List of presidents of South Korea

Presidential standard and seal of the president of the Republic of Korea

Top left: Rhee Syng-man became the first president of the Republic of Korea in 1948.
Top right: Park Chung Hee was the longest-serving president, taking power during the 1961 coup d'etat, sometimes named the Tiger of Yushin Constitution in the 1970s.
Bottom left: Kim Dae-jung was elected during the 1997 presidential election. This was the first peaceful transfer of power in South Korean history.
Bottom right: Park Geun-hye, the first female president of South Korea, 2013–2017

The president of the Republic of Korea serves as the chief executive of the government of the Republic of Korea and the commander-in-chief of the Republic of Korea Armed Forces.

The South Korean government constitutionally considers the Korean Provisional Government (KPG) to be its predecessor.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6] The KPG was established in 1919 as a government in exile in Shanghai during the Japanese occupation of Korea. It had nine different heads of state between September 1919 and August 1948.

The presidential term has been set at five years since 1988. It was previously set at four years from 1948 to 1972, six years from 1972 to 1981, and seven years from 1981 to 1988. Since 1981, the president has been barred from re-election. The president must be a South Korean citizen, at least 40 years old, who has lived in South Korea for 5 years.

The incumbent president is Yoon Suk Yeol, who assumed office on 10 May 2022.^[7]

^ Myers, Brian Reynolds (21 February 2018). "Constitutional Reform and Inter-Korean Relations: Part 2". Sthele Press. Sthele Press. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
^ Myers, Brian Reynolds (26 July 2018). "Confederation (Again)". Sthele Press. Sthele Press. Retrieved 25 June 2019. Nor, for that matter, is the new line that the Taehan minguk was not founded in August 1948, but instead came into existence when a provisional government was formed in Shanghai in 1919. I don't need to remind anyone of the internationally accepted criteria for statehood. The Blue House seems more interested in downgrading the republic that fought the North than in making a serious case for the statehood of something else. The original modest budget for the 70th anniversary of the ROK's founding has already been cut. The joint North-South commemoration of the March 1st uprising's 100th anniversary next year is likely to make the festivities this August 15 look subdued in comparison.
^ Myers, Brian Reynolds (7 April 2019). "South Korea's Nationalist-Left Front". Sthele Press. Sthele Press. Retrieved 25 June 2019. In closing, let me forestall reductio ad absurdum by again conceding that the left's discourse is by no means uniform. The 'radical' praises the North. The 'moderate' assails those who mistrust it. The one denies the legitimacy of the ROK founded in 1948. The other talks up the ROK-superseding legitimacy of an exile republic said to date back to 1919. But such differences are rhetorical, tactical. The point of the front after all is to appeal to all the constituencies it needs. One of them is the US government.
^ Myers, Brian Reynolds (4 March 2019). "On That March First Speech". Sthele Press. Sthele Press. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
^ Myers, Brian Reynolds (11 August 2017). "Low-Level Confederation and the Nuclear Crisis (in 2 parts)". Sthele Press. Sthele Press. Yi Hae-sŏng, a young podcaster, was one of many conservatives who lamented Moon's reference to 1919 as the year in which the Republic of Korea was established. With those and other words, the president declared himself the heir to a nationalist and not a constitutional-democratic tradition, a man who will rule more in the spirit of the exile government that strove to liberate the minjok than of the republic that joined America in resisting North Korean aggression.
^ Myers, Brian Reynolds (4 March 2019). "On that March First Speech". Sthele Press. Sthele Press. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
^ "Profile - Yoon Suk Yeol - President of the Republic of Korea". Office of the President - Republic of Korea. Retrieved 23 February 2024.

[1] Myers, Brian Reynolds (21 February 2018). "Constitutional Reform and Inter-Korean Relations: Part 2". Sthele Press. Sthele Press. Retrieved 25 June 2019.

[2] Myers, Brian Reynolds (26 July 2018). "Confederation (Again)". Sthele Press. Sthele Press. Retrieved 25 June 2019. Nor, for that matter, is the new line that the Taehan minguk was not founded in August 1948, but instead came into existence when a provisional government was formed in Shanghai in 1919. I don't need to remind anyone of the internationally accepted criteria for statehood. The Blue House seems more interested in downgrading the republic that fought the North than in making a serious case for the statehood of something else. The original modest budget for the 70th anniversary of the ROK's founding has already been cut. The joint North-South commemoration of the March 1st uprising's 100th anniversary next year is likely to make the festivities this August 15 look subdued in comparison.

[3] Myers, Brian Reynolds (7 April 2019). "South Korea's Nationalist-Left Front". Sthele Press. Sthele Press. Retrieved 25 June 2019. In closing, let me forestall reductio ad absurdum by again conceding that the left's discourse is by no means uniform. The 'radical' praises the North. The 'moderate' assails those who mistrust it. The one denies the legitimacy of the ROK founded in 1948. The other talks up the ROK-superseding legitimacy of an exile republic said to date back to 1919. But such differences are rhetorical, tactical. The point of the front after all is to appeal to all the constituencies it needs. One of them is the US government.

[4] Myers, Brian Reynolds (4 March 2019). "On That March First Speech". Sthele Press. Sthele Press. Retrieved 25 June 2019.

[5] Myers, Brian Reynolds (11 August 2017). "Low-Level Confederation and the Nuclear Crisis (in 2 parts)". Sthele Press. Sthele Press. Yi Hae-sŏng, a young podcaster, was one of many conservatives who lamented Moon's reference to 1919 as the year in which the Republic of Korea was established. With those and other words, the president declared himself the heir to a nationalist and not a constitutional-democratic tradition, a man who will rule more in the spirit of the exile government that strove to liberate the minjok than of the republic that joined America in resisting North Korean aggression.

[6] Myers, Brian Reynolds (4 March 2019). "On that March First Speech". Sthele Press. Sthele Press. Retrieved 26 June 2019.

[7] "Profile - Yoon Suk Yeol - President of the Republic of Korea". Office of the President - Republic of Korea. Retrieved 23 February 2024.

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