there was little solicitude for the principle of civilian participation; his primary motive was doubtless to protect his own power from any possible threat and to demonstrate that he would tolerate suspicious activity by no one.
"Korean democracy" remains the name of the game. In reporting state policies at the opening of the new National Assembly in May 1973, Prime Minister Kim Chong-p'il announced that the ROK "had succeeded in surmounting the superficial imitation of Western-style democracy . . . we have established our own democracy in accord with our traditions and history." This "revitalization" has, however, reduced the role of the parties and the legislature and curbed civil liberties to the point where domestic critics, primarily the intellectual and Christian communities, privately maintain that South Korea can no longer claim to be the "frontier of freedom," but instead is becoming the mirror image of the totalitarian regime in the North.
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