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145-542: Before the division of Korea , Pyongyang was the city with the highest number of Christian believers in Korea, and was known as the "Korean Jerusalem". By 1945, nearly 1 ⁄ 6 of its citizens were Christians. Therefore, Pyongyang was made into the only diocese in northern Korea. After the division of Korea, however, the Communist government under Kim Il Sung persecuted Christians as imperialist collaborators and spies; even

290-577: A YMCA coordinator and missionary. In 1912, Rhee 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

435-525: A communist uprising on Jeju Island , and the Mungyeong and Bodo League massacres were committed against suspected communist sympathisers, leaving at least 100,000 people dead. Rhee was president during the outbreak of the Korean War (1950–1953), in which North Korea invaded South Korea. He refused to sign the armistice agreement that ended the war, wishing to have the peninsula reunited by force. After

580-718: A provisional government called the Provisional People's Committee of North Korea was formed under Kim Il Sung. Conflicts and power struggles ensued at the top levels of government in Pyongyang as different aspirants manoeuvred to gain positions of power in the new government. In December 1946, Shtykov and two other generals designed the election results of the Assembly for the Provisional Committee without any Korean input. The generals decided "exact distribution of seats among

725-863: A stalemate and has left Korea divided by the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) up to the present day. During the April 2018 inter-Korean summit , the Panmunjom Declaration for Peace, Prosperity and Reunification of the Korean Peninsula was adopted between Kim Jong Un , the Supreme Leader of North Korea , and Moon Jae-in , the President of South Korea . During the September 2018 inter-Korean summit , several actions were taken toward reunification along

870-726: A brief 1910–12 return to Korea, he moved to Hawaii in 1913. In 1919, following the Japanese suppression of the March First Movement , Rhee joined the right-leaning Korean Provisional Government in exile in Shanghai. From 1918 to 1924, he served as the first President of the Korean Provisional Government until he was impeached in 1925. He then returned to the United States, where he advocated and fundraised for Korean independence. In 1939, he moved to Washington, DC. In 1945, he

1015-590: 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

1160-540: A distant cousin of Rhee; but Lee committed suicide in 1960. After Rhee was exiled, Rhee In-soo, who is a descendant of Prince Yangnyeong just like Rhee, was adopted by him as his heir. 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. Rhee imbued South Korea with

1305-571: A five-year, four-power Korean trusteeship. However, with the onset of the Cold War and other factors both international and domestic, including Korean opposition to the trusteeship, negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union over the next two years regarding the implementation of the trusteeship failed, thus effectively nullifying the only agreed-upon framework for the re-establishment of an independent and unified Korean state. With this,

1450-567: 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 US 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

1595-506: A legacy of authoritarian rule that lasted with only a few short breaks until 1988. One of those breaks came when the country adopted a parliamentary system with a figurehead president in response to Rhee's abuses. This Second Republic would only last a year before being overthrown in a 1961 military coup . In spite of this, however, the ensuing president Park Chung Hee expressed criticism of Rhee's regime, in particular for its lack of focus on economic and industrial development. Beginning with

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1740-426: A line that passed through Pyongyang, far to the north of the front line. The Chinese and North Koreans eventually agreed to a border on the military line of contact rather than the 38th parallel, but this disagreement led to a tortuous and drawn-out negotiating process. The Korean Armistice Agreement was signed after three years of war. The two sides agreed to create a 4-kilometre-wide (2.5-mile) buffer zone between

1885-568: A local branch of the Committee for the Preparation of Korean Independence operating under the leadership of veteran nationalist Cho Man-sik . The Soviet Army allowed these "People's Committees" (which were of varying political composition) to function. In September 1945, the Soviet administration issued its own currency, the "Red Army won". As a result of the destruction caused to the Soviet Union during

2030-565: A pirate radio broadcast, alleged the creation of a " Dongjin Republic " ( 동진공화국 ; 東震共和國 ), with Syngman Rhee as president, Kim Ku as prime minister, Kim Il Sung as minister of military affairs, and Lyuh as foreign minister. On 16 August, young officers of the Japanese military in Seoul fiercely protested the decisions of the colonial government. Despite assurances from the colonial government to

2175-454: A prelude to a permanent division of the country. General strikes in protest against the decision began in February 1948. In April, Jeju islanders rose up against the looming division of the country and full-scale rebellion developed. South Korean troops were sent to repress the rebellion. The repression of the uprising escalated from August 1948, following South Korean independence. The rebellion

2320-535: A resolution on 14 November 1947, declaring that free elections should be held, foreign troops should be withdrawn, and a UN commission for Korea, the United Nations Temporary Commission on Korea (UNTCOK), should be created. The Soviet Union boycotted the voting and did not consider the resolution to be binding, arguing that the UN could not guarantee fair elections. In the absence of Soviet co-operation, it

2465-439: A rural family of modest means. Rhee's family traced its lineage back to King Taejong of Joseon . He was a 16th-generation descendant of Grand Prince Yangnyeong through his second son, Yi Heun who was known as Jangpyeong Dojeong (장평도정;長平都正). This case makes him a distant relative of the mid-Joseon military officer, Yi Sun-sin (not be confused with Admiral Yi Sun-sin ). His mother was a member of Gimhae Kim clan . In 1877, at

2610-547: A smaller scale than the Soviets. The racism amongst Americans against Koreans, however, was widespread. In 1946, Colonel-General Terentii Shtykov took charge of the administration and began to lobby the Soviet government for funds to support the ailing economy. Shtykov's strong support of Kim Il Sung, who had spent the last years of the war training with Soviet troops in Manchuria , was decisive in his rise to power. In February 1946

