To examine press freedom in the Republic of Korea (ROK, South Korea) and the role the ROK's press plays as the advantages of democracy and authoritarianism are being publicly debated, this paper looks back at where the ROK has been in terms of its social and political freedoms and where it is going in its attempts to break from its authoritarian past. The paper (1) traces the development of Korean newspapers; (2) determines the role of the Korean press in the early days of the republic; (3) assesses the policies, towards the press, of Park Chung Hee, who ruled the ROK from the time of his military coup in 1961 to his assassination in 1979, and those who followed him; and (4) analyzes the new liberalization that began with the return of Kim Dae Jung, an opposition leader, and the fall of President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines. The paper concludes that the freedom of the press and democratic aspirations may be suppressed at any time due to all-encompassing laws that can be used legally to implement such a crackdown and that a number of forces, such as ROK's military, United States policy, and the Korean public, will all play a role in determining the ROK's future. (Sixty-nine references are appended.) (MS)