June 29 Declaration


The June 29 Declaration, officially titled the Special Declaration for Grand National Harmony and Progress Towards a Great Nation, was a speech by Roh Tae-woo, presidential candidate of the ruling Democratic Justice Party of South Korea, on 29 June 1987. In the declaration, Roh promised significant concessions to opponents of the incumbent authoritarian regime of Chun Doo-hwan who had been pressing for democracy. Roh went on to win the open presidential elections that were held that year, the first for at least the fifteen years since the October Yushin of 1972.
The question of the role of the June 29 Declaration is important in the historiography of South Korean democratization. According to proponents of the view that this was a "pacted" transition, achieved by calculated compromise by the ruling elite, the June 29 Declaration was the crucial turning point in the development of these calculations. "Pacted" transition theorists point to the authoritarian methods of Roh's subsequent regime, which continued the political manipulation and trasformismo of the Chun government, as evidence for the thesis that the June 29 Declaration was simply a tactic that enabled the perpetuation of authoritarian rule. "Mass" transition theorists, by contrast, believe that the Declaration was merely a response to the June Democracy Movement, and the democratization process was driven by the force of popular demand rather than elite bargaining.
The Declaration comprised eight points, in which Roh promised to:
The declaration began to be realized later that year with the promulgation of the constitution of the Sixth Republic of South Korea in October.