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Geography
The Republic of Korea borders North Korea
on the 38th parallel. The country has an
area of 99,274 sq. km.
Demography
In mid-1992 the population was estimated
at 43.7 million. The annual rate of population
growth has fallen from about 2.9% a year
in the early 1960s to 1.0% by 1990. The geographical
distribution of the population is a matter
of concern to the authorities. The population
living in towns rose from 32% in 1965 to
69% in 1988, but more serious, by 1985 about
26% were living in Seoul. The concentration
of so many people in Seoul (10.6% in 1990)
has worrying strategic implications in view
of the city's closeness to the frontier with
North Korea. Since 1970 the proportion of
the population under the age of 15 has been
falling, and it was 27% in 1990.
High priority is accorded to education in
Korea. Primary school enrolment has been
virtually 100% since the mid-1960s, but secondary
school enrolment has risen from 35% to about
88%, while the number enrolled in institutions
of higher education, as a proportion of the
20-24 age group, has risen from 6% in 1967
to about 37% ( a higher proportion than in
Germany and Japan). Military service is compulsory
for between 30 and 36 months.
The labour force in 1990 was estimated at
17.9 million, with 42% engaged in commercial
and services, 28% in manufacturing, 20% in
agriculture, 6% in construction and 4% in
the public sector and utilities.
History and Politicial Situation
Following Japan's defeat in 1945, its troops
north of the 38th parallel were ordered to
surrender to the USSR and those south of
it to the USA, the 38th parallel now being
the border between the two Korean republics.
The Republic of Korea came into existence
in 1948 but in 1950-53 the Korean war broke
out as the communists from the North attempted,
in vain, to unify the peninsula. As a result
there has been pressure on the Koreans to
maintain internal stability in order not
to provoke a further invasion. Spending on
defence has been of paramount importance
to authoritarian right wing figures in power
whether civilian, President Rhee (1948-60),
or the military Presidents Park (1960-79)
and Chun (1980-88).
Having narrowly won the elections in 1972,
President Park imposed a new coalition later
that year transforming the role of president
into that of virtual dictator. He was assassinated
in 1979. In less than a year student demonstrations
were the catalyst for a return to "democracy"
but the imposition of martial law. In 1981,
General Chun was endorsed (by indirect elections)
as president and his control of the National
Assembly was established by legislative election.
A new constitution in 1980 limited the president
to one seven year term.
In the 1985 National Assembly elections the
New Korea Democratic Party (NKDP), effectively
a resurrected New Democratic Party (NDP)
banned in 1980, made sweeping gains in the
cities. It absorbed the Democratic Korea
Party (DP), although the governing Democratic
Justice Party (DJP) retained a working majority
Politics suffered an upheaval as the opposition
refused to step down on the issue of direct
elections to the presidency. The NKDP was
split, with Kim Dae-Jung and Kim Yong-Sam
forming a new group. In April 1987, President
Chun declared that the presidential elections
later in the year would be conducted under
the existing indirect system. However, the
DJP selected Roh Tae-Woo, a retired general,
as its presidential candidate and there was
public rioting at the prospect of seven more
years of imposed military rule. In the December
1987 elections Roh was elected on a minority
vote as the leading opposition further split
into two parties led separately by Kim Dae-Jung
and Kim Yong-Sam.
Roh was in sworn as president in February
1988, but the DJP failed to win an overall
majority in the elections for the National
Assembly. In January 1990, however, the DJP
announced a merger with the NDRP and RDP,
to form a new Democratic Liberal Party (DLP).
The new party had a two thirds majority in
the National Assembly, leaving PPD as the
only opposition party.
In the legislative elections of March 1992,
the DLP's share of the poll dropped to 38.55%
compared with the 73% its constituent parties
polled separately in 1988 falling just short
of an overall majority in the new Assembly
with 149 seats out of 300. It has since won
over two of the 22 deputies elected as independents.
The Democratic Party (toned by the merger
of the PPD and a minor opposition party)
broadened its appeal to win 29% of the poll
and 97 seats, while the new National Unification
Party, a vehicle from which Chun Ju-yung,
founder of the Hyundai Group, pursuing his
feud with the government, won 17% of the
votes and 32 seats.
In the latest presidential election in December
1992, Kim Yong-sam, a leader of DLP was elected.
He is the first civilian President after
more than 30 years of military rule.
Economy
The thrust of economic policy in the 1970s
was to develop Korea, with its small internal
market and relative lack of exploitable resources,
along lines that paralleled Japan's development
- based on the promotion of manufacturing
industry for export. An abundant supply of
highly-educated, highly-skilled and disciplined
labour at low wages, a readiness to accept
advanced foreign technology, a growing indigenous
managerial class and the capability for research
and development contributed to the success
of export-led growth. Private capital investment
was stimulated by a series of incentive programmes
for key economic sectors, notably heavy industry
such as shipbuilding (in which Korea rapidly
overtook the USA, USSR and UK), construction,
steel, engineering products and transport
equipment. Despite the strikes, protests
and labour unrest that characterised the
internal political scene, Korea managed to
achieve one of the highest sustained economic
growth rates in the world during the 1980s,
and in so doing surpassed the seemingly ambitious
targets laid down by the country's planners
in the early 1970s.
Such success has not come trouble-free. The
escalation of labour disputes during the
1980s and early 1990s, combined with the
excessive wage increases that ensued, have
threatened the country's international competitiveness
as well as its domestic price stability.
A further problem is the growth of protectionist
sentiments in the US, Japan and European
countries. Increasingly, US and Japan are
reluctant to sell technology to Korea. The
emergence of regional economic blocs, such
as the European Community and the North American
Free Trade Area, is expected to prove a challenge
in coming years; however, rapidly growing
ASEAN countries and the developing Chinese
market may offer new opportunities for Korea.
Throughout the period of rapid growth of
the economy, the basic feature of the financial
system was close control by the government
of the volume and destination of the bank
lending. The main aim of policy was to provide
cheap credit for officially approved purposes.
As a result, the development of the equity
and corporate bond markets was stunted in
relative terms. At the same time, politically
directed fund flows have proved both expensive
and inefficient, and it is officially recognised
that the financial system is inadequate for
the needs of the economy. However, reform
of the financial system is proving to be
one of the more difficult aspects of the
deregulation of the economy promised by the
new government. Until it is allowed to proceed,
further developments will remain hampered.
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