2755-707: A split in the community. In December 1918, he was chosen, along with Dr. Henry Chung DeYoung, as a Korean representative to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 by the Korean National Association but they failed to obtain permission to travel to Paris. After giving up travelling to Paris, Rhee held the First Korean Congress in Philadelphia with Seo Jae-pil to make plans for future political activism concerning Korean independence. Following

2900-697: Is not affiliated with the Holy See . Because of the strained relations with the Holy See, the cathedral currently has no bishop or even an ordained priest. There is no resident priest either. Masses are occasionally offered by foreign clergy when they visit Pyongyang. In 2015, an agreement was reached between the Korean Catholic Association and the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Korea , allowing South Korean priests and bishops to celebrate Mass and administer

3045-657: The 38th parallel was overwhelmed by the North Korean offensive within a few hours. By 26 June, it was apparent that the Korean People's Army (KPA) would occupy Seoul. Rhee stated, "Every Cabinet member, including myself, will protect the government." At midnight on 28 June, the South Korean military destroyed the Han Bridge, preventing thousands of citizens from fleeing. On 28 June, North Korean soldiers occupied Seoul. During

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3190-602: 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

3335-527: The Blue House . During the flight, Rhee and Francesca Donner , his Austrian wife, went to the cockpit to thank the pilot and crew. Rhee's wife offered the pilot a valuable diamond ring in thanks, which was courteously declined. The former president, his wife, and their adopted son subsequently lived in exile in Honolulu, Hawaii. Rhee died of stroke complications in Honolulu on 19 July 1965. A week later, his body

3480-527: The Bodo League . When the North Korean army attacked 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, to ensure that its military could only be used for preserving internal order and self-defense. By contrast, Pyongyang

3625-610: The CIA covertly evacuating him on 28 April by helicopter. He spent the rest of his life in exile in Honolulu , Hawaii, and died of a stroke in 1965. Syngman Rhee was born on 26 March 1875, in Daegyeong, a village in Pyeongsan County , Hwanghae Province , Joseon . Rhee was the third but only surviving son out of three brothers and two sisters (his two older brothers both died in infancy) in

3770-545: The Cairo Conference in November 1943, in the middle of World War II , Franklin D. Roosevelt , Winston Churchill and Chiang Kai-shek agreed that Japan should lose all the territories it had conquered by force. At the end of the conference, the three powers declared that they were "mindful of the enslavement of the people of Korea, ... determined that in due course Korea shall become free and independent." Roosevelt floated

3915-577: The Imperial Newspaper ( 제국신문 ; 帝國新聞 ). He was also tortured . Examples of this included Japanese officers lighting oil paper which were pushed up his fingernails, and then smashing them one-by-one. Inactive or defunct Inactive or defunct 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

4060-707: The March First Movement in March 1919, Rhee discovered that he was appointed to the positions of foreign minister for the Korean National Assembly  [ ko ] (a group in Vladivostok ), prime minister for the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea in Shanghai, and a position equivalent to president for the Hanseong Provisional Government  [ ko ] . In June, in

4205-541: 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. At the time of its creation in 1948, South Korea

4350-676: The Soviet Union and the United States resulted in the creation of two states: the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in the north and the Republic of Korea in the south. The DPRK inherited most of the industry, mining, and more than 80% of electricity generation. In contrast, the ROK owned the majority of productive agricultural areas, but these were barely enough to feed a densely populated and rapidly growing population. The period after

4495-458: The Third and Fourth Republic . Rhee began to be reevaluated after democratization in 1987, and in particular came to be associated with the so-called New Right movement, some members of which have argued that Rhee's achievements have been wrongly undervalued, and that he should be viewed positively as the founding father of the Republic of Korea. An early and prominent example of such literature

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4640-684: 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 ( 대한민국 제헌국회 ; 大韓民國制憲國會 ) and

4785-658: The first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima , but before the second bomb was dropped at Nagasaki , the USSR declared war on Japan . As war began, the Commander-in-Chief of Soviet Forces in the Far East, Marshal Aleksandr Vasilevsky , called on Koreans to rise up against Japan, saying "a banner of liberty and independence is rising in Seoul ". Soviet troops advanced rapidly, and the U.S. government became anxious that they would occupy

4930-402: The war was marked by a very slow recovery, despite South Korea being one of the largest per capita recipients of foreign aid . The lack of central planning, minimal investment in infrastructure, poor use of aid funds, government corruption, political instability, and the threat of renewed war with the North made the country very unattractive to both domestic and foreign investors. Additionally,

5075-568: The " Republic of Korea " ( Daehan Minguk ) formally took over power from the U.S. military, with Syngman Rhee as the first president. USAMGIK was formally dissolved and the Korean Military Advisory Group was formed to train and provide support for the South Korean army. U.S forces started to withdraw in a process that was completed by 1949. In the North, the " Democratic People's Republic of Korea " ( Chosŏn Minjujuŭi Inmin Konghwaguk )

5220-529: The "rogue allies" in East Asia and engaged in " powerplay ", or the construction of asymmetric alliances, which helped the US maximize economic and political influence over the ROK and increase ROK's dependency on the United States. On 27 July 1953, at last, "one of the 20th century's most vicious and frustrating wars" came to an end with no apparent victor. Ultimately, the Korean Armistice Agreement

