Korea and Taiwan: Tigers Rising - Dragons and Tigers: A Geography of South, East and Southeast Asia - page 368

the global economic system. Land reform, education,
and economic expansion have eliminated the yangban ,
the landlord elite. The growth of a middle class has
been accompanied by dramatic population growth and
urbanization.
South Korea' s governments have ranged from pater-
nalistic democracies to dictatorships. Absolute power
was used to promote personal savings and export indus-
tries. By the 1980s and 1990s, there was rising prosperity
and large trade balances. Freer elections in the mid-
1980s led to an expansion of democratic processes in the
1990s. Because of the influential role played by the gov-
ernment, South Korea is said to be a product of state
capitalism .

Travel in Dear Leader's Land

No, you can't go to North Korea on your own. Y ou
must apply for a visa; you must be “approved;” you
must go on a guided tour. No, you can't walk out-
side by yourself. Y ou must have two “minders” with
you at all times. Each minder watches the other and
both watch you. No, you can't take pictures of just
anything. Y ou must have permission of your min-
ders to take any photograph. No, you can't eat or
shop just anywhere. These decisions are made for
you by your minders. No, you can't switch channels
on a TV; there is only one channel—the govern-
ment one. No, you can't say or do anything that
might be construed as an “insult” to Dear or Great
Leader. Y ou will probably be arrested.
If you do manage to get into the DPRK, you
will be provided with entertainment. For instance,
you might get to watch 10,000 children dancing in
synchronization, dressed as eggs. In this way you
will learn to appreciate what Great Leader Kim II
Sung proclaimed: “We must give to all the workers
a proper and enough education about the very long
history and culture of our country , so they'll appre-
ciate all the splendid traditions and heritage of our
nation in all its beautiful morals and customs in the
way that they'll carry them forward and develop
them according to the new today' s socialist life.”
The two Koreas had an agreement to allow
guided tours for South Koreans to the mutually
revered Mt. Kumgang just across the border. South
Korea suspended the tours in 2008 after a Seoul
housewife was shot dead because she had inadver-
tently wandered into a poorly marked “closed” mil-
itary zone. North Korea has threatened an array of
retaliatory measures including the abrogation of a
joint venture contract in Kaesong, where 42,000
North Koreans work in a Hyundai factory .

STATE CAPITALISM
South Korea' s transition from an agricultural to an urban
and industrial society followed several phases. At the end
of the Korean War, three-quarters of the South Korean
people were engaged in agriculture. In post-war reforms,
the government took over poorly run large estates and
encouraged a new group of small landowners to farm
with the aid of imported chemical fertilizer. Productivity
rose rapidly and the country became largely self-
sufficient in food.
Government and business targeted specific industries
for development. Initially , emphasis was placed on light
manufactures and textiles. In the 1970s, heavy industries
such as iron and steel and chemicals were emphasized.
Then the focus was shifted to making automobiles, ships,
and electronics.
The lynchpin of industrialization was the chaebol. A
chaebol is a giant corporate conglomerate. Hyundai,
Daewoo,Samsung, and LG ( Lucky-Goldstar) are leading
chaebols . In the early years of development, preferential
investment in exports discouraged the production of
consumer goods. This policy was reversed in the 1980s.
Then labor unions demanded wage increases, and do-
mestic consumption rose. Higher wages saw a decline in
South Korea' s international competitiveness in labor-
intensive manufacturing, and overseas investment for
cheap labor sources became essential.
Since 1990, South Korea has become a major in-
vestor in China and Southeast Asia, where it has access to
cheap labor. Much of this investment is in China' is nearby
coastal province of Shandong. Initially , the investors
were small businesses but now it is the chaebols that are
establishing small companies in China to produce their
components and products.

South Korea Inc.

South Korea has transformed itself from a poor, agrarian
society to one of the world' s most highly industrialized
nations. With huge support from the United States fol-
lowing the Korean War, South Korea has become one of
the newly-emergent, urban-industrial countries linked to