Korea South Government - 1986

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES 

Official name: Republic of Korea

Type: republic; power centralized in a strong executive

Capital: Seoul

Political subdivisions: nine provinces, four special cities; governors/mayors centrally appointed .

Legal system: combines elements of continental European civil law systems, Anglo-American law, and Chinese classical thought; constitution approved 1980; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

National holiday: Independence Day, 15 August

Branches unicameral legislature (National Assembly), judiciary

Government leaders:CHUN Doo Hwan, President (since August 1980); LHOShin Yong, Prime Minister (since February 1985)

Suffrage: universal over age 20

Elections: under new constitution of October 1980, President elected every seven years indirectly by a 5,000-man electoral college; last election February 1981; four-year National Assembly, elected in February 1985, consists of 276 representatives, 184 directly elected and 92 appointed on proportional basis by major parties

Political parties and leaders: major party is government’s Democratic Justice Party (DJP), Chun Doo Hwan, president, and Roh

Tae Woo, chairman; opposition parties are New Korea Dem

Communists: Communist activity banned by government

Other political or pressure groups: Council for the Promotion of Democracy; Korean National Council of Churches; large, potentially volatile student population concentrated in Seoul, Federation of Korean Trade Unions; Korean Veterans’ Association; Fed eration of Korean Industries; Korean Trad ers Association

Member of: ABD, AfDB Asian-African Legal Consultative Committee, Asian Parliamentary Union, APACL— \sian People’s Anti-Communist League, ASPAC, Colombo Plan, ESCAP, FAO, G-77, GATT, Geneva Conventions of 1949 for the protection of war victims, IAEA, IBRD, 1CAC, ICAO, IDA, IFAD, 1FC, 1HO, IMF, IMO, INTELSAT, INTERPOL, IPU, IRC, ITU, IWC—International Whaling Commission, IWC—International W heat Council, UNCTAD, UNDP, UNESCO, UNICEF, UNIDO, UN Special Fund, UPU, WACL— World Anti-Communist League, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO; official observer status at UN

NOTE: The information regarding Korea South on this page is re-published from the 1986 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Korea South 1986 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Korea South 1986 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.