Who was the first president of the new South Korea?

The First Republic of Korea () was South Korea's first independent government, ruling the country from 1948 to 1960. It succeeded USAMGIK, the United States military government, which ruled the area from 1945 to 1948. The Philippines recognized South Korea on 15 August 1948. The First Republic was established on August 15, 1948, with Syngman Rhee as the first president. Like subsequent governments, it claimed sovereignty over the entire Korean Peninsula, although it only had power over the area south of the 38th parallel. The investiture of the Rhee government followed the general election of May 10, 1948. The country's first constitution had been promulgated by the first National Assembly on July 17. It established a system with a strong president, who was elected indirectly by the National Assembly. The April Revolution in 1960 led to the resignation of Syngman Rhee and the transition to the Second Republic of South Korea.

First Republic of Korea

Rhee was supported in the elections by the Korea Democratic Party, but didn't include any of its members in his cabinet. In retaliation, the members of the party formed a united opposition Democratic Nationalist Party, and began to advocate a cabinet system which would remove power from the president. This led to a regrouping of the Rhee faction into the Nationalist Party, which later became the Liberal Party, and remained Rhee's base throughout his administration. The country's second parliamentary elections were held on May 30, 1950, and gave the majority of seats to independents.

The South Korean government continued many of the practices of the U.S. military government. This included the brutal repression of leftist activity. The Rhee government continued the harsh military action against the Jeju Uprising. It also crushed military uprisings in Suncheon and Yeosu, which were provoked by orders to sail to Jeju and participate in the crackdown.

This government also oversaw several massacres, the most notable being the Bodo League massacre where between 100,000 and 1,140,000 were executed on suspicion of supporting communism.

On June 25, 1950, North Korean forces invaded South Korea, starting the Korean War. Led by the United States, a 16-member coalition undertook the first collective action under the umbrella of the U.N. Command (UNC). Oscillating battle lines inflicted a high number of civilian casualties and wrought immense destruction. With the People's Republic of China's entry on behalf of North Korea in 1951, the fighting came to a stalemate close to the original line of demarcation.

Armistice negotiations, initiated in July 1951, finally concluded on July 27, 1953 at Panmunjom, now in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). The resulting Armistice Agreement was signed by the North Korean army, Chinese People's Volunteers and the U.S.-led and South Korean-supported United Nations Command. A peace treaty has not been signed up to now. Following the armistice, the South Korean government returned to Seoul on the symbolic date of August 15, 1953.

After the armistice, South Korea experienced political turmoil under years of autocratic leadership of Syngman Rhee, which was ended by student revolt in 1960. Throughout his rule, Rhee sought to take additional steps to cement his control of government. These began in 1952 (shortly after being elected to a second term), when the government was still based in Busan due to the ongoing war. In May of that year, Rhee pushed through constitutional amendments which made the presidency a directly-elected position. In order to do this, he declared martial law and jailed the members of parliament whom he expected to vote against it. Rhee was subsequently elected by a wide margin. He regained control of parliament in the 1954 elections, and thereupon pushed through an amendment to exempt himself from the eight-year term limit.

Rhee's prospects for reelection during the presidential campaign of 1956 initially seemed dim. Public disillusionment regarding his attempt to seek a third term was growing, and the main opposition candidate Shin Ik-hee drew immense crowds during his campaign. Shin's sudden death while on the campaign trail, however, allowed Rhee to win the presidency with ease. The runner-up of that election, Cho Bong-am of the Progressive Party, was later charged with espionage and executed in 1959.

The events of 1960, known as the April Revolution, were touched off by the violent repression of a student demonstration in Masan on the day of the presidential election, March 15. Initially these protests were quelled by local police, but they broke out again after the body of a student was found floating in the harbor. Subsequently, nonviolent protests spread to Seoul and throughout the country, and Rhee resigned on April 26.

This period saw explosive growth in education at all levels, even during the turmoil of the Korean War. The First Republic saw the full implementation of an educational system that had been sketched out by the Council for Korean Education under USAMGIK. This education was shaped by the ideal of "Hongik Ingan", the person who is a benefit to all, and sought to prepare students for participation in a democratic society. Some contend that this democratic education contributed to the student protests which brought down the authoritarian Rhee government in 1960.

The first Education Law came into force on December 31, 1949. The most important aspect of this was the introduction of universal compulsory education at the primary level. This requirement led to widespread school construction; by the end of the First Republic, primary-school enrollment had topped 95%. In addition, the dual ladder system used by the Japanese occupation government was replaced by a single-ladder system, with 6 years of primary education, 3 of middle-school education, 3 of high-school education, and 4 of college education.

This period also saw the adoption of South Korea's first national curriculum.

The economy of this period was deeply troubled.

During 1945–1950, United States and South Korean authorities carried out a land reform that retained the institution of private property. They confiscated and redistributed all land held by the Japanese colonial government, Japanese companies, and individual Japanese colonists. The South Korean government carried out a reform whereby South Koreans with large landholdings were obliged to divest most of their land. A new class of independent, family proprietors was created.

Rhee sought to align his government strongly with the United States, and against both North Korea and Japan. The policy of the First Republic on North Korea, before and after the Korean War, was one of "unification by force." Although some talks towards normalization of relations with Japan took place, they achieved little. Meanwhile, the government took in vast sums of American aid, in amounts sometimes near the total size of the national budget.

On January 18, 1952, Rhee declared South Korean sovereignty over the waters around the Korean Peninsula, in a concept similar to that of today's exclusive economic zones. The maritime demarcation thus drawn up, which Rhee called the "Peace Line", included Liancourt Rocks as South Korean territory.

