Yun Bo-seon

Yun Bo-seon was a Korean independence activist and a respected political figure who served as the second president of South Korea from 1960 to 1962. He was born in Asan, South Chungcheong province, in 1897. His uncle, Yun Chi-ho, was a prominent leader against the Japanese colonial occupation. In 1917, he moved to Shanghai, where he joined the Korean exile community, and in 1921, he settled in the United Kingdom to study at the University of Edinburgh, earning a master’s degree in 1930. He returned to Korea in 1932 and became involved in various social and cultural activities. He entered politics in 1945 after the liberation of Korea from Japan, with Syngman Rhee being his mentor. In 1948, he was appointed as the mayor of Seoul by Rhee. A year later, he became the minister of commerce and industry. However, he soon began to disagree with Rhee’s authoritarian policies and resigned from his post in 1950. He then served as the president of the Red Cross Society, before being elected to the National Assembly in 1954. A year later, he founded the opposition Democratic Party along with several others. After Rhee’s government was overthrown by a student-led pro-democracy uprising in 1960, Yun was elected president on August 13, 1960. He was merely a figurehead, as South Korea had switched to a parliamentary system in response to the authoritarian excesses of Rhee’s regime. After Park Chung-hee’s coup in 1961, he stayed on briefly to provide legitimacy to the regime, but resigned on March 22, 1962. He opposed Park’s authoritarian rule and ran for president twice in 1963 and 1967, losing each time. After receiving suspended sentences several times for anti-government activities, Yun retired from politics in 1980 and focused primarily on cultural activities until his death from diabetes and high blood pressure in 1990. He was accorded a state funeral by President Roh Tae-woo and was buried at his family cemetery in Asan. He was widely regarded as a symbol of democracy and integrity in Korean politics.