Park's White House visit a sign of influence

By Arthur I. Cyr

South Korean President Park Geun-hye's visit to the White House on Tuesday underscores the remarkable success and influence of her nation. Her election last December added one more name to the world's expanding roster of women leaders of nations.

The alternation of political parties in the presidential office emphasizes that democracy is firmly established in her country. Finally, focus on South Korea provides a healthy contrast to the ravings emanating from North Korea.

As recently as the early 1960s, South Korea was one of the poorest economies in the world. Still a peasant society, the entire Korean Peninsula was terribly devastated by the Korean War of 1950-53. Yet today, the Republic of Korea ranks among the top 20 economies in the world, holding leadership roles in the automobile, advanced electronics, shipbuilding and other industries.

Rapid industrialization and economic modernization has been complemented by a striking transition from dictatorship to democracy. President-elect Park's father, Gen. Park Chung-hee, stifled incipient democracy and imposed extremely harsh military authoritarianism for nearly two decades. He was assassinated in 1979 by the head of the KCIA, the country's national intelligence agency. In Korean memory, he remains a respected symbol of strength and effectiveness for many, doubtless a factor in his daughter's national electoral success.

While this family history understandably has been the focus of considerable media commentary on the present Park's political victory, the background of now-stable representative government in South Korea is a much more important story. Gen. Park was succeeded by two more generals, Chun Doo-hwan and Roe Tae-woo, but growing pressure for true democratic representation proved insurmountable.

The capstone of this transition to democracy was the election of Kim Dae-jung as president in 1997. He completed his five-year term without interruption, and in 2000 received the Nobel Peace Prize. A principal symbol of opposition to Park's dictatorship, he was imprisoned for several years. On one occasion, KCIA agents kidnapped him and planned to kill him. Only the intervention of senior U.S. CIA official Don Gregg saved his life.

South Korea's remarkable domestic accomplishments have unfolded while the country becomes increasingly influential in global arenas. In March 2012, the Obama administration shrewdly nominated Dartmouth College president Jim Yong Kim, who was born in South Korea, as president of the World Bank.

Ban Ki-moon, current U.N. secretary general, is a career South Korean diplomat. Despite challenges, the U.N. has expanded international cooperation since the end of the Cold War era.

The original vision of the U.N. combined the competing goals of favoring the most powerful nations and inclusive global representation. Ban and Kim personify South Korea's significant expanding role as a bridge between developed and developing nations.

Market economies and reasonably representative governments now characterize a steadily increasing share of the world's developing nations. In short, South Korea is ideally positioned to lead impoverished populations toward prosperity.

The U.N. today is relatively strong. The vision of a U.N., adopted by Allied leaders early in World War II, is confirmed. The U.N. and U.S. decisions in 1950 to defend South Korea have been vital to this outcome.

Park Geun-hye personifies family continuity but also extraordinary national political, economic and political progress. She has the opportunity to develop a starring global leadership role, with noisy North Korea shunted off to stage left.

Arthur I. Cyr is Clausen Distinguished Professor at Carthage College in Wisconsin and author of “After the Cold War.”