5365-797: 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 , Hawaii, and took over the Han-in Jung-ang Academy ( 한인중앙학원 ; 韓人中央學園 ). In Hawaii, he began to publish the Pacific Ocean Magazine ( 태평양잡지 ; 太平洋雜誌 ). In 1918, he established the Han-in Christian Church ( 한인기독교회 ; 韓人基督敎會 ). During this period, he opposed Park Yong-man's stance on foreign relations of Korea and brought about

5510-658: The Allied Powers ended up being in charge of southern Korea from 1945 to 1948 due to the lack of clear orders or initiative from Washington, D.C. There was no plan or guideline given to MacArthur from the Joint Chiefs of Staff or the State Department on how to rule Korea. Hodge directly reported to MacArthur and GHQ (General Headquarters) in Tokyo, not to Washington, D.C., during the military occupation. The three year period of

5655-422: The Allies agreed that the Soviet Union, the US, the Republic of China, and Britain would take part in a trusteeship over Korea for up to five years in the lead-up to independence. This invigorated the Anti-trusteeship Movement  [ ko ] , which demanded the immediate independence of the peninsula. However, the Korean Communist Party , which was closely aligned with the Soviet Communist party, supported

5800-404: The Americans in the military or the State Department in the Far East in late 1945 even spoke Korean, leading to jokes among Koreans that Korean translators were really running southern Korea. The Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea , which had operated from China, sent a delegation with three interpreters to Hodge, but he refused to meet with them. Likewise, Hodge refused to recognize

5945-421: The Bodo League's members were innocent farmers and civilians who were forced into membership. The registered members or their families were executed at the beginning of the Korean War. On 24 December 1949, South Korean Army massacred Mungyeong citizens who were suspected communist sympathizers or their family and affixed blame to communists. This division of Korea, after more than a millennium of being unified,

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6090-404: The CPKI of minimal interference from the Japanese in their affairs, the military declared that they would firmly punish any unrest, to the protest of the CPKI. On 6 September a congress of representatives was convened in Seoul and founded the short-lived People's Republic of Korea (PRK). In the spirit of consensus, conservative elder statesman Syngman Rhee, who was living in exile in the U.S.,

6235-474: The DMZ to help ensure the end of hostility on land, sea and air. The buffer zones stretch from the north of Deokjeok Island to the south of Cho Island in the West Sea and the north of Sokcho city and south of Tongchon County in the East (Yellow) Sea. In addition, no fly zones were established. Syngman Rhee Syngman Rhee ( Korean :  이승만 ; Hanja :  李承晚 , pronounced [iː.sɯŋ.man] ; 26 March 1875 – 19 July 1965)

6380-425: The Imperial Legislature, the Jungchuwon ( 중추원 ; 中樞院 ). After entering civil service, Rhee was implicated in a plot to remove King Gojong from power through the recruitment of Park Yeong-hyo . As a result, Rhee was imprisoned in the Gyeongmucheong Prison ( 경무청 ; 警務廳 ) in January 1899. Other sources place the year arrested as 1897 and 1898. Rhee attempted to escape on the 20th day of imprisonment but

6525-417: The Joint Commission in September 1947, Soviet delegate Terentii Shtykov proposed that both Soviet and US troops withdraw and give the Korean people the opportunity to form their own government. This was rejected by the US. With the failure of the Joint Commission to make progress, the US brought the problem before the United Nations in September 1947. The Soviet Union opposed UN involvement. The UN passed

6670-429: The Korean provisional government. As part of this plan, he cooperated with anti-Japan strategies conducted by the US Office of Strategic Services (OSS). 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. Defunct After the surrender of Japan on 2 September 1945, Rhee

6815-452: The Korean question was referred to the United Nations . In 1948, after the UN failed to produce an outcome acceptable to the Soviet Union, UN-supervised elections were held in the US-occupied south only. Syngman Rhee won the election, while Kim Il Sung consolidated his position as the leader of Soviet-occupied northern Korea. This led to the establishment of the Republic of Korea in southern Korea on 15 August 1948, promptly followed by

6960-452: The Koreans by the Allies. The general public did not become aware of the division of Korea until around when the Soviets entered Pyongyang. Meanwhile in Seoul, beginning in early to mid August, General Nobuyuki Abe , the last Japanese Governor-General of Korea , began contacting Koreans to offer them a leading role in the hand-over of power. He first offered the position to Song Jin-woo , the former head of The Dong-A Ilbo newspaper, who

7105-399: The National Defense Corps in December 1950, intended to be a paramilitary militia, comprising men not in the military or police who were drafted into the corps for internal security duties. In the months that followed, tens of thousands of National Defense Corps men either starved or froze to death in their unheated barracks, as the men lacked winter uniforms and food. Even Rhee could not ignore

7250-455: 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 Ku's assassination. On 26 June 1949, Kim Ku was assassinated by Ahn Doo-hee , who confessed that he assassinated Kim Ku by

7395-417: The North Korean forces back behind the border. However, the North overran 90% of the south until a counter-attack by US-led forces. As the North Korean forces were driven from the south, South Korean forces crossed the 38th parallel on 1 October, and American and other UN forces followed a week later. This was despite warnings from the People's Republic of China that it would intervene if American troops crossed

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7540-473: 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 Command (UNC) and South Korean forces not only liberated all of South Korea, but overran much of North Korea. In

7685-410: The 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

7830-403: The Park era, the standing of Rhee and his "diplomatic" faction of the Korean independence movement fell in the public consciousness in favor of Kim Ku and Ahn Jung-geun , who embodied the "armed resistance" faction of the right-wing independence movement, who were preferred by Park; Kim's son Kim Shin and Ahn's nephew Ahn Chun-saeng  [ ko ] both cooperated with the Park regimes of