On January 18, 1952 The first president of South Korea Syngman Rhee declared that the vicinity of Dokdo was a territory of South Korea (Syngman Rhee line). Subsequently, some 3,000 Japanese fishermen who conducted fishery operations in this vicinity were captured. This incident, called the Dai Ichi Daihoumaru Ship case strained relations between South Korea and Japan.

Foreign relations of South Korea

The foreign relations of South Korea (officially the Republic of Korea) are South Korean relations with other governments.

The Republic of Korea maintains diplomatic relations with 190 countries. The country has also been a member of the United Nations since 1991, when it became a member state at the same time as North Korea. South Korea has also hosted major international events such as the 1988 Summer Olympics and 2002 World Cup Soccer Tournament (2002 FIFA World Cup co-hosted with Japan) and the 2011 IAAF World Championships Daegu South Korea. Furthermore, South Korea had hosted the 2018 Winter Olympics which took place in Pyeongchang, South Korea from 9th to 25th February.

South Korea is a member of the United Nations, WTO, OECD/DAC, ASEAN Plus Three, East Asia Summit (EAS), and G-20. It is also a founding member of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and the East Asia Summit.

On January 1, 2007, South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon assumed the post of UN Secretary-General.

Inter-Korean relations may be divided into five periods. The first stage was between 1972 and 1973; the second stage was Pyongyang North Korea's delivery of relief goods to South Korea after a typhoon caused devastating floods in 1984 and the third stage was the exchange of home visits and performing artists in 1985. The fourth stage, activated by Nordpolitik under Roh, was represented by expanding public and private contacts between the two Koreas. The fifth stage was improved following the 1997 election of Kim Dae-jung. His "Sunshine Policy" of engagement with North Korea set the stage for the historic June 2000 Inter-Korean summit.

The possibility of Korean reunification has remained a prominent topic. However, no peace treaty has yet been signed with the North. In June 2000, a historic first North Korea-South Korea summit took place, part of the South Korea's continuing Sunshine Policy of engagement. Since then, regular contacts have led to a cautious thaw. President Kim was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 for the policy.

With that policy, continued by the following administration of president Roh Moo-hyun, economic ties between the two countries have increased, humanitarian aid has been sent to North Korea and some divided families have been briefly reunited. Military ties remain fraught with tension, however, and in 2002 a brief naval skirmish left four South Korean sailors dead, leaving the future of the Sunshine policy uncertain. The North Korea cut off talks but the South remained committed to the policy of reconciliation and relations began to thaw again. The resurgence of the nuclear issue two years later would again cast relations in doubt, but South Korea has sought to play the role of intermediary rather than antagonist, and economic ties at the time seemed to be growing again.

Despite the Sunshine Policy and efforts at reconciliation, the progress was complicated by North Korean missile tests in 1993, 1998, 2006 and 2009., relationships between North Korea and South Korea were very tense; North Korea had been reported to have deployed missiles, Ended its former agreements with South Korea and threatened South Korea and the United States not to interfere with a satellite launch it had planned.
As of 2009 North Korea and South Korea are still opposed and share a heavily fortified border.

On May 27, 2009 North Korea media declared that the armistice is no longer valid due to the South Korean government's pledge to "definitely join" the Proliferation Security Initiative. To further complicate and intensify strains between the two nations, the sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan in March 2010, killing 46 seamen, is as of May 20, 2010 claimed by a team of researchers around the world to have been caused by a North Korean torpedo, which the North denies. South Korea agreed with the findings from the research group and president Lee Myung-bak declared in May 2010 that Seoul would cut all trade with North Korea as part of measures primarily aimed at striking back at North Korea diplomatically and financially. As a result of this, North Korea severed all ties and completely abrogated the previous pact of non aggression.

In November 2010, Unification Ministry officially declared the Sunshine Policy a failure, thus bringing the policy to an end. On November 23, 2010, North Korean artillery shelled Yeonpyeong with dozens of rounds at Yeonpyeong-ri and the surrounding area.

South Korea has the following trade agreements:

As of late 2016 states of Central America (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay), GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council—Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates), Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, MERCOSUR (Southern Common Market—Mercado comun del sur), Mexico, Mongolia, RCEP (Asian 10 Countries, Korea, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, India), Russia (BEPA), SACU (South Asia Cooperation Union) and Korea-China-Japan are in negotiations about the FTA with the Republic of Korea.

Active South Korean-Chinese people-to-people contacts have been encouraged. Academics, journalists and particularly families divided between the Republic of Korea and the People's Republic of China were able to exchange visits freely in the late 1980s. Nearly 2 million ethnic Koreans especially in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in China's Jilin Province have interacted with South Koreans.

Trade between the two countries continued to increase nonetheless, Furthermore, China has attempted to mediate between North Korea and the United States and between North Korea and the State of Japan also initiated and promoted tripartite talks—between Pyongyang Seoul and Washington United States of America.

The Republic of Korea had long been an ally of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Diplomatic ties between Seoul and Taipei Republic of China were nevertheless severed in 1992. Formal diplomatic relations were established between Seoul and Beijing People's Republic of China on August 24, 1992.

In 2004 the PRC government began the Northeast Project This sparked a massive uproar in South Korea when the project was widely publicized.

After the KORUS FTA (United States-South Korea Free Trade Agreement) was finalized on June 30, 2007 the Chinese government has immediately begun seeking an FTA agreement with South Korea. The FTA between Korea and China are under discussion South Korea has been running a trade surplus with China which hit a record US$32.5 billion in 2009.

