List of Presidents of South Korea

The following is a list of Presidents of South Korea since its independence.

To avoid confusion, all the names on this list follow the Eastern convention (family name first, given name second) for consistency. The presidential term has been set at five years since 1988. It was previously four years from 1948 to 1971 and seven years from 1971 to 1988.

The first column consecutively numbers the individuals who have served as president, while the second column consecutively numbers the Presidential terms or administrations.

List of Heads of State of the Provisional Government of Republic of Korea (1919-1948)

List of Presidents of the Republic of Korea (1948-present)

      Independent       Liberal (Democratic)       Conservative (Grand National)

I#	A#	Name	Picture	Took office	Left office	Political party	Republic
1st	1st	Rhee Syng-man3 (I Seungman) 이승만 / 李承晩		July 20, 1948	August 15, 1952	Korea Democratic ↓ Nationalist ↓ Liberal	First Republic
	2nd			August 15, 1952	August 15, 1956
	3rd			August 15, 1956	April 26, 1960
During this interval, Prime Minister Heo Jeong (허정) was the Acting President.
2nd	4th	Yun Bo-seon4 (Yun Boseon) 윤보선 / 尹潽善		August 13, 1960	March 22, 1962	Democratic ↓ New Democratic	Second Republic
During this interval, Prime Minister Park Chung-hee (박정희) was the Acting President.
3rd	5th	Park Chung-hee (Bak Jeonghui) 박정희 / 朴正熙		December 17, 1963	July 1, 1967	Democratic Republican	Third Republic
	6th			July 1, 1967	July 1, 1971
	7th			July 1, 1971	December 26, 1972
	8th			December 27, 1972	December 26, 1978		Fourth Republic
	9th			December 27, 1978	October 26, 1979
During this interval, Prime Minister Choi Kyu-hah (최규하), was the Acting President.
4th	10th	Choi Kyu-hah (Choe Gyuha) 최규하 / 崔圭夏		December 8, 1979	August 16, 1980	Independent
During this interval, Prime Minister Park Choong-hoon (박충훈), was the Acting President.
5th	11th	Chun Doo-hwan (Jeon Duhwan) 전두환 / 全斗煥		September 1, 1980	March 2, 1981	Democratic Republican ↓ Democratic Justice
	12th			March 3, 1981	February 24, 1988		Fifth Republic
6th	13th	Roh Tae-woo (No Taeu) 노태우 / 盧泰愚		February 25, 1988	February 24, 1993	Democratic Justice ↓ Democratic Liberal	Sixth Republic
7th	14th	Kim Young-sam (Gim Yeongsam) 김영삼 / 金泳三		February 25, 1993	February 24, 1998	Democratic Liberal ↓ New Korea ↓ Grand National
8th	15th	Kim Dae-jung (Gim Daejung) 김대중 / 金大中		February 25, 1998	February 24, 2003	National Congress for New Politics ↓ New Millennium Democratic
9th	16th	Roh Moo-hyun (No Muhyeon) 노무현 / 盧武鉉		February 25, 2003	March 12, 2004	New Millennium Democratic ↓ Open Uri (Our Open)
During this interval, Prime Minister Goh Kun (고건) was the Acting President.
9th	16th	Roh Moo-hyun (No Muhyeon) 노무현 / 盧武鉉		May 14, 2004	February 24, 2008	Open Uri (Our Open) ↓ United New Democratic ↓ United Democratic ↓ Democratic
10th	17th	Lee Myung-bak (I Myeongbak) 이명박 / 李明博		February 25, 2008	Incumbent (Term expires February 25, 2013)	Grand National

Notes:

1. The Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea was a government in exile based in Shanghai, China. Although the current South Korean constitution recognises its de jure sovereignty over the Korean people, the provisional government was not recognized by many international powers.
2. Hong Jin is also known as Hong Myeon-hui (홍면희).
3. Heo Jeong (허정) also headed a caretaker government for a brief time following the 1960 April Revolution which overthrew the First Republic.
4. From 1961 to 1963, Park Chung-hee held the real power as chairman of the Supreme Council for National Reconstruction.

See also

• Government of South Korea
• List of Prime Ministers of South Korea