7975-415: The Second World War, the Soviets lacked the resources and will to create a full satellite state in Korea and Koreans enjoyed a higher level of autonomy than Soviet-controlled Eastern European states. The Soviets had brought with them a number of Koreans who had been living in the Soviet Union, some of whom were members of the Soviet Communist Party, with the intention of creating a socialist state. Unlike in

8120-413: The Soviet Union proposed Lyuh Woon-hyung as the leader of a unified Korea, but this was rejected by the US. Meanwhile, the division between the two zones deepened. The difference in policy between the occupying powers led to a polarization of politics, and a transfer of population between North and South. In May 1946 it was made illegal to cross the 38th parallel without a permit. At the final meeting of

8265-408: The Swiss and Swedish armed forces have been members of the NNSC stationed near the DMZ. Poland and Czechoslovakia were the neutral nations chosen by North Korea, but North Korea expelled their observers after those countries embraced capitalism. Since the war, Korea has remained divided along the DMZ. North and South have remained in a state of conflict, with the opposing regimes both claiming to be

8410-439: The U.S. Army occupation was chaotic and tumultuous compared to the very peaceful and stable U.S. occupation of Japan from 1945 to 1952. Hodge and his XXIV Corps were trained for combat, not for diplomacy and negotiating with the many diverse political groups that emerged in post-colonial southern Korea: former Japanese collaborators, pro-Soviet communists, anti-Soviet communists, right wing groups, and Korean nationalists. None of

8555-426: The U.S., and a permanent U.S. garrison in the South. As dictated by the terms of the Korean Armistice, a Geneva Conference was held in 1954 on the Korean question. Despite efforts by many of the nations involved, the conference ended without a declaration for a unified Korea. The Armistice established a Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission (NNSC) which was tasked to monitor the Armistice. Since 1953, members of

8700-410: The US, became the most prominent politician in the South. Rhee pressured the American government to abandon negotiations for a trusteeship and create an independent Republic of Korea in the south. On 19 July 1947, Lyuh Woon-hyung , the last senior politician committed to left-right dialogue, was assassinated by a 19-year-old man named Han Chigeun, a recent refugee from North Korea and an active member of

8845-452: The United States after his exile following the Gapsin Coup . He worked as the head and the main writer of the newspapers Hyŏpsŏnghoe Hoebo  [ ko ] and Maeil Sinmun  [ ko ] , the latter being the first daily newspaper in Korea. During this period, Rhee earned money by teaching the Korean language to Americans. In 1895, Rhee graduated from Pai Chai School. Rhee became involved in Anti-Japanese circles after

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8990-423: The United States' proposal in the 1945 Moscow Conference 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 US-Soviet Joint Commission ( 미소공동위원회 ; 美蘇共同委員會 ) as well as the negotiations with the north. For decades, the Korean independence movement was torn by factionalism and in-fighting, and most of

9135-424: 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 PhD from Princeton University with the thesis "Neutrality as influenced by the United States" ( 미국의 영향하에 발달된 국제법상 중립 ). In August 1910, Rhee returned to Japanese-occupied Korea . He served as

9280-455: 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 25 August, Rhee established the Korean Commission to America and Europe ( 구미위원부 ; 歐美委員部 ) in Washington, DC. On 6 September, 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

9425-405: The age of two, Rhee and his family moved to Seoul , where he had traditional Confucian education in various seodang in Nakdong ( 낙동 ; 駱洞 ) and Dodong ( 도동 ; 桃洞 ). When Rhee was six years old a smallpox infection rendered him virtually blind until he was treated with western medicine, possibly by a Japanese doctor. Rhee was portrayed as a potential candidate for the gwageo ,

9570-436: The area of responsibility of American troops". He noted that he was "faced with the scarcity of US forces immediately available, and time and space factors, which would make it difficult to reach very far north, before Soviet troops could enter the area". To the surprise of the Americans, the Soviet Union immediately accepted the division. The agreement was incorporated into General Order No. 1 (approved on 17 August 1945) for

9715-434: The areas of North Korea taken by the UNC forces, elections were supposed to be administered by the United Nations but instead were taken over and administered by the South Koreans. Rhee insisted on Bukjin Tongil – ending war by conquering North Korea, but after the Chinese entered the war in November 1950, the UNC forces were thrown into retreat. During this period of crisis, Rhee ordered the December massacres of 1950. Rhee

9860-407: 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

10005-409: The border, such as the dismantling of guard posts and the creation of buffer zones to prevent clashes. On 12 December 2018, soldiers from both Koreas crossed the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) into the opposition countries for the first time in history. In October 2024, the North Korean constitution was amended to remove references to reunification and labelled South Korea an "enemy state". This

10150-483: The capital was awash with waves of rumors, some of which may have been spread by Japanese soldiers to distract the public while they prepared to leave the peninsula. On multiple occasions, rumors that Soviet soldiers were about to arrive via rail to Seoul caused either mass panic or, for some left-leaning Koreans, celebration. Even the Soviet Ambassador in Seoul was confused and phoned around to check whether Soviet soldiers were coming. Another rumor, spread both by fliers and