On 23 August 1992, the Republic of China government by then only in control of the island of Taiwan and a few major outlying areas severed diplomatic relations with South Korea in advance of its announcement of formal recognition of the People's Republic of China based in Beijing China. The Yonhap News said in 2002 that since then relations between the two governments have been "in a rut".

The relation between South Korea and Japan has both political conflicts and economic intimacies. Examples of conflicts include the East sea naming dispute, visits by successive Japanese Prime Ministers to the Yasukuni Shrine and the disputed ownership of Dokdo of the island Korea.

On January 18, 1952 The first president of South Korea Syngman Rhee declared that the vicinity of Dokdo was a territory of South Korea (Syngman Rhee line). Subsequently, some 3,000 Japanese fishermen who conducted fishery operations in this vicinity were captured. This incident, called the Dai Ichi Daihoumaru Ship case strained relations between South Korea and Japan.

June 22, 1965, The president in South Korea Park Chung-hee concluded the Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea As a result, Japan considered South Korea to be the legitimate successor of the Korean peninsula.

The Republic of Korea's trade with the State of Japan was US$892.1 million in 2008, with a surplus of nearly US$327.1 million on the Japanese side. Japanese and South Koreans firms often had interdependent relations, which gave Japan advantages in South Korea's growing market.

In 1996 FIFA announced that the South Korea-Japan would jointly host the 2002 FIFA World Cup. The next few years would see leaders of both countries meet to warm relations in preparations for the games. The year 2005 was designated as the "Japan-South Korea Friendship Year".

However, the Liancourt Rocks controversy erupted again when Japan's Shimane prefecture declared "Takeshima Day", inciting mass demonstrations in South Korea.

Both countries established diplomatic relations on March 26, 1990. The Republic of Korea has an embassy in Ulaanbaatar Mongolia. Mongolia has an embassy in Seoul.

According to a 2013 BBC World Service Poll, 3% of South Koreans view the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's influence positively, with 91% expressing a negative view. A 2015 government-sponsored poll revealed that 41% of South Koreans consider North Korea to be an enemy, with negative views being more prevalent among younger respondents. Still, in a 2017 poll, 58% of South Koreans said they don't expect another war to break out with North Korea.

Since the establishment of diplomatic ties on 3 March 1949, the relationship between the Philippines and South Korea has flourished. The Philippines was one of the first countries that extended diplomatic recognition to South Korea. This was cemented with the Philippine government’s deployment of the Philippine Expeditionary Force to Korea (PEFTOK) to help South Korea against the invasion of the communist North during the Korean War in the 1950s. After the war, the Philippines provided development assistance to South Korea and helped the country rebuild itself.

Since then, the Philippines’s relations with South Korea have evolved with South Korea becoming one of the Philippines’s most important bilateral partners aside from the United States, China and Japan. The Philippine government seeks to cultivate strategic ties with South Korea given its increasing presence in the country. In the coming years, the Philippines anticipates to benefit from exploring unprecedented opportunities from South Korea that shall contribute significantly to the country’s trade and economy, defense and security, and society and culture.

In the 1980s South Korean president Roh Tae Woo's Nordpolitik and Mikhail Gorbachev's "New Thinking" were both attempts to reverse their nations' recent histories. Gorbachev had signaled Soviet interest in improving relations with all countries in the Asia-Pacific region including South Korea as explained in his July 1986 Vladivostok and August 1988 Krasnoyarsk speeches.

In initiating Nordpolitik Roh's confidential foreign policy adviser was rumored to have visited Moscow Russia to consult with Soviet policymakers. Kim Young Sam visited Moscow Russian Federation from June 2 to June 10, 1989 as the Kremlin announced that it would allow some 300,000 Soviet-South Koreans who had been on the Soviet island of Sahkalin since the end of World War II to return permanently to South Korea. Moscow even arranged Kim's meeting with the North Korean ambassador to the Soviet Union In June 1990, Roh held his first summit with president Gorbachev in San Francisco, United States.

The Republic of Korea and the USSR established diplomatic relations on September 30, 1990. This relation continued by the Russian Federation on December 27, 1991. Russian president Vladimir Putin visited Seoul in February 2001 while South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun visited Moscow Russia in September 2004.

Russian Federal Space Agency and the Korean Astronaut Program cooperated together to send South Korea's first astronaut into space. Yi So-Yeon became the first South Korean national as well as the third woman to be the first national in space on 8 April 2008 when Soyuz TMA-12 departed from Baikonur Cosmodrome.

Since the 1990s there has been greater trade and cooperation between the Russian Federation and South Korea. The total trade volume between the Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation in 2003 was 4.2 billion US dollars.

The establishment of diplomatic relations between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Republic of Korea began on 18 January 1949.

From the Republic of Korea to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland:

From the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the Republic of Korea:

The United States engaged in the decolonization of Korea (mainly in the South, with the Soviet Union engaged in North Korea) from Japan after World War II. After three years of military administration by the United States, the South Korean government was established. Upon the onset of the Korean War, U.S. forces were sent to defend South Korea against invasion by North Korea and later China. Following the Armistice, South Korea and the U.S. agreed to a "Mutual Defense Treaty", under which an attack on either party in the Pacific area would summon a response from both.

In 1968, South Korea obliged the mutual defense treaty, by sending a large combat troop contingent to support the United States in the Vietnam War. The U.S. Eighth Army, Seventh Air Force, and U.S. Naval Forces Korea are stationed in South Korea. The two nations have strong economic, diplomatic, and military ties, although they have at times disagreed with regard to policies towards North Korea, and with regard to some of South Korea's industrial activities that involve usage of rocket or nuclear technology. There had also been strong anti-American sentiment during certain periods, which has largely moderated in the modern day.

