Go to: 1961 Park takes power After a brief period of democracy in South Korea, Park Chung Hee, an army general and veteran of the Japanese imperial army, staged a military coup and seized power. Park revived the system of chaebol, which set up privately owned and run companies whose production was geared to meet government needs. It turned South Korea's once-backward economy into one of Asia's greatest successes. But in 1972, Park declared martial law and began ruling by decree, even making criticism of him illegal. During a wave of strikes and protests in 1979, he was assassinated by the head of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency.