Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
South Korea
Geographically small (
Fig. 8.1
), this country is still smaller in effective
resources, with 60 per cent of the land being mountains with a severe winter
climate, only suitable for forestry. Population is heavily concentrated in the large
urban centres, notably in Seoul which houses over 40 per cent of the national
population, and in the southeastern region around Pusan. In the past and up to
relatively recently, there were dictatorial governments and a lack of any real
democracy. Earlier this century the country of Korea, including the North, was a
colony of Japan between 1910 and 1945. In that period, Japan did not actively
develop the potential of the country, which was made to produce raw materials in
exchange for Japanese manufactured items.
After the Japanese period there was a stage up to 1960 when Korea tried the
ISI type of policies attempted in Latin America and endorsed by current thinking
for the development of Third World countries. These policies did not bring rapid
development, although this was in any case a time of recovery from the Korean
War, when a million lives were lost along with two-thirds of the national produ
ctive capacity. From 1960, however, there was a radical change of policy, and
rapid development led by manufacturing industry. In this second development
stage, 1960-73, it was light industry, textiles, clothing and plywood that were
favoured: medium-level technology industries that could readily be put in place.
The market was initially the domestic one, so that there was indeed an import
substitution function, but success soon made this an export function for many
products. In a third stage, from 1973-80, there was a shift to heavy and
chemicals industry, including petroleum and petrochemicals, rubber, base
metals, heavy engineering and shipbuilding (Kwack, Ch. 3 in Lau 1990); in these
industries, Korea was successful in penetrating world markets. The heavy
industries were immediately useful to the economy of South Korea, through the
forward linkages to light industry already in place. A later stage over the period
1980-87 was of economic liberalization, allowing more freedom for trade in
both directions, and moving towards high-technology industries, consumer
electronics and semi-conductors manufacture.
Trade, it should be emphasized, is still not totally liberated, and in particular,
there are trade bans on many products from Japan; rice production is also still
protected. Over the past few years, the changes have been less economic than
political and social, with a move towards democratization (Herd & Jones 1994).
It might be said that South Korea is now traversing the social and demographic
transitions, following its rapid economic transition.
The choices of industrial foci were not casual, but planned by government.
While the government did not own industries for the most part, it was a highly
interventionist government which stimulated and guided industry constantly,
through five-year plans and annual budgets which specified the industries to be
targeted. Over the whole of the 1960s and 1970s, the government was military
and was able to exert strong control over private industry.
