POLITICAL ASPECTS

Government

 Country: Republic of Korea

 Capital: Seoul
 Government type: Presidential Republic
 Legislature: National Assembly of the Republic of South Korea

Political/Legal Structure

 In the political realm, under the Kim Dae-jung government, power shifted from the Kyongsang
area in the southeast to Cholla in the southwest.
 In terms of civilian-military relations, the government has become fully civilian, as the Korean
military was completely depoliticized in the early 1990s.
 The most impressive gains, however, were made in the area of democratization, with the rise of
a civil society.

Employment/Labor Laws

 Equal treatment principle (Article 5 of the Labor Standard Act)

 Labor Contracts (Article 15)
 Wages (Article 43)
 Working hours (Article 50)
 Women’s right (Article 65)

Current Political/Legal Trend

 The new leadership has attempted to dismantle social, economic, and political structures that
were formed during the Cold War and to establish a more democratic and diplomatically
independent society. Such an approach has resulted in further social and political conflict, trials
and errors in policy, civic distrust, and a lingering leadership crisis.