Third, the constitutional adjudication system is institutionalized mainly to
control legislative and executive powers.
Fourth, the Constitution has a Bill of Rights in which a comprehensive list of
basic rights ranging from civil and political rights to social, economic, and cultural
rights are enumerated.
Fifth, since the first constitution of 1948 , a special constitutional concern has
been given to the market economy to intervene in the relationship between the
state and civil society.
ii. major political developments since 2000
The politics of constitutional revision
Since the consolidation of democratization, dissatisfaction with the present consti-
tution has surfaced with a bid for constitutional amendment or revision. Unlike
previous constitutional revisions, this movement has been initiated not only by
politicians but also civil society across various political or social spectra. However,
three major reasons can be summarized and commented on with regard to the
causes of discomfort.
First, the present constitution was criticized for not reflecting many Korean
people’s genuine will or their ideals of democracy and the rule of law, though some
important progress, such as popular direct presidential election and the introduction
of the Constitutional Court system, was accomplished through it. The egotistical
influence of the then powerful political leaders, Roh Tae-woo, Kim Young-sam,
Kim Dae-jung, and Kim Jong-pil has generally been blamed. However, such a
simplistic criticism has failed to convince the general public, and criticism of the
present constitution must also acknowledge the precarious circumstances that
brought about constitutional change in and around 1987.
Second, criticisms focus upon the form of government and/or the term of the
president. The form of government which the present constitution envisaged was a
balanced separation of powers between the National Assembly and the president.
However, the current system can be very unstable because, according to the change
of political situation, it may result in either an imperial presidency or a divided
government. Another source of criticism is the president’s lack of accountability,
which originated from a single-term limitation. These criticisms may be questioned
in terms of whether such problems can only be solved by constitutional revision,
which may in turn have unnecessary sociopolitical costs, as well as financial costs,
because such aims may well be achieved by other means.
Third, the Korean constitution needs to reflect the changed atmosphere within
and outside the Korean peninsula, where confrontation between South and North
Korea causes fundamental constitutional issues. The vicissitudes of globalization
and the creation of economic blocs have transformed the relationship between