the Democratic Party,make up the two largest political parties in South Korea.
Presidential elections were held in South Korea on 9 March 2022. Under the South Korean constitution,presidents are restricted to a single five-year term,meaning that incumbent president Moon Jae-in was ineligible to run for a second term. Opposition candidate Yoon Suk Yeol of the People Power Party won the election,defeating candidate Lee Jae-myung of the incumbent Democratic Party.
Choo Kyung-ho is a South Korean government official and politician. He was the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance under the Yoon Suk Yeol government. He has been serving as the Member of the National Assembly for Dalseong since 2016.
Han Dong-hoon is a South Korean politician that is a current leader of the People Power Party. Han previously served as a junior anti-corruption prosecutor and played a leading role in multiple high-profile cases,including those involving Samsung executive Lee Jae-yong,former presidents Park Geun-hye and Lee Myung-bak,and family members of former Minister of Justice Cho Kuk. Considered a protégéand close associate of Yoon Suk Yeol,Han served as a principal deputy when the Yoon held senior positions in the Korean prosecution service. Han later served as the 69th minister of justice of South Korea in the administration of President Yoon.
On 29 October 2022,around 22:20,a crowd surge occurred during Halloween festivities in the Itaewon neighborhood of Seoul,South Korea,killing 159 people and wounding 196 others. The death toll includes two people who died after the crush. The victims were mostly young adults;27 of the victims were foreign nationals.
Han Chang-seob is a South Korean public official. In 2022,he was made Vice Minister of the Ministry of Public Administration and Security. In February 2023,he was made acting Minister of the Interior and Safety after Lee Sang-min was suspended by the National Assembly for his handling of the Seoul Halloween crowd crush.
The following lists events in the year 2024 in South Korea.
Park An-su is a South Korean army general serving as the Chief of Staff of the Army.
Presidential elections are scheduled to be held in South Korea in 2027. They will be the ninth presidential elections since democratization and the establishment of the Sixth Republic. Under the South Korean constitution,the president is restricted to a single five-year term in office,meaning incumbent president Yoon Suk Yeol is ineligible for a second term.
On 3 December 2024,at 22:27 Korea Standard Time (KST),Yoon Suk Yeol,the president of South Korea,declared martial law during a televised address. In his declaration,Yoon accused the Democratic Party (DPK),which has a majority in the National Assembly,of conducting "anti-state activities" and collaborating with "North Korean communists" to destroy the country,thereby creating a "legislative dictatorship". The order prohibited political activities,including gatherings of the National Assembly and local legislatures,and suspended the free press. Separately,Yoon reportedly ordered the arrest of various political opponents,including the leaders of the DPK and his own People Power Party (PPP). This event was widely characterized by Korean politicians and news organizations,both international and domestic,as an attempted self-coup.
Kim Yong-hyun is a former Republic of Korea Army lieutenant general and former South Korean Minister of National Defense who served within the cabinet of President Yoon Suk Yeol from 6 September 2024 until resigning on 5 December 2024 for his role in the 2024 declaration of martial law.
On 4 December 2024,six opposition parties submitted a motion to the National Assembly to impeach South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol after his declaration of martial law the previous day. A majority of the ruling People Power Party (PPP)'s members boycotted the vote on 7 December,causing the motion to fall short of the two-thirds quorum required for the motion to stand,with only 195 lawmakers casting their votes. The Democratic Party (DPK) vowed to file new impeachment motions weekly after the first one failed.
South Korea