Since the late 1980s, the country has instead sought to establish an American partnership, which has made the Seoul–Washington relationship subject to severe strains. Trade had become a serious source of friction between the two countries. In 1989, the United States was South Korea's largest and most important trading partner and South Korea was the seventh-largest market for United States goods and the second largest market for its agricultural products.

From Roh Tae-woo's administration to Roh Moo Hyun's administration, South Korea sought to establish an American partnership, which has made the Seoul–Washington relationship subject to some strains. In 2007, a free trade agreement known as the Republic of Korea-United States Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA) was reportedly signed between South Korea and the United States, but its formal implementation has been repeatedly delayed, pending further approval by the legislative bodies of the two countries.

The relations between the United States and South Korea have greatly strengthened under the Lee Myung-bak administration. At the 2009 G-20 London summit, U.S. President Barack Obama called South Korea "one of America's closest allies and greatest friends."
However, Anti-American sentiment in Korea still exists; The United States' alleged role in the May 1980 Gwangju uprising was the single most pressing South Korean political issue of the 1980s. Even after a decade, Gwangju citizens and other Koreans still blamed the United States for its perceived involvement in the bloody uprising. In 2008, the protests against U.S. beef has been a center of a major discussion in this year.

Letter from President of the Republic of Korea Lee Myung-bak About 37,000 Americans lost their lives. They fought for the freedom of Koreans they did not even know, and thanks to their sacrifices, the peace and democracy of the republic were protected On this significant occasion, all Koreans pay tribute to the heroes fallen in defense of freedom and democracy. I firmly believe that future generations in both countries will further advance the strong the Republic of Korea-the United States of America alliance into one befitting the spirit of the new age. - Los Angeles Times, June 25, 2010 -

The Alliance is adapting to changes in the 21st Century security environment. We will maintain a robust defense posture, backed by allied capabilities which support both nations' security interests We will continue to deepen our strong bilateral economic, trade and investment relations In the Asia-Pacific region we will work jointly with regional institutions and partners to foster prosperity, keep the peace, and improve the daily lives of the people of the region The United States of America and the Republic of Korea will work to achieve our common Alliance goals through strategic cooperation at every level. - The U.S. Government (June 16, 2009) -

The European Union (EU) and the Republic of Korea are important trading partners, having negotiated a free trade agreement for many years since South Korea was designated as a priority FTA partner in 2006. The free trade agreement has been approved in September 2010, following Italy's conditional withdrawal of its veto of the free trade agreement. The compromise made by Italy was that free trade agreement would take provisional effect on July 1, 2011. South Korea is the EU's eighth largest trade partner and the EU has become South Korea's second largest export destination. EU trade with South Korea exceeded €65 billion in 2008 and has enjoyed an annual average growth rate of 7.5% between 2004 and 2008.

The EU has been the single largest foreign investor in South Korea since 1962 and accounted for almost 45% of all FDI inflows into South Korea in 2006. Nevertheless, EU companies have significant problems accessing and operating in the Republic of Korea market due to stringent standards and testing requirements for products and services often creating barriers to trade. Both in its regular bilateral contacts with South Korea and through its FTA with South Korea The EU is seeking to improve this situation.

South Korea does not currently have any diplomatic relations with the following nations.

There are also no diplomatic relations with several unrecognized territories:

Syngman Rhee (, ; Lunisolar calendar, 1875 – July 19, 1965) was a South Korean politician, the first and the last Head of State of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea, and President of South Korea from 1948 to 1960. His three-term presidency of South Korea (August 1948 to April 1960) was strongly affected by Cold War tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

Syngman Rhee

He led South Korea through the Korean War. His presidency ended in resignation following popular protests against a disputed election. Rhee was regarded as an anti-Communist authoritarian dictator and is thought to have ordered tens of thousands of extrajudicial killings of suspected communists during the early stages of the Korean War. He died in exile in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Syngman Rhee was born on April 18, 1875; his birthday is also stated as March 26 (the lunar date). Rhee was born in Hwanghae Province into a rural family of modest means as the third son out of three brothers and two sisters. His two older brothers both died in infancy. Rhee's family traced its lineage back to King Taejong of Joseon. He is a 16th-generation descendant of Grand Prince Yangnyeong. In 1877, at the age of two, Rhee and his family moved to Seoul.

In Seoul, he had traditional Confucianism education in various "seodang" in Nakdong () and Dodong (). He was portrayed as a potential candidate for "gwageo", the Korean civil service examination. When Rhee was nine years old, he was rendered virtually blind through smallpox and was cured by Horace Newton Allen, an American medical missionary.

In 1894, when reforms abolished the "gwageo" system, Rhee enrolled in the Pai Chai School (), an American Methodist school, in April. He studied English and "sinhakmun" (). Near the end of 1895, he joined a Hyeopseong Club () created by Seo Jae-pil, who returned from the United States. He worked as the head and the main writer of the newspapers "Hyeopseong-hoe Hoebo" () and "Maeil Shinmun" (), the latter being the first daily newspaper in Korea. During this period, he earned money by teaching Americans Korean. He converted to Christianity in school. In 1895, he graduated from Pai Chai School.

Rhee was implicated in a plot to take revenge for the assassination of Empress Myeongseong; however, a female American physician helped him avoid the charges. At this point, he converted to Christianity. Rhee acted as one of the forerunners of Korea's grassroots movement through organizations such as the Hyeopseong Club and the Independence Club (). He organized several protests against corruption and the influences of the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire. As a result, in November 1898, he attained the rank of "Uigwan" () in the Imperial Legislature, the Jungchuwon ().

