Politics of South Korea

The politics of South Korea takes place in the framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President is the head of state, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the National Assembly. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature and comprises a Supreme Court, appellate courts and a Constitutional Court. Since 1948, the constitution has undergone five major revisions, each signifying a new republic. The current Sixth Republic began with the last major constitutional revision in 1987.

Quotes

 * Inter-party contention over issues [in South Korea] is shallow and superficial, being but a vehicle to denounce opponents as inept and hence unworthy to exercise power, or a bargaining device to obtain a share of the available power and prebends. Indifference to ideology … encourages raiding and the formation of opportunistic cliques whose members will ally themselves to anyone willing and able to offer some advantage.
 * Norman Jacobs, The Korean Road to Modernization and Development (1985), Illinois: Urbana, p. 26


 * When confederation is realized, and the ideologies of North and South are propagandized in the course of free intercourse between the two sides, the Republic [of North Korea] will not be affected in the slightest, because it is a unified state. But the South is an ideologically divided, liberal country, so if we extensively propagate Juche Thought and the superiority of our system we can win over at least half its citizens. As of now South Korea is twice our size in population terms. But once we win over half the South's people in a confederation, we will be two parts to the South's one. We would then win either a general election or a war.
 * Kim Il-sung, to Todor Zhivkov (30 October 1973), as quoted in 어둠이 된 햇볕은 어둠을 밝힐 수 없다 (2001), translated by Brian Reynolds Myers, p. 222


 * In South Korea, which is a much less conservative environment, politicians do not take their wives around with them as much as their American counterparts do. Showing pride in your wife is thought of as juvenile bad form. There's a special pejorative for people who do it.
 * Brian Reynolds Myers, as quoted in "The Top North Korean Expert Explains What Happened to Kim Jong Un's Uncle" (16 December 2013), by Isaac Chotiner, New Republic


 * The twin obsessions of the foreign press corps in Seoul are a) North Korea and b) K-Pop, K-Film, K-Anything-But-Politics.
 * Brian Reynolds Myers, "On Foreign Coverage of South Korea’s Response to the Coronavirus" (18 March 2020), Sthele Press


 * [I]n South Korea, where support for social welfare and public health care is virtually universal, as is opposition to mass immigration, it’s largely one's attitude to North Korea that decides whether one counts as "progressive" or "conservative."
 * Brian Reynolds Myers, "On the Demolition of the North-South Liaison Office" (3 July 2020), Sthele Press


 * When a [South] Korean political candidate does a little stumping, a little flesh pressing, a little baby kissing, he puts on a sour face, mounts a platform and stares at the crowd. He's surrounded by Samoan-size bodyguards, his chap-sae, or goons, (literally "trapped birds").
 * P. J. O'Rourke, Holidays in Hell: In Which Our Intrepid Reporter Travels to the World's Worst Places and Asks, "What's Funny About This?" (1988), New York: Grove Press. p. 44