From: lim@rani.chem.yale.edu (Dongchul Lim)
Subject: Re: President Park Jung Hee
Organization: Yale University
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4
Date: Sat, 7 Nov 1992 22:53:14 GMT

There are many dark sides as well as bright sides about Park.
The brightest side would be the fact that he founded a today's
Korean economy. Also he reinforced national defense by establishing
reserved forces and modernizing korean military.
However no matter how good things he did to economy and defense,
one should also condiser what he did to democracy and human rights.

First of all, he made a precedent of overthrowing civilian government
by military coup detat. The military coup led by Chun (nearly 20
years after Park's coup) was modelled after this.

Second, as someone indicated, he had a dishonorable past before he
became a president. He graduated from Japanese military academy
and served as a japanese officer in KwanDong province. After
independence, somehow he sneaked into Korean military academy
to avoid a trial for treason (how could this happen???). During
his reign, no one was able to open his/her mouth about this publicly.
Due to such a shameful background, he couldn't punish traitors who
helped japanese. He pretended to be nationalistic. However it is
highly questionable for him to be qualified as a nationalist.

Third, he aggravated democracy by reforming constitution for his third
term presidency (so-called "Sam-Sun-Gae-Hun"). The excuse was "only he"
had to be a president to continue economic plans he proposed.
However shortly after this, he revealed his real character, by 
establishing "Shi-Wol-Yu-Shin" (The October Revitalizing Reforms),
apparently modelled after Japan's "Myung-Chi-Yu-Shin" (This proves
he was a cat's paw of japanese). After this reform, korean people
lost freedome of speech, press, assembly, and association - the
fundamentals of democracy. Do you remember how many students, 
intellectuals, politicians and laborers were thrown into prison?
Do you remember how they were tortured in the prison? And do you
still remember how many people sacrificed their lives to recover
democracy? "Shi-Wol-Yu-Shin" was really a hydrogen bomb to korean
democracy. Even after 20 years from this, we still didn't get
fully recovered as far as democracy is concerned.

Forth, he used "An-Bo-Non-Ri" (logic of security?) as an excuse
of oppressing political opponents. Anyone who is anti-governmental
was indicted for being a communist. He didn't forget to terrorize
people from time to time by reminding them of cruelty of communists
during the Korean war. "Guk-Ga-Bo-An-Bup" (National Security Law)
was one of the most notorious laws in the history of republic of
korea.

The remnants of Park's regime have been propagandizing Park was
a better ruler compared to other ones. They emphasize only Park's
bright side, i.e., establishment of modern economy. However don't
be fooled by such a propaganda. Don't try to compare him to Chun
and Rho. It is ridiculous to judge one's accomplishment as a
president by comparing him with such murderers. After many decades
have passed, the history will tell you Park was a good president
or an evil one.

-Dongchul Lim

********************************************************************
* Dongchul Lim                   | Phone (203) 432-6288            *
* Dept. of Chemistry, Yale Univ. | Email: lim@rani.chem.yale.edu   *
* 225 Prospect Street            |            (130.132.25.65)      *
* New Haven, CT 06511            |                                 *
********************************************************************


sh4g+@andrew.cmu.edu (Seungjo Han) writes:
: >I think he sucks cock. He was one of the worst dictators in the
: >twentieth century.  What can you expect of someone who graduated from
: >the Japanese military academy?  Big deal, he started the sae-maoul
: >undong, but what it basically consisted of was getting rid of
: >mud huts and replacing them with corrugated steel houses....big
: >improvements. If I was to meet him in person, I would torture in
: >the worst way possible, like he did to his opponents, and make hime
: >die a horrible death.  A bullet while drinking a glass of Chivas was
: >too good for the likes of him.
: 
: It is true that he was a dictator and that he had his downfalls, but one
: has to consider the situation that Korea was in during Park's
: presidency.  In order to practice true democracy, the country has to be
: relatively stable and be free from foreign threats.  As you know, Korea
: was in constant threat of being invaded.  I believe during times like
: these, one can not afford to have a weak government.  Any power struggle
: within the S.Korean government might have given Kim Il-sung a chance to
: reinvade the South.  I know that many people may disagree with this
: point of view, but that's my opinion.
: 
: Another point I want to make is that Park Jung Hee really wanted to step
: down as the president, but he was threatened by people in his party to
: remain in power.  I know that this may sound ridiculous, but this is
: from a very reliable source.  One of my relative worked in the "Blue
: House (Chung Hwa Dae) and was very close to Park Jung Hee, and that
: person told me that people in his party feared that they may be in
: danger if Park lost his power.  This relative of mine wanted to leave
: Korea when Park lost his power, but he was held back because people
: feared that he might talk.  He eventually was ruined.
: 
: I think that history will record Park Jung Hee as one of a great man in
: Korean history.  After all it was him who laid the foundation for
: today's Korea.  As to the person who wrote the article above, if you
: want to torture people like that, what makes you different?
: 
: sjh


Newsgroups: soc.culture.korean