While North Korea is synonymous with dictatorship and zero democracy, at the start of the South Korea, things weren’t so much better. Park Chung Hee lead a military coup and assumed power in 1961. He led a authoritative regime with limited democracy, suppression of the press and political parties were common, and by the end of his life he was essentially a dictator until he was assassinated. He claimed that the things he had done was to fight communism, and the United States is believed to have supported/tolerated him for the same reason.