KOREA, SOUTH

officially Republic of Korea, Korean Taehan Min'guk country in East Asia. It occupies the southern portion of the Korean peninsula. The country is bordered by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) to the north, the Sea of Japan (East Sea) to the east, the East China Sea to the south, and the Yellow Sea to the west; to the southeast it is separated from the Japanese island of Tsushima by the Korea Strait. South Korea faces North Korea across a demilitarized zone that runs for about 150 miles (240 kilometres) roughly from the mouth of the Han River on the west coast of the Korean peninsula to a little south of the North Korean town of Kosong on the east coast. The area of South Korea is 38,328 square miles (99,268 square kilometres), or about 45 percent of the peninsula. The capital is Seoul (Soul). officially Republic of Korea, Korean Taehan Min'guk country occupying the southern Korean peninsula in East Asia. South Korea is situated about 120 miles (193 km) northwest of the Japanese islands of Honshu and Kyushu and includes Cheju Island, which is located about 60 miles (97 km) south of the peninsula. The country is about 300 miles (480 km) long and about 135 miles (217 km) wide. It is bordered on the north by North Korea, on the east by the Sea of Japan (East Sea), on the south by the Korea Strait, and on the west by the Yellow Sea. The nation's capital is Seoul. Area 38,330 square miles (99,274 square km). Pop. (1994 est.) 44,436,000. Additional reading General works Shannon McCune, Korea's Heritage: A Regional & Social Geography (1956), and Korea, Land of Broken Calm (1966), provide a general description of Korea's geography, people, and culture. Donald Stone Macdonald, The Koreans: Contemporary Politics and Society, 2nd ed. (1990), covers geography, history, culture, and economics and explores the issues regarding the reunification of the peninsula.Traditional attitudes, customs, and values in Korea are outlined in Paul S. Crane, Korean Patterns, 4th ed., rev. (1978). Hagan Koo (ed.), State and Society in Contemporary Korea (1993), discusses the social movements of North and South Korea. Women's roles are studied by Yung-chung Kim (ed. and trans.), Women of Korea: A History from Ancient Times to 1945, trans. from Korean (1976); and Sandra Mattielli (ed.), Virtues in Conflict: Tradition and the Korean Woman Today (1977). Jon Carter Covell, Korea's Cultural Roots (1981), is an introduction; while Tae Hung Ha, Guide to Korean Culture (1968), surveys the varied phases of Korean culture. Comprehensive treatments of all Korean arts include Evelyn McCune, The Arts of Korea (1962); Chewon Kim and Lena Kim Lee (I-na Kim), Arts of Korea (1974), and The Arts of Korea, 6 vol. (1979).Works on Korean economic history include Sang Chul Suh (Chang Chul Suh), Growth and Structural Changes in the Korean Economy, 19101940 (1978); and Norman Jacobs, The Korean Road to Modernization and Development (1985), which begins with imperial Korea. The political climate of the peninsula is surveyed in Sung Chul Yang, The North and South Korean Political Systems (1994); Joungwon Alexander Kim (Chong-won Kim), Divided Korea: The Politics of Development, 19451972 (1975); Young Whan Kihl, Politics and Policies in Divided Korea: Regimes in Context (1984), an informative comparative study of North and South Korean political systems after 1948; Bruce Cumings, The Two Koreas (1984), a brief study; Ralph N. Clough, Embattled Korea: The Rivalry for International Support (1987); and Eui-gak Hwang, The Korean Economies: A Comparison of North and South (1993). Geography Andrea Matles Savada and William Shaw (eds.), South Korea, a Country Study, 4th ed. (1992), is a good general source on social, political, economic, and national security matters. Lee Chan (Ch'an Yi) et al., Korea: Geographical Perspectives (1988); and Hermann Lautensach, Korea: A Geography Based on the Author's Travels and Literature, trans. and ed. by Katherine Dege and Eckart Dege (1988; originally published in German, 1945), are also useful. Korea Annual compiles chronologies, history, statistics, and yearly highlights, with an emphasis on South Korea. Korean Overseas Information Service, A Handbook of Korea, 8th ed. (1990), also focuses on South Korea, with a detailed discussion of and extensive bibliography on the land, people, history, culture, arts, customs, government, foreign policy, and social developments. Patricia M. Bartz, South Korea (1972), is a descriptive geography. A socioanthropological work by Vincent S.R. Brandt, A Korean Village Between Farm and Sea (1971, reissued 1990), studies a village on the Yellow Sea. Two analyses of Korean religious life are Roger L. Janelli and Dawnhee Yim Janelli, Ancestor Worship and Korean Society (1982); and Donald N. Clark, Christianity in Modern Korea (1986).Studies of South Korea's economic development include Dennis L. McNamara, The Colonial Origins of Korean Enterprise, 19101945 (1990); Paul W. Kuznets, Economic Growth and Structure in the Republic of Korea (1977); Edward S. Mason et al., The Economic and Social Modernization of the Republic of Korea (1980); Noel F. McGinn et al., Education and Development in Korea (1980); Alice H. Amsden, Asia's Next Giant: South Korea and Late Industrialization (1989); Richard M. Steers, Yoo Keun Shin (Yu-gun Sin), and Gerardo R. Ungson, The Chaebol: Korea's New Industrial Might (1989); Byung-nak Song (Pyong-nak Song), The Rise of the Korean Economy (1990); Il Sakong, Korea in the World Economy (1993), by a former finance minister; Cho Soon (Soon