After entering civil service, he was implicated in a plot to remove King Gojong from power through the recruitment of Park Yeong-hyo. As a result, he was imprisoned in the Gyeongmucheong Prison () in January 1899. Other sources place the year arrested as 1897 and 1898.

Rhee attempted to escape on the 20th day of imprisonment but was caught and was sentenced to life imprisonment through the Pyeongniwon (). He was imprisoned in the Hanseong Prison (). In prison, Rhee translated and compiled "The Sino–Japanese War Record" (), wrote "The Spirit of Independence" (), compiled the "New English–Korean Dictionary" () and wrote in the "Imperial Newspaper" (). He was also tortured.

In 1904, Rhee was released from prison at the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War with the help of Min Young-hwan. In November 1904, with the help of Min Yeong-hwan and Han Gyu-seol (), Rhee moved to the United States. In August 1905, Rhee and Yun Byeong-gu () met with the Secretary of State John Hay and U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt at peace talks in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and attempted unsuccessfully to convince the US to help preserve independence for Korea.

Rhee continued to stay in the United States; this move has been described as an "exile." He obtained a Bachelor of Arts from George Washington University in 1907, and a Master of Arts from Harvard University in 1908. In 1910, he obtained a Ph.D. from Princeton University with the thesis "Neutrality as influenced by the United States" ().

In August 1910, he returned to Japanese occupied Korea. He served as a YMCA coordinator and missionary. In 1912, he was implicated in the 105-Man Incident, and was shortly arrested. However, he fled to the United States in 1912 with M. C. Harris's rationale that Rhee was going to participate in the general meeting of Methodists in Minneapolis as the Korean representative.

In the United States, Rhee attempted to convince Woodrow Wilson to help the people involved in the 105-Man Incident, but failed to bring any change. Soon afterwards, he met Park Yong-man, who was in Nebraska at the time. In February 1913, as a consequence of the meeting, he moved to Honolulu and took over the Han-in Jung-ang Academy (). In Hawaii, he began to publish the "Pacific Ocean Magazine" (). In 1918, he established the Han-in Christian Church (). During this period, he opposed Park Yong-man's stance on foreign relations of Korea and brought about a split in the community. In December 1918, he was chosen as one of the Korean representatives to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 by the Korean National Association (), but failed to obtain permission to travel to Paris. After giving up traveling to Paris, Rhee held the First Korean Congress () in Philadelphia with Seo Jae-pil to make plans for the declaration and action of independence of Korea.
Following the March 1st Movement in 1919, Rhee discovered that he was appointed to the positions of Foreign Minister in the Noryeong Provisional Government (), Prime Minister for the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea in Shanghai, and a position equivalent to President for the Hansung Provisional Government (). In June, in the acting capacity of the President of the Republic of Korea, he notified the prime ministers and the chairmen of peace conferences of Korea's independence. On August 25, Rhee established the Korean Commission to America and Europe () in Washington, D.C. On September 6, Rhee discovered that he had been appointed acting president for the Provisional Government in Shanghai. From December 1920 to May 1921, he moved to Shanghai and was the acting president for the Provisional Government.

However, Rhee failed to efficiently act in the capacity of Acting President due to conflicts inside the provisional government in Shanghai. In October 1920, he returned to the US to participate in the Washington Naval Conference. During the conference, he attempted to set the problem of Korean independence as part of the agenda and campaigned for independence, but was unsuccessful. In September 1922, he returned to Hawaii to focus on publication, education, and religion. In November 1924, Rhee was appointed the position of President-for-Life in the Korean Comrade Society ().

In March 1925, Rhee was impeached as the president of the Provisional Government in Shanghai over allegations of misuse of power and was removed from office. Nevertheless, he continued to claim the position of President by referring to the Hansung Provisional Government and continued independence activities through the Korean Commission to America and Europe. In the beginning of 1933, he participated in the League of Nations conference in Geneva to bring up the question of Korean independence.

In November 1939, Rhee and his wife left Hawaii for Washington. He focused on writing the book "Japan Inside Out" and published it during the summer of 1941. With the attack on Pearl Harbor and the consequent Pacific War which began in December 1941, Rhee used his position as the chairman of the foreign relations department of the provisional government in Chongqing to convince President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the United States Department of State to approve the existence of the Korean provisional government. As part of this plan, he cooperated with anti-Japan strategies conducted by the Office of Strategic Services. In 1945, he participated in the United Nations Conference on International Organization as the leader of the Korean representatives to request the participation of the Korean provisional government.

After the surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945, Rhee was flown to Tokyo aboard a U.S. military aircraft. Over the objections of the State Department, the American military government allowed Rhee to return to Korea by providing him with a passport in October 1945, despite the refusal of the State Department to issue Rhee with a passport. The British historian Max Hastings wrote that there was "at least a measure of corruption in the transaction" as the American OSS agent Preston Goodfellow who provided Rhee with the passport that allowed him to return to Korea was apparently promised by Rhee that if he came to power, he would reward Goodfellow with commercial concessions." Following the independence of Korea and a secret meeting with Douglas MacArthur, Rhee was flown in mid-October 1945 to Seoul aboard MacArthur's personal airplane, "The Bataan".