10295-456: The chagrin of Song. That day, Lyuh announced to the public that Japan had accepted the terms of surrender laid out in the Potsdam Declaration , to the jubilation of the Koreans and the horror of the around 777,000 Japanese residents of the peninsula. With a budget of 20,000,000 yen from the colonial government, Lyuh set about organizing the Committee for the Preparation of Korean Independence  [ ko ] (CPKI). The CPKI began taking over

10440-706: The charges by disguising him as her patient and go to his sister's house. Rhee acted as one of the forerunners of the Korean independence movement through grassroots organizations such as the Hyeopseong Club and the Independence Club . Rhee organized several protests against corruption and the influences of the Japan and the Russian Empire . As a result, in November 1898, Rhee attained the rank of Uigwan ( 의관 ; 議官 ) in

10585-618: The commission declared that it was "far from satisfied" with the election. Unrest continued in the South. In October 1948, the Yeosu–Suncheon rebellion took place, in which some regiments rejected the suppression of the Jeju uprising and rebelled against the government. In 1949, the Syngman Rhee government established the Bodo League in order to keep an eye on its political opponents. The majority of

10730-527: The communist government; he later disappeared. His death was acknowledged by the Holy See in 2013, although the exact date of death is unknown. In 1988 a new cathedral was opened in East Pyongyang. At the same time, two nondenominational Protestant churches were opened in an effort by the government to show religious freedom. The cathedral is operated by the Korean Catholic Association and

10875-531: The corresponding vice-presidential election by a wide margin, the opposition rejected the result as rigged, which triggered protests. These escalated into the student-led April Revolution , in which police shot demonstrators in Masan . The resulting scandal caused Rhee to resign on 26 April, ushering in the Second Republic of Korea . Despite this, protesters continued to converge on the presidential palace , leading to

11020-468: The deaths of so many and ordered an investigation. It was revealed that the 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. Kim and five other officers were publicly shot at Daegu on 12 August 1951, following their convictions for corruption. In the spring of 1951, Rhee—who

11165-434: The elections in the south, as did other politicians and parties. The conference called for a united government and the withdrawal of foreign troops. Syngman Rhee and General Hodge denounced the conference. Kim Koo was assassinated the following year. On 10 May 1948 the south held a general election . It took place amid widespread violence and intimidation, as well as a boycott by opponents of Syngman Rhee. On 15 August,

11310-616: The end of the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895, which saw Joseon passed from the Chinese sphere of influence to the Japanese . Rhee was implicated in a plot to take revenge for the assassination of Empress Myeongseong , the wife of King Gojong who was assassinated by Japanese agents (known in Korean history as the Chunsaengmun incident  [ ko ] ); however, a female American physician Georgiana E. Whiting helped him avoid

11455-442: The establishment of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in northern Korea on 9 September 1948. The United States supported the South, the Soviet Union supported the North, and each government claimed sovereignty over the whole Korean peninsula. On 25 June 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea in an attempt to re-unify the peninsula under its communist rule. The subsequent Korean War , which lasted from 1950 to 1953, ended with

11600-475: The famous Christian Nationalist Cho Man-sik , initially more influential than Kim, was arrested and shot. Much of the Catholic community was either killed or imprisoned, and many more fled south. The original cathedral, built of red brick in the late 19th century, was destroyed in the Korean War by American forces. Earlier, in 1949, the last formal Bishop of Pyongyang, Francis Hong Yong-ho , had been imprisoned by

11745-406: The fear of recreating a colonial dependence on Japan prevented Seoul from opening the country to trade and investment with its prosperous neighbor. 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 US aid. Rhee was easily re-elected for what should have been

11890-403: The fighting ended, South Korea's economy lagged behind North Korea's and was heavily reliant on US aid. After being re-elected in 1956 , he pushed to modify the constitution to remove the two-term limit, despite opposition protests. He was reelected uncontested in March 1960 , after his opponent Chough Pyung-ok died from cancer before the election took place. After Rhee's ally Lee Ki-poong won

12035-417: 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 to run for an unlimited number of terms, despite protests from the opposition. In March 1960 , the 84-year-old Rhee won his fourth term in office as president. His victory was assured with 100% of

12180-488: The former village leaders were eliminated as a political force without resort to bloodshed, but extreme care was taken to preclude their return to power." The farmers responded positively; many collaborators, former landowners and Christians fled to the south, where some of them obtained positions in the new South Korean government. According to the U.S. military government, 400,000 northern Koreans went south as refugees. Key industries were nationalized. The economic situation

12325-462: 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, DC, 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,

12470-563: The help of Min Yeong-hwan and Han Gyu-seol ( 한규설 ; 韓圭卨 ), Rhee moved to the United States. In August 1905, Rhee and Yun Byeong-gu ( 윤병구 ; 尹炳求 ) met with the Secretary of State John Hay and US 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

12615-756: The idea of a trusteeship over Korea but did not obtain agreement from the other powers. Roosevelt raised the idea with Joseph Stalin at the Tehran Conference in November 1943 and the Yalta Conference in February 1945. Stalin did not disagree but advocated that the period of trusteeship be short. At the Tehran and Yalta Conferences, Stalin promised to join his allies in the Pacific War in two to three months after victory in Europe . On 8 August 1945, two days after

12760-514: The last days of the war, the United States proposed dividing the Korean peninsula into two occupation zones (a U.S. and Soviet one) with the 38th parallel as the dividing line. The Soviets accepted their proposal and agreed to divide Korea. It was understood that this division was only a temporary arrangement until the trusteeship could be implemented. In December 1945, the Moscow Conference of Foreign Ministers resulted in an agreement on

