|
Serving
Students at
Santa Ana
College and
Santiago
Canyon College
SOUTH KOREA
Government
|
Type
of Government
Currently
the government in South Korea is set up as a unitary multiparty republic.
South Korea has a president, prime minister, deputy prime minister, and
state council along with a 299 seat unicameral National Assembly and a
Supreme Court.
The Constitution
declares and guarantees the provision for individual civil, political and
social rights that have become the norm in the most civilized countries.
Thus, every South Korean citizen will have equality before the law, personal
liberty, the right to a speedy and fair trial, freedom of movement, freedom
of occupation, the right to privacy, freedom of religion and conscience,
freedom of expression and association, the right to participate in political
processes such as the right to vote and hold public office. The state also
guarantees various social rights. On the other hand, the Constitution
makes clear the duty of all citizens, namely the duty to pay taxes, to
work and defend the nation under the conditions as prescribed by law.
Over the
past decade, South Korea has witnessed a sweeping political transformation.
Democratization now is deeply entrenched in the country, and the last three
presidential elections have been free, open and fair. The country is governed
by a directly elected President and a National Assembly that is selected
by both direct (90%) and proportional (10%) elections. President
then is assisted by 15 to 30 members of the State Council, and appoints
a Prime Minister to be the principal executive assistant to the President.
Type:
Republic with powers shared between the president and the legislature.
Liberation:
August 15, 1945.
Constitution:
July 17, 1948; last revised 1987.
Branches:
Executive--president (chief of state).
Legislative--unicameral
National Assembly.
Judicial--Supreme
Court and appellate courts; Constitutional Court.
Subdivisions:
Nine provinces, six administratively separate cities (Seoul, Pusan, Inchon,
Taegu, Kwangju, Taejon).
Political
parties: National Congress for New Politics (NCNP); Grand National Party
(GNP); United Liberal Democrats (ULD); Millennium Democratic Party (MDP)
vice National Congress for New Politics; Democratic People's Party; North
Korea Party of Hope.
Suffrage:
Universal at 20.
The
Koreas
Japan's
policies toward the two Koreas reflects the importance this area had for
Asian stability, which is seen as essential to Japanese peace and prosperity.
Japan is one of four major powers (along with the United States, Russia,
and China) that have important security interests on the Korean Peninsula.
However, Japan's involvement in political and security issues on the Korean
Peninsula is more limited than that of the other three powers. Japan's
relations with North Korea and South Korea has a legacy of bitterness stemming
from harsh Japanese colonial rule over Korea from 1910 to 1945. Polls
during the postwar period in Japan and South Korea showed that the people
of each nation had a profound dislike of the other country and people.
Article
9 of Japan's constitution is interpreted to bar Japan from entering into
security relations with countries other than the United States. Consequently,
Japan had no substantive defense relationship with South Korea, and military
contacts were infrequent. The Japanese government supported noncommunist
South Korea in other ways. It backed United States contingency plans
to dispatch United States armed forces in Japan to South Korea in case
of a North Korean attack on South Korea. It also acted as an intermediary
between South Korea and China. It pressed the Chinese government
to open and expand relations with South Korea in the 1980s.
Japan's
trade with South Korea was US$29.1 billion in 1991, with a surplus of nearly
US$5.8 billion on the Japanese side. Japanese direct private investment
in South Korea totaled US$4.4 billion in 1990. Japanese and South Korean
firms often had interdependent relations, which gave Japan advantages in
South Korea's growing market. Many South Korean products were based on
Japanese design and technology. A surge in imports of South Korean
products into Japan in 1990 was partly the result of production by Japanese
investors in South Korea.
Links
for More Information
CIA
World Factbook: South Korea Government
CIA
World Factbook: North Korea Government
Korean Government
The
Library of Congress Country Studies
.
Sources:
Central
Intelligence Agency
The
Library of Congress Country Studies |
