List of presidents of South Korea explained

The president of the Republic of Korea serves as the chief executive of the government of the Republic of Korea and the commander-in-chief of the Republic of Korea Armed Forces.

The South Korean government constitutionally considers the Korean Provisional Government (KPG) to be its predecessor.^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]} The KPG was established in 1919 as a government in exile in Shanghai during the Japanese occupation of Korea. It had nine different heads of state between September 1919 and August 1948.

The presidential term has been set at five years since 1988. It was previously set at four years from 1948 to 1972, six years from 1972 to 1981, and seven years from 1981 to 1988. Since 1981, the president has been barred from re-election. The president must be a South Korean citizen, at least 40 years old, who has lived in South Korea for 5 years.

The incumbent president is Yoon Suk Yeol, who assumed office on 10 May 2022.^[7]

List of presidents

	Portrait	Name	Term of office			Political party	Election
			Took office	Left office	Time in office
Presidents of the First Republic
1		Syngman Rhee Korean: 이승만<br>李承晩	24 July 1948	26 April 1960		NARRKI----Liberal	1st (1948)----2nd (1952)----3rd (1956)----March 1960
—		Ho Chong Korean: 허정<br>許政	27 April 1960	15 June 1960		Independent	—
Presidents of the Second Republic
—		Kwak Sang-hoon Korean: 곽상훈<br>郭尙勳	16 June 1960	23 June 1960		Democratic	—
—		Ho Chong Korean: 허정<br>許政	23 June 1960	7 August 1960		Independent	—
—		Baek Nak-jun Korean: 백낙준<br>白樂濬	8 August 1960	12 August 1960		Independent	—
2		Yun Po-sun Korean: 윤보선<br>尹潽善	13 August 1960	24 March 1962		Democratic----New Democratic	4th (August 1960)
—		Park Chung Hee Korean: 박정희<br>朴正熙	24 March 1962	16 December 1963		Military	—
President of the Third Republic
3		Park Chung Hee Korean: 박정희<br>朴正熙	17 December 1963	26 December 1972		Democratic Republican	5th (1963)----6th (1967)----7th (1971)
Presidents of the Fourth Republic
(3)		Park Chung Hee Korean: 박정희<br>朴正熙	27 December 1972	26 October 1979^[8]		Democratic Republican	8th (1972)----9th (1978)
—		Choi Kyu-hah Korean: 최규하<br>崔圭夏	26 October 1979	6 December 1979		Independent	—
4			6 December 1979	16 August 1980^[9]			10th (1979)
—		Korean: 박충훈<br>朴忠勳	16 August 1980	31 August 1980		Democratic Republican	—
5		Chun Doo-hwan Korean: 전두환<br>全斗煥	1 September 1980	24 February 1981		Military	11th (1980)
President of the Fifth Republic
(5)		Chun Doo-hwan Korean: 전두환<br>全斗煥	25 February 1981	24 February 1988		Democratic Justice	12th (1981)
Presidents of the Sixth Republic
6		Roh Tae-woo Korean: 노태우<br>盧泰愚	25 February 1988	24 February 1993		Democratic Justice----Democratic Liberal----Independent	13th (1987)
7		Kim Young-sam Korean: 김영삼<br>金泳三	25 February 1993	24 February 1998		Democratic Liberal----New Korea----Independent	14th (1992)
8		Kim Dae-jung Korean: 김대중<br>金大中	25 February 1998	24 February 2003		National Congress----Millennium Democratic----Independent	15th (1997)
9		Roh Moo-hyun Korean: 노무현<br>盧武鉉	25 February 2003^[10]	24 February 2008		Millennium Democratic----Independent----Uri----Independent	16th (2002)
10		Lee Myung-bak Korean: 이명박<br>李明博	25 February 2008	24 February 2013		Grand National----Saenuri	17th (2007)
11		Park Geun-hye Korean: 박근혜<br>朴槿惠	25 February 2013	10 March 2017^[11]		Saenuri----Liberty Korea	18th (2012)
—		Hwang Kyo-ahn Korean: 황교안<br>黃敎安	9 December 2016	9 May 2017		Independent	—
12		Moon Jae-in Korean: 문재인<br>文在寅	10 May 2017	9 May 2022		Democratic	19th (2017)
13		Yoon Suk Yeol Korean: 윤석열<br>尹錫悅	10 May 2022	Incumbent		People Power	20th (2022)

