May 16 coup

May 16 coup

From top to bottom, Major-General Park Chung Hee (front center) and soldiers tasked with effecting the coup, South Korean Marine Corps soldiers march to the capitol after the coup, and officer cadets of Korea Military Academy march in support of the military coup
Date	May 16, 1961 (1961-05-16)
Location	Seoul, South Korea
Also known as	May 16 Military Revolution 5.16 coup
Participants	Military Revolutionary Committee Major-General Park Chung Hee, Director-General of Army Operations Lt. Col. Kim Jong-pil Major-General Lee Chu-il, Chief of Staff of the 2nd Army Brigadier-General Kim Tong-ha, Commander of the Marine Corps Army Chief of Staff Chang Do-yong Government of the Second Republic President Yun Posun Prime Minister Chang Myon
Outcome	End of the Second Republic Installation of the Supreme Council for National Reconstruction Park Chung Hee assumes power

The May 16 military coup d'état (Korean: 5·16 군사정변) was a military coup d'état in South Korea in 1961, organized and carried out by Park Chung Hee and his allies who formed the Military Revolutionary Committee, nominally led by Army Chief of Staff Chang Do-yong after the latter's acquiescence on the day of the coup. The coup rendered powerless the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Chang Myon and President Yun Posun, and ended the Second Republic, installing a reformist military Supreme Council for National Reconstruction effectively led by Park, who took over as chairman after General Chang's arrest in July.

The coup was instrumental in bringing to power a new developmentalist elite and in laying the foundations for the rapid industrialization of South Korea under Park's leadership, but its legacy is controversial for the suppression of democracy and civil liberties it entailed, and the purges enacted in its wake. Termed the "May 16 Military Revolution" by Park and his allies, "a new, mature national debut of spirit",^[1] the coup's nature as a "revolution" is controversial and its evaluation contested.