Former PM Kim Hwang-sik defends Syngman Rhee at Far East Forum
Former Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik, who served from 2010 to 2013, said that blaming Syngman Rhee, Korea’s first president, for the division of the Korean Peninsula amounts to "historical distortion." “It was already the case that a communist regime had been established in the North before the formation of a separate government in South Korea. If this had been left unchecked, there was a high possibility that the entire Korean Peninsula would have become communist,” Kim said Monday at the 56th Far East Forum held in Seoul. The forum was organized by the Far East Broadcasting Company (FEBC)-Korea. Views on Rhee’s legacy remain deeply divided in Korea. Critics argue that Rhee failed to pursue reunification as the country’s leader, while his defenders contended that without Rhee, the entire peninsula could have fallen under communist rule. Born in 1875, Rhee spent his young adult life in the United States and contributed to Korea's independence fight against Japan's 1910-45 colonial occupation. After liberation, he was elected Korea’s first president in 1948, and remained in ofWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times
Quelle: Korea Times