Land and People

South Korea, officially known as the Republic of Korea, is an East Asian state on the southern half of the Korean Peninsula. To the north, it is bordered by North Korea, with which it was a single country called Korea until 1945. To the west, across the Yellow Sea, lies China, and to the southeast, across the Korea Strait, lies Japan. Approximately one-half of South Korea's population lives in or near the capital and largest city, Seoul, the third largest metropolitan area in the world.Since its founding in 1948, the country has struggled with the aftermath of 35 years of Japanese occupation, the Korean War, and decades of military rule, seeing five major constitutional changes. Pro-democracy demonstrations during the 1980s led to free elections in 1987. South Korea is now a multi-party democracy.The South Korean economy has advanced rapidly since the 1950s and is now the 10th largest economy in the world. South Korea is also one of the world's most technologically advanced and digitally-connected countries. It has the second highest number of broadband Internet connections per capita in the world[1] and is a global leader in computer games, digital displays,Ship Building and mobile phones.South Korea's entertainment industry has grown explosively since the 1990s, producing Asia-wide successes in music, television, and film in a phenomenon known as Hallyu, or the "Korean wave". However, the country still retains centuries-old customs and traditions, such as its unique cuisine and ancestor worship.

Economy

South Korea has the tenth largest economy in the world, and the third largest in Asia, behind only Japan and China. As one of the East Asian Tigers, it achieved rapid economic growth through exports of manufactured goods. This is in sharp contrast to the stagnation of North Korea's economy, which has turned for the worse since the disintegration of the Soviet Union. South Korea's per capita GDP is now roughly 12 times that of North Korea. [3]
In the 1950s, South Korea was one of the poorest countries in Asia.[4] At the end of World War II, the country inherited a colonial economic system designed solely for Japan's expansion policy.[5] Much of the country's infrastructure was destroyed during the Korean War that followed in 1950-1953.[6] After the war, South Korea became heavily dependent on U.S. aid.[7]
Following the military coup led by general Park Chung-hee in 1962, South Korea embarked on a series of ambitious five-year plans for economic development. Emphasis shifted to foreign trade with the normalization of relations with Japan in 1965 and a subsequent boom in trade and investment. Rapid expansion, first into light and then heavy industries, in the 1960s and 1970s followed. During this period, the South Korean economy grew at an average annual rate of 8.6%. [8]
This phenomenal growth is often called the "Miracle on the Han River", the Han River being the main river that runs through the nation's capital and largest city, Seoul. In the 1980s and 1990s, growth continued as South Korea transformed itself from an exporter of mostly textiles and shoes into a major global producer of automobiles, electronics, shipbuilding, and steel and later, high-technology fields such as digital monitors, mobile phones, and semiconductors. The South Korean model of encouraging the growth of large, internationally competitive companies through easy financing and tax incentives led to the dominance of the family-controlled conglomerates. These companies, known as chaebol, flourished under the support of the Park regime.[9] Some such as Hyundai, Samsung, Daewoo, and LG became global corporations. Today, through all of this combined, South Korea is in the trillion dollar class, with a GDP of US$1.665 trillion.
Since the Asian financial crisis of 1997, however, the corporate landscape has changed considerably as a result of massive bankruptcies and government reforms. The crisis exposed longstanding weaknesses in South Korea's economy, including high debt/equity ratios, massive foreign borrowing, and an undisciplined financial sector. This led to two rounds of financial and industrial restructuring, in 1997 and again following the collapse of Daewoo in 1999.[10] Daewoo's collapse has been recorded as one of the world's largest bankruptcies in history.[citation needed] By 2003, just over one-half of the 30 largest chaebol from 1995 remained.[11]
Between 2003 and 2005, economic growth has moderated to about 4% per year.[citation needed] A downturn in consumer spending, attributed to massive personal credit card debt, was offset by rapid export growth especially to China. In 2005, the government proposed labor reform legislation and a corporate pension scheme to help make the labor market more flexible, and new real estate policies to cool property speculation.[citation needed] Moderate inflation, low unemployment, an export surplus, and fairly equal distribution of income characterize this economy.[citation needed]

