Is Park Chung Hee a Successful Economic Leader?

Is Park Chung Hee a successful economic leader?

A53108903 Young Min Kim

        According to Korean Gallup polls, Park Chung Hee, the former president of Korea, is still one of the favorite and most respected presidents of all time. In 2014, he was placed second in the Gallup poll of Koreans’ favorite president of all time and third in the poll of Koreans’ most respected figures. This response is intriguing that although Park Chung Hee is one of the most controversial figures in Korea, a number of Koreans are fond of his leadership and accomplishment. More interestingly, putting aside the admiration and respect toward President Park, no matter which political stance people have, conservative or progressive, and most of Korean and scholars overseas agree with the statement that President Park was a successful economic leader.

        Most of the conservative revere President Park as the most economically successful leader in Korean history. They firmly believe that he made the pillar of the state to turn Korea into the modern nation. His economic policies to boost Korean economy such as export-oriented economic policy, series of 5-year plans, Saemaul movement and etc. were only successfully accomplished. Without his “charismatic” driving force, Korea would never develop this efficiently and there would have been no so called “Miracle on the Han River.” One social critic, named Chung Nam Kim, wrote an article called “Park Chung Hee: A great man in Korean history who created a modern nation in Korean Peninsula.” He depicted his life as a “rags-to-riches” story. Although born in the family of ruined peers, he ultimately became the greatest leader of all time in Korean history. He carried forward a strong economic development plan to generate great economic growth in Korea. According to his article, annual growth rate was 10.4% from 1972 to 1978 and GNP also increased from $360 in 1972 to $1330 in 1978. In addition, he implemented manufacturing industry which contributed greatly to economic development. He asserted that Miracle on the Han River was so successful that other developing countries have been using President Park’s economic policies as a benchmark to improve their own economy.

        Such views exist on the side of the progressive. They usually argued that he framed the basic formation of Korean economy and accomplished economic development. However, it was solely focused on improving huge conglomerates, so called Chaebol, based on the suppression of individuals. They have always criticized President Park for diminishing democracy. He declared state of emergency after 1971 election, and dissolved congress and suspended 1963 constitution. This seriously damaged the separation of powers and gave rise to the basis of his brutal dictatorship. This incident eventually led to the Revitalizing Reforms constitution, so called the Yushin constitution. The Yushin constitution was mainly about justifying President Park’s dictatorship eternally. To achieve his object, he fabricated many enemies with quoting the violation of “National Security Law.” He implanted an agency directly responsible to the President, Korean Central Intelligent Agency(KCIA). Based on evidence and testimony, he ordered KCIA to abuse human rights to remove political enemies by torture and excruciation. There were so many other incidents that the progressive insist President Park actually destroyed the ground of democracy in Korean Peninsula such as People’s Revolutionary Party Incidents(Inhyukdang), which caused the demise of legislation. Despite his cruel acts, many progressives also think that President Park’s economic accomplishment is somewhat successful. Under exported-oriented policies, light industries, labor-intensive industries, such as textile and wig were developed in 1960s, which in fact improved the quality of life. Moreover, in 1970s, he intended to develop heavy and chemical industry(HCI) in order to change Korean main economy from agriculture to manufacturing. In their opinion, the development of HCI influenced dramatically and became the first step to turn Korea into an industrialized nation. POSCO was a typical example, which prospered during his plan for HCI. They frequently have mentioned establishing social overhead capital such as Seoul-Busan Expressway and Han River bridges. These infrastructures set the spine of Korean economy to progress. Sangki Kim, a history professor at Chungnam National University, stated that, on one hand, Park Chung Hee suppressed pro-democracy movements and hindered democratic transition. On the other hand, he fostered the essential factor of democracy, the middle class through his economic development plans. His accomplishment of economic development in 1960s and 1970s is generally accepted to both sides.