Presidential Medals

This page is a current work in progress, please bear with me.

I differentiate presidential medals into two categories. What you will primarily find on this page are presidential medals that were manufactured and presented during a president’s term in office. The other type of medals are those which often mimic presidential Medals. Many of these are parts of medal sets manufactured for collectors, very similar to the Franklin Mint Sets.¹ Here are some examples of what I refer to as Collector Medals as opposed to Presidential Medals.

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Presidential Medals

Park Chung-hee

Park Chung-hee 박정희 (朴正熙 1917-1979) was the President of South Korea from 1961 until his assassination in 1979. He came to power after leading a military coup in 1961. Initially ruling as an unelected military junta strongman from 1961 to 1963, and later as the elected third President of South Korea from 1963 to 1979.

During his tenure in office, Park began a series of economic reforms and building projects that eventually led to rapid economic growth and industrialization. South Korea became one of the world’s fastest growing economies during the 1960s and 1970s. Considerable work was done in collaboration with state supported, enormously wealthy, family-owned companies called chaebols. Similar to the Japanese zaibatsu.

Although popular during the 1960s, Park’s popularity peaked in the 1970s, and as that decade progressed his rule became more and more autocratic and dictatorial. In 1972, Park declared martial law and introduced the Yushin Constitution. This gave him the legal means to ruthlessly suppress political opposition and dissent. The constitution also gave him complete control of the military, and considerably control over the media and expressions of art.² In 1979, Park was assassinated by Kim Jae-gyu 김재규 (金載圭 1924 – 1980), director of the Korean CIA (KCIA). Even with his death, the economy continued to grow due to the mechanism he had put in place, but the country was rocked by another military coup in 1979 and was unable to fully democratize until 1987.

He is generally regarded as an authoritarian dictator who prioritized economic growth at the expense of civil liberties and human rights. He remains a controversial figure in South Korea.

Park’s eldest daughter Park Geun-hye 박근혜 (朴槿惠 1952- ) would later serve as the 11th president of South Korea from 2013 to 2017, when she was impeached and convicted of corruption. She is the country’s first female president, and its first democratically elected leader to be thrown out of office. She was pardoned on Dec. 24, 2021.

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Chun Doo-hwan

Chun Doo-hwan 전두환 (全斗煥 1931 – 2021) was a South Korean army general³ and military dictator who ruled as an unelected president from 1979 to 1980 and then as a self-elected president from 1980 to 1988. He usurped power after the 1979 assassination of president Park Chung-hee. Chun orchestrated the Dec. 12, 1979 military coup, then cemented his military dictatorship in another military coup on May 17, 1980. After which, he declared martial law and replaced Choi Kyu-hah 최규하 (崔圭夏 1919-2006), the legal president of South Korea.⁴ In 1996, Chun was sentenced to death for numerous offenses and for his role in the Kwangju Massacre, which had led to the deaths of thousands of citizens. His sentence was changed to life in prison, but was commuted the following year, by President Kim Young-sam 김영삼 (金泳三 1927-2015) on the advice of the incoming President-elect Kim Dae-jung 김대중 (金大中 1924-2009).⁵ Chun was fined $203 million, the amount of money that he had embezzled through corruption during his regime and that of his successor Roh Tae-woo 노태우 (盧泰愚). This fine was mostly never paid. In March 2006, he was stripped of his national honors and medals. In his final years, Chun was criticized for his unapologetic stance and the lack of remorse for his actions in the Kwangju Massacre and as the leader of a dictatorial regime.

There are four representative medals for Chun Doo-hwan. They are:

• A medal for the National Saemaul Leadership Conference,
• A medal for the Peace and Unification Policy Advisory Committee,
• A medal for President Chun Doo-hwan, and,
• A medal to commend the hard work of the members of the Social Cleanup Committee.

Medal for the National Saemaul Leadership Conference

The Saemaul Movement is a government sponsored program to develop the infrastructure of Korea from the bottom up. Under President Park Chung-hee 박정희 (朴正熙 1917-1979), two ‘Five Year Economic Development Plans’ (1962-66 & 1967-71) had emphasized industrial and export development, with economic development policies ignoring the needs of the rural communities.  A major side effect was that agriculture lagged far behind the industrial sector, with the average farmer earning about 50% of what urban laborers were being paid.  This resulted in a rapid shift of rural populations into the large industrial centers.  Before the 1971 Presidential election, rural communities had supported the ruling party of President Park Chung-hee; but as living conditions deteriorated for rural residents, they turned their backs on the ruling party.  Saemaul Undong 새마을운동 (New Village Movement or New Development Movement) was created as a part of the third ‘Five Year Economic Development Plan’ to bolster agriculture.  It was proposed in 1970 and launched on April 22, 1970. Its stated goal was to modernize the rural economy. President Park Chung-hee in a special declaration on Oct. 17, 1972, announced that the Saemaul Movement was to be given top priority in National Policies.  By 1973, it had become a nationwide movement.  The early campaigns focused on improving the living conditions of rural environments, while later projects were more focused on improving the rural infrastructure. As part of the government’s revitalizing efforts, the regime reviewed its Orders and Merit Medals, and in January 1973, it created the Order of Saemaul Service Merit, in 5 classes and a Saemaul Service Merit Medal. The first Presidential cash awards were also given out in 1973.