After the return to Korea, he assumed the posts of president of the Independence Promotion Central Committee (), chairman of the Korean People's Representative Democratic Legislature (), and president of the Headquarters for Unification (). At this point, he was strongly anti-communist and opposed foreign intervention; he opposed Soviet Union and United States' proposal in the Moscow Conference (1945) to establish a trusteeship for Korea and the cooperation between the left-wing (communist) and the right-wing (nationalist) parties. He also refused to join the U.S.–Soviet Cooperation Committee () as well as the negotiations with the north. The Korean nationalist movement had for decades been torn by factionalism and in-fighting, and most of the leaders of the independence movement hated each other as much as they hated the Japanese. Rhee, who had lived for decades in the United States, was a figure known only from afar in Korea, and therefore regarded as a more or less acceptable compromise candidate for the conservative factions. More importantly, Rhee spoke fluent English whereas none of his rivals did, and therefore he was the Korean politician most trusted and favored by the American occupation government. The British diplomat Roger Makins later recalled, "the American propensity to go for a man rather than a movement — Giraud among the French in 1942, Chiang Kai-shek in China. Americans have always liked the idea of dealing with a foreign leader who can be identified as 'their man'. They are much less comfortable with movements." Makins further added the same was the case with Rhee, as very few Americans were fluent in Korean in the 1940s or knew much about Korea, and it was simply far easier for the American occupation government to deal with Rhee than to try to understand Korea. Rhee was "acerbic, prickly, unpromising" and was regarded by the U.S. State Department, which long had dealings with him as "a dangerous mischief-maker", but the American General John R. Hodge decided that Rhee was the best man for the Americans to back because of his fluent English and his ability to talk with authority to American officers about American subjects. Once it become clear from October 1945 onward that Rhee was the Korean politician most favored by the Americans, other conservative leaders fell in behind him. Hastings wrote, "In an Asian society, where politics are often dominated by an instinctive desire to fall in behind the strongest force, Rhee's backing from the military government was the decisive factor in his rise to power."
When the first U.S.–Soviet Cooperation Committee meeting was concluded without a result, he began to argue in June 1946 that the government of Korea must be established as an independent entity. In the same month, he created a plan based on this idea and moved to Washington, D.C. from December 1946 to April 1947 to lobby support for the plan. During the visit, Harry S. Truman's policies of Containment and the Truman Doctrine, which was announced in March 1947, enforced Rhee's anti-communist ideas.

In November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly recognized Korea's independence and established the United Nations Temporary Commission on Korea (UNTCOK) through Resolution 112. In May 1948, the South Korean Constitutional Assembly election was held under the oversight of the UNTCOK. He was elected without competition to serve in the South Korean Constitutional Assembly () and was consequently selected to be Speaker of the Assembly. Rhee was highly influential in creating the policy stating that the president of South Korea had to be elected by the National Assembly. The 1948 Constitution of the Republic of Korea was adopted on July 17, 1948.

On July 20, 1948, Rhee was elected president of the Republic of Korea in the South Korean presidential election, 1948 with 92.3% of the vote; the second candidate, Kim Gu, received 6.7% of the vote. On August 15, the Republic of Korea was formally established in South Korea and Rhee was inaugurated as the first President of the Republic of Korea. The next month, on September 9, the north also proclaimed statehood as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Rhee himself had been an independence activist, and his relations with the "chinilpa" Korean elites who had collaborated with the Japanese were, in the words of the South Korean historian Kyung Moon Hwang, often "contentious," but in the end an understanding was reached in which, in exchange for their support, Rhee would not purge the elites. In particular, the Koreans who had served in the colonial-era National Police, whom the Americans had retained after August 1945, were promised by Rhee that their jobs would not be threatened by him. Upon independence in 1948, 53% of South Korean police officers were men who had served in the National Police during the Japanese occupation.

Soon after taking office, Rhee enacted laws that severely curtailed political dissent. There was much controversy between Rhee and his leftist opponents. Allegedly, many of the leftist opponents were arrested and in some cases killed. The most controversial issue has been Kim Gu's assassination. On 26 June 1949, Kim Gu was assassinated by Ahn Doo-hee, who confessed that he assassinated Kim Gu by the order of Kim Chang-ryong. The assassin was described by the British historian Max Hastings as one of Rhee's "creatures". It soon became apparent that Rhee's governing was going to be authoritarian. He allowed the internal security force (headed by his right-hand man, Kim Chang-ryong) to detain and torture suspected communists and North Korean agents. His government also oversaw several massacres, including the suppression of the Jeju Uprising on Jeju island, of which South Korea's Truth Commission reported 14,373 victims, 86% at the hands of the security forces and 13.9% at the hands of communist rebels, and the Mungyeong massacre.

By early 1950 Rhee had about 30,000 alleged communists in his jails, and had about 300,000 suspected sympathizers enrolled in an official "re-education" movement called the Bodo League. When the Communist army attacked from the North in June, retreating South Korean forces executed the prisoners, along with several tens of thousands of Bodo League members.

Both Rhee and Kim Il-sung wanted to unite the Korean peninsula under their respective governments, but the United States refused to give South Korea any heavy weapons, in order to ensure that its military could only be used for preserving internal order and self-defense. By contrast, Pyongyang was well equipped with Soviet aircraft and tanks. According to John Merrill, "the war was preceded by a major insurgency in the South and serious clashes along the thirty-eighth parallel," and 100,000 people died in "political disturbances, guerrilla warfare, and border clashes".

