South Korea · Constitution
Constitution of the Republic of Korea
First adopted in 1948 and comprehensively revised nine times; the current text is the Sixth Republic constitution of 1987, negotiated at the end of military rule. It establishes a directly elected President limited to a single five-year term, a unicameral National Assembly, an independent judiciary headed by the Supreme Court, and a separate Constitutional Court. Chapter II contains an extensive bill of rights including human dignity, and Article 37(2) permits restriction of rights only by statute and never in a way that destroys the essential content of the right.
The constitutional text
First adopted in 1948 and comprehensively revised nine times; the current text is the Sixth Republic constitution of 1987, negotiated at the end of military rule. It establishes a directly elected President limited to a single five-year term, a unicameral National Assembly, an independent judiciary headed by the Supreme Court, and a separate Constitutional Court. Chapter II contains an extensive bill of rights including human dignity, and Article 37(2) permits restriction of rights only by statute and never in a way that destroys the essential content of the right.
Separation of powers
Unitary, with meaningful local autonomy under the Local Autonomy Act: 17 first-level divisions with directly elected governors, mayors and councils. Local ordinances must not contravene statute, and the central government retains extensive supervisory powers. There is no federal division of legislative competence.
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