(25) Student protesters led democracy movement In the authoritarian period between the Korean War and the election of Roh Tae-woo in 1987, South Korea’s political leaders refused, or perhaps were unable, to accept and honor the idea that political opponents could be loyal to the state.
(24) Terenti Shtykov: the other ruler of nascent N. Korea Terenti Shtykov. Few people in the Korea of the late 1940s would recognize his name. For all practical purposes he was the supreme ruler of North Korea in everything but name. It was under his tutelage that Kim Il-sung’s system was born.
(23) John Hodge: first US forces commander in Korea On Sept. 8, 1945, a fine autumn day, a lean-faced, fair-haired figure in starched fatigues stepped onto Korean soil at the port of Incheon. He was Lieutenant General John Hodge, United States Army, the man tasked with carrying out “Baker 40” ― the ..
(22) Korea's in-between leaders who lacked power The two military coups which characterized South Korea’s pre-democracy period involved the removal of leaders who enjoyed legitimacy but lacked power. As the promise of democracy was snuffed out on their watch, their stories are all but forgotten. ..
(21) Park Heon-young: symbol of Korean communism The first-generation Korean communists had a strange fate. In the 1940s, they were influential but in the 1950s most of them met violent deaths and their names were erased from official history in both North and South Korea. In the South, it became..
(20) Seo Jae-pil: pioneering reformer, independence fighter The late 19th century was probably the most important and pivotal period in Korean history.
(19) Last royals: King Kojong, Queen Myeongseong, Sunjong In early 1863, Korea acquired a new king. He was merely nine years old, but this hardly surprised his subjects: the first decades of the 19th century was the time of dynastic instability, when the actual power rested in hands of a few powerful clan..
(18) Moon Sun-myung: son of the broken-hearted God On a freezing night in December 1950 during the last refugee exodus from North Korea, a heretic Christian preacher named Moon Sun-myung stepped onto an iceflow and pushed out into the Imjin River.
(17) Martial art taekwondo pioneers and promoters Students at the University of Texas sport hall looked on as a wiry, barefoot Asian man, dressed in what looked like white pajamas, secured with a strip of black cloth, strode the length of the hall, punching the air and kicking above his head. Then..
(16) Chun Doo-hwan: last dictator Although a natural and skilled leader under whose rule in the 1980s an increasingly prosperous Korea headed toward democracy, Chun Doo-hwan will go down in history as the leader who lacked legitimacy.
(15) Roh Moo-hyun: The Unlikely President A few days after his election victory in December 2002, president-elect Roh Moo-hyun stepped onto the stage at a hotel in Seoul and faced an audience of several hundred foreign business people.
(14) Roh Tae-woo: president who followed his script Halfway through his five-year term as president, Roh Tae-woo invited the Seoul-based foreign press corps to Cheong Wa Dae (Blue House).
(13) Syngman Rhee: president who could have done more If recent presidents have found Park Chung-hee’s nation-transforming period in office a hard act to follow, then he was also a hard act to precede. Put another way, the 12-year rule of Syngman Rhee, South Korea’s first president, is widely viewed a..