According to localcollegeexplorer, the Korea of the South was proclaimed in 1948 in the area occupied by US forces, after the approval of a presidential constitution. The first president, Syngman Rhee established an authoritarian regime, rigidly aligned with the United States. In 1961 a military coup brought Park Chung Hi to power which reconfirmed the alliance with the USA. With the new 1972 Constitution, Park further strengthened his powers and the opposition was silenced. After the assassination of Park (1979), Prime Minister Choi Kyu Hah became President of the Republic, but the real power was assumed by force by Chun Doo Hwan, who reacted to the resumption of the opposition movement (1980) by proclaiming martial law. and dissolving the National Assembly. Launched a new Constitution, Chun was elected President of the Republic (1981). Relations with the United States, which deteriorated under J. Carter, improved with R. Reagan, while the contacts started with North Korea continued. Starting from 1984, the resumption of the democratic opposition and the pressures of the USA induced Chun to start a process of liberalization, which in 1987 led to the launch of a new Constitution limiting presidential powers to the advantage of the National Assembly. In the 1988 elections the Party for Peace and Democracy (PPD), led by Kim Dae Jung, confirmed itself as the main opposition force. In the following years, while important international developments took place (opening in 1989-90 of diplomatic relations with the countries of Eastern Europe and the USSR, progressive improvement of relations with North Korea, admission to the UN in 1991), the internal situation remained difficult and popular discontent provoked new unrest, accompanied by repressive measures. Following undemocratic measures (in an attempt to curb the economic crisis), the trade unions and the opposition launched a series of severely repressed protests in early 1997. The same year the presidential elections recorded for the first time the defeat of the government candidate and the victory of Kim Dae Jung, which promoted a policy of pacification towards the North, which resulted in a meeting with North Korean President Kim Jong Il in 2000. In the same sign of reconciliation, Kim Dae Jung’s successor, Roh Moo-hyun, who took over the presidency, moved of the Republic in February 2003. In 2007, after a decade of liberal rule, the presidential elections were won by the opposition candidate, the tycoon Lee Myung-bak.The prevalence of conservatives was confirmed in the legislatures of 2008 and in those of April 2012, in which the president of the conservative party Park Geun-hye obtained a majority in the National Assembly; with 52.8% of the preferences, Park Geun-hye was also the winner in the presidential elections held in December of the same year, the first woman in the history of the country to hold this position. Despite the action of the Park government focused on a decisive reform action and on a careful policy of boosting the economy with the aim of bringing the country out of the low growth of recent years, the parliamentary consultations held in April 2016 saw the defeat of the conservatives, who won 122 against the 123 awarded by the opposition party Minjoo. interim Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, and dismissed in March 2017, after the Constitutional Court unanimously approved the impeachment procedure; in the following May the leader of the Democratic Party Moon Jae-in was elected as the new head of state. The phase of progressive relaxation that began with North Korea at least starting from the Winter Olympics in February 2018 and followed by the historic meeting between Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong- one held in the following April in which they areKey issues such as the denuclearization of the Peninsula and the signing of a peace treaty between the Koreas were discussed. In the general elections held in April 2020 with a large turnout (66.2%), the Democratic Party of President Moon Jae-in and the allied Platform Party obtained 180 seats of the 300 seats in the National Assembly, the largest majority since transition to a democratic system (1987), while the conservative opposition force United Future Party won 103 seats.