Kore The Impossible Country

South Korea and the United States have different ideas on a lot of things. Looking into South Korea’s way of life puts a different perspective on how someone across the world lives their life a little differently than me, even though they could be in the same financial state. My research will look at the comparison of their family and social life, Government, Religion, education, economy and health care,and how it differs from the U.S. The U.S. Population is 318.9 million and South Korea’s 50.22 million. The life expectancy in South Korea is 81.37 years old, and The US doesn’t differ much with it being 78.74 years old. There is a lot less free time in South Korea with people working an average of 2071 hours and here an average of 1788 hours. The unemployment rate there is also a lot smaller than here with there being all kinds of jobs for any level of work experience. South Korea has gone through a great economic rise in the last 50 years going from one of the poorest countries to the fifteenth largest economies.

Yi’Haung started a conservative reform program which aimed to restore “the three systems of land tax, relief grain and military service” as all three had become seriously corrupted (Fairbank, Reischauer and Craig, 1973, 612). Schirokauer (1993, 215) argues however that the reform program was not drastic enough to “transform Korea into a strong and viable state” and so the attempt to modernise made by Yi’ Haung was ineffective.

Following the Korean War and the rebuilding of their societies, both North Korea and South Korea’s economies have depreciated and fluctuated. With their different economic systems, one using the military and the other using trade, they both have received different results.

The world is not a perfect place. It is filled with disease, poverty, war, and corruption. The amount that these aspects take over the everyday lives of citizens is what separates corrupt states from non-corrupt states. North Korea is one of the most corrupt nations in the world falling behind only Somalia. The transfer of power in the nation to Kim Jung-un following the death of his father, Kim Jung-il, has resulted in no cure for this corruption and more so even worse circumstances. This unbelievable corruption in North Korea under the Kim Jung-un regime is able to persist because of the characteristics of the nation’s rule of law, limited government, regulatory efficiency, and open markets where it is ultimately a part of the fabric of

The war left the country devastated, with many of its residents suffering from starvation and dying from malnutrition. The country’s solution was to export high quality products for low prices. This was an effective solution as South Korea is now well known for their products, and is identified as one of the Four Asian Tigers in regard to highly developed economies. Sun listed many of South Korea’s global companies, which include Samsung in the smartphone industry and Hyundai and Kia in the automobile industry. The way in which Sun described her country’s strive to improve their conditions reminded me of Schwartz’s value of mastery, which was discussed in lecture as working hard to achieve success, promoting ambition, and developing skills (K. Whitten, personal communication, January 14, 2016). South Korea focused on its strength, the high quality labor of its people, during a difficult time and eventually became a recognizable force in the global economy by continuously working towards improving their

The article shows the first reason as “the chaebol (the super-rich) rose to exercise immense influence on labour market restructuring.” The evidence of this reason is that the top 10 super riches have 84 percent of the country’s assets in 2012. It shows the second reason as “labour unions share the responsibility of having creating this insecure class.” Only 1.4 percent of irregular workers were participated to the labour unions, so the labour unions are hard to represent them. Finally, it shows the third reason as “the absence of a pro-labour party in South Korea’s institutional politics.” Because of the absence of a pro-labour party, the policies about labour and social protection were

In 2015, South Korea’s gross domestic product (GDP) was 1.377 trillion dollars (“South Korea GDP, 2017). Comparatively, North Korea’s GDP in the same year was a paltry 16.12 billion dollars (North Korea GDP, 2017). The country is also ruled by an authoritarian dictator whose sole agenda is developing nuclear weapons to inflict mass casualties. On the other hand, South Korea has gone on to make popular consumer products through reputable companies such as Samsung and Hyundai. Aside from protecting a nation from the clutches of dictatorial leaders, the US’s involvement in the Korean War helped to prevent the forceful spread of an imperialistic version of communism that was being perpetrated by North Korea and

Source 1: “The Park Chung Hee Era, The Transformation of South Korea” edited by Byung-Kook Kim and Ezra Vogel , illustrates how President Park’s presidency marks one of the most important periods leading up to, arguably some of the most important changes in modern Korean History. This book contends that almost all areas of society were driven by the decision making of Park Chung Hee alone, therefore rejecting western theories and concepts such as that of the Weberian Developmental State. Furthermore, this book asserts that the United States’ role and influence over the policies of President Park should not be overemphasized, which again provides a significantly different perspective to what many European historians would argue to be the most

