South Korea: Full Circle for Park

“I have resolved to bear the cross upon my back once more for the nation, forsaking my own personal comforts.” With those words, South Korea’s President Chung Hee Park earlier this month launched his campaign for a constitutional amendment that would give him a third four-year term. Any similarity between his plight and the march to Calvary, however, was purely coincidental. From all reports, Park has been quite comfortable in the “Blue House,” Korea’s presidential palace.

When Park seized power in a coup in 1961, one of his first actions was to revise the constitution so that nobody could serve as President for more than two four-year terms. The tough, unsmiling general wanted to prevent the sort of legalized dictatorship that had prevailed under Syngman Rhee, who ruled for twelve years. Last week, Park came full circle. In a controversial referendum, 11.1 million South Koreans voted by an overwhelming 2-to-l margin to amend the constitution so that he might seek a third term in 1971. Since Park held power for two years before he was first elected in 1963, a third term would give him a total of 14 years in the Blue House, two more than Rhee served.

Riverbed Rallies. Last summer, when Park first announced his intention to amend the constitution, there were cries of “dictatorship,” and Korea’s volatile students took to the streets. Most of them supported the more liberal, urban-oriented New Democratic Party, and they feared that Park and his rural-based Democratic Republican Party were trying to perpetuate their control indefinitely. When Park sought approval from the National Assembly to hold a national referendum, the opposition New Democrats seized the speaker’s rostrum in the red-carpeted Assembly chamber and refused to yield it through four days of 24-hour debates. Finally, the Democratic Republicans and a few independent Assemblymen slipped next door to an annex and at 2 a.m. passed the bill 122 to 0. The opposition wailed that “democracy is dead in Korea,” but the vote was technically legal.

The outcome of the referendum was never in doubt. “The only place they will give us to hold our rallies is a riverbed or a mountainside,” complained New Democratic Assemblyman Yil-Hyung Chyung. “They have all the best places. People are even afraid to rent us loudspeaker equipment.” Other opposition leaders charged that the Park forces were handing out money, shoes, food and other presents. The students remained docile not only because of the unspoken threat that their relatives might lose their jobs, but also because they found little support among the people.

Persuasive Phrase. To a great extent, Park has earned the support that he enjoys. Since 1961, the country has enjoyed an unprecedented economic boom, with per-capita income rising from $85.20 to $134 in 1968. In addition, Park’s firm stance in the face of threats from the hard-line Communist regime north of the 38th parallel has won popularity for his regime in security-conscious South Korea. The opposition campaigned on a slogan of “Freedom v. Dictatorship.” In the end, however, voters were moved by the government’s catch phrase: “A vote against Park is a vote for chaos.”