ABSTRACT
After three decades of phenomenal economic growth, Korea seems to have reached a critical juncture at which it either takes a course leading to an advanced and competitive industrial country or stays on a stagnant course not unlike the so-called Latin American countries syndrome. Korea has been forced to face such a juncture, on the one hand, by the internal sociopolitical dynamics recently experienced during the democratization process. On the other hand, Korea has had to confront powerful international forces characterized by the globalization and the regionalization of the world economy which is suspected to have been influenced to a large extent by dynamic changes in the characteristics of technological development and by their roles in affecting competitive relations in international trade (Simon, 1991).