At the outbreak of hostilities on June 25, 1950, all South Korean resistance at the 38th parallel was overwhelmed by the North Korean offensive within a few hours. By June 26, it was apparent that the Korean People's Army (KPA) would occupy Seoul. Rhee stated, "Every Cabinet member, including myself, will protect the government, and parliament has decided to remain in Seoul. Citizens should not worry and remain in their workplaces." However, Rhee had already left the city with most of his government on June 27. At midnight on June 28, the South Korean military destroyed the Han Bridge, thereby preventing thousands of citizens from fleeing. On June 28, North Korean soldiers occupied Seoul.
During the North Korean occupation of Seoul, Rhee established a temporary government in Busan and created a defensive perimeter along the Naktong Bulge. A series of battles ensued, which would later be known collectively as the Battle of Naktong Bulge. After the Battle of Inchon in September 1950, the North Korean military was routed, and the United Nations (UN)—of whom the largest contingents were the Americans and South Koreans—not only liberated all of South Korea, but overran much of North Korea. In the areas of North Korea taken by the UN forces, elections were supposed to be administered by the United Nations, but instead were taken over and administered by the South Koreans. After the Chinese entered the war in November 1950, the UN forces were thrown into retreat. During this period of crisis, Rhee ordered the December Massacres of 1950.

Hastings notes that, during the war, Rhee's official salary was equal to $37.50 (U.S. dollars) per month. Both at the time and since, there has been much speculation about precisely how Rhee managed to live on a salary equivalent to $37.50 per month. The entire Rhee regime was notorious for its corruption, with everyone in the government from the President downwards stealing as much they possibly could from both the public purse and aid from the United States. The Rhee regime engaged in the "worst excesses of corruption," with the soldiers in the Army of the Republic of Korea (ROK) going unpaid for months as their officers embezzled their pay, equipment provided by the United States being sold on the black market, and the size of the ROK army being bloated by hundreds of thousands of "ghost soldiers" who only existed on paper, allowing their officers to steal pay that would have been due had these soldiers actually existed. The problems with low morale experienced by the ROK army were largely due to the corruption of the Rhee regime. The worst scandal during the war—indeed of the entire Rhee government—was the National Defense Corps Incident. Rhee created the National Defense Corps in December 1950, intended to be a paramilitary militia, comprising men not in the military or police who be drafted into the corps for internal security duties. In the months that followed, thousands of National Defense Corps men either starved or froze to death in their unheated barracks, as the men lacked winter uniforms. Even Rhee could not ignore the deaths of so many of the National Defense Corps and ordered an investigation. It was revealed that commander of the National Defense Corps, General Kim Yun Gun, had stolen millions of American dollars that were intended to heat the barracks and feed and clothe the men. General Kim and five other officers were publicly shot at Daegu on August 12, 1951, following their convictions for corruption.

In the spring of 1951, Rhee—who was upset about MacArthur's dismissal by President Truman—lashed out in a press interview against Britain, whom he blamed for MacArthur's sacking. Rhee was absolutely committed to reunifying Korea under his leadership and strongly supported MacArthur's call for going all-out against China, even at the risk of provoking a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. Rhee declared, "The British troops have outlived their welcome in my country." Shortly thereafter, Rhee told an Australian diplomat about the Australian troops fighting for his country, "They are not wanted here any longer. Tell that to your government. The Australian, Canadian, New Zealand and British troops all represent a government which is now sabotaging the brave American effort to liberate fully and unify my unhappy nation."

Rhee was strongly against the armistice negotiations the U.S. entered into in 1953. Accordingly, in April of the same year, he demanded of President Eisenhower a total withdrawal of his troops from the peninsula if an armistice were to be signed, declaring that the ROK would rather fight on its own than negotiate a cease-fire. He also deliberately carried out some actions that would deter the armistice and reignite conflicts in the region, the most provocative one being his unilateral release of 25,000 prisoners of war in June 1953. Such actions, which hindered the progress of armistice talks, upset China and the North. Moreover, for such unpredictability in his authoritarian leadership, the Truman and Eisenhower administrations considered him one of the “rogue allies” in East Asia and engaged in "powerplay", or the construction of asymmetric alliances, which helped the U.S. maximize economic and political influence over the ROK and increase ROK's dependency on the United States.

On July 27, 1953, at last, “one of the 20th century's most vicious and frustrating wars” came to an end with no apparent victor. Ultimately, the armistice agreement was signed by military commanders from China and the North, with the United Nations Command, led by the U.S., signing “on the behalf of the international community.” Its signatories did not include the ROK, however, as Rhee refused to agree to the armistice, and neither was it supposed to be a permanent cease-fire, as a peace treaty was never signed. Nevertheless, to this very day, the armistice remains the only means for security and peace on the Korean peninsula.

Because of widespread discontent with Rhee's corruption and political repression, it was considered unlikely that Rhee would be re-elected by the National Assembly. To circumvent this, Rhee attempted to amend the constitution to allow him to hold elections for the presidency by direct popular vote. When the Assembly rejected this amendment, Rhee ordered a mass arrest of opposition politicians and then passed the desired amendment in July 1952. During the following presidential election, he received 74% of the vote.

After the war ended in July 1953, South Korea struggled to rebuild following nationwide devastation. The country remained at a Third-World level of development and was heavily reliant on U.S. aid. Rhee was easily re-elected for what should have been the final time in 1956 since the 1948 constitution limited the president to two consecutive terms. However, soon after being sworn in, he had the legislature amend the constitution to allow the incumbent president—himself—to run for an unlimited number of terms.

In 1960, the 84-year-old Rhee won his fourth term in office as President with 90% of the vote. His victory was assured after the main opposition candidate, Cho Byeong-ok, died shortly before the March 15 elections.

Rhee wanted his protégé, Lee Ki-poong, elected as Vice President—a separate office under Korean law at that time. When Lee, who was running against Chang Myon (the ambassador to the United States during the Korean War, a member from the opposition Democratic Party) won the vote with a wide margin, the opposition Democratic Party claimed the election was rigged. This triggered anger among segments of the Korean populace on April 19. When police shot demonstrators in Masan, the student-led April Revolution forced Rhee to resign on April 26.