12905-502: The late 1950s growing political instability and public opposition . Born in Hwanghae Province , Joseon, Rhee attended an American Methodist school, where he converted to Christianity . He became a Korean independence activist and was imprisoned for his activities in 1899. After his release in 1904, he moved to the United States, where he obtained degrees from American universities and met President Theodore Roosevelt . After

13050-443: 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

13195-541: The legitimate government of the whole country. Sporadic negotiations have failed to produce lasting progress towards reunification. On 27 April 2018 North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in met in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). The Panmunjom Declaration signed by both leaders called for the end of longstanding military activities near the border and the reunification of Korea. On 1 November 2018, buffer zones were established across

13340-531: The loot back home. In addition to looting, Soviet soldiers were accused of rape, although the accusations were inflated in the south by fleeing Japanese colonials. Korean peasants sometimes joined the looting, indicating that the looting was based in class disparities, rather than racial disparities. These abuses lessened after the arrival of military police in January 1946. On the southern peninsula, American soldiers also committed depredations, both rape and looting, on

13485-522: The many poor civilians and agricultural labourers under the people's committees, a nationwide mass campaign broke the control of the old landed classes. Landlords were allowed to keep only the same amount of land as poor civilians who had once rented their land, thereby making for a far more equal distribution of land. The North Korean land reform was achieved in a less violent way than in China or in Vietnam . Official American sources stated: "From all accounts,

13630-571: The military government. This uprising was quickly defeated, and failed to prevent scheduled October elections for the South Korean Interim Legislative Assembly. The opening of the Assembly was delayed to December to investigate widespread allegations of electoral fraud. Ardent anti-communist Syngman Rhee , who had been the first president of the Provisional Government and later worked as a pro-Korean lobbyist in

13775-533: The nationalist right-wing group, the White Shirts Society . USAMGIK and later the newly formed South Korean government faced a number of left-wing insurgencies, some supported by North Korea, that were eventually suppressed. Over the course of the next few years, between 30,000 and 100,000 people were killed. Most casualties resulted from the Jeju Uprising . In December 1945, at the Moscow Conference ,

13920-463: The newly formed People's Republic of Korea and its People's Committees, and outlawed it on 12 December. Japanese civilians were repatriated, including nearly all industrial managers and technicians; over 500,000 by December 1945 and 786,000 by August 1946. Severe price inflation occurred in the disrupted economy, until in summer 1946 rationing and price controls were imposed. In September 1946, thousands of laborers and peasants rose up against

14065-626: The opposition Democratic Party claimed the election was rigged . This triggered anger among segments of the Korean populace on 19 April. When police shot demonstrators in Masan , the student-led April Revolution forced Rhee to resign on 26 April. On 28 April 1960, 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

14210-472: The order of Kim Chang-ryong . Ahn Doo-hee was described by the British historian Max Hastings as one of Rhee's "creatures". It soon became apparent that Rhee's style of government was rigidly 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

14355-499: The parallel. As it occupied the north, the Republic of Korea, in turn, attempted to unify the country under its regime, with the Korean National Police enforcing political indoctrination. As US-led forces pushed into the north, China unleashed a counter-attack which drove them back into the south. In 1951, the front line stabilized near the 38th parallel, and both sides began to consider an armistice. Rhee, however, demanded

14500-405: The parties, the number of women members, and, more broadly, the precise social composition of the legislature." The original 1948 North Korean constitution was primarily written by Stalin and Shtykov. In March 1946 the provisional government instituted a sweeping land-reform program: land belonging to Japanese and collaborator landowners was divided and redistributed to poor farmers. Organizing

14645-588: The people of Korea, announcing U.S. military control over Korea south of the 38th parallel and establishing English as the official language during military control. That same day, he announced that Lieutenant General John R. Hodge was to administer Korean affairs. Hodge landed in Incheon with his troops on 8 September 1945, marking the beginning of the United States Army Military Government in Korea (USAMGIK). MacArthur as Supreme Commander for

14790-633: The position of president by referring to the Hanseong 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, DC. He focused on writing

14935-541: The return to Korea, he assumed the posts of president of the Independence Promotion Central Committee ( 독립촉성중앙위원회 ; 獨立促成中央協議會 ), chairman of the Korean People's Representative Democratic Legislature , and president of the Headquarters for Unification ( 민족통일총본부 ; 民族統一總本部 ). At this point, he was strongly anti-communist and opposed foreign intervention; he opposed the Soviet Union and

15080-605: The sacraments in the Cathedral on major feast days. There is a noodle factory associated with the church that receives financial support from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seoul and Catholic Koreans in the United States . Division of Korea The division of Korea de facto began on 2 September 1945, when Japan signed the surrender document , thus ending the Pacific Theater of World War II . It

15225-413: The same parallel. Rusk later said that had he known, he "almost surely" would have chosen a different line. The division placed sixteen million Koreans in the American zone and nine million in the Soviet zone. Rusk observed, "even though it was further north than could be realistically reached by US forces, in the event of Soviet disagreement ... we felt it important to include the capital of Korea in

15370-469: The security situation in the city and coordinating with local governments throughout the peninsula. However, the organization ended up being composed of mostly left-leaning communists, which infuriated Song even more. Lyuh attempted on multiple occasions to convince Song to join or support the CPKI, but their meetings reportedly ended in angry arguments each time. For the weeks before the American arrival in Seoul,

15515-559: The size of the 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 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

