ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the historical development of Korea's economic engine of growth and subsequent plunge into crisis. It describes Korea's approach to housing shortages and poor housing quality during the state-led industrialization period of the 1960s and 1970s. The chapter discusses the character of government/private-sector interaction during this period, permitting to define the peculiar publicness of housing in Korea. It analyzes the resolution of some specific housing issues during this period: how private construction companies financed so many standardized large-scale, high-rise apartments, and how young couples were able to buy housing units. The chapter examines Korea's housing and infrastructural issues during the period of economic liberalization in the 1980s and 1990s. So internal dynamics and pressure from global capitalism worked together to accelerate Korea's policy transition toward liberalization. Liberalization and deregulation were also implemented in the housing sector, although the role of public subsidies and regulation remained prominent.
