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Government, as Rhee practices it, is almost a one-man job. He has a few trusted cabinet ministers, such as Acting Premier Paik To Chin and Information Minister Clarence Ryee. Below them are a number of lesser ministers and government officials who cautiously conform to Rhee's wishes. Government favors can be obtained only through Rhee and this circle of his intimates. All foreign exchange allocations for more than $500, for example, must be personally approved by Rhee. Imposed to ensure the strictest honesty in government operations, this control has its drawbacks: important decisions inevitably await the President's approval, and when he is incapacitated they await his recovery. Said a Rhee official last week: "When the old man is sick, Korea is sick."
Sovereign Trust. In pursuing this policy, Rhee may well be moved by real distrust of Korea's manipulating politicians. But there is something more to his actions than counter-manipulation: his passionate belief that he governs by sovereign right conferred on him by the Korean people. This belief he clearly demonstrated in his row with the National Assembly last year. According to Korea's five-year-old constitution, the Assembly elects the President. Rhee's term being about to expire, the Assembly wished to exercise its constitutional right. Since the majority were opposed to Rhee, this meant a new man in the job. Among the aspirants was ex-Premier John Myun Chang, a U.S.-educated (Fordham) intellectual.
Rhee insisted that the President should be chosen by vote of the people. The Assembly said no. Rhee declared martial law, had his cops arrest twelve Assemblymen, charged them with being Communist plotters, and sent a mob of his supporters to storm the Assembly chamber. Aspirant Chang took refuge in a U.S. Army hospital. Rhee threatened to pull out a couple of ROK divisions from the line to back up his police, hesitated only when his good friend, Eighth Army Commander Van Fleet, flew to Pusan and told the President that this would mean an open rupture with the U.N. forces. When the Voice of America commented on his action, Rhee cut it off the air and invoked a censorship of news and publications. To an official note of protest from the U.S., he retorted: "I know you don't like me and I don't care." The truncated Assembly finally voted him an extension of his term, and in the August elections (which U.N. observers deemed fair) the people voted Rhee back into the presidency by an overwhelming majority. Thus his claim to sovereignty was justified.
Democracy's Price. In conversation Rhee defends his attitude by saying: "The Assembly can be bought by anyone—by anyone." So far, the internal Communist threat in South Korea, except for guerrillas, has been confined to minor sabotage and espionage. But, with a huge Chinese Communist army still in North Korea, the threat is real.