President Park Chung-hee announced an emergency step that dissolved the National Assembly, suspended normal political activity, and brought the country under martial law. This created the conditions for rewriting the constitution without the usual legislative checks.
A new constitutional text was proclaimed while martial law conditions continued, bypassing the normal lawmaking process. The draft expanded presidential authority and set up a system designed to reduce electoral competition.
South Korea held a constitutional referendum that officially adopted the Yusin Constitution. The new system sharply strengthened the presidency and helped launch the Fourth Republic under Park’s control.
Under the new constitution, the presidency shifted from direct election to indirect election by the National Conference for Unification (NCU). Park became the sole candidate and was elected, reinforcing a political structure centered on the executive branch.
Opposition leader Kim Dae-jung was abducted in Tokyo and taken back toward Korea in a case widely associated with South Korea’s intelligence services. The incident deepened fear of state power reaching beyond Korea’s borders and intensified scrutiny of the Yusin system.
Park issued Emergency Measure No. 1, making it illegal to oppose, criticize, or call for changing the Yusin Constitution. The measure allowed arrests without warrants and trials in emergency courts, expanding the state’s tools for political repression.
Emergency Measure No. 4 banned activities linked to a student and youth organization accused of anti-state plotting. It also authorized harsh school discipline measures, tying campus politics directly to national security enforcement.
Eight men accused in the People’s Revolutionary Party (PRP) case were executed soon after the Supreme Court upheld their death sentences. The speed of the executions and later controversy over the case became a lasting symbol of how the Yusin state used courts and security agencies against alleged dissidents.
Emergency Measure No. 9 criminalized a wide range of speech and organizing, including criticism of the Yusin Constitution and many forms of protest. It became one of the most sweeping tools for suppressing opposition during the 1970s.
Women workers from YH Trading protested layoffs and the company’s closure through a sit-in at opposition party headquarters. Police broke up the protest, and a worker’s death helped trigger broader protests against the Yusin government’s labor and security practices.
The ruling bloc voted to remove Kim Young-sam, head of the main opposition party, from his Assembly seat. The expulsion escalated political conflict and helped set off large-scale demonstrations in the southeast.
Protests in Busan and Masan called for democratization and an end to Park’s Yusin regime. The government suppressed the uprising, but the unrest revealed widening cracks in the system of control built since 1972.
Park was killed during a dinner meeting by KCIA director Kim Jae-gyu. The assassination abruptly removed the main architect of the Yusin system and opened a contested period in which calls grew to end the Yusin Constitution.
After Park’s death, South Korea entered a brief period of political opening often called the “Seoul Spring.” Reformers and student groups pressed for constitutional change, framing the Yusin system as the central barrier to democratization.
Yusin Constitution and authoritarian consolidation (1972–1979)