Timeline

Ideology		#	Time in office	Name(s)
	Conservative	9	days	Choi Kyu-hah, Chun Doo-hwan, Kim Young-sam, Lee Myung-bak, Park Chung Hee, Park Geun-hye, Roh Tae-woo, Syngman Rhee, and Yoon Suk Yeol (incumbent)
	Liberal	4	days	Kim Dae-jung, Moon Jae-in, Roh Moo-hyun, and Yun Po-sun

See also

• Government of South Korea
• Lifespan timeline of presidents of South Korea
• List of monarchs of Korea
• List of presidents of South Korea by time in office
• List of presidents of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea
• List of prime ministers of South Korea
• Presidential elections in South Korea
• Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea
• Vice President of South Korea

Notes and References

1. Web site: Constitutional Reform and Inter-Korean Relations: Part 2. Brian Reynolds. Myers. Brian Reynolds Myers. Sthele Press. 25 June 2019. 21 February 2018.
2. Web site: Confederation (Again). Brian Reynolds. Myers. Brian Reynolds Myers. Sthele Press. 25 June 2019. 26 July 2018. Nor, for that matter, is the new line that the Taehan minguk was not founded in August 1948, but instead came into existence when a provisional government was formed in Shanghai in 1919. I don’t need to remind anyone of the internationally accepted criteria for statehood. The Blue House seems more interested in downgrading the republic that fought the North than in making a serious case for the statehood of something else. The original modest budget for the 70th anniversary of the ROK’s founding has already been cut. The joint North-South commemoration of the March 1st uprising’s 100th anniversary next year is likely to make the festivities this August 15 look subdued in comparison..
3. Web site: South Korea's Nationalist-Left Front. Brian Reynolds. Myers. Brian Reynolds Myers. Sthele Press. 25 June 2019. 7 April 2019. In closing, let me forestall reductio ad absurdum by again conceding that the left’s discourse is by no means uniform. The 'radical' praises the North. The 'moderate' assails those who mistrust it. The one denies the legitimacy of the ROK founded in 1948. The other talks up the ROK-superseding legitimacy of an exile republic said to date back to 1919. But such differences are rhetorical, tactical. The point of the front after all is to appeal to all the constituencies it needs. One of them is the US government..
4. Web site: On That March First Speech. Brian Reynolds. Myers. Brian Reynolds Myers. Sthele Press. 25 June 2019. 4 March 2019.
5. Web site: Low-Level Confederation and the Nuclear Crisis (in 2 parts). Brian Reynolds. Myers. Brian Reynolds Myers. Sthele Press. 11 August 2017. Yi Hae-sŏng, a young podcaster, was one of many conservatives who lamented Moon’s reference to 1919 as the year in which the Republic of Korea was established. With those and other words, the president declared himself the heir to a nationalist and not a constitutional-democratic tradition, a man who will rule more in the spirit of the exile government that strove to liberate the minjok than of the republic that joined America in resisting North Korean aggression..
6. Web site: On that March First Speech. 4 March 2019. Brian Reynolds. Myers. Brian Reynolds Myers. Sthele Press. 26 June 2019.
7. Web site: Profile - Yoon Suk Yeol - President of the Republic of Korea. 23 February 2024. Office of the President - Republic of Korea.
8. [Assassination of Park Chung-hee|Died in office]
9. Removed by coup d'état.
10. From 12 March to 14 May 2004, Prime Minister Goh Kun served as an acting president. It was because of the National Assembly's motion to impeach him. He later returned to his post after the Constitutional Court refused to impeach him.
11. [Impeachment of Park Geun-hye|Impeached and removed]