National Assembly (South Korea)
The National Assembly of the Republic of Korea shortened to the National Assembly in domestic English-language media, is the 300-member unicameral national legislature of South Korea. Elections to the National Assembly are held every four years; the latest legislative elections were held on 13 April 2016. Single-member constituencies comprise 253 of the assembly's seats, while the remaining 47 are allocated by proportional representation. Members serve four-year terms; the unicameral assembly consists of at least 200 members according to the South Korean constitution. In 1990 the assembly had 299 seats, 224 of which were directly elected from single-member districts in the general elections of April 1988. Under applicable laws, the remaining seventy-five representatives were elected from party lists. By law, candidates for election to the assembly must be at least thirty years of age; as part of a political compromise in 1987, an earlier requirement that candidates have at least five years' continuous residency in the country was dropped to allow Kim Dae-Jung, who had spent several years in exile in Japan and the United States during the 1980s, to return to political life.
The National Assembly's term is four years. In a change from the more authoritarian Fourth Republic and Fifth Republic, under the Sixth Republic, the assembly cannot be dissolved by the president; the constitution stipulates that the assembly is presided over by a Speaker and two Deputy Speakers, who are responsible for expediting the legislative process. The Speaker and Deputy Speakers are elected in a secret ballot by the members of the Assembly, their term in office is restricted to two years; the Speaker is independent of party affiliation, the Speaker and Deputy Speakers may not be government ministers. Parties that hold at least 20 seats in the assembly form floor negotiation groups, which are entitled to a variety of rights that are denied to smaller parties; these include a greater amount of state funding and participation in the leaders' summits that determine the assembly's legislative agenda. To introduce a bill, a legislator must present the initiative to the Speaker with the signatures of at least ten other members of the assembly.
The bill must be edited by a committee to ensure that the bill contains correct and systematic language. It can be approved or rejected by the Assembly. There are 16 standing committees which examine bills and petitions falling under their respective jurisdictions, perform other duties as prescribed by relevant laws. House Steering Committee Legislation and Judiciary Committee National Policy Committee Strategy and Finance Committee Science, ICT, Future Planning and Communications Committee Education, Culture and Tourism Committee Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee National Defense Committee Security and Public Administration Committee Agriculture, Rural Affairs and Fisheries Committee Trade and Energy Committee Health and Welfare Committee Environment and Labor Committee Land and Transport Committee Intelligence Committee Gender Equality and Family Committee Since the promulgation of the March 1988 electoral law, the assembly has been elected every four years through a Supplementary Member system, meaning that some of the members are elected from constituencies according to the system of first past the post, while others are elected at a national level through proportional representation.
As of 2016, 253 members represent constituencies. In contrast to elections to the Assembly, presidential elections occur once every five years, this has led to frequent situations of minority government and legislative deadlock. A proposal to lower the number of seats required to form a negotiation group to 15 was passed on 24 July 2000, but was overturned by the Constitutional Court that month. In order to meet the quorum, the United Liberal Democrats, who held 17 seats, arranged to "rent" three legislators from the Millennium Democratic Party; the legislators returned to the MDP after the collapse of the ULD–MDP coalition in September 2001. From 2004 to 2009, the assembly gained notoriety as a frequent site for legislative violence; the Assembly first came to the world's attention during a violent dispute on impeachment proceedings for President Roh Moo-hyun, when open physical combat took place in the assembly. Since it has been interrupted by periodic conflagrations, piquing the world's curiosity once again in 2009 when members battled each other with sledgehammers and fire extinguishers.
Images of the melee were broadcast around the world. Elections for the assembly were held under UN supervision on 10 May 1948; the First Republic of South Korea was established on 17 July 1948 when the constitution of the First Republic was established by the Assembly. The Assembly had the job of electing the President, elected anti-communist Syngman Rhee as President on 10 May 1948. Under the first constitution, the National Assembly was unicameral. Under the second and third constitutions, the National Assembly became bicameral and consisted of the House of Commons and the Senate, but unicameral with the House of Commons because the House of Commons could not pass a bill to establish the Senate. Conservative Liberal Progressive majority plurality only largest minority Since the reopening of the National Assembly in 1963 until today, it has been unicameral. List of political parties in South Korea Supreme People's Assembly, the North Korean legislature Politics of South Korea List of Korea-related topics Senate of South Korea House of Commons U.