Cho), The Dynamics of Korean Economic Development (1994); and a work edited by Sung Yeung Kwack (Sung-yong Kwack), The Korean Economy at a Crossroad: Development Prospects, Liberalization, and South-North Economic Integration (1994).Political developments in South Korea are presented in Hahn-been Lee, Korea: Time, Change, and Administration (1968), an imaginative survey of administrative behaviour under conditions of rapid social change in the country; Edward Reynolds Wright (ed.), Korean Politics in Transition (1975); Ilpyong J. Kim and Young Whan Kihl (eds.), Political Change in South Korea (1988), on more recent events; and Han Sung-joo (Sung-ju Han) and Robert J. Myers (eds.), Korea: The Year 2000 (1987), a sociopolitical and economic forecast. History Studies of South Korea's history include John Kie-chiang Oh, Korea: Democracy on Trial (1968), beginning with Syngman Rhee's administration; Sung-ju Han, The Failure of Democracy in South Korea (1974), a study of the causes of the collapse of Chang Myon's liberal democratic government in May 1961; Donald N. Clark (ed.), The Kwanju Uprising: Shadows Over the Regime in South Korea (1988); Harold C. Hinton, Korea Under New Leadership: The Fifth Republic (1983); and Frank Gibney, Korea's Quiet Revolution: From Garrison State to Democracy (1992). Young Ick Lew Woo-ik Yu Administration and social conditions Government The government instituted after a constitutional referendum in 1987 is known as the Sixth Republic. The government structure is patterned mainly on the presidential system of the United States and is based on separation of powers among the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary. The government system, highly centralized during most of South Korea's existence, is less so under the Sixth Republic. The president, since 1987 chosen by direct popular election for a single five-year term, is the chief of state, head of the executive branch, and commander of the armed forces. The State Council, the highest executive body, is composed of the president, the prime minister, the heads of executive ministries, and ministers without portfolio. The prime minister is appointed by the president and approved by the elected National Assembly. Legislative authority rests with the unicameral National Assembly (Kuk Hoe). The powers of the National Assembly, which was reinstated in 1980 after a period of curtailment, were strengthened in 1987. Its 299 members are chosen, as previously, by a combination of direct and indirect election to four-year terms. South Korea is divided administratively into the nine provinces (do or to) Cheju, North Cholla, South Cholla, North Ch'ungch'ong, South Ch'ungch'ong, Kangwon, Kyonggi, North Kyongsang, and South Kyongsang; the special city (t'ukpyolsi) of Seoul; and the five megalopolises (kwangyoksi) Pusan, Taegu, Inch'on, Kwangju, and Taejon. Each has a popularly elected legislative council. Provinces are further divided into counties (gun) and cities (si), and the large cities into wards (ku) and precincts (tong). Provincial governors and the mayors of province-level cities are popularly elected. South Korea had a two-party system until 1972, when the power of the pro-government party increased substantially and the activity of the opposition was restricted. During the 1980s restrictions on political parties were ended. The opposition was allowed to resume political participation, but it also tended to fragment; thus, the political system became more multiparty in character. The Democratic Justice Party (DJP; until 1981 called the Democratic Republican Party), the ruling party since its founding in 1963, was renamed the Democratic Liberal Party in 1990, following the merger of the DJP with two opposition parties. The Democratic Party and the Unification National Party have become the major opposition parties. Justice The judicial branch consists of the Supreme Court, three appellate courts, 12 district courts, and a family court. The Supreme Court is empowered to interpret the constitution and all other state laws and to review the legality of government regulations and activities. The chief justice is appointed by the president with the consent of the National Assembly, upon recommendation of the Judge Recommendation Council. Cultural life Royal tombs of the Silla and Unified Silla kingdoms (1st century BC10th century AD) at Shamanism, Buddhism, and Confucianism constitute the background of modern Korean culture. Since World War II, and especially after the Korean War, the modern trends have rapidly progressed. Traditional thought, however, still plays an important role under the surface. Korea belongs historically to the Chinese cultural realm. After the Three Kingdoms period in particular, Korean culture was strongly influenced by the Chinese, although this influence was given a distinctive Korean stamp. The National Museum of Korea maintains artifacts of Korean culture, including many national treasures, chiefly in the central museum in Seoul; there are branch museums in eight other cities. Archaeological sites include the ancient burial mounds at Kyongju, capital of the Silla (Shilla) kingdom, and Kongju and Puyo, two of the capitals of Paekche. Architecture Korean architecture shows Chinese influence, but it is adapted to local conditions, utilizing wood and granite, the most abundant building materials. Beautiful examples are found in old palaces, Buddhist temples, stone tombs, and Buddhist pagodas. Western-style architecture became common from the 1970s, fundamentally changing the urban landscape.