Park Geun-hye, the ruling Saenuri Party candidate for the just-ended presidential election, exits her home in southern Seoul on Dec. 19, 2012, to head to her party’s headquarters to declare victory as the first female president of South Korea. (Yonhap)
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1:51 pm on December 19th, 2012 1
I thought a female had to be married and/or have kids to earn the title ajumma.
2:11 pm on December 19th, 2012 2
Great news! A conservative! Historic day.
3:18 pm on December 19th, 2012 3
The conservative equivalent of Roh.
3:45 pm on December 19th, 2012 4
Everyone thought a high turnout meant a victory for the liberal party but turned out to be wrong.
In every nation, a liberal politician drums up support by stirring up stories of abuse against powerless by the powerful (aka human rights issues). Strangely in S Korea, you really don’t hear the liberal party accusing N Korea of any wrong or abusing human rights.
Congrats to the winner.
7:14 pm on December 19th, 2012 5
Yes! I hope she’ll control the children like her father did. Korea needs a strong leader to keep them in line.
7:42 pm on December 19th, 2012 6
#5: If you hope she’ll act like an Imperial Japanese Army Officer perhaps you should move… to JAPAN.
9:22 pm on December 19th, 2012 7
One thing I like about the fact she got elected: Kim Jong Eun is f@cked because his father and grand-father ordered the assassination of her father that resulted in the death of her mother.
Plus, his propagandists are going to have a hard time demonizing a woman like they did when they made LMB the scapegoat for all their problems.
9:51 pm on December 19th, 2012 8
Wake up call for the North!
10:09 pm on December 19th, 2012 9
As an old Korwar veteran, I’m happy to see a peaceful change of ROK leadership. Congratulations to Madam President Park. Maybe a woman’s touch is what is needed to keep the country moving forward. After all, wasn’t it a mythical she-bear who gave birth to Korea’s first king?
5:40 am on December 20th, 2012 10
The older voters continue to love Park Chung-hee. Maybe things weren’t so bad under his regime, after all? You gotta wonder since so many older Koreans continue to have his portrait on their walls and now they voted for his daughter in such large numbers.
1:59 pm on December 20th, 2012 11
#10,
It’s not only old people who voted for her.
7:08 pm on December 20th, 2012 12
My girlfriend who is 24 voted for her. Should be interesting since the CIA killed her father. Well we had ordered it and someone else did it for us.
7:53 pm on December 20th, 2012 13
Nork Reaction = WTF!? They elected a woman!?
8:14 pm on December 20th, 2012 14
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6veDupMCYA Park speaking English in Hawaii
8:02 am on December 21st, 2012 15
I think everyone forgets about how Park ran Korea and you can look forward to the same from her daughter. I expect her to take care of some the the family enemies.
10:04 am on December 21st, 2012 16
I think that most everyone non-Korean hasn’t a clue about what Park Chung Hee accomplished as the
President of Korea in the context of that period and time. He was the architect responsible for moving
the country forward to what it has evolved into today, the so called “economical miracle”. I went to the library to find out what he was all about and
Korea during that era. Recommend others that rely on
their intuition or hearsay to make a conclusive judgement on Park’s legacy and give a rat’s ass, do the same. I also think that a woman as the first president may be more altruistic than a man and be good for Korea. I also read the book “Men are from Mars, Women from Venus” best seller. Women do think differently than a man, my experiences with the fairer sex has convinced me of that!!
12:56 pm on December 21st, 2012 17
Fish I think most everyone non-Korean do not know that Park shot protesters and almost destroyed South Korea. US forces were on high alert and the North Koreans were ready to take advantage. The “economical miracle” did not occur until after Park left power. Korea was ruled by a military government during this time and there was not a whole lot of difference of what was going on in the north.
“Recommend others that rely on
their intuition or hearsay to make a conclusive judgement on Park’s legacy and give a rat’s ass, do the same. I also think that a woman as the first president may be more altruistic than a man”
What are you trying to say? Rely on intuition or hearsay to make a judgement? Really?
I glad you read ““Men are from Mars, Women from Venus” but this was written by a person from a different culture and background.
Family resentment run deep in Korea and most Asian cultures and if you think she will let by gone be bygones well you really do not understand much of all what is going on in Korea
1:48 pm on December 21st, 2012 18
I think she’s from Earth. She looks like a Homo sapiens, to tell you the truth.
