The Republic of Korea (ROK), widely known as South Korea, adopted this title following the elections organised by the United Nations Temporary Commission on Korea in May 1948. The elections were set up to choose delegates to a nationwide assembly, but the communist north refused to participate and held its own elections in August AD 1948. A hoped-for peaceful unification of north and south failed in 1950 when war broke out between the two parties along the thirty-eighth parallel. In 1953 an armistice, which still remains in force, was signed, dividing the peninsula along the same parallel. Since then South Korea has witnessed a large-scale development of political parties, ranging from the extreme left to the extreme right.

As a result of the Korean War the ROK developed a high level of military, economic and political dependency on the USA. The rate of economic growth from the 1970s until 1997 earned ROK the reputation as one of East Asia’s ‘little tigers’. This was linked with a rapid expansion in higher education. The nation’s success was linked with the modern Korean interpretation of Confucianism. In doing so Korea’s ancient and respected philosophical traditions were upheld.