To do Justice to the Asian Continent, today’s post would be looking at South Korea: Roles of Political in promoting development. This is because several developmental achievements can be related to the roles of individuals that were in government because of certain policies they adopted.
The political leader for today’s post is President Syngman Rhee, the reason been that he was the first President of South Korea, and his polices set the pace for all area of development. His inaugural polices set the pace for the development that occurred from the 1980s when South Korea emerged as a stable and economically prosperous country.
Before proceeding it is important to know where South Korea is and when was it created. South Korea is a country in north-eastern Asia, it inhabits the southern portion of the Korea Peninsula. She is officially known as the Republic of Korea and is bounded on the north by North Korea; on the east by the East Sea (Sea of Japan); on the southeast and south by the Korea Strait, which separates it from Japan; and on the west by the Yellow Sea. The capital of South Korea is Seoul which is also largest city.
As mentioned above South Korea can also be referred to the Republic of Korea which was created on 15th August 1948 with Syngman Rhee as the president during this period, the country was heavily depended on foreign aid especially of the US. His government was an authoritarian one who was opposed to communism.
His contribution to South Korean economy was majorly two areas, one was that because of his authoritarian rule there was Strong leadership which ensured the stability of South Korea after the Korean War. The Korean war (1950-1953) was fought during the cold war between the North and South with Soviet Union among other countries and South Korea was supported by the United States. This period was devastating to the economy of both North and South Korea.
Syngman Rhee administration’s made several decision for the development of South Korea one of which was to use foreign aid from the United States during the 1950s to build an infrastructure that included a nationwide network of primary and secondary schools, modern roads, and a modern communications network.
Also he was also responsible for implementing land reforms which aided distribution among the people. In 1960 his blatant fraud in the presidential election caused a student uprising which forced him to resign. After his resignation, a new constitution was created in the second republic (1960). Whereby Chong Mion took over in which did not last long before he was over thrown by General Park 1961-1970.
This has shown that despite Syngman Rhee obvious fraud in the presidential election, he had his country at heart. The reason for this statement is that all the policies he laid down was all for the development and Different countries of the World majorly Third world countries. In other words policies related to, Education, Infrastructural polices such as creation and maintenance of roads, hospitals, technology and communication sector should be implemented.
REFERENCE AND FURTHER READING
Jan Palmowski 2008. Dictionary of Contemporary World History .U.S: Oxford University press.
The academy of Korean studies (2005, pp150-153).
Michael Edson Robinson (2007), Korea’s twentieth century odssey. Honolulu: university of Hawai press.
Adrian Buzo (2007), the making of modern Korea. Oxford Taylor & Francis
Picture of the flag and President Syngman Rhee gotten from Google
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