S. Library of Congress Country Studies
Korean War
The Korean War was a war between North Korea and South Korea. The war began on 25 June 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea following a series of clashes along the border; as a product of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, Korea had been split into two sovereign states in 1948. A socialist state was established in the north under the communist leadership of Kim Il-sung and a capitalist state in the south under the anti-communist leadership of Syngman Rhee. Both governments of the two new Korean states claimed to be the sole legitimate government of all of Korea, neither accepted the border as permanent; the conflict escalated into warfare when North Korean military forces—supported by the Soviet Union and China—crossed the border and advanced south into South Korea on 25 June 1950. The United Nations Security Council authorized the formation and dispatch of UN forces to Korea to repel what was recognized as a North Korean invasion. Twenty-one countries of the United Nations contributed to the UN force, with the United States providing around 90% of the military personnel.
After the first two months of war, South Korean and U. S. forces dispatched to Korea were on the point of defeat, forced back to a small area in the south known as the Pusan Perimeter. In September 1950, an amphibious UN counter-offensive was launched at Incheon, cut off many North Korean troops; those who escaped envelopment and capture were forced back north. UN forces approached the Yalu River—the border with China—but in October 1950, mass Chinese forces crossed the Yalu and entered the war; the surprise Chinese intervention triggered a retreat of UN forces which continued until mid-1951. In these reversals of fortune, Seoul changed hands four times, the last two years of fighting became a war of attrition, with the front line close to the 38th parallel; the war in the air, was never a stalemate. North Korea was subject to a massive bombing campaign. Jet fighters confronted each other in air-to-air combat for the first time in history, Soviet pilots covertly flew in defense of their communist allies.
The fighting ended on 27 July 1953. The agreement created the Korean Demilitarized Zone to separate North and South Korea, allowed the return of prisoners. However, no peace treaty was signed, according to some sources the two Koreas are technically still at war, engaged in a frozen conflict. In April 2018, the leaders of North and South Korea met at the demilitarized zone and agreed to work towards a treaty to formally end the Korean War. In South Korea, the war is referred to as "625" or the "6–2–5 Upheaval", reflecting the date of its commencement on June 25. In North Korea, the war is referred to as the "Fatherland Liberation War" or alternatively the "Chosǒn War". In China, the war is called the "War to Resist America and Aid Korea", although the term "Chaoxian War" is used in unofficial contexts, along with the term "Hán War" more used in regions such as Hong Kong and Macau. In the U. S. the war was described by President Harry S. Truman as a "police action" as the United States never formally declared war on its opponents and the operation was conducted under the auspices of the United Nations.
It has been referred to in the English-speaking world as "The Forgotten War" or "The Unknown War" because of the lack of public attention it received both during and after the war, in relation to the global scale of World War II, which preceded it, the subsequent angst of the Vietnam War, which succeeded it. Imperial Japan destroyed the influence of China over Korea in the First Sino-Japanese War, ushering in the short-lived Korean Empire. A decade after defeating Imperial Russia in the Russo-Japanese War, Japan made Korea its protectorate with the Eulsa Treaty in 1905 annexed it with the Japan–Korea Annexation Treaty in 1910. Many Korean nationalists fled the country; the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea was founded in 1919 in Nationalist China. It failed to achieve international recognition, failed to unite nationalist groups, had a fractious relationship with its U. S.-based founding president, Syngman Rhee. From 1919 to 1925 and beyond, Korean communists led internal and external warfare against the Japanese.
In China, the Nationalist National Revolutionary Army and the communist People's Liberation Army helped organize Korean refugees against the Japanese military, which had occupied parts of China. The Nationalist-backed Koreans, led by Yi Pom-Sok, fought in the Burma Campaign; the communists, led by Kim Il-sung among others, fought the Japanese in Manchuria. At the Cairo Conference in November 1943, the United Kingdom, the United States all decided that "in due course Korea shall become free and independent". At the Tehran Conference in November 1943 and the Yalta Conference in February 1945, the Soviet Union promised to join its allies in the Pacific War within three months of the victory in Europe. Accordingly, it declared war o
Yi Si-yeong
Seongjae Yi Si-yeong was a Korean politician, independence activist and Neo-confucianist scholar. He was Vice President of South Korea from 1948 to 1951. Yi resigned after the National Defense Corps incident of 1951, his nickname was Sirimsanin. Before the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910, he had served for Joseon as the Governor of South Pyongan Province and the President of Hansung Law Court. Gamseemanuh Portrayed by Jo Young-jin in the 2010 KBS TV series Freedom Fighter, Lee Hoe-young. Syngman Rhee Kim Kyu-sik Kim Gu Kim Seong-su Chang Myon Yi Si-yeong Yi Si-yeong:Navercast Yi See-young:Korean historical persons information Yi See-young Yi See-young Yi See-young:Nate
Shin Sung-mo
Shin Sung-mo was an acting prime minister in 1950 following the first prime minister of South Korea, Lee Beom-seok. He served as a Defence Minister during the Korean War
Death march
A death march is a forced march of prisoners of war or other captives or deportees in which individuals are left to die along the way. It is distinguished in this way from simple prisoner transport via foot march. Death marches feature harsh physical labor and abuse, neglect of prisoner injury and illness, deliberate starvation and dehydration and torture, execution of those unable to keep up the marching pace; the march may end at a prisoner-of-war camp or internment camp, or it may continue until all the prisoners are dead. General Masaharu Homma was charged with failure to control his troops in 1945 in connection with the Bataan Death March. David Livingstone wrote of the East African slave trade:We passed a slave woman shot or stabbed through the body and lying on the path. Said an Arab who passed early that morning had done it in anger at losing the price he had given for her, because she was unable to walk any longer; as part of Indian removal in the United States, in 1831 6,000 Choctaw were forced to leave Mississippi for Oklahoma, only about 4,000 of them arrived in 1832.