2:26 pm on December 21st, 2012 19
#17, KINGKITTY: Sounds like you know what you are
talking about. Your post has given me pause to go back to the drawing board and research some of your statements. Having lived in Korea for 7 years at
different times beginning in 64′to 88′ I have more than a passive interest Korea. Seems like you do as
well. Regarding the women there, the Venus/Mars
analysis is spot on in my opinion no matter what the
cultural background is. Having had a long time incurable romance addiction I have plenty of research under my belt in that regard.
2:43 pm on December 21st, 2012 20
Extreme couponers perform economical miracles. Park Chung-here laid the foundation for South Korea’s economic miracle by nationalizing the banks and directing their capital towards export industries, using government money to seed POSCO, and authorizizing the construction of the Seoul-Busan Highway.
3:51 pm on December 21st, 2012 21
kangaji wrote (#14):
Thanks for that, kangaji. It inspired me to write an entire post, with a hat tip to you, of course.
Next I’d like to see her speaking French and Japanese.
4:00 pm on December 21st, 2012 22
In a nutshell, the question to ask about Park’s economic miracle, regardless whether it happened by the time he was killed or not, is would it have happened had Park not put in place the model he did? The answer is probably not.
Foreign aid from the US was also extremely helpful, along with favorable trade conditions (even though the US had an unbroken trade surplus with Korea until 1981). Japanese “aid” in the form of loans (as part of a reparations package that Japan insists are not reparations) and grants were also key. Actual social and economic ties with Japan were probably just as important, if not more so.
But so was the hard work and sacrifice that Korean workers put in place as part of a new social contract. Korean blood, sweat, and tears was probably the most crucial element.
Bear in mind that there were plenty of other countries also aided by the United States, such as the Philippines, but where are they today?
A lot of people deserve credit for the Korean economic miracle, including the US, but it’s mostly on South Koreans themselves.
At the same time, one also has to ask if Park’s crackdown on dissent — which included imprisonment and even torture and killing of some dissidents, though nothing on the scale of North Korean maltreatment of their own people — was necessary for the economic miracle to occur. One could argue that Korea (and its neighbor and co-colony Taiwan) were better off economically because they got democratic reform in the late 1980s rather than the late 1960s), but that’s a huge judgement call.
4:26 pm on December 21st, 2012 23
#20 SONAGI: Ah-ha!! That is what I learned from a
book on Korea I read a couple of years ago. He had to
go against all the naysayers in government and industry to get the Kyong Buk expressway done. That
move opened commerce from the top of the country to
bottom, all those towns built up businesses and factories popped up. Farmers families had alternative
vocations than stuck in the sticks farming. Those
industrial jobs put money in the pockets of the
peasants that greatly improved their life style and
comfort. Sonagi, you brightened up an otherwise dull day for me!! You refreshed my memory. Kingkitty, you caused me to make the first mistake I
have made all year. My mistake was thinking I made a
mistake! Sonagi, Have a great New Year, live long and
prosper brother.
4:41 pm on December 21st, 2012 24
JFisher, Sonagi is your sister.
4:28 am on December 22nd, 2012 25
The original Hwy 1 and the first rail roads were all funded by the US….actually the rail roads were built by the Japanese. Park started out well but his type of rule chased out investors and cause his population to revolt. Korea did not really begin to prosper until after the 88 Olympics with help serve as a spring board.
4:31 am on December 22nd, 2012 26
Most of you were 6 or 7 years old when all this was going on and really didn’t know Korea existed.
I am just glad the “anniversary protests” are not like they used to be. One of them gassed my wedding party.
10:13 am on December 22nd, 2012 27
#25,
Nope. The Seoul-Chemulpo Railroad opened in 1897. Other railroads were already operating before the annexion.
Korea began to prosper after 1988? No, not quite. The economic development took place in stages, as it did in Japan (since Park Jung-hee based his economic policies on the postwar economic plans of the Japanese government).
#26,
6 or 7 years old in 1988? If only it were true.
4:05 pm on December 22nd, 2012 28
#21: Cool~!! I liked your blog post.
4:12 pm on December 22nd, 2012 29
Ditto.
5:02 pm on December 22nd, 2012 30
I was six in 1988, so I’m kind of used to the people here ragging on my generation of Soldiers and talking about how great Korea was before the late 90′s rolled around and the army started to become super politically correct.