ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates the course of South Korea becoming the world's biggest shipbuilder/shipbreaker launched from the industrialisation policies of Park Chung-hee, which were an integral part of the institutional rise of the Chaebols. It assesses the resulting decline from the financial crisis of the maritime sector to its lowest ebb under the corrupt, withering Park Geun-hye administration. An International Monetary Fund (IMF) report highlighted the general decline in the shipping industry after the global recession of 2008 and the catastrophic downturn in the South Korean maritime sector. The bankruptcy of Hanjin Shipping, the seventh largest shipping company in the world until its court receivership on 31 August 2016, was a first on a number of fronts. Shipbreaking had been in decline at least a decade before as India and China had replaced South Korea, but the most lucrative parts of the maritime sector, shipbuilding and shipping were near collapse.
