The new Koreans

While the Korean peninsula is again at the centre of global security concerns, knowledge and understanding of the extraordinary economic and social journey of South Korea since the Korean War remain insufficient. And yet it is not an exaggeration to say that this is the only country on Earth that has risen from poverty and underdevelopment to glitz and innovation—as exemplified by global brands such as Samsung and Hyundai, stars like Psy or mega events like the 1988 Summer Olympics and the forthcoming 2018 Winter Olympics. A veteran of the foreign press in Korea, Michael Breen does a good job of combining first-hand vignettes and erudite scholarly sources to draw a lively picture of the Koreans and their nation. The book is organized around themes and presents positives and negatives in a balanced manner. The book's central argument is that ‘the Hermit Kingdom’ made it despite many elements that seemed to doom it to failures, sandwiched as it is between its two north-east Asian aggressive neighbours. This may seem like the familiar story of unpropitious geography, lack of resources and threatening foreign imperialism overcome by dedication (from a mere 20 per cent in 1945, literacy has reached 100 per cent), but Breen paints a more nuanced picture. Koreans' defiance of external actors is understandable, but there is a real risk of forgetting that foreigners have also been a force for good—the Japanese who implemented a major land reform during their reign, the almost 40,000 Americans under the UN flag who died during the Korean War against China. Defiance also marks personal relationships among Koreans, explaining the importance of government and big business as forces that help dissipate this interpersonal sentiment and make cooperation possible

Argument (complex analysis · Development economics · Economic history · Economics · Economy · Immigration · Peninsula · Political science · Poverty · Asian Culture and Media Studies · History · Japanese History and Culture · Law · Socioeconomic Development in Asia