West Germany[edit]

Park's economic policy was highlighted by South Korea's relationship with West Germany. Park had an affinity
for Germany due to its history of having strong leadership like that of Bismarck and Hitler, and wanted to create
ties with West Germany to deal with the problems of increasing population growth and economic hardships and
to receive an inflow of foreign capital for domestic development. [46] Upon an agreement in 1961, South Korea
sent labor forces to Germany, including more than 8,000 mine workers and 10,000 nurses, which continued
until 1977.[47](See Gastarbeiter and Koreans in Germany)

Iran[edit]
Park was close friends with the last Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who had established diplomatic
relations in 1962 and following a visit to Iran in 1969, developed a close relationship with the two countries.
Park realized the importance of Iran in securing oil for South Korea's industrial development and by 1973, was
their main and only source of oil during the Oil Crisis.[48] Most refineries in South Korea were built to process
Iranian crude and thousands of engineers and workers were sent to Iran to help develop their refining
capability.[49] The relationship eventually expanded beyond oil as Park promoted other industries to operate in
Iran. Many Chaebol's went to Iran, including Hyundai Engineering & Construction, whose first Middle East
Project were a series of shipyards in Bandar Abbas and Chahbahar to help develop Iran's maritime industry.
Park's favorite architect Kim Swoo-Geun and his office designed the Ekbatan Complex in Tehran and the
South Korean Special Forces helped train the Imperial Iranian Navy Commandos.[50][51]
Park invited the Shah in 1978 for a special "South Korea-Iran" summit to further deepen relations but due to
the Iranian Revolution, it never materialized. In preparation for that summit, Tehran and Seoul became sister
cities and the two exchanged street names as well; Teheran-ro in Gangnam and Seoul Street in Tehran which
both still remain.[48]

Domestic policy[edit]
Among Park's first actions upon assuming control of South Korea in 1961 was to pass strict
legislation metrifying the country[52] and banning the use of traditional Korean measurements like
the li and pyeong.[53] Despite its strict wording, the law's enforcement was so spotty as to be considered a
failure,[54] with the government abandoning prosecution under its terms by 1970. [53] In the end, South Korea's
traditional units continued until June 2001.[citation needed]
After taking office for his second term in 1967, Park promised that, in accordance with the 1963
Constitution which limited the president to two consecutive terms, he would step down in 1971. However, soon
after his 1967 victory, the Democratic Republican-dominated National Assembly successfully pushed through
an amendment allowing the incumbent president —himself— to run for three consecutive terms.
In the meantime, Park grew anxious of the shift in US policy towards communism under Richard Nixon's Guam
Doctrine. His government's legitimacy depended on staunch anti-communism, and any moderation of that
policy from South Korea's allies (including the US) threatened the very basis of his rule. Park began to seek
options to further cement his hold on the country. In May 1970, the Catholic poet Kim Chi-ha was arrested for
supposedly violating the Anti-Communist Law for his poem Five Bandits, which in fact had no references to
Communism either explicitly or implicitly, but instead attacked corruption under Park. [55] The issue of the
journal Sasanggye that published the Five Bandits was shut down by the government.[56] One of the eponymous
bandits of the Five Bandits is described as a general who began his career fighting for Japan in World War
Two, and all of the bandits of the poem are described as Chinilpa collaborators who served Japan because of
their greed and amorality.[56] Park recognized the reference to himself in Five Bandits with the character of the
general while the fact that all of the bandits have a Chinilpa background was a reference to the social basis of
Park's regime. In 1974, Kim was sentenced to death for his poem, and though he was not executed, he spent
almost all of the 1970s in prison.[57] Later in 1970, Park launched his Saemaul Undong (New Village Movement)
that set out to modernize the countryside by providing electricity and running water to farmers, building paved
roads, and replacing thatched roofs with tin roofs (the latter was said to reflect a personal obsession on the part
of Park, who could not stand the sight of thatched roofs on farmers' homes, which for him was a sign of South
Korea's backwardness).[58]
However, Park used Asbestos, which is harmful to human for fixing rustic houses. [59]
In 1971, Park won another close election against his rival, Kim Dae-jung. That December, shortly after being
sworn in, he declared a state of emergency "based on the dangerous realities of the international situation". In
October 1972, Park dissolved the legislature and suspended the 1963 constitution in a self-coup. Work then
began on drafting a new constitution. Park had drawn inspiration for his self-coup from Ferdinand
Marcos, President of the Philippines, who had orchestrated a similar coup a few weeks earlier.
A new constitution, the so-called Yushin Constitution was approved in a heavily rigged plebiscite in November
1972. Meaning "rejuvenation" or "renewal" (as well as "restoration" in some contexts), scholars see the term's
usage as Park alluding to himself as an "imperial president." [60]
The new Yushin constitution was a highly authoritarian document. It transferred the presidential election
process to an electoral college, the National Conference for Unification. It also dramatically expanded the
president's powers. Notably, he was given sweeping powers to rule by decree and suspend constitutional
freedoms. The presidential term was increased from four to six years, with no limits on re-election. For all
intents and purposes, it codified the emergency powers Park had exercised for the past year, transforming his
presidency into a legal dictatorship. As per his new constitution, Park ran for a fresh term as president
in December 1972, and won unopposed. He was reelected in 1978 also unopposed. Many of South Korea's
leading writers were opposed to the Park regime, and many of the best remembered poems and novels of the
1970s satirized the Yushin system.[61]
Park argued that Western-style liberal democracy was not suitable for South Korea due to its still-shaky
economy. He believed that in the interest of stability, the country needed a "Korean-style democracy" with a
strong, unchallenged presidency.[62] Although he repeatedly promised to open up the regime and restore full
democracy, fewer and fewer people believed him.
In 1975, Park ordered homeless people and children to be removed from the streets of Seoul. Thousands of
people were captured by the police and sent to thirty-six camps. The detainees were then used as free labor by
the authorities and subjected to degrading treatment. Many died under torture. [63]
Park abolished the usage of hanja or Chinese characters and established hangul exclusivity for the Korean
language in the 1960s and 1970s. After a Five-Year Hangul Exclusivity Plan (한글종양오년계획) was
promulgated through legislative and executive means, from 1970, using hanja became illegal in all grades of
public school and in the military. This led to less illiteracy in South Korea. [64]
The KCIA controlled the whole country, with more than forty thousand regular employees and one million
correspondents. Striking workers, protesters or signatories of simple petitions faced long prison sentences and
torture. The whole country was under constant surveillance. [65]

Final years of Presidency[edit]

During his final years of presidency, Park realized that his government was collapsing. He now knew that
people were not satisfied with the government.[66]

Military[edit]
As president, Park tried to strengthen the military. He often said that if an independent country cannot protect
itself with its military, it is not an independent country.[66] Park ordered the development of missiles to
attack Pyongyang. Since there were almost none technology of missile, the development of them was a hard
job. Developers had to travel to the United States to learn the technology. After a painstaking development, on
26 September 1978, Nike Hercules Korea-1 had its successful first launch. But the development of missiles
were stopped when Chun Doo-hwan reigned.[67] Park also tried to make Nuclear weapons. He announced that
the nuclear weapons would be made by 1983. This was never progressed after Park's death in 1979. [68]