Park Chung-hee, the Japan–South Korea Basic Treaty, and South Korea’s Economic Development — What Did Park Geun-hye Forget?
Originally published on March 5, 2015, this article examines Syngman Rhee, Park Chung-hee, the 1965 normalization of Japan–South Korea relations, Japanese economic cooperation, South Korea’s economic development, and the author’s criticism of Park Geun-hye’s approach toward Japan.
2026-07-27
Park Chung-hee, the Japan–South Korea Basic Treaty, and South Korea’s Economic Development — What Did Park Geun-hye Forget?
Originally published on March 5, 2015.
South Korea under Syngman Rhee, Park Chung-hee’s normalization of relations with Japan, Japanese economic cooperation, and South Korea’s subsequent economic development.
Against this historical background, I argued that Park Geun-hye’s attitude toward Japan stood in sharp contrast to the decision made by her father, Park Chung-hee.
The article originally published on March 5, 2015, follows.
2015-03-05
No matter how much allowance I make for Park Geun-hye, I regard her as an extremely poor politician.
Under Syngman Rhee, South Korea remained unstable and impoverished.
It was Park Geun-hye’s father, Park Chung-hee, who set out to rebuild the country.
Park Chung-hee understood very well that the infrastructure Japan had built on the Korean Peninsula, together with the technical expertise introduced from Japan, had played an important role in Korea’s modernization.
That is precisely why he normalized diplomatic relations with Japan.
In 1965, Park Chung-hee concluded the Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea.
Park Geun-hye, however, has, in my view, acted in a manner contrary to the spirit of the decision made by her father.
At that time, Japan provided South Korea with an enormous amount of economic cooperation.
The amount was so large that it was equivalent to several times South Korea’s national budget at the time.
It goes without saying that this greatly contributed to South Korea’s economic development.
Mao Zedong, of course, must also have been aware of this course of events.
That is why, later, he too made essentially the same kind of choice in his relations with Japan.
This article continues.