Following the Korean War, South Korea was one of the poorest countries in the world. In 1960 the South Koren GDP per capita was $79; today the GDP per capita is $32,272. This paper will explore what factors account for this dramatic change in economic performance, and what cultural changes accompanied Korea’s rise to become the sixth largest exporter in the world with a global market economy ranking 15th and a purchasing power parity of 12th, and ultimately factors could decrease these gains.
Politics:
Following the Korean War the political system in South Korean saw unrest under the previous autocratic leadership. Over the course of the next two decades there were strong protests against authoritarian political rule. Pro Democracy demonstrations further intensified in the 1980’s and in the early 1990s the constitution was reformed to provide the President with more executive authority, mandates a popular election for the office of the president and a restructure the presidential term to five years.
Due to the centralization of authority under the President, economic policy creation became streamlined and resulted in the ability for the President to change market policy quickly when needed (further elaborated in the Economics section). Although the overall health of the Judicial and Legislative system are strong and the modern legal framework efficient under the current system, there still remain instances of bribery and fraud in the political system including the resignation in 2012 of the Speaker of the National Assembly for allegations purchasing his position.
The South Korean military maintains a considerable presence in the government due to the proximity and threat from North Korea, whose relations with the South contin...
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... “U.S. Relations With South Korea”. The State Department. 31 January 2014. Online. .
Yonhap. “Seoul-based Foreign Direct Investment Hits 5-year High.” Business Korea February 2014. Online. .
Williams, Rhiannon . “South Korea to 'invest £900m in 5G development'” The Telegraph. 27 January 2014. Print. .
Tran, Mark. “South Korea: a model of development?” The Guardian. 28 November 2011. Print. .
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Tucker, Spencer C., Jinwung Kim, Michael R, Nichols, Paul G. Pierpaoli, Priscilla Roberst, and Norman R. Zehr, eds. Encyclopedia of the Korean War: A Political, Social, and Military History. Vol. I. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2000. Print. 89-90.
Officially and originally referred to as, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea has had a dictatorship since 1948. (DPRK) On September 9, 1948 the United Nations elected South of Korea to be the Republic of Korea. They then elected North of Korea to be the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea electing Kim Il- Sung as the Prime Minster. This started the dictatorship in North Korea that still reigns on today.
The Republic of Korea emerged from Japanese colonialism as a Third World Country. Per capita income was under one hundred dollars, the little infrastructure the Japanese built was located in the North, and income inequality was staggeringly high. The future of the Republic of Korea (hereafter simply “Korea”) looked very bleak, even with United States foreign aid. Yet several decades later Korea had become one of the world’s largest, most modern economies run by a democratic government. The “Miracle on the Han,” the term for Korea’s stunning economic growth in such a short period of time, coincided with the lifting of millions of Koreans out of poverty and the
Despite the fact that this was the age of Western imperialism and gunboat diplomacy, Korea failed to erect a large standing military and navy. Instead of uniting under the banner of protecting Korea’s sovereignty, some officials were more concerned with protecting their own privileges. Robinson wrote “The lack of consensus in domestic politics…inhibited any program to gather
Korea was in a state of disarray. Not in the way that you may be confused about what happened, but where political alliances and the division of Korea upset many people. The division of Korea was decided at the Potsdam Conference, without the consent of the Korean people (Korean War, Wikipedia). When Japan was defeated, they lost all of the land they had gained including Korea. With the land being split between the 38th parallel, North Korea was weak with a bad leader, looking for more power. Russia and China were willing to help. US saw South Korea as a victim to the Cold War and was trying to help South Korea (Schnabel 6). Both the United States and the Soviet Union occupied the Korean peninsula in hopes of turning them to their beliefs in government. The United States went to the United Nations to determine the issue of a divided Korea. The United Nations Commission determined they needed to hold elections in Korea. The communists in North Korea refused to allow the election because the did not want to be threatened by democracy. The communists in South Korea did not like the thought and boycotted it. The regime in South Korea was shaped by the anti-communist Syngman Rhee. The Soviet Union put Kim ll-Sung as head of North Korea, who was very, very weak. The North Korean Army invaded South Korea on June 25 1950 with varying reasons. The Chinese ...
The demarcation line dividing Korea into two parts has led a nation to become polarized and also terminated the history of Korea as a single nation. The division of the country by an artificial line gave rise to more problems than solving the existing ones. While the United States was determined to create a trusteeship in the country, which would give its place to independent Korea after five or ten years, the Soviet Union opposed to the idea of an immediate independence. The Soviet Union had an intention to establish communism functioning in Korea. The United States, on the other hand, was not willing to l...
