Who was the first President of South Korea?

The first President of South Korea was Syngman Rhee. He became president when the Republic of Korea was formally established on 15 August 1948.

Rhee was a Korean independence activist who had spent much of his life in exile and in the United States. Before becoming president of South Korea, he had served as the first president of the Korean Provisional Government in exile, although that earlier body was not the modern South Korean state.

Rhee was elected by the National Assembly on 20 July 1948 and led the country throughout the Korean War. His government became increasingly authoritarian, and widespread protests during the April Revolution forced him to resign in 1960. He then went into exile in Hawaii. A common mix-up is confusing Rhee with Park Chung-hee, who became president later, in 1963.