15660-635: The south, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea attempted to unify Korea under its regime, initiating the nationalisation of industry, land reform, and the restoration of the People's Committees. While UN intervention was conceived as restoring the border at the 38th parallel, Syngman Rhee argued that the attack of the North had obliterated the boundary. Similarly UN Commander in Chief, General Douglas MacArthur stated that he intended to unify Korea, not just drive

15805-466: The south, the former Japanese occupying authorities offered virtually no assistance to the Soviets, and even destroyed factories, mines and official records. After the massive loss of troops in Europe, the Soviet army recruited new soldiers, who were badly equipped when they landed in Korea, some even lacking shoes and uniforms. During the Soviet occupation, they lived off the Korean land, and looted Japanese colonials and Korean capitalists, sending part of

15950-436: The states, known as the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). This new border, reflecting the territory held by each side at the end of the war, crossed the 38th parallel diagonally. Rhee refused to accept the armistice and continued to urge the reunification of the country by force. Despite attempts by both sides to reunify the country, the war perpetuated the division of Korea and led to a permanent alliance between South Korea and

16095-514: 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

16240-477: The surrender of Japan. Soviet forces began amphibious landings in Korea by 14 August and rapidly took over the northeast of the country, and on 16 August they landed at Wonsan . By 24 August, the Red Army reached Pyongyang , the second largest city in the Korean Peninsula after Seoul. Throughout August, there was a mix of celebration, confusion, and conflict, mainly caused by the lack of information provided to

16385-528: The traditional Korean civil service examination , but in 1894 reforms abolished the gwageo system, and in April he enrolled in the Paechae School  [ ko ] , an American Methodist school, where he converted to Christianity. Rhee studied English and sinhakmun ( 신학문 ; 新學問 ; lit.  new subjects). Near the end of 1895, he joined a Hyeopseong (Mutual Friendship) Club ( 협성회 ; 協成會 ) created by Seo Jae-pil , who returned from

16530-406: The trusteeship. According to historian Fyodor Tertitskiy, documentation from 1945 suggests the Soviet government initially had no plans for a permanent division. A Soviet-US Joint Commission  [ ko ] met in 1946 and 1947 to work towards a unified administration, but failed to make progress due to increasing Cold War antagonism and to Korean opposition to the trusteeship. In 1946,

16675-466: The vote after the main opposition candidate, Cho Byeong-ok , died shortly before the 15 March 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,

16820-414: The vote; the second candidate, Kim Ku , received 6.7% of the vote. On 15 August the Republic of Korea was formally established in the south, and Rhee was inaugurated as its first president. The next month, on 9 September, the north also proclaimed statehood as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea . Rhee's relations with the chinilpa Korean elites who had collaborated with the Japanese were, in

16965-509: The war continue until Korea was unified under his leadership. The Communist side supported an armistice line being based on the 38th parallel, but the United Nations supported a line based on the territory held by each side, which was militarily defensible. The UN position, formulated by the Americans, went against the consensus leading up to the negotiations. Initially, the Americans proposed

17110-589: The whole of Korea. On 10 August 1945 two young officers – Dean Rusk and Charles Bonesteel – were assigned to define an American occupation zone. Working on extremely short notice and completely unprepared, they used a National Geographic map to decide on the 38th parallel as the dividing line. They chose it because it divided the country approximately in half but would place the capital Seoul under American control. No experts on Korea were consulted. The two men were unaware that forty years before, Japan and pre-revolutionary Russia had discussed sharing Korea along

17255-537: 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

17400-451: Was a South Korean politician who served as the first president of South Korea from 1948 to 1960. Rhee is also known by his art name Unam ( 우남 ; 雩南 ). Rhee was also the first and last president of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea from 1919 to his impeachment in 1925 and from 1947 to 1948. As president of South Korea, Rhee's government was characterised by authoritarianism, limited economic development , and in

17545-441: 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. Hastings notes that, during the war, Rhee's official salary was equal to $ 37.50 per month. Both at the time and since, there has been much speculation about precisely how Rhee managed to live on this amount. The entire Rhee regime

17690-416: Was among the poorest countries in the world. Twelve years later, in 1960, it held this position with a per capita income similar to that of Haiti . Although South Korea was predominantly an agricultural society that had experienced some industrialization during the Japanese colonial rule from 1910 to 1945, mainly in the northern provinces, it faced significant challenges. The division of Korea in 1945 by

17835-582: Was caught and was sentenced to life imprisonment through the Pyeongniwon ( 평리원 ; 平理院 ). He was imprisoned in the Hanseong Prison ( 한성감옥서 ; 漢城監獄署 ). In prison, Rhee translated and compiled The Sino–Japanese War Record ( 청일전기 ; 淸日戰紀 ), wrote The Spirit of Independence ( 독립정신 ; 獨立精神 ), compiled the New English–Korean Dictionary ( 신영한사전 ; 新英韓辭典 ) and wrote in

17980-472: 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 17 July 1948. On 20 July 1948, Rhee was elected president of the Republic of Korea in the 1948 South Korean presidential election with 92.3% of

18125-438: Was decided to hold UN-supervised elections in the south only. This was in defiance of the report of the chairman of the commission, K. P. S. Menon , who had argued against a separate election. Some UNTCOK delegates felt that the conditions in the south gave unfair advantage to right-wing candidates, but they were overruled. The decision to proceed with separate elections was unpopular among many Koreans, who rightly saw it as

18270-483: Was declared on 9 September, with Kim Il Sung as prime minister. On 12 December 1948, the United Nations General Assembly accepted the report of UNTCOK and declared the Republic of Korea to be the "only lawful government in Korea". However, none of the members of UNTCOK considered that the election had established a legitimate national parliament. The Australian government, which had a representative on

