ABSTRACT
The 1990s brought sweeping political, social and economic change to South Korea, along with a new emphasis on segyehwa or “globalization.” In 1996 the nation joined the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a sure sign that it had become one of the world’s advanced economies. However, the decade also included the searing experience of the Asian economic crisis in 1997-98, better known as the “IMF crisis” in Korea.