Soh, C. S. (2001). South Korea. In C. R. Ember & M. Ember (Eds.), Countries and Their Cultures (
The book I chose for this book review assignment is titled Korea Old and New: A History by author Carter J. Eckert along with other contributing authors Ki-baik Lee, Young Ick Lew, Michael Robinson and Edward W. Wagner. The book is published at Korea Institute, Harvard University in 1990. The book consists of 418 pages and it is more of a survey of Korean history and reference type of book, rather than selected readings on modern Korean politics. I chose this book because it is a complete survey of Korean history from the ancient Choson period up to the economic boom of the 1990's, a span of over 2000 years. Each chapter covers a different period, but they all share the same organization of describing the social, cultural, political, philosophical and scholarly aspects of the period in respective subsections. This made it easier to later refer to previous chapters and compare different periods in order to learn the comprehensive history of Korea.
From Korean Pop stars to dramas, South Korea has it going on. It seems that there is not one Asian country that has not had the Korean Wave, a Chinese term given to South Korea referring to the exportation of their culture, completely wash over it. What started as an Asian sensation, the Korean Wave is now beginning to spread globally, ranking South Korea as one of the top countries known for its exportation of culture. Between music, television, and video games, South Korea’s economy is rapidly increasing as the world continues to fall in love with its entertainment industry.
Throughout history the United States has fought in many wars. Whether the fighting took place in Europe such as WWI or in our own land like the civil war. The one war many people seem to forget is the Korean War. The Korean War also known as the “forgotten war” was a war between North Korea, South Korea and the US together with the South Koreans to help. The Korean War was fought on sea, land, and in the air over and near the Korean peninsula (Brown, p.2). On June 25, 1950, the North Koreans rumbled across the thirty-eighth parallel. The invasion was successful because the south was not expecting or even prepare for a war. The invasion was so successful that they pushed the south to a tiny defensive area around Pusan. That’s when President Truman steps in real quick to halt the invasion of the North Koreans. Truman ordered American armed forces under General Douglas MacArthur to support South Korea. The Korean War was a clash between Communist forces and Free World (Brown, p.2).
South Korea is a country that has rapidly developed. But the country also experienced military dictatorship in the 1980s
North and South Korea were not very different politically or culturally from one another before mid 1940’s (White, Bradshaw, Dymond, Chacko, Scheidt, 2014, p. 125). However, North Korea started the Korean War when they invaded South Korea in 1950. These two countries, which were once the same, are vastly different in the areas of politics and culture The Koreas’ continue to disagree and not be at peace with each other since the Korean War despite small steps toward progress over the
Korea gained independence from Japanese colonial rule in August of 1945 and also the division of Korea into the republic south and communist north in the 38th parallel. South Korea then was under the United States occupation from l945-48. Before the United States occupation South Korea had already organized a central People’s committees and established the Korean People of Republic (Memorial Foundation). Nevertheless, United States did not recognize any of the provisional or republic government. The United States refused to do so until there had been an agreement among the western allies. In 1954, there was a Mutual Security Agreement signed between the United States and South Korea, which states that they agreed to defend each other in the event of outside aggression (Memorial Foundation). South Korea has been under military authoritarian regime from 1961-1979 under President Park Chung Hee and from 1980-1992 under President Chun Doo Hwan. The Kwangju uprising occurred in May of 1980 after the collapse of the first milit...
South Korea, once a broken country filled with broken families, has transformed itself into a fine example of perseverance in a tough situation. South Korea and its neighbor to the north have developed past where they were before the Korean War, but in different ways. The two countries, while certainly dependent on each other, are vastly different. Their conflicting styles of government and their differing cultures speak for themselves in this case. South Korea has, over the years, changed dramatically from the crippled country of the Korean War into a blossoming beacon of Asian cultural and economic changes. The combination of its recent economic importance, its heavy cultural influence, and its constant danger of participating in a war makes South Korea one of the most influential countries in the world.
This country is of particular interest as it is one of the four Asian Tiger economies, whose rapid industrialisation and growth between the early 1960’s and 1990’s caused it to emerge as one of the most dynamic and fast-changing countries in Asia and the world. Much like Japan, its economic development was marked by heavy investments in foreign technology and imitation through reverse-engineering. By limiting FDI, South Korea maintained control over its industrial base and encouraged investments in R&D.