In 1836, after the Creek War, the United States Army deported 2,500 Muskogee from Alabama in chains as prisoners of war. The rest of the tribe followed, deported by the Army. Upon arrival in Oklahoma, 3,500 died of infection. In 1838, the Cherokee nation was forced by order of President Andrew Jackson to march westward towards Oklahoma; this march became known as the Trail of Tears: an estimated 4,000 men and children died during relocation. The Armenian Genocide resulted in the death of up to 1,500,000 people from 1915–1918. Under the cover of World War I, the Young Turks sought to cleanse Turkey of its Armenian population; as a result, much of the Armenian population was exiled from large parts of Western Armenia and forced to march to the Syrian Desert. Many were raped and killed on their way to the 25 concentration camps set up in the Syrian Desert; the most famous camp was that of Der Zor. During WWII, death marches of POWs occurred in the Japanese Empire. Death marches of Jews were common in the stages of The Holocaust as the Allies closed in on concentration camps in occupied Europe.
During Operation Barbarossa during 1941–42 when large numbers of Soviet prisoners were captured, death marches were among the forms of German mistreatment of Soviet prisoners of war. Considered to be a German war crime. After the Battle of Stalingrad in February 1943, many German prisoners of war were left to die on march. After the initial captivity near Stalingrad they were sent on a "death march across the frozen steppe" to labor camps elsewhere in the Soviet Union. In the Pacific Theatre, the Imperial Japanese Army conducted death marches of Allied POWs, including the infamous Bataan Death March and the Sandakan Death Marches; the former forcibly transferred 60-80,000 POWs to Balanga, resulting in the deaths of 2,500–10,000 Filipinos and 100–650 Americans, the latter causing the deaths of 2,345 Australians and British, of which only 6 survived. Both the Bataan and Sandakan death marches were judged as war crimes; the term "death march" was used in the context of the World War II history by victims and by historians to refer to the forcible movement between fall 1944 and April 1945 by Nazi Germany of thousands of prisoners, from Nazi concentration camps near the advancing war fronts to camps inside Germany.
One infamous death march occurred in January 1945, as the Soviet Red Army advanced on occupied Poland. Nine days before the Soviets arrived at the death camp at Auschwitz, the SS marched nearly 60,000 prisoners out of the camp towards Wodzisław Śląski, 35 miles away, where they were put on freight trains to other camps. 15,000 prisoners died on the way. The death marches were judged as a crime against humanity. Bleiburg repatriations, 1945, 280,000 Croats civils and domobrans, were forced to march through Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Austria, where British soldiers handed them over to Partizans, they had to march again to Croatia and Herzegovina or to Macedonia. During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, some 70,000 Palestinian Arabs from the cities of Ramle and Lydda were forcibly expelled by Israeli forces; the event has come to be known as the Lydda death march. During the Korean War, in the winter of 1951, 200,000 South Korean National Defense Corps soldiers were forcibly marched by their commanders, 50,000 to 90,000 soldiers starved to death or died of disease during the march or in the training camps.
