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Kim Young-sam, the leader of the Democratic Liberal Party (which would later evolve into the People Power Party) was elected President of the Republic of Korea on February 25th, 1993. One of the first actions Kim did soon after being inaugurated was eliminate the Hanahoe, the private military cabal created by Chun Doo-hwan that secretly infiltrated and controlled various aspects of Korean politics and economics. This was made possible now that Kim had full access to military positions being the Commander In Chief. Kim’s second action was even more bold; giving an emergency order (currently the only emergency order given during Korea’s democratic era) on August 12th, 1993 to initiate the <Real-Name Financial System> (금융실명제) that would now require individuals to register bank accounts and go through financial transactions only using their real name. This act prevented ill-gotten money from flowing into politics and finance that were used to carry out corruption which were the primary causes for democratic backsliding. Kim Young-sam later formed the Special Act on the May 18th Democratization Movement (5.18 특별법), which redeemed the incident in Gwangju as a democratization effort rather than an attempt as insurrection. Former presidents Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo were also prosecuted and sentenced to prison (later pardoned by Kim Dae-joong) for the massacre of Gwangju civillians during the uprising and also initiating an insurrection of their own with the December 12th Coup. Despite everything Kim Young-sam and the Korean conservatives (at the time) have done to ensure South Korea’s democracy, they are not as recognized as Kim Dae-joong and the Democrats when it comes to being synonymous with the idea of democracy. But why is that? Controversial take, but I think the People Power Party has just as much credit to get for South Korea’s democratization and restoring Gwangju’s honor as the Democratic Party of Korea. What do you guys think? submitted by /u/ApolloExpress |
Why isn’t Kim Young-sam recognized just as much as Kim Dae-joong as icons of Korean Democracy even after everything he’s done?
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