South Korea's flag includes a red and blue yin-yang symbol. The broken bars symbolize yin (dark and cold) and the unbroken bars symbolize yang (bright and hot).
Introduction: South Korea was an independent kingdom for much of its long history, it was occupied by Japan beginning in 1905 following the Russo-Japanese War. In 1910, the peninsula was annexed by Tokyo. It regained its independence following Japan's surrender during world war II. After World War II, Korea was split between the democratic south and the communist north. In 1950, North Korea invaded the south we marked the start of the Korean war which lasted until 1953. In 1961, Chung-hee took over leadership of the country in a coup. During his regime South Korea achieved rapid economic growth, with per capital income rising to roughly 17 times the level of North Korea. In 1987, the country held its first free presidential election under their revised constitution. In 2013, Park Geun-hye became South Korea’s first female leader. She was impeached in 2016 due to a scandal.
Population and World Ranking: South Korea's population is 50,924,172, and its world ranking is 28.
Economy: South Korea's GDP is $1.929 trillion and at that amount of gross domestic production, their ranking is 14th in the world.
Unemployment and World Ranking: South Korea's unemployment rate is 4% and their ranking is 35th worldwide.
Main Industries: Some of these include semiconductors, petrochemicals, automobile/auto parts, ships, wireless communication equipment, steel, electronics, plastics, and computers.
Government Type: South Korea is a presidential republic which is a system of government where an executive branch is led by a president who serves as both head of state and head of government.
Capitol: The capitol of South Korea is Seoul.
Administrative Divisions: South Korea has nine provinces, six metropolitan cities, one special city, and one special self governing city.
Independence: South Korea became independent from Japan on August 15th, 1945.
Constitution: Was first effective on July 17th, 1948 and was amended several times, the last in 1987.
Legal System: South Korea has a mixed legal system. It combines European civil law, Anglo-American law, and Chinese classical thought. It's civil law system based.
Suffrage: The legal voting age is 19.
Executive Branch: The current chief of state is Hwang Kyo-ahn and this position is decided by the constitutional court. The state council/ cabinet is appointed by the president on the prime minister's recommendation. The prime minister is appointed by president with consent of National Assembly. In the situation of death, a majority vote elects the next replacement of said position.
Legislative Branch: South Korea is unicameral, meaning they have a single legislative chamber. There are 300 seats; 246 members directly elected by simple majority vote and the remaining 54 seats are directly elected by a representation vote. Each member can serve up to four years in a term.
Judicial Branch: This branch is made up of different rankings.The two highest rankings are the supreme court of South Korea, which consists of a chief justice and 13 justices, and the constitutional court, which consists of a court head and 8 justices. Subordinate courts include high courts, district courts, and branch courts. The supreme court chief justice is appointed by the president with the consent of the National Assembly. The other justices are appointed by the president upon the recommendation of the chief justice and consent of the national assembly. The chief justice is a 6-year non-renewable term, other justices serve 6-year renewable terms. The chief of justice can serve until the age of 70, while other justices can serve until the age of 65,