Foreign relations of South Korea
On January 18, 1952 The first president of South Korea Syngman Rhee declared that the vicinity of Dokdo was a territory of South Korea (Syngman Rhee line). Subsequently, some 3,000 Japanese fishermen who conducted fishery operations in this vicinity were captured. This incident, called the Dai Ichi Daihoumaru Ship case strained relations between South Korea and Japan.
Han Myeong-sook
Han Myeong-sook (born March 24, 1944; ) was the Prime Minister of South Korea from April 2006 to March 2007. She is South Korea's first female prime minister (second female prime minister overall if the acting premiership of Chang Sang is included). She was from the United New Democratic Party (UNDP) as a member of the Korean National Assembly (representative) for Ilsan-gab, and is a graduate of Ewha Womans University in Seoul with a degree in French literature. She resigned as Prime Minister on March 7, 2007 and declared her presidential candidacy. But she did not succeed in the nominations. In 2008 she ran for parliament, but was not elected. However, in January 2012 she was elected leader of the main oppositional Democratic United Party (DUP) before the April legislative elections and became a member of parliament. But the liberals did not manage to defeat the ruling Saenuri Party and Han stepped down as party leader in April 2012. In August 2015, Han was convicted of receiving illegal donations at the amount of 900 million KRW, and sentence to two years in prison. She is ineligible to run for public office for ten years after her prison term. She became the first former prime minister of the Republic of Korea to serve a prison time.