The Saemaul Undong Project does have its detractors.  Foremost is the fact that each village is coerced into competing with other villages for the scarce material resources that the government offers.  This is in direct opposition to the traditional mutual aid societies (Kye 계) that are commonly found in rural villages.  The second major complaint centered on the leaders of the movement, especially at the village level.  There is ample opportunity for personal gain at the expense of the villagers.  The Orders, Medals, and Commendations used to reward the movement’s leaders could also be used to enhance their careers, especially if they decide to find more advantageous employment in the cities.  The Saemaul Undong Project has been a tremendous success.  It now includes the urban areas of the country, and has been copied in several other countries.  It was a highly successful project during the 1970s, but lost most of its momentum with the death of President Park Chung Hee.

Saemaul Undong 새마을운동 is such a unique Korean institution that the name ‘Saemaul’ is never written in Chinese Characters. When Chinese characters are used, they are only used for other words, like ‘Movement’, as in 새마을 運動, ‘Saemaul Movement’. You will see this in the caption of the medal to your right.

Two interesting little side-notes. While the movement started as a top-down program instituted by a dictatorial regime, in many ways, it let to a bottom-up democracy movement. Moreover, this medal, nor this leadership event, is mentioned on the Official Saemaul Website.

Commendation medal for the Social Purification Committee

This was an official medal given to the committee members, for their hard work on the 7^th Anniversary (1987) of the Social Purification Movement.

The stated aim of the Social Purification Committee was the elimination of social ills, such as violence, smuggling, illegal drugs, and deceptions. However, the committee was a disaster for the media and for popular culture media, including cartoons. To solidify the regime of Chun Doo-hwan and to suppress opposition, he created and mobilized an organization called the Committee for Social Purification. This organization created the Samchung Re-education Camp 삼청교육대 (三清教育隊) which was a South Korean concentration camp. Here some 60,000 to 100,00 people, many of them being innocent civilians with clean criminal records, were arrested without warrants and faced violent treatment in their re-education. It was a prison camp for critics of the new military regime and people considered to be a “social ill.” This included surviving participants of the Kwangju Uprising, better known as the Kwangju Massacre. Within a span of six months of its opening in August 1980, more than 40,000 people were incarcerated. Many of whom had clean criminal records. Once in the camp, they were forced into hard labor or faced physical violence by the military. The camp had 4 classifications for the inmates, namely: A, B, C and D (가, 나,다 & 라). Each letter corresponded to the severity of treatment an interned person would receive in the camp. With A being the most severe and D the least. The number of people who died in the camp due to the severity of their injuries is unknown, but it is believed to be at least 339.  

The obverse inscription is 사회정화 위원의 노고를 치하하며 ‘Appreciating the hard work of the Social Purification Committee’. At the bottom is a banner with the inscription 겅직 질서 창조 ‘Honesty creates order’, which was the official slogan of the committee. The reverse inscription is 사회정화운동제7주년기장 ‘The 7th Anniversary of the Social Purification Movement’, followed by the date, 1987.10.28, and at the bottom 대통령 ‘President’ and 전두환, the signature of ‘Chun Doo-hwan’. The medal has a 60 mm diameter, a 5 mm thickness and weighs 122 g. The medal came in a fitted case. I found one reference which claims that this medal has been designated as Cultural Property No. 649.

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Roh Moo-hyun

President Roh Moo-hyun 노무현 (盧武鉉 1946-2009) was a member of the ‘386 Generation’ 세대 (386 世代) which comprises those South Koreans, born in the 1960s and attended college in the 1980s. They were the first generation not born into poverty. The name is derived from the Intel 386 Computer. In general, they were active politically as young adults and were instrumental in the Democracy Movements in the 1980s. Roh’s political career was focused on human rights advocacy for student activists and eventually expanded to overcoming regionalism in South Korean politics. It was the 386 generation that got him elected. Members of the 386 generation now comprise much of the elite in South Korean society.

This medal was given during the presidency of Roh Moo-hyun as a token to commemorate a person’s visit to the Blue House. The Korean equivalent of the U.S. White House. Traditionally, houses with blue tile roofs indicated high social status for the family living there. Today, it is the most popular roof color in Korea (everyone wants to be an aristocrat).

On the obverse there are two inscriptions. At the top is 대한민국 ‘Republic of Korea’ and at the bottom is 청와대 ‘Blue House’. On the reverse, there is 대통령 ‘President’ and 노무현, the signature of Roh Moo-hyun.

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1. The Franklin Mint sells coins, medals, jewelry, die-cast vehicles, dolls, sculptures, plates, knives, LP record sets, die-cast vehicles, coffee cups, hats, shirts and other collectibles.
2. As an example, KBS TV was under KCIA jurisdiction.
3. Chun Doo-hwan was a Vietnam Veteran, having served with the ROK forces in Vietnam from 1970-71.
4. After the assassination of Park Chung-hee in 1979, Choi became acting president. Article 48 of the Yushin Constitution places the prime minister as next succeeding president, should the president be unable to continue the duties of his office.
5. Chun’s administration had sentenced Kim Dae-jung to death some 20 years earlier.