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Political Language of Park Chung-hee's Mobilization Regime

Park Dong-chun 1

1전북대학교

Candidate

ABSTRACT

This paper examines what role Park Chung-hee's political language played in his exercising of power. His political language can be represented by slogans that were used to mobilize people through appeals to industrialization, modernization, nationalism, "democracy" under strong leadership, and national crisis. But what he meant by nationalism and democracy was so idiosyncratic in view of the meanings of the terms that were in general use among the Korean people that many opponents found his use of language hypocritical. Yet in his own cognitive structure, the correct meaning of words or logical consistency was matters that could be repressed with power as long as economic development to overcome national crisis was to be achieved in the meantime. Moreover, the meanings in which he used terms such as nation and democracy came by frequent usages to be incorporated among the diverse elements that would constitute the terms' legitimate meaning in general. As Park's language was justified as a means ofovercoming national crisis, so was it to be dissolved after the crisis is over. Korean society inherited the contraction of truth-sensitivity, the grammatical cleavage of political language, and the crisis-driven frame of reference from Park's political language and these aspects of political language have to be dealt with from now on.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.