[KS] a Rhee cult?

[Balazs Szalontai]

Dear All,

I would like to ask you about whether there was a 'cult of personality'
around Syngman Rhee, manifested in pictures, statues, obligatory
readings, quotations, etc., in the period when he ruled the ROK. Having
done research in the archives of the Hungarian Foreign Ministry, I am
writing my dissertation about North Korea (that is, the 1953-64 period).
As I attempt to analyze the character of the North Korean regime, I am
particularly interested in the similarities and differences between the
North and South Korean political systems. I would like to find out how
"Korean" this or that aspect of the Kim Il-sung regime was. Statues of
political leaders, for instance, seem not to have been a characteristic
of pre-1945 Korean tradition -at least the Hungarian reports say so.

Yours sincerely,
Balazs Szalontai
Central European University, Department of History
Budapest (Hungary)