Government and politics

South Korea is a democratic republic with powers shared between the president, legislature, and judiciary. Since 1948, the constitution has undergone five major revisions, each signifying a new republic. The current Sixth Republic began with the last major constitutional revision in 1988.
The head of state and head of government is the president, who is elected by direct popular vote for a single five-year term. In addition to being the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, the president also has considerable executive powers. The president appoints the prime minister with approval of the National Assembly, as well as appointing and presiding over the State Council of chief ministers.The South Korean legislature is the National Assembly, a unicameral body in which members serve a four-year term of office. This legislature currently has 299 seats, of which 243 are elected by regional vote. The remainder are distributed by proportional representation.The South Korean judiciary is largely independent of the other two branches. The highest judiciary body is the Supreme Court, whose justices are appointed by the president with the consent of the National Assembly. In addition, the Constitutional Court oversees questions of constitutionality.The main political parties in South Korea are the Uri Party, the Grand National Party (GNP), the Democratic Labor Party (DLP), and the Democratic Party (DP). The Uri Party was formed in late 2003 from a liberal faction of the DP (then the Millennium Democratic Party). It gained a slim majority in the National Assembly after the April 2004 legislative elections, but lost it in subsequent by-elections. The conservative GNP and centrist DP form the dominant political opposition. The progressive DLP is aligned with labour unions and farmers' groups, and constitutes the left-wing opposition.

History

At the end of World War II, American and Soviet troops had occupied the southern and northern halves of Korea, respectively, dividing the peninsula at the 38th parallel. Despite promises of an independent and unified Korea in the 1943 Cairo Declaration, the United States and Soviet Union helped establish two separate governments in 1948; the communist North and the capitalist South.
On June 25, 1950, the North invaded the South, beginning a civil war that caused the deaths of more than 3 million civilians and soldiers alike, now referred to as the Korean War. The United Nations backed South Korea and the Soviet Union and China backed North Korea, eventually reaching a stalemate. The 1953 armistice split the peninsula along the demilitarised zone at about the original demarcation line. No peace treaty was ever signed, however, and therefore the two countries are technically still at war.
In 1960, a student uprising overthrew the autocratic government of Syngman Rhee and South Korea saw a brief period of democratic reforms. However, much to the disappointment of the people, the new government was disoriented, and political chaos ensued. Then, a military coup (5.16 Revolution) led by General Park Chung-hee, who thought that the communist reunification of the peninsula would be inevitable if the Korean government was kept at this state, toppled the weak government the following year. Park took over as president from 1962 until his assassination in 1979, overseeing rapid export-led economic growth as well as severe political repression.
Park's successor general Chun Doo-hwan launched a coup d'etat in 1980 to assume the presidency. Chun's seizure of power was greeted by widespread protests culminating in the 1980 Gwangju Massacre. In the aftermath of that incident, the movement for democracy gained strength and was ultimately successful in forcing Chun to allow free elections and a change to civilian democratic rule in 1988. That year, Seoul hosted the 1988 Summer Olympics.
In 1996, South Korea became a member of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Despite a severe setback caused by the Asian financial crisis in 1997, the country soon emerged as a major economic power. In 2004, South Korea joined the "trillion dollar club" of world economies and, today, its standard of living is equal to that of many countries in Western Europe.
In June 2000, as a part of South Korean president Kim Dae Jung's Sunshine Policy of engagement, a historic first North-South summit took place in North Korea's capital Pyongyang, however, that was only after a massive and illegal payment by Kim Dae Jung to the North. That year, Kim won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work for democracy and human rights and efforts at reconciliation between the two Koreas. Since then, regular contacts have led to a slow thaw in relations and economic ties through trade and investment have increased dramatically. Kim, who is now retired, has made plans to visit Pyongyang again in June 2006.