List of Presidents of South Korea

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The following is a list of Presidents of South Korea since its independence.

[edit] List of Heads of State of the Republic of Korea

To avoid confusion, all the names on this list follow the Eastern convention (family name first, given name second) for consistency.

The presidential term has been set at five years since 1988. It was previously four years from 1948 to 1971 and seven years from 1971 to 1988.

[edit] Provisional Government (1919-1948)

#	T#	Romanized	Hangul	Took office	Left office	Political party
Presidents of the Provisional Government¹
—	1^st	Rhee Syngman	이승만	April 10, 1919	1925	Provisional
—	2^nd	Park Eunsik	박은식	1925	1925	Provisional
—	3^rd	Yi Sang-ryong	이상룡	1925	1926	Provisional
—	4^th	Hong Jin²	홍진	1926	1926	Provisional
—	5^th	Yi Dong-nyung	이동녕	1926	1927	Provisional
—	6^th	Kim Gu	김구	1927	July 20, 1948	Provisional
Chairmen of the Interim Legislative Assembly
—	1^st	Kim Kyu-sik	김규식	1946	July 20, 1948	Interim
—	2^nd	Rhee Syngman	이승만	July 20, 1948	August 15, 1948	Interim
Speaker of the Constituent Assembly
—	1^st	Rhee Syngman	이승만	July 20, 1948	August 15, 1948	Constituent

[edit] Republic of Korea (1948-present)

Independent Liberal Conservative

#	T#	Romanized	Hangul	Took office	Left office	Political party
1^st	1^st	Rhee Syngman³	이승만	August 15, 1948	August 15, 1952	Democratic ↓ Liberal
	2^nd			August 15, 1952	August 15, 1956
	3^rd			August 15, 1956	April 26, 1960
During this interval, Post Vacant.
2^nd	4^th	Yun Po Sun⁴	윤보선	August 13, 1960	March 22, 1962	Democratic ↓ New Democratic
During this interval, Park Chung-hee (박정희) was the Acting President.
3^rd	5^th	Park Chung-hee	박정희	December 17, 1963	July 1, 1967	Democratic Republican
	6^th			July 1, 1967	July 1, 1971
	7^th			July 1, 1971	December 28, 1972
	8^th			December 28, 1972	December 28, 1978
	9^th			December 28, 1972	October 26, 1979
During this interval, Prime Minister Choi Kyu-hah (최규하), was the Acting President.
4^th	10^th	Choi Kyu-hah	최규하	December 8, 1979	August 16, 1980	Independent
During this interval, Post Vacant.
5^th	11^th	Chun Doo-hwan	전두환	September 1, 1980	March 2, 1981	Democratic Justice
5^th	12^th	Chun Doo-hwan	전두환	March 3, 1981	February 24, 1988	Democratic Justice
6^th	13^th	Roh Tae-woo	노태우	February 25, 1988	February 24, 1993	Democratic Justice ↓ Democratic Liberal
7^th	14^th	Kim Young-sam	김영삼	February 25, 1993	February 24, 1998	DLP
8^th	15^th	Kim Dae-jung	김대중	February 25, 1998	February 24, 2003	New National ↓ Millennium Democratic
9^th	16^th	Roh Moo-hyun	노무현	February 25, 2003	March 12, 2004	Millennium Democratic ↓ Uri
During this interval, Prime Minister Goh Kun (고건) was the Acting President.
9^th	16^th	Roh Moo-hyun	노무현	May 14, 2004	February 24, 2008	Uri
10^th	17^th	Lee Myung-bak	이명박	February 24, 2008	Incumbent	Grand National

Notes:

The Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea was a government in exile based in Shanghai, China. Although the current South Korean constitution recognises its de jure sovereignty over the Korean people, the provisional government was not recognized by many international powers.
Hong Jin is also known as Hong Myeon-hui (홍면희).
Heo Jeong (허정) also headed a caretaker government for a brief time following the 1960 April Revolution which overthrew the First Republic.
From 1961 to 1963, Park Chung-hee held the real power as chairman of the Supreme Council for National Reconstruction.