October Restoration

October Yushin (시월유신, 十月維新) was a self-coup in South Korea, October 1973 that the National Assembly was dispersed and the constitution was revised by Park Chung-Hee, the then president of South Korea. It paved the way for Park Chung-Hee to take authoritarian and lifetime power without any check. It was named after Meiji Ishin of Japan. Park, a former Japan-controlled Manchukuo Army officer, admired the Japanese politics enthusiastically and called his self-coup Yushin (the Korean pronunciation of Ishin). By Yushin, the Constitution of the Third Republic of Korea was replaced by the new constitution, which was called Yushin Constitution or the Constitution of the Fourth Republic. The new administration under Yushin Constitution is now called Yushin Regime (유신체제, 維新體制) or Yushin Dictatorship (유신독재, 維新獨裁).

This constitution endowed the president with absolute power. In this constitution, the president could appoint 1/3 of the assemblymen of National Assembly, the legislature without any vote. Also he could issue the Emergency Action, which had the same effect as law without ratification of the National Assembly. The president would have 6 years term, but he could serve consecutive term without any limit. It practically guaranteed permanent term to Park Chung-Hee. Yushin constitution ignored the separation of administrative, legal and judicial powers and allowed the president to control all the three powers.

Soon Yushin administration was challenged by activists from various backgrounds such as college students, artists, religious leaders, and leaders of the opposition party. Yushin Administration and Park suppressed thse protests cruely with state violence. To set up an example threthening the anti-Yushin movement, some innocent people were executed on charge of the treason where the only proof, confessions, were forged by severe torture. So Yushin was also criticized world-widely for human right abuse. As time went by, the resistance to Yushin got severe and caused serious social unrest. And Carter Administration of U.S.A. also warned that U.S. military could be withdrawn from South Korea unless Park eased off his dictatorship. Under such pressures, the leading members of Yushin got anxious about the regime. Such anxiety caused 10.26 Incident, the assassination of Park by his subordinate Kim Jae Gyu, the head of Korea Central Intelligence Ageny, in October 26, 1979.

After Park was assassinated, no one could deny Yushin Constitution was anti-democratic. Although the military took power again by another coup, there was a solid consensus that Yushin Constitution should be abolished and replaced soon. So the military junta established the Constitution of the Fifth Republic, which replaced Yushin Constitution officially in 1980. This new Constitution was mitigated compared to Yushin Constitution, although it was also another authoritarian constitution.