Korea: Lieutenant-General Park Chung Hee, President of the Republic of Korea (South Korea), c. 1966

Park Chung-hee (14 November 1917 - 26 October 1979) was a South Korean president and military general who led South Korea from 1961 until his assassination in 1979. Park seized power through a military coup d'etat that overthrew the Korean Second Republic in 1961 and ruled as a military strongman at the head of the Supreme Council for National Reconstruction until his election and inauguration as the President of the Korean Third Republic in 1963. In 1972, Park declared martial law and recast the constitution into a highly authoritarian document, ushering in the Korean Fourth Republic. After surviving several assassination attempts, including two operations associated with North Korea, Park was eventually assassinated on 26 October 1979 by Kim Jae-gyu, the chief of his own security services. He had led South Korea for 18 years.