Article one titled “A Kim in his counting house; North Korea’s awful economy” explains North Korea’s collapsing economy. North Korea suppresses most economic data. The information is created by using near statistics of its trade with other countries. We can use those countries records and a jazz for population growth and inflation to get a close estimate of that country’s economy. In 1950s through the 1970s its economy outgrew the capitalist’s country of South Korea. All their resources were placed towards production. Although today North Koreas per capita GDP is only one 40th of South Korea’s at a whopping $600 year. Korea spent almost 3,000,000,000 each year in the military. There are 1.2 million people in the Army out of 25 million people in the whole entire country. They have huge conventional arsenal, rocket launchers and nuclear tests. Most countries who invest highly in the military grow economically. North Korea however their economy has gone up only a little. North Korea’s exports in 2015 were no higher than that at their peak in late 1970s, while per capita imports were 2/5 lower. The underperformance is remarkable either for a country that is neither a failing country nor at a state of war. So where North Korea go wrong? The collapse of the Soviet Union hit North Korea hard in 1990s on addition bad weather and agricultural reduction collapsed in the 1990s that led to famine in which hundreds of thousands of people died. Also North Korea’s nuclear bombing test has

Korea, who was under Japanese control for nearly two centuries, was divided at the thirty-eighth parallel in 1945 (Stueck 4). The Soviet Union and the United States used Korea as occupational zones (Stueck). “The perpetuation of that division

The next nation that will be discussed is South Korea, whose legal tradition finds its origins from Japan, but is now becoming more American in nature due to increased globalization. Korea’s legal tradition was first established 4,300 ago when the Gojoseon dynasty created its own statutory law, heavily influenced by Confucianism and China’s legal system (SpringerLink and Yŏn 'guwŏn 2). (note that during the retelling of South Korea’s history, the nation will be referred to as Korea until the point at which it became separated into Northern and Southern territories). Korea maintained this particular legal tradition, and aspects of a uniquely Korean brand of Confucianism, until the 19th century. In 1894, the internally induced Kabo Reforms aimed to modernize the whole of Korea in terms of legal and administrative systems, culture, economy, and more (“Emergence of a Modern Society”). The Kabo Reforms resulted in a legal system that closely resembled Japan’s system, which followed a civil legal tradition that was heavily influenced by Germany. Korea’s transformation towards a Japanese civil law system was further intensified and completed when it became a colony of Japan in 1910. Following the defeat of Japan during World War Two, Korea gained its independence in 1945, only for the southern half of the nation to fall under American occupation until 1948, while the northern half was occupied by Soviet Russia (SpringerLink and Yŏn 'guwŏn 5). Now dubbed as South Korea, the

"South Korea is a country with a population of 50,924,172 and counting" ("The World Factbook: KOREA, SOUTH"). It is a nation that has been the center of many tug-of-wars. It is a nation that has had to fight in order to survive independent. Years ago, no one thought much of this country. So what is it about this little place now, that sets it apart and breaks it out of the mold of just another Asian country? Though South Korea may be a small country, the style of cuisine, community culture, and generosity are just

The 1960s in South Korea were a remarkable decade for many reasons. The decade is often noted for its exponential economic growth, and the beginning of its robust military dictatorship. Additionally, the turn of the decade marked the beginning of a significant and incredibly dynamic social movement; the first radical wave against the government after the state’s establishment. Regarded as an ‘incomplete revolution’, the 1960s demonstrations signpost historically significant string of events. Civil disobedience took various forms, including marches, demonstrations, vigils and foundational publication of uncensored information by the media. Further,

South Korea appears in the first quadrant of Figure 2.2 in which states that the country has a culture with relatively larger power distance and lower individualism. South Korea has a relatively large power distance due to the country’s strong emphasis in respecting for one’s elders and superiors. This cultural belief is deeply

At the end of World War II, Korea was a poor former agricultural colony of Japan. But the rapid growth of Korea’s industrial economy has been remarkable. The economy of South Korea is now the third-largest in Asia and the 13th largest in the world by GDP as of 2007. To trace back the economic development of South Korea, the former president Park Chung-Hee played a pivotal role, and was credited for shifting its focus to export-oriented favoring a few large conglomerates. Unlike his predecessors, Park showed a strong commitment to economic development, believing good economic performance as a primary means for enhancing his political legitimacy. Under the President Park Chung-Hee’s era, the government played a dominating role in a