Minjung
| Minjung | |
| Hangul | 민중 |
|---|---|
| Hanja | |
| Revised Romanization | Minjung |
| McCune–Reischauer | Minjung |
Minjung is a Korean word that combines the two hanja characters min and jung. Min may be translated as "people" and jung as "the mass." Thus, minjung literally means "the mass of the people," or more simply "mass" or "the people."
However, in the Korean political and cultural context, "mass" is not an adequate translation, and "the people" carries a Communist connotation that makes it dangerous in anti-Communist South Korea. Nonetheless, "the people" is close to what minjung seeks to convey, both sociologically and politically. For Koreans, minjung are those who are oppressed politically, exploited economically, marginalized sociologically, despised culturally, and condemned religiously.
Thus, the notion of minjung came to identify and inform the struggle for democracy in South Korea. That is, the term minjung works as a kind of worldview that provides the categories in which social reality is organized and understood. One of the basic precepts of this worldview is that history should be understood from the point of view of the minjung, or that the minjung are the subjects (and not victims) of history.
The idea of Minjung can be traced back to the late Joseon dynasty's Silhak movement through the works of Jeong Yak-yong and Yi Hwang.
After the Korean War ended and South Korea ran its own government under their first president, Syngman Rhee, there were several military coups and forces involved in a reformation of the new government. Notably, there was President Park Chung-hee (1961–1979) and President Chun Doo-hwan.
While Minjung (the mass of people) was suffering and struggling from a decade of mismanagement and corruption by the Rhee presidency, a major student uprising, and some American interference, managed to oust Syngman Rhee. Afterwards, a group of military officers led by General Park Chung-hee seized power in South Korea through a coup d' etat, and declared himself President. The period from 1965 to 1971 was one of rapid economic growth and comparative political stability. To achieve economic stability, Park Chung-hee created the first Five-Year Economic Development Plan (to start in 1952), the first such overall development program ever prepared for Korea. The five-year plan gave priority to the following things:
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