18415-504: Was flown to Tokyo aboard a US military aircraft. Over the objections of the Department of State, the US military government allowed Rhee to return to Korea by providing him with a passport in October 1945, despite the refusal of the Department of State 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

18560-464: Was largely defeated by May 1949 and 25,000 to 30,000 people had been killed in the conflict, and 70% of the villages were burned by the South Korean troops. The uprising flared up again with the outbreak of the Korean War. In April 1948, a conference of organizations from the north and the south met in Pyongyang . The southern politicians Kim Koo and Kim Kyu-sik attended the conference and boycotted

18705-510: Was nearly as difficult in the north as it was in the south, as the Japanese had concentrated agriculture and service industries in the south and heavy industry in the north. Soviet forces were withdrawn on 10 December 1948. With the American government fearing Soviet expansion, and the Japanese authorities in Korea warning of a power vacuum, the embarkation date of the US occupation force was brought forward three times. On 7 September 1945, General Douglas MacArthur issued Proclamation No. 1 to

18850-632: Was nominated as president. Song announced his own National Foundation Preparation Committee  [ ko ] (NFPC) on 7 September to directly counter the PRK. However, the NFPC had a minimal role in Korean politics and ended up aligning itself with the KPG after its return. The Soviets received little resistance from the Japanese during their advance across northern Korea and were aided by various Korean groups. When Soviet troops entered Pyongyang on August 24, they found

18995-467: 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 from United States aid. The Rhee regime engaged in the "worst excesses of corruption", with South Korean soldiers going unpaid for months as their officers embezzled their pay, equipment provided by the United States being sold on the black market, and

19140-467: Was officially divided with the establishment of the two Koreas in 1948. During World War II, the Allied leaders had already been considering the question of Korea 's future following Japan's eventual surrender in the war. The leaders reached an understanding that Korea would be liberated from Japan but would be placed under an international trusteeship until the Koreans would be deemed ready for self-rule. In

19285-607: Was preceded by the destruction of roads connecting the north to the south in a bid to "completely separate" the two states. When the Russo-Japanese War ended in 1905, Korea became a nominal protectorate of Japan and was annexed by Japan in 1910. The Korean Emperor Gojong was removed. In the following decades, nationalist and radical groups emerged to struggle for independence. Divergent in their outlooks and approaches, these groups failed to come together in one national movement. The Korean Provisional Government (KPG) in exile in China failed to obtain widespread recognition. At

19430-461: Was returned to US-controlled Korea by the US military, and on July 20, 1948 he was elected the first president of the Republic of Korea by the National Assembly , ushering in the First Republic of Korea. As president, Rhee continued his hardline anti-communist and pro-American views that characterized much of his earlier political career. Early on in his presidency, his government put down

19575-547: Was returned to Seoul and buried in the Seoul National Cemetery . Rhee was married to Seungseon Park from 1890 to 1910. Park divorced Rhee shortly after the death of their son Rhee Bong-su in 1908, supposedly because their marriage had no intimacy due to his political activities. In February 1933, Rhee met Austrian Franziska Donner in Geneva. At the time, Rhee was participating in a League of Nations meeting and Donner

19720-451: Was seen as a champion of Korean independence activism within the peninsula. Song refused the position, which he saw as equivalent to the role of Wang Jingwei , the ruler of the Japanese puppet state in China. He instead preferred to wait until, as many expected and hoped, the KPG returned to the peninsula and established a fully domestic Korean government. On 15 August, Abe instead offered the position to Lyuh Woon-hyung , who accepted it, to

19865-418: Was seen as controversial and temporary by both regimes. From 1948 until the start of the civil war on 25 June 1950, the armed forces of each side engaged in a series of bloody conflicts along the border. In 1950, these conflicts escalated dramatically when North Korean forces invaded South Korea, triggering the Korean War . The United Nations intervened to protect the South, sending a US-led force. As it occupied

20010-454: Was signed by military commanders from China, North Korea and the UNC, led by the US. Its signatories did not include the ROK, 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. Because of widespread discontent with Rhee's corruption and political repression, it was considered unlikely that Rhee would be re-elected by

20155-496: 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

20300-443: 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 became clear from October 1945 onward that Rhee was the Korean politician most favored by the Americans, other conservative leaders fell in behind him. When the first US–Soviet Cooperation Committee meeting was concluded without a result, he began to argue in June 1946 that

20445-565: 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, uncompromising" and was regarded by the US State Department, which long had dealings with him as "a dangerous mischief-maker", but the American General John R. Hodge decided that Rhee

20590-505: 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 ( 대한인동지회 ; 大韓人同志會 ). 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

20735-537: Was upset about MacArthur's dismissal as UNC commander by President Truman—lashed out in a press interview against Britain, whom he blamed for MacArthur's sacking. Rhee declared, "The British troops have outlived their welcome in my country." Shortly after, 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

20880-431: Was well equipped with Soviet aircraft, vehicles 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 war on 25 June 1950, North Korean troops launched a full-scale invasion of South Korea. All South Korean resistance at

21025-456: Was working as an interpreter. In October 1934, they were married in New York City. She also acted as his secretary. Over the years after the death of Bong-su, Rhee adopted three sons. The first was Rhee Un-soo, however, the elder Rhee ended the adoption in 1949. The second adopted son was Lee Kang-seok, eldest son of Lee Ki-poong, who was a descendant of Prince Hyoryeong and therefore

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