| Country: | South Korea |
| Flag Year: | 1949 |
| Type: | legislative |
| Previous Election: | 1973 South Korean legislative election |
| Previous Year: | 1973 |
| Next Election: | 1981 South Korean legislative election |
| Next Year: | 1981 |
| Turnout: | 77.08% (5.72pp) |
| Seats For Election: | 154 of the 231 seats in the National Assembly |
| Majority Seats: | 78 |
| Election Date: | 12 and 21 December 1978 |
| Image1: | 박정희 대통령 김영삼 신민당 총재 접견 (cropped).jpg |
| Leader1: | Park Chung-hee |
| Party1: | Democratic Republican Party (South Korea) |
| Last Election1: | 73 seats |
| Seats1: | 68 |
| Seat Change1: | 5 |
| Popular Vote1: | 4,695,955 |
| Percentage1: | 31.70% |
| Swing1: | 6.98pp |
| Leader2: | Yi Cheol-seung |
| Party2: | New Democratic Party (South Korea) |
| Last Election2: | 52 seats |
| Seats2: | 61 |
| Seat Change2: | 9 |
| Popular Vote2: | 4,861,204 |
| Percentage2: | 32.82% |
| Swing2: | 0.27pp |
| Image3: | 3x4.svg |
| Leader3: | Yang il-dong |
| Party3: | Democratic Unification Party (South Korea) |
| Last Election3: | 2 seats |
| Seats3: | 3 |
| Seat Change3: | 1 |
| Popular Vote3: | 1,095,507 |
| Percentage3: | 7.39% |
| Swing3: | 2.75pp |
| Speaker | |
| Before Election: | Chung Il-kwon |
| Before Party: | Democratic Republican Party (South Korea) |
| After Election: | Baek Du-jin |
| After Party: | Presidential appointee |
| After Party Link: | no |
Legislative elections were held in South Korea on 12 December 1978 to elect 154 members of the National Assembly.[1] Another 77 members appointed by President Park Chung-hee were indirectly elected by the National Conference for Unification on 21 December 1978.[2]
Despite garnering 169,000 fewer popular votes than the opposition New Democratic Party, the ruling Democratic Republican Party won a supermajority victory with 68 of the 154 elected seats in the National Assembly and an additional 77 members appointed by President Park. Voter turnout was 77.1%.
Of the elected seats, two members were elected from each constituency via single non-transferable vote.
| Region | Total seats | Seats won | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DRP | NDP | DUP | Ind. | |||
| Seoul | 22 | 9 | 11 | 1 | 1 | |
| Busan | 10 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 1 | |
| Gyeonggi | 16 | 8 | 7 | 0 | 1 | |
| Gangwon | 10 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | |
| North Chungcheong | 8 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 0 | |
| South Chungcheong | 14 | 7 | 5 | 0 | 2 | |
| North Jeolla | 12 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | |
| South Jeolla | 20 | 8 | 7 | 1 | 4 | |
| North Gyeongsang | 22 | 9 | 8 | 0 | 5 | |
| South Gyeongsang | 18 | 8 | 7 | 0 | 3 | |
| Jeju | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| Total | 146 | 68 | 61 | 3 | 22 | |
On 21 December 1978, the National Conference for Unification indirectly elected 77 members of the National Assembly appointed by President Park Chung-hee. Out of the 2,581 delegates, 2,573 were present with 2,539 of them approving the election of Park's appointees.
| Region | Votes | Delegates | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| For | Against | Invalid | Voted | Absent | Total | ||
| Seoul | 376 | 9 | 4 | 389 | 2 | 391 | |
| Busan | 143 | 1 | 1 | 145 | 0 | 145 | |
| Gyeonggi | 319 | 0 | 0 | 319 | 0 | 319 | |
| Gangwon | 149 | 2 | 0 | 151 | 0 | 151 | |
| North Chungcheong | 130 | 1 | 0 | 131 | 0 | 131 | |
| South Chungcheong | 229 | 4 | 1 | 234 | 0 | 234 | |
| North Jeolla | 200 | 1 | 0 | 201 | 2 | 203 | |
| South Jeolla | 310 | 1 | 1 | 312 | 0 | 312 | |
| North Gyeongsang | 373 | 2 | 1 | 376 | 3 | 379 | |
| South Gyeongsang | 284 | 2 | 2 | 288 | 1 | 289 | |
| Jeju | 26 | 0 | 1 | 27 | 0 | 27 | |
| Total | 2,539 | 23 | 11 | 2,573 | 8 | 2,581 | |
| Source: Naver News Library[3] | |||||||