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Korea - The President

South Korea is often hailed as poster child for democracy. Korea adopted a constitution limiting presidents to a single five-year term in 1987. The single-term limit served to safeguard against authoritarian tendencies. But a pattern emerged of presidents experiencing a terminal decline in popularity towards the end of of their term, due to charges of corruption. Abuse of power and corruption beset Korean governments since the country’s successful transition towards democracy in 1987. While there are many corrupt presidents around the world, there are also many corrupt Presidents in South Korea. But in south Korea, they are normally tried, convicted and then pardoned by their successors.

Kim Young-sam, South Korea’s first civilian president elected in 1993 under the current constitution, ended his term in an approval ratings crisis in the wake of the 1997 financial crisis. His son was imprisoned for bribery. During Kim Dae-jung’s final year as president in 2002-2003, all three of his sons were involved in a bribery and influence-peddling case. Kim was forced to apologise to the nation and resign from the Millennium Democratic Party that he founded.President Roh Moo-hyun faced an impeachment challenge and committed suicide shortly after his term ended in 2008.

Lee Myung-bak, elected in 2008, spent much of his term embroiled in corruption scandals. On 27 December 2023 Lee Myung-bak became the fourth South Korean president to be pardoned since democracy arrived in 1987. President from 2008 to 2013, Lee was pardoned by President Yoon Suk-yeol, having served just over two years of a 17-year sentence handed down in 2020 for bribery and corruption.

Park Geun-hye became the country's first democratically elected leader to be forced from office when the Constitutional Court upheld a parliament vote in 2017 to impeach her over a scandal that also landed the chiefs of two conglomerates, Samsung and Lotte, in jail. she was released from prison where she spent nearly five years of a sentence of 20 years following a conviction on corruption charges. President Moon Jae-in granted Park a special pardon in December 2021. In August 2021, South Korea released Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong on parole after he spent more than one and a half years in prison for bribing former president Park Geun-hye.

In the build-up to the May 2017 general elections, Moon Jae-In, campaigned on a platform that emphasized putting an end to the chronic corruption that had plagued his predecessors, Just months after winning the 15 April 2020 general election by a landslide, President Moon Jae-infaced with an alarming decline in public support. By December 2020 Moon's approval rating had sunk to an all-time low of 37.4%, plummeting from 80% in the early months of his government. After winning the election with a margin unprecedented in South Korea’s democratic history, the Democratic Party (DP) transformed the National Assembly into its own law-passing agency. President Moon and his party repeatedly undermined the rule of law, and ignored the procedures put in place to ensure the separation of powers.

In January 2019, the public relations manager for Moon's presidential campaign was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison for using an influential blogger to manipulate public opinion in favor of Moon via social media. During this time, a member of Moon's party was also caught up in a property scandal and was accused of purchasing houses under her relatives' names. In 2019, Ahn Hee-jung, former governor of South Chungcheong Province and a potential 2022 candidate, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for raping his secretary, at least nine times between July 2017 and February 2018, while he was governor.

Moon appointed Yoon Seok-youl as head of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office (SPO) in July 2019, but Yoon relentlessly investigated allegations of abuse of power directed at the president’s top aides and high-level government officials. In October 2019, Moon's close ally Justice Minister Cho Kuk was forced to step down amid corruption allegations. Cho Kuk lasted just five weeks in his position before being forced to resign following allegations of illicit business deals. His wife was also accused of forgery in the falsification of academic achievements to help their daughter get into a top-ranked university.

Prosecutor-turned-president Yoon Suk-yeol broke South Korea’s decades-old political curse, resisting the temptation to target his predecessor with legal investigations in a bid to shore up his political base. But Yoon’s own family, primarily his wife and mother-in-law, had been investigated on multiple corruption charges. In early July 2021, Yoon’s mother-in-law, surnamed Choi, was sentenced to three years in prison for medical law violations and engaging in fraud. At taht time the prosecution was looking into ccharges that Yoon’s wife, Kim Keon-hee, who was CEO of the art events planning company Covana Contents, accepted bribes from companies disguised as sponsorships in 2019, and engaged in stock price manipulation of a car dealer. And therewere claims that that Yoon himself had abused his power by interfering in two criminal cases, including impeding and ultimately halting a massive financial fraud case involving Optimus Asset Management.

The presidential power in South Korea is stronger than that of any other countries, deserving to be called an “imperial” presidency. The executive branch has steadily expanded its authority over the years. It now overshadows the legislative function of the National Assembly which has little authority.

Koreans and foreigners alike may think that there are 18 former presidents including the disgraced lady president in modern Korea. However, there are only 11 including Park Geun-hye. Unlike the United States, Korea's presidency order relies on election terms. As a result, the first Syngman Rhee spanned three periods of the presidency and the third president Park Chung-hee five from the 5th to 9th, and the actual fifth president Chun Doo-hwan is the 11th and 12th "president." Except for those three former presidents with plural election terms, the other 8 have served only one term of presidency.