koreacels, why did you kill the guy who liberated you from your dictator?

There were some generals who were already plotting to take power (and they did shortly after). They didn't want him around just because him being alive made things way more complicated. It's kind of awkward to have your intelligence chief be the guy who just killed your president.

But I wouldn't discount the loyalty many still felt to Park. This guy had saved the country when it was in really bad shape in the early 1960s and won elections by big margins at that time. He led it through possibly the most miraculous period of economic growth anywhere ever going from one of the poorest in the world to almost first world status in 20 years. He had protected his people from the North Koreans, who were even more totally fricking psycho back then and posed a real threat.

In 1972 he pushed through a new constitution that made him dictator. This is when lots of people started to get really pissed at him. You had students protesting but also guys like Kim Jae Gyu who didn't want to be working for a dictator. But there was also a heck of a lot of people who still supported him. The only fair elections Korea had ever had were the ones Park won in the '60s, so a dictator just seemed like the normal way the world operates. In the '70s his popularity declined as people were tired of corruption and having to get bossed around by the army. But it's not like they wanted him dead. It was more complicated than that.

Note that his daughter was elected president in large part by people who liked her father.

gim bop che