Syngman Rhee

Syngman Rhee (, ; 26 March 1875 – 19 July 1965) was a South Korean politician who served as the first president of South Korea from 1948 to 1960.

Rhee is also known by his art name Unam.

Syngman Rhee was born on 26 March 1875 in Daegyeong, a village in Pyeongsan County, Hwanghae Province of Joseon-ruled Korea.

Rhee was the third but only surviving son out of three brothers and two sisters (his two older brothers both died in infancy) in a rural family of modest means.

Rhee's family traced its lineage back to King Taejong of Joseon.

In 1877, at the age of two, Rhee and his family moved to Seoul, where he had traditional Confucian education in various seodang in Nakdong and Dodong.

When Rhee was six years old a smallpox infection rendered him virtually blind until he was treated with western medicine, possibly by a Japanese doctor.

Rhee was portrayed as a potential candidate for the gwageo, the traditional Korean civil service examination, but in 1894 reforms abolished the gwageo system, and in April he enrolled in the Paechae School, an American Methodist school, where he converted to Christianity.

Rhee studied English and sinhakmun.

Near the end of 1895, he joined a Hyeopseong (Mutual Friendship) Club created by Seo Jae-pil, who returned from the United States after his exile following the Gapsin Coup.

He worked as the head and the main writer of the newspapers Hyeopseong-hoe Hoebo and Maeil Shinmun, the latter being the first daily newspaper in Korea.

During this period, Rhee earned money by teaching the Korean language to Americans.

In 1895, Rhee graduated from Pai Chai School.

Rhee became involved in Anti-Japanese circles after the end of the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895, which saw Joseon passed from the Chinese sphere of influence to the Japanese.

He became a Korean independence activist and was imprisoned for his activities in 1899.

After his release in 1904, he moved to the United States, where he obtained degrees from American universities and met President Theodore Roosevelt.

After a brief 1910–12 return to Korea, he moved to Hawaii in 1913.

From 1918 to 1924, he served as the first President of the Korean Provisional Government until he was impeached in 1925.

He then returned to the United States, where he advocated and fundraised for Korean independence.

Rhee was also the first and last president of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea from 1919 to his impeachment in 1925 and from 1947 to 1948.

In 1919, following the Japanese suppression of the March 1st Movement, Rhee joined the right-leaning Korean Provisional Government in exile in Shanghai.

In 1939, he moved to Washington, DC.

In 1945, he was returned to US-controlled Korea by the US military, and on 20 July 1948 he was elected the first president of the Republic of Korea by the National Assembly, ushering in the First Republic of Korea.

As president, Rhee continued his hardline anti-communist and pro-American views that characterized much of his earlier political career.

Early on in his presidency, his government put down a communist uprising on Jeju Island, and the Mungyeong and Bodo League massacres were committed against suspected communist sympathisers, leaving at least 100,000 people dead.

As president of South Korea, Rhee's government was characterised by authoritarianism, limited economic development, and in the late 1950s growing political instability and public opposition.

Born in Hwanghae Province, Joseon, Rhee attended an American Methodist school, where he converted to Christianity.

Rhee was president during the outbreak of the Korean War (1950–1953), in which North Korea invaded South Korea.

He refused to sign the armistice agreement that ended the war, wishing to have the peninsula reunited by force.

After the fighting ended, South Korea's economy lagged behind North Korea's and was heavily reliant on US aid.

After being re-elected in 1956, he pushed to modify the constitution to remove the two-term limit, despite opposition protests.

He was reelected uncontested in March 1960, after his opponent Chough Pyung-ok died from cancer before the election took place.

After Rhee's ally Lee Ki-poong won the corresponding vice-presidential election by a wide margin, the opposition rejected the result as rigged, which triggered protests.

These escalated into the student-led April Revolution, in which police shot demonstrators in Masan.

The resulting scandal caused Rhee to resign on 26 April, ushering in the Second Republic of Korea.

Despite this, protesters continued to converge on the presidential palace, leading to the CIA covertly evacuating him on 28 April by helicopter.

He spent the rest of his life in exile in Honolulu, Hawaii, and died of a stroke in 1965.

He was a 16th-generation descendant of Grand Prince Yangnyeong through his second son, Yi Heun who was known as Jangpyeong Dojeong (장평도정;長平都正).

This case makes him a distant relative of the mid-Joseon military officer, Yi Sun-sin (not be confused with Admiral Yi Sun-sin).

His mother was a member of Gimhae Kim clan.