광주아시아인권학교

August 15, 2008

Demilitarizing Politics in
South Korea: Toward a Positive
Consolidation of Civilian Supremacy

Il Joon Chung
Department of Sociology, Korea Univ.
1. From Military to Civilian Rule
1961-1979 Park, Chung Hee(3rd, 4th Republic)
1980-1993 Chun, Doo Hwan(5th Republic)
Roh, Tae Woo(6th Republic)
1993-1998 Kim, Young Sam (Civilian Gov’t)
1998-2003 Kim, Dae Jung (People’s Gov’t)
2003-2008 Roh, Moo-hyun (Participatory

Gov’t)
“War is merely the continuation
of politics by other means”
(Carl von Clausewitz)

“Politics is exactly the continua-

tion of war by other means”
(Michel Foucault)
 2. What is Civilian Supremacy?

A positive consolidation of democratic

reform is one that, while securing
indisputable civilian supremacy,
grants the military enough institutional
autonomy for the efficient pursuit
of its mission.
 3. Main Contents

The change and continuity of civil-military

rela- tions through the fluctuating dynamics of the
democratic transition and consolidation in South
Korea.

Civil-military relations before the democratic

transition.

The post-authoritarian political leaders

managed civil-military relations during & after the
 Transitional polities face three kinds of
regime-threatening kinds of conflict in the
arena of civil-military relations.
First, the new regime must decide how to
handle human-rights violations committed by
the previous authoritarian regime.
Second,
the democratic regime must attempt to recast
the organizational mission, structure, and
oversight of the military.
Third, the new
regime must gain control over the military
budget (Alfred Stepan, 1988) .
 4. Civil-Military Relations
before & during
the Democratic Transition
1. Civil-Military Relations before the
Democratic Transition
(1) The Park Regime (1961-1979).
(2) The Chun regime (1981-1987).

2. Civil-Military relations during the Protracted

Democratic Transition (1988-1993)
 5. Civil-Military Relations after
the Democratic Transition

1. Civil-Military Relations Under the 1st Civilian

President, 1993-1998
• Military Reform: Young Sam Kim, 1993-1998.
• The trial of former Gens.-turned-presidents
Chun and Roh.
2. Civil-Military Relations Under the 2nd
Civilian President, 1998-2003
• Rethinking National Security: Dae Jung Kim,
1998-2003.
• Crafting Civilian Supremacy? : Sunshine
Policy cross-cutting Civil-Military Relations
and South-North Relations

3. Civil-Military Relations Under the 3rd

Civilian President, 2003-2008
 6. Conclusion

More than six decades, Korea is divided.

The most highly militarized zone in the world lies
along the DMZ.
How to draw the line prudently between national
security issues and promoting democracy shall be
the most delicate task facing all the civilian regimes
to come in South Korea. That mission will remain
challenging not only for civilian politicians but also
for military leaders.
Thank You