Study On The History Of Constitutional Amendment In Korea And The Changes Of Its Political System

After the disassociation of Korean Peninsula by America and Soviet Union, the military government of America remained the laws and rules in the southern area of the peninsula which were carried out during the period of Japanese colonial rule and framed the Constitution with the support of the right wing and pro-American power. To some extend, the Consititution adhered to the Spirit of Nationalism, but it imitated Occident constitutions in many ways. So it was considered to be a half-blooded constitution. In more than sixty years, the Constiution underwent nine amendments, after which Korea was finally on its way to democratization. After so many amendments, the Korean Constitution changed a lot in its content and all these changes greatly influenced the political situation, which was really rare in the world constitutional history.The Korean constitutionalism experienced the following process; presidential election on May 10^th, and the formulating of the foundation constitution; the outbreak of the June 25^th war and the restriction that lasted for three years; the pass of distillating constitution and the beginning of bicameral congress; the illegal election on March 15^th and the demotic fight on April 19^th; the splitting of the ruling parties and the failure of the cabinet led by Jang Myun; the military coup on May 16^th and the implementation of the law of exceptional measures for nation-reconstruction; the public announcement of the exceptional measures and the establishment of the reforming constitution; the assassination of Park Jung-hee and the miliitary coup stirred up by Jun Doo-hwan; the demotic fight on June 10^th and the amendment determined by the government and the public; the peaceful alternation of political power and the reformation by the following government.The Korean constitutional history experienced complicated heuristic procedure. In the course of the amendments, the people launched many fights , two of which ended up with victory. Three militray coups occured, the original constitution was stopped for three times and the Congress was disbanded forcibly for three times as well. Ten people were assigned to be president for seventeen periods through seven indirect elections and ten direct elections. One of them seeked refuge abroad, one was assassinated, two were given life sentence and one was impeached. And types of congress and parliament were changed from unicameral system to bicameral system, and unicameral system was finally fixed. The authorities announced restriction for 13 times which lasted for 1825days in total. The unconstitutional transition organizations set up by the authority of militray coup lasted for 1234 days, during which more than 2121 bills were passed and 1467 laws were drawn up and amended.Among the nine amendments, three of them brought great changes to the Korean Government. The Presidential Government was transferred to Parliamanet Cabinet System during the fourth amendment. While during the fifth amendment, the Presidential Government was adopted again. The ninth amendment changed the President-centered system into the government of power-separation and power-balance, providing the legal assurance for establishing the democratic system. Among the nine amendments, the first three amendments were passed by the Congress and the following six by referendum. Only the fourth and ninth amen dents were normal. One of them experienced the imperfect procedure, namely the third amendment which violated the procedure of amending constitution and was a single-party amendment conducted by the ruling party, Democratic Party. The purpose of the other six amendments were not genuine, either. The aim of the first, the second, the sixth and the seventh was for the President's continuance in office. While the purpose of the fifth and the eighth amendments was to help the military power gain the highest power. Many problems existed in the process of drafting, the political environment and the ways of passing the constitutional amendments. The first, the fourth, the seventh and the eighth amendments were passed under the circurmtance of enforcing a restriction. And the first, the second and the sixth were passed because the ruling party or the President adopted the unconstitutional action. Amendments of these kinds hindered the development of democracy, leaving disrepute in the Korean Constitutional history.The Korean constitutional history has the following characteristics; The right of amending constitution was almost controlled by president or the party in power. The focal point of amending was mainly about the President's continuance in office and the ways of electing presidents. Referendum was used as a tool for justifying the regime took by the new political power.Make a general survey of the nine constitution amendments in Korea and the transitional course of its political system, the following conclusion can be drawn; the democracy progressed with difficulty and arduousness during the nine amendments. The people's fights pushed forward the fall of the authoritarianism and kaiserism and transition of democracy. The improper backgrounds under which amendments were passed, the amendments passed by the unconstitutional transition organizations infringed the national legislative power and bungled the transition of democracy. The relationship between administration and legislation was vicarious. The supervisory organ and its power of judicial review existed only in name. The constitution of authoritarianism came into being and kaiserism was implemented. All of these delayed the development of democracy as well. The amendments in Korea and the changing course of its political system not only provided precious experience and lessons in Korean contitutional history, but also practical experience and lessons for the world constitutional history.With the influence of the wolrd democratic movement, the promotion of national struggle, the socio-economic development, the further opening up and the upgrading of culture, Korea eventually finished its transition from authoritarianism politics to democracy. In the later governmental political reforms, democratization was constantly consolidated and developed. However, the unbalance of the rights between the President and the Congress still existed and there were still some problems, like the juvenility of partisan politics, demanding further solution.