How South Korea Succeeded (3)

Park, who is considered the architect of South Korea's development, seized power with a military coup and then led his country's development 'war' with an authoritarian administration, was assassinated after ruling his country for about 20 years. Those who came to power after him, including his daughter who became president in 2014, successfully continued his development moves and today's largely developed South Korea has emerged.

Chou Kyu-hah, who briefly assumed the presidency after Park's murder, ruled the country during a politically, economically and sociologically unstable period.

Chun Doo-hwan Period (1980-87)

General Chun Doo Hwan took over the presidency on May 17, 1980. General Chun Doo-hwan, one of the Chiefs of Staff of the Park period, preferred to display a harsh administration in order to prevent violence and to control the workers' movements. He closed universities and banned all political movements. The government bloodily suppressed the demonstrations in the city of Kwangju, 170 miles south of the Capital Seoul, and arrested thousands of demonstrators. Chun Doo-hwan's administration was able to maintain control over the country, albeit late. However, new factors such as the changing social structure, the existence of an industrial structure open to foreign trade and the economic conditions of the urban life that became difficult have clearly revealed that the country cannot be governed by a military regime. Chun realized in a short time that he could not become the head of state and manage the political and economic life with only the military behind him.

In this context, he went to the elections as the only candidate to get his legitimacy from the people and was elected as the head of state on 27 August 1980. Chun started a new social movement that put an end to the corruption caused by past practices. He sentenced Park's close relatives and 567 former council members, who were involved in corruption during the Park period, to various penalties. Chun brought economists trained in foreign countries to the head of important institutions such as the South Korean Development Institute, and even took some of them to his cabinet. “Clean management” brought the principles of “ending the secret and unethical relations based on corruption between the state bureaucracy and company management” into economic political life. To this end, it has undertaken structural reforms in the field of economy. The government ended the high protectionist practices that could lead to favoritism and continued to provide financial support only to the templates that emphasize efficiency and innovation.

Chun switched from the "development" model to the "stability" model. Chun introduced the Fifth development plan (1982-86). It gave priority to ensuring stability in the economy and reducing inflation. The emphasis was placed on the production of technological products, which are in high demand in world markets. An industry and trade policy has been implemented that takes into account market dynamics and competition conditions. A breakthrough has been made in the field of electronics (television, videocassette recorders, products using semiconductors). Technocrats were given the right to have a say in the decision-making mechanism, and institutionalism was emphasized. It is aimed to establish a more institutional economic and political structure in the country and to develop industrialization and development strategies in line with the institutional structure of the state. Towards the end of the 1980s, growths exceeding 10% were achieved again in the domestic gross product.

Roh Tae-woo Era (1988-1993)

The combination of economic growth with the general global trend emphasizing democratization and human rights in the last years of the Cold War gave rise to a middle class determined to establish representative government. As a result, at the end of the 1980s, South Korea has become a country very close to being a liberal democracy .

During the Roh period, which gave new freedoms to its people and improved working conditions, investments across the country were shifted to light industry, which increased employment and increased consumption goods along with capital-intensive heavy industry. Steps have been taken to contribute to the development of the human capital needed by the industry. In order to support the sustainability of economic growth, a resource corresponding to 2.4% of the domestic product was allocated for R&D, then this rate was increased to 3% in 1991. In addition to large templates such as Samsung, Hyundai, Daewoo, Lucky-Goldstar (LG), Sunkyong, which started to stand on their own feet, small-scale companies that could not receive production incentives before were supported with new incentives. Roh developed "Nordpolitik" as a step similar to "Ostpolitik" that united the two Germanys. As a result, bilateral meetings were held in Seoul at the prime minister level between South and North Korea for the first time in 1990. Despite the positive steps taken in some areas, Nordpolitik did not deliver the desired result. 

Kim Young-sam Era (1993-1998)

Kim Young-sam, who was elected president in 1993, pioneered investments in high technology areas (microelectronics, new products, precision chemicals, bioengineering, optics, aerospace and aerospace) within the framework of the Seventh Development Plan (92-96).  The Asian Financial Crisis, which was exposed in 1997-98, shook the companies and the country's economy that became dependent on the short-term debt cycle. The crisis caused a 7% decrease in GDP in 1998. To overcome the crisis and repay the short-term portion of the foreign debt, which reached $120.8 billion, $57 billion was borrowed from the IMF. Some templates were restructured, customs walls were pulled down to encourage foreign investments.

The necessity of meeting the need for financial resources caused Kim Young Sam's management to open its doors to foreign investors. Thus, billions of dollars of foreign portfolio investments have become a part of the economy. U.S. companies took advantage of the falling stock market and bought the shares of the leading templates. After the crisis, approximately 40% of the value of the shares traded in the stock exchange and one third of the banking sector were owned by foreigners.

Kim Dae-jung Era (1999-2003)

The debt of 57 billion dollars from the IMF was paid, and the growth trend was caught again. Şaböller was gathered under sectoral groups and sectoral development was aimed by giving subsidies on a sectoral basis. Jung, who took pioneering steps in line with the "Sunshine" policy to improve relations with North Korea, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 with this expansion, but he experienced tension with the USA, which is a hard policy oriented towards North Korea.

Roh Moo-hyun Era (2004-2008)

Roh also continued to follow the “solar policy”; He argued that his country should play a "balancing" role between China, the USA and Japan in Northeast Asia. Roh approved the sending of around 3,000 South Korean soldiers to Iraq, showing that he attaches special importance to the US-South Korea relationship. He also pioneered the signing of the Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA) between the two countries.

Lee Myung-bak (2008-2013)

With the slogan of "Global Korea", Lee pursued a policy of expanding his country's leadership. In this context, important international summits such as the G-20 Seoul Summit and the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit were hosted.

Park Geun-hye Era (2014-2016)

Park's daughter, Park Geun-hye, won the elections, becoming the first female President in the country's history. Park followed a policy of preventing North Korea's nuclear tests and got the support of great powers, including the USA. On the other hand, the National Assembly; He dismissed Park from his position in March 2017 on charges of corruption, bribery (including $38 million from Samsung), leaking government secrets, and abuse of influence. From December 9, 2016 to March 10, 2017, Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn served as Interim President to fill Park Geun-hye's term.

Moon Jae-in Era (2017-)

Moon Jae-in, who is famous as a human rights lawyer, won the snap election held in May 2017. Moon brought vitality to the markets by increasing wages and government spending. The Moon administration follows an economic policy that maintains the dominant role of the templars in economic life. Meanwhile, relations between the North and the South have soured since the February 2019 summit between North Korea and the United States, with no agreement reached. As of the summer of 2021, it has returned to the routine again.

In South Korea, presidential election will be held on 9 Mar 2022.

Conclusion

As a result of the development and industrialization activities it has followed since 1960, South Korea has become one of the leading countries in the world according to the parameters of population (demographic capacity), GDP (economic capacity) and defense expenditures (military capacity).

According to the development perspective, although it is important for a country to have basic resources (natural resources, physical resources, unskilled labor, capital, etc.), it primarily has advanced resources (modern digital data communication infrastructure, highly educated workforce, high technology, etc.) for development. be desired.

South Korea, which has limited basic resources; It followed an economic policy based on economic nationalism, mostly export-oriented industrialization strategy (integrating with foreign markets) in development, together with the big push development model operated according to the planning and intervention of the state, and achieved its growth in the field of economy in a very short time, with its advanced resources. It has largely succeeded in being among the developed countries of the world.