On April 28, a DC-4 belonging to the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), piloted by Captain Harry B. Cockrell, Jr. and operated by Civil Air Transport, covertly flew Rhee out of South Korea as protesters converged on the Blue House. During the journey, Rhee and Franziska Donner, his Austrian wife, came up to the cockpit to thank the pilot and crew. Rhee's wife offered the pilot a substantial diamond ring in thanks, which was courteously declined. The former president, his wife, and their adopted son subsequently lived in exile in Honolulu, Hawaii.

In February 1933, Rhee met Austrian Franziska Donner in Geneva. At the time, Rhee was participating in a League of Nations meeting and Donner was working as an interpreter. In October 1934, they were married in New York City. She also acted as his secretary.

Rhee died of a stroke on July 19, 1965. A week later, his body was returned to Seoul and buried in the Seoul National Cemetery.

Rhee's former Seoul residence, Ihwajang, is currently used for the presidential memorial museum. The Woo-Nam Presidential Preservation Foundation has been set up to honor his legacy. There is also a memorial museum located in Hwajinpo near Kim Il Sung's cottage.

Syngman Rhee

Syngman Rhee (, ; Lunisolar calendar, 1875 – July 19, 1965) was a South Korean politician, the first and the last Head of State of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea, and President of South Korea from 1948 to 1960. His three-term presidency of South Korea (August 1948 to April 1960) was strongly affected by Cold War tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

He led South Korea through the Korean War. His presidency ended in resignation following popular protests against a disputed election. Rhee was regarded as an anti-Communist authoritarian dictator and is thought to have ordered tens of thousands of extrajudicial killings of suspected communists during the early stages of the Korean War. He died in exile in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Syngman Rhee was born on April 18, 1875; his birthday is also stated as March 26 (the lunar date). Rhee was born in Hwanghae Province into a rural family of modest means as the third son out of three brothers and two sisters. His two older brothers both died in infancy. Rhee's family traced its lineage back to King Taejong of Joseon. He is a 16th-generation descendant of Grand Prince Yangnyeong. In 1877, at the age of two, Rhee and his family moved to Seoul.

In Seoul, he had traditional Confucianism education in various "seodang" in Nakdong () and Dodong (). He was portrayed as a potential candidate for "gwageo", the Korean civil service examination. When Rhee was nine years old, he was rendered virtually blind through smallpox and was cured by Horace Newton Allen, an American medical missionary.

After entering civil service, he was implicated in a plot to remove King Gojong from power through the recruitment of Park Yeong-hyo. As a result, he was imprisoned in the Gyeongmucheong Prison () in January 1899. Other sources place the year arrested as 1897 and 1898.

Rhee attempted to escape on the 20th day of imprisonment but was caught and was sentenced to life imprisonment through the Pyeongniwon (). He was imprisoned in the Hanseong Prison (). In prison, Rhee translated and compiled "The Sino–Japanese War Record" (), wrote "The Spirit of Independence" (), compiled the "New English–Korean Dictionary" () and wrote in the "Imperial Newspaper" (). He was also tortured.

In 1904, Rhee was released from prison at the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War with the help of Min Young-hwan. In November 1904, with the help of Min Yeong-hwan and Han Gyu-seol (), Rhee moved to the United States. In August 1905, Rhee and Yun Byeong-gu () met with the Secretary of State John Hay and U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt at peace talks in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and attempted unsuccessfully to convince the US to help preserve independence for Korea.

Rhee continued to stay in the United States; this move has been described as an "exile." He obtained a Bachelor of Arts from George Washington University in 1907, and a Master of Arts from Harvard University in 1908. In 1910, he obtained a Ph.D. from Princeton University with the thesis "Neutrality as influenced by the United States" ().

In August 1910, he returned to Japanese occupied Korea. He served as a YMCA coordinator and missionary. In 1912, he was implicated in the 105-Man Incident, and was shortly arrested. However, he fled to the United States in 1912 with M. C. Harris's rationale that Rhee was going to participate in the general meeting of Methodists in Minneapolis as the Korean representative.

In March 1925, Rhee was impeached as the president of the Provisional Government in Shanghai over allegations of misuse of power and was removed from office. Nevertheless, he continued to claim the position of President by referring to the Hansung Provisional Government and continued independence activities through the Korean Commission to America and Europe. In the beginning of 1933, he participated in the League of Nations conference in Geneva to bring up the question of Korean independence.

By early 1950 Rhee had about 30,000 alleged communists in his jails, and had about 300,000 suspected sympathizers enrolled in an official "re-education" movement called the Bodo League. When the Communist army attacked from the North in June, retreating South Korean forces executed the prisoners, along with several tens of thousands of Bodo League members.

In 1960, the 84-year-old Rhee won his fourth term in office as President with 90% of the vote. His victory was assured after the main opposition candidate, Cho Byeong-ok, died shortly before the March 15 elections.

In February 1933, Rhee met Austrian Franziska Donner in Geneva. At the time, Rhee was participating in a League of Nations meeting and Donner was working as an interpreter. In October 1934, they were married in New York City. She also acted as his secretary.

Rhee died of a stroke on July 19, 1965. A week later, his body was returned to Seoul and buried in the Seoul National Cemetery.

Rhee's former Seoul residence, Ihwajang, is currently used for the presidential memorial museum. The Woo-Nam Presidential Preservation Foundation has been set up to honor his legacy. There is also a memorial museum located in Hwajinpo near Kim Il Sung's cottage.