This incident is known as National Defense Corps Incident. During the Korean War, prisoners held by North Korea underwent what became known as the "Tiger Death March"; the march occurred in the context of North Korea being over-run by United Nations forces. As North Korean forces retreated to the Yalu River on the border with China, they evacuated their prisoners with them. On 31 October 1950, some 845 prisoners, including about eighty noncombatants, left Manpo and went upriver, arriving in Chunggang on 8 November 1950. A year fewer than 300 of the prisoners were still alive; the march was named after the brutal North Korean colonel, in charge, nicknamed "The Tiger". Among the prisoners was George Blake, an MI6 officer, stationed in Seoul. While being held as a prisoner, he became a KGB double agent; the 1975 forced evacuation of Phnom Penh in Cambodia by the Khmer Rouge Carolean Death March Samsun deportations March of the Living
South Korea
South Korea the Republic of Korea, is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and lying to the east of the Asian mainland. The name Korea is derived from Goguryeo, one of the great powers in East Asia during its time, ruling most of the Korean Peninsula, parts of the Russian Far East and Inner Mongolia, under Gwanggaeto the Great. South Korea has a predominantly mountainous terrain, it comprises an estimated 51.4 million residents distributed over 100,363 km2. Its capital and largest city is Seoul, with a population of around 10 million. Archaeology indicates that the Korean Peninsula was inhabited by early humans starting from the Lower Paleolithic period; the history of Korea begins with the foundation of Gojoseon in 2333 BCE by the mythic king Dangun, but no archaeological evidence and writing was found from this period. The Gija Joseon was purportedly founded in 11th century BCE, its existence and role has been controversial in the modern era; the written historical record on Gojoseon was first mentioned in Chinese records in the early 7th century BCE.
Following the unification of the Three Kingdoms of Korea under Unified Silla in CE 668, Korea was subsequently ruled by the Goryeo dynasty and the Joseon dynasty. It was annexed by the Empire of Japan in 1910. At the end of World War II, Korea was divided into Soviet and U. S. zones of occupations. A separate election was held in the U. S. zone in 1948 which led to the creation of the Republic of Korea, while the Democratic People's Republic of Korea was established in the Soviet zone. The United Nations at the time passed a resolution declaring the ROK to be the only lawful government in Korea; the Korean War began in June 1950. The war lasted three years and involved the U. S. China, the Soviet Union and several other nations; the border between the two nations remains the most fortified in the world. Under long-time military leader Park Chung-hee, the South Korean economy grew and the country was transformed into a G-20 major economy. Military rule ended in 1987, the country is now a presidential republic consisting of 17 administrative divisions.
South Korea is a developed country and a high-income economy, with a "very high" Human Development Index, ranking 22nd in the world. The country is considered a regional power and is the world's 11th largest economy by nominal GDP and the 12th largest by PPP as of 2010. South Korea is a global leader in the industrial and technological sectors, being the world's 5th largest exporter and 8th largest importer, its export-driven economy focuses production on electronics, ships, machinery and robotics. South Korea is a member of the ASEAN Plus mechanism, the United Nations, Uniting for Consensus, G20, the WTO and OECD and is a founding member of APEC and the East Asia Summit; the name Korea derives from the name Goryeo. The name Goryeo itself was first used by the ancient kingdom of Goguryeo in the 5th century as a shortened form of its name; the 10th-century kingdom of Goryeo succeeded Goguryeo, thus inherited its name, pronounced by the visiting Persian merchants as "Korea". The modern spelling of Korea first appeared in the late 17th century in the travel writings of the Dutch East India Company's Hendrick Hamel.
Despite the coexistence of the spellings Corea and Korea in 19th century publications, some Koreans believe that Imperial Japan, around the time of the Japanese occupation, intentionally standardised the spelling on Korea, making Japan appear first alphabetically. After Goryeo was replaced by Joseon in 1392, Joseon became the official name for the entire territory, though it was not universally accepted; the new official name has its origin in the ancient country of Gojoseon. In 1897, the Joseon dynasty changed the official name of the country from Joseon to Daehan Jeguk; the name Daehan, which means "Great Han" derives from Samhan, referring to the Three Kingdoms of Korea, not the ancient confederacies in the southern Korean Peninsula. However, the name Joseon was still used by Koreans to refer to their country, though it was no longer the official name. Under Japanese rule, the two names Han and Joseon coexisted. There were several groups who fought for independence, the most notable being the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea.
