Park Chung-hee (September 30, 1917 – October 26, 1979) was a Republic of Korea Army general and the President of South Korea from 1961 to 1979.

Park seized power in a military-led coup d'état and ruled as an unelected military strongman until his formal election as president in 1963, a post he held for 16 years until his assassination on October 26, 1979.

Park has been credited with the industrialization and rapid economic growth of South Korea through export-oriented industrialization. Despite this, Park remains a controversial figure in South Korean history due to his authoritarian way of ruling the country, particularly after 1971.

In 1999, Park was named by Time magazine as being one of the top ten "Asians of the Century".

Today, Park's legacy is split between those who credit his role in rebuilding war-ravaged South Korea after the devastating Korean War, to those who fervidly condemn his authoritarian policies, particularly those implemented after 1971.

Park Chung-hee was born on September 30, 1917, in Gumi-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do during a time when Korea was under Japanese rule. His father was Park Seong-bin (age 46 at the time) and his mother was Baek Nam-hui (age 45). His eldest brother was Park Dong-hee (age 22); second brother was Park Mu-hee (age 19); eldest sister was Park Gwi-hee (age 15); third brother was Park Sang-hee (age 11); fourth brother was Park Han-saeng (age 7); and his youngest sister was Park Jae-hee (age 5).

Chun Doo-hwan (born 18 January 1931) was a ROK Army general and the dictator of South Korea from 1980 to 1988. Chun was sentenced to death in 1996 for his heavy-handed response to the Gwangju Democratization Movement, but later pardoned by President Kim Young-sam with the advice of then President-elect Kim Dae-jung, whom Chun himself had sentenced to death some 20 years earlier.

Chun was born 18 January 1931 in Yulgok-myeon, a poor farming town in Hapcheon, South Gyeongsang province, during Japanese rule of Korea. Chun Doo-hwan was the fourth son of Chun Sang-woo and Kim Jeong-mun. Chun's oldest two brothers, Yeol-hwan and Kyuu-gon, died in an accident when he was an infant. Chun grew up knowing his remaining older brother Ki-hwan and younger brother Kyeong-hwan.

Around 1936, Chun's family moved to Daegu, where he began attending Horan Elementary School. Chun's father had had run-ins with the Japanese police in the past, and in the winter of 1939 he murdered a Japanese police captain. Their family immediately fled to Jilin, China, where they stayed in hiding for two years before returning. When Chun finally started attending elementary school again, he ended up 2–3 years behind his original classmates.