ABSTRACT
South Korea was economically underdeveloped and socially deprived after the Second World War until the authoritarian President Park Chung-hee took power after leading a military coup and instituted a ruthless industrialisation programme that led to economic prosperity through innovation, investment and the patenting of new industrial products. Several important questions need to be addressed to understand the underlying causes of South Korea's predicament under Park Geun-hye. This chapter explores how the management and economic practices of Chaebols instituted by President Park Chung-hee served to support rapid industrialisation but later became a hindrance to progress in his daughter's administration, affecting innovation, investment and intellectual property in ways particular to South Korea. The Korean National Diet has been stymied with more opposition lawmakers than rule-making lawmakers in the last throes of Park Geun-hye's administration. Even the traditional conservative supporters of her father had second thoughts about continuing support for her.
