Thread by @JaccoZed

Yesterday was the 20th presidential inauguration in South Korea, but South Korea has only actually had 13 presidents (excluding "acting" presidents). How does that work?

Answer: South Korea counts "terms" of presidencies rather than people who hold the office. Using that count, Syngman Rhee served 3 terms, Park Chung-hee 5 and Chun Doo-hwan 2. And that's how you get from 13 to 20.
#SouthKoreanPresident #SouthKoreandemocracy #PresidentYoon

And that's how you end up with headlines like this in Korean media:

Interestingly, usually this metric was only cited in South Korea, but today it is in #VoiceofAmerica "Yoon is the 20th president of South Korea since 1948"
voanews.com/a/south-korea-…

Apparently United States Forces Korea is adopting this system too: '"Congratulations on officially becoming the 20th President of the Republic of Korea, Pres. Yoon Suk-yeol!," the USFK wrote.'
en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN202205…

The other ABC (not the Australian one) also counts Yoon as the 20th president: "- The inauguration of Yoon Suk-yeol as the 20th president of South Korea took place..." abcnews.go.com/International/…

When I worked at korea.net years ago I tried valiantly to avoid constructions as in the photo below, to no avail.

It looks like Korea will have 7 "invisible" leaders/Presidents in its history for the foreseeable future.
#hiddenpresidents #howmanypresidents #KoreanPresidents #20thpresident vs #13thpresident

One possible approach: Andrew Salmon at the @asiatimesonline managed to avoid the conundrum by avoiding a number entirely.
asiatimes.com/2022/05/farewe…

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