ABSTRACT
This chapter examines pertinent circumstances which existed prior to the inception of the Yushin reform. It discusses some of that reform's salient characteristics and illustrates the totality of its impact on the South Korean labour movement in general and the young women workers in the garment industry in particular. The chapter shows Park Chung-hee's inexorable progression along the path to what can only be termed paranoia, and, at least in terms of national economic growth versus human suffering and mass exploitation, an assertion of the axiom that the 'end' justifies the 'means'. As a product of the military institution, it is unsurprising that Park Chung-hee should develop into an exemplar of the 'military politician'. The construction of a national economy in accordance with Park Chung-hee's 'Yushin reform' model was dependent upon the rigid control and exploitation of the labour force, and opposition to the measures adopted to establish and maintain such control would be automatically labelled 'communist'.
