Some scholars praise Park Chung-hee as a great leader, others curse him as a brutal dictator. For South Korea as a nation, in general, the Park administration did good. Korea has been transformed from a weak state into a strong industrialized one.
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Some scholars praise Park Chung-hee as a great leader, others curse him as a brutal dictator. For South Korea as a nation, in general, the Park administration did good. Korea has been transformed from a weak state into a strong industrialized one.
President Park did a great deal for Korea. In fact, thanks to his leadership Korea became industrialized country. But that does not mean we can accept everything he did as correct. People did not have freedom during this time.
Even though Park Chung-hee had fantastic success in economic modernization, in political modernization he did nothing at all. Economic modernization will not work without political modernization. The Korean case is an exception thanks to a fortunate external environment and American aid.