Coup Atlas Research Database
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73205161961SuccessfulPalace coup

Republic of Korea, 1961 — palace coup

Republic of Korea (KOR)East Asia, AsiaMay 16, 1961

Event Summary

Before dawn on May 16, 1961, military units organized by Major General Park Chung Hee's Military Revolutionary Committee seized key points in Seoul, ending South Korea's Second Republic. The coup was nominally led by Army Chief of Staff Chang Do-yong, who acquiesced on the day it began. Prime Minister Chang Myon, who held real executive power in the parliamentary Second Republic, fled into hiding and after three days announced the resignation of his entire cabinet, ceding power to the junta.

Figurehead President Yun Posun accepted the coup and persuaded US commanders and Republic of Korea army units not to intervene, remaining as nominal head of state. The junta, renamed the Supreme Council for National Reconstruction, declared martial law, suspended the National Assembly, and on June 19 founded the Korean Central Intelligence Agency under Kim Jong-pil. The takeover began 18 years of rule by Park, who took over as chairman after Chang's arrest in July and won the presidency in 1963.

Films & Footage

Park Chung-hee, who led the May 16, 1961 coup, official portrait.
Park Chung-hee, who led the May 16, 1961 coup, official portrait. Photo: Republic of Korea government

Archival media is credited to its holding collection and license. Media sourcing policy →

Researched Details

Researched

Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.

Target identified in Coup Atlas research: Prime Minister Chang Myon, whose cabinet resigned and ceded power on May 18, 1961; he was not physically harmed. President Yun Posun was retained as a figurehead until his resignation in March 1962.
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Park Chung Hee (major general, coup organizer and effective leader)
Chang Myon (deposed prime minister)
Yun Posun (president retained as figurehead)
Chang Do-yong (army chief of staff, nominal coup leader)
Kim Jong-pil (coup planner, first KCIA director)

Sources

The May 16 coup was organized and carried out by Park Chung Hee and his allies in the Military Revolutionary Committee, nominally led by Army Chief of Staff Chang Do-yong after his acquiescence on the day of the coup; it rendered powerless the elected government of Prime Minister Chang Myon and President Yun Posun and ended the Second Republic.
SOURCE REVIEWED Wikipedia, May 16 coup open source ↗
Prime Minister Chang Myon fled Seoul on hearing of the coup and, after three days in hiding, reappeared to announce the resignation of the entire cabinet and cede power to the junta, while President Yun Posun accepted the coup as accomplished and remained nominal head of state.
SOURCE REVIEWED Wikipedia, May 16 coup open source ↗
On June 19, 1961 the military council created the Korean Central Intelligence Agency to prevent countercoups and suppress potential enemies, with coup planner Kim Jong-pil as its first director; President Yun remained in office, giving the regime legitimacy, and US President Kennedy reluctantly accepted the coup to preserve the alliance.
SOURCE REVIEWED Wikipedia, Park Chung Hee open source ↗
US 8th Army commander Carter Magruder and Charge d'Affaires Marshall Green urged Korean military leaders and politicians to suppress the coup, but the mainstream of the Korean military, President Yun, and Prime Minister Chang Myon showed no appetite to put it down even though it was launched by a small group.
SOURCE REVIEWED The Asan Forum, The Case of South Korea (quoting declassified US records) open source ↗

Editorial Note

In the parliamentary Second Republic the prime minister held executive power, so the deposed executive is Chang Myon even though President Yun Posun stayed on as figurehead. Linked forward: the July 3, 1961 internal purge of Chang Do-yong (id 73207031961), Yun's resignation in March 1962, and Park's election in October 1963.

How It Unfolded

Hand-coded by Coup Atlas from the sources on this page, using a fixed list of tactics. Only events we have read through carry this coding, so most records do not have it yet.

Led by
Military
How long it took
2 days from first move to resolution
  • Troop movements in the capital or key cities
  • Seizure of broadcasters / coup declaration on state media
  • Declaration of martial law or curfew

Cross-Reference

Datasets agree. At least two of the three reference datasets we check against carry this event, and none of them disagrees about its date or its result.

Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:

Cline Center id
73205161961
Albrecht/Koehler/Schutz (CAM) id
CAM-732-1961-05-16

How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.

Outcome and Target

Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Prime Minister Chang Myon, whose cabinet resigned and ceded power on May 18, 1961; he was not physically harmed. President Yun Posun was retained as a figurehead until his resignation in March 1962..

Baseline coding: Incumbent executive removed from power. Recorded leader fate: deposed; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.

Baseline Dataset Citation
Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset, v2.2.2
Peyton, Buddy, Joseph Bajjalieh, Michael Martin, and Andrea Gerald. 2026. Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset. Cline Center for Advanced Social Research. V.2.2.2. February 17. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. doi: 10.13012/B2IDB-9651987_V10
Open dataset DOI ↗
⚑ This citation establishes the coded baseline record; use the claim-level sources above for the researched narrative.

Baseline Source-Document Entries

CSP

Named in the baseline source document; no article citation was recorded.

Luttwak

Named in the baseline source document; no article citation was recorded.

Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_Chung_Hee#Rise_to_power

New York Times

“Coup Surprises Japan,” May 16, 1961
“Fighting in Seoul,” May 16, 1961

This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →

Know something about this event?
Tips are reviewed against sources before anything is added.

Related Records

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