The Korea Success Story

Nonfiction. Southeast Asia Studies. It is often said that Korea did in 50 years what the developed nations of the West took 200 years to do. This is not that great an exaggeration. When Korea was liberated from 35 yearsof colonial rule in 1945, it found itself a desperately poor and in many respects backwards nation with little experience with capitalism, democracy, and the global economy. Fast forward some 50 years, and what you behold is a nation that would be virtually unrecognizable to observers from the 1950s. Seoul, once a bombed-out city that more resembled a refugee camp than a national capital, glistens with glass and steel, its night skies flickering with the lights and energy of a city on the move. Thanks to wisepolicymaking, international help and a 5,000-year-old culture of hard work and education, Korea transformed into a developed nation almost overnight, with the world's 15th largest economy. In 2009, a country that once survived on foreign aid jointed the OECD Development Assistance Committee, a club of some of the world's biggest donor nations. In November 2010, Korea became the first Asian nation and first non-G8 nation to host the G20 summit.