Following the surrender of Japan, in 1945, the Republic of Korea was adopted as the legal English name for the new country. Since the government only controlled the southern part of the Korean Peninsula, the informal term South Korea was coined, becoming common in the Western world. While South Koreans use Han to refer to the entire country, North Koreans and ethnic Koreans living in China and Japan use the term Joseon as the name of the country; the Korean name "Daehan Minguk" is sometimes used by South Koreans as a metonym to refer to the Korean ethnicity as a whole, rather than just the South Korean state. The history of Korea begins with the founding of Joseon in 2333 BCE by Dangun, according to Korea's foundation mythology. Gojoseon expanded until it controlled parts of Manchuria. Gija Joseon was purportedly founded in the 12th century BC, but its existence and role have been controversial in the modern era. In 108 BCE, the Han dynasty defeated Wiman Joseon and installed four commanderies in the n
Syngman Rhee
Syngman Rhee was a South Korean politician, the first and the last Head of State of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea, the first President of South Korea from 1948 to 1960. His three-term presidency of South Korea was affected by Cold War tensions on the Korean Peninsula, he led South Korea through the Korean War. His presidency ended in resignation following popular protests against a disputed election. Rhee was regarded as an anti-Communist authoritarian dictator and is thought to have ordered tens of thousands of extrajudicial killings of suspected communists during the early stages of the Korean War, he died in exile in Hawaii. Syngman Rhee was born on April 18, 1875. Rhee was born in Hwanghae Province into a rural family of modest means as the third son out of three brothers and two sisters, his two older brothers both died in infancy. Rhee's family traced its lineage back to King Taejong of Joseon, he is a 16th-generation descendant of Grand Prince Yangnyeong. In 1877, at the age of two and his family moved to Seoul.
In Seoul, he had traditional Confucian education in various seodang in Dodong. He was portrayed as a potential candidate for the Korean civil service examination; when Rhee was nine years old, he was rendered blind through smallpox and was cured by Horace Newton Allen, an American medical missionary. In 1894, when reforms abolished the gwageo system, Rhee enrolled in the Pai Chai School, an American Methodist school, in April, he studied sinhakmun. Near the end of 1895, he joined a Hyeopseong Club created by Seo Jae-pil, who returned from the United States, he worked as the head and the main writer of the newspapers Hyeopseong-hoe Hoebo and Maeil Shinmun, the latter being the first daily newspaper in Korea. During this period, he earned money by teaching Americans Korean, he converted to Christianity in school. In 1895, he graduated from Pai Chai School. Rhee was implicated in a plot to take revenge for the assassination of Empress Myeongseong. At this point, he converted to Christianity. Rhee acted as one of the forerunners of Korea's grassroots movement through organizations such as the Hyeopseong Club and the Independence Club.
He organized several protests against corruption and the influences of the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire. As a result, in November 1898, he attained the rank of Uigwan in the Imperial Legislature, the Jungchuwon. After entering civil service, he was implicated in a plot to remove King Gojong from power through the recruitment of Park Yeong-hyo; as a result, he was imprisoned in the Gyeongmucheong Prison in January 1899. Other sources place the year arrested as 1897 and 1898. Rhee attempted to escape on the 20th day of imprisonment but was caught and was sentenced to life imprisonment through the Pyeongniwon, he was imprisoned in the Hanseong Prison. In prison, Rhee translated and compiled The Sino–Japanese War Record, wrote The Spirit of Independence, compiled the New English–Korean Dictionary and wrote in the Imperial Newspaper, he was tortured. In 1904, Rhee was released from prison at the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War with the help of Min Young-hwan. In November 1904, with the help of Min Yeong-hwan and Han Gyu-seol, Rhee moved to the United States.
In August 1905, Rhee and Yun Byeong-gu met with the Secretary of State John Hay and U. S. President Theodore Roosevelt at peace talks in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and attempted unsuccessfully to convince the US to help preserve independence for Korea. Rhee continued to stay in the United States, he obtained a Bachelor of Arts from George Washington University in 1907, a Master of Arts from Harvard University in 1908. In 1910, he obtained a Ph. D. from Princeton University with the thesis "Neutrality as influenced by the United States". In August 1910, he returned to Japanese occupied Korea, he served as a YMCA coordinator and missionary. In 1912, he was implicated in the 105-Man Incident, was shortly arrested. However, he fled to the United States in 1912 with M. C. Harris's rationale that Rhee was going to participate in the general meeting of Methodists in Minneapolis as the Korean representative. In the United States, Rhee attempted to convince Woodrow Wilson to help the people involved in the 105-Man Incident, but failed to bring any change.
Soon afterwards, he met Park Yong-man, in Nebraska at the time. In February 1913, as a consequence of the meeting, he moved to Honolulu and took over the Han-in Jung-ang Academy. In Hawaii, he began to publish the Pacific Ocean Magazine. In 1918, he established the Han-in Christian Church. During this period, he opposed Park Yong-man's stance on foreign relations of Korea and brought about a split in the community. In December 1918, he was chosen as one of the Korean representatives to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 by the Korean National Association, but failed to obtain permission to travel to Paris. After giving up traveling to Paris, Rhee held the First Korean Congress in Philadelphia with Seo Jae-pil to make plans for the declaration and action of independence of Korea. Following the March 1st Movement in 1919, Rhee discovered that he was appointed to
