This article illuminates the change and continuity of the administrative structure, procedure and human resources of the Korean state since its foundation of the republic in 1948. The institutional characteristics of the Korean state administration which were driven during the past six decades are categorized into three distinct stages: i.e., firstly, the stage of the state‐building (late 1940s-1950s) when the government sought to institutionalize a ‘modern bureaucratic state administration,’ but in reality the goal was difficult to be achieved because of a wide variety of poor surroundings of the time; secondly, the stage of industrialization (1960s-1980s) when substantial efforts were invested for the institutionalization of a modern bureaucratic state administration, but resulted in being significantly different from the Weberian ideal type, and; thirdly, the stage of democratization (late 1980s-present) when the previous forty year’s efforts to institutionalize a modern bureaucratic state administration were revised and replaced by reform efforts to introduce a de‐bureaucratized democratic state administration. In each developmental stage, this article also discusses on the related classic issues such as neutral competence, executive leadership, and democratic representativeness of the Korean state administration.