ABSTRACT
South Korea has emerged as one of the fastest growing economies during the past quarter century, despite a lack of natural resources. Mineral deposits and forests known before 1945 went to North Korea when the Korean peninsula was divided into two. South Korea’s land area is scarcely bigger than New Jersey or Hungary, crossed by mountains, with a relatively small portion of arable land for more than 40 million people. Thirty-six years of being a Japanese colony left some industrial base. But much of what South Korea (hereinafter called Korea) had was destroyed during the Korean War (1950–53). Korea, therefore, had to start almost from scratch. As late as 1961 it suffered from almost all the difficulties facing most poor countries today.
