“Miracle on the Han River” by James Rhee and Pat V. for “Tiger and Bear Korea.” (c) James Topple and Colin Riddle. Used with permission from the authors.
Something I have noticed in my reading on politics in Korea is Korean academics’ fixation on the question of Korea’s level of “development.” Like the familiar chant of a young child on a long trip, they constantly ask themselves and their readers, “Is Korea ‘developed’ yet?” A release of statistics and rankings from the OECD can inspire either societal euphoria or panic in Korea, depending on the news. A recorded rise in living standards prompts (justifiably) celebratory columns of Korean economic policy and Koreans’ work ethic in Seoul dailies. On the other hand, last year’s announcement of South Korea’s low global ranking in terms of gender equality incited an anxious return to the question of Korea’s level of economic and social development. While Koreans reap the fruits of the “Miracle on the Han River” daily–a subway system far cleaner and efficient than any line in most areas of the world, high-speed internet nearly everywhere in Korea, relatively clean air and high environmental standards, and other comforts of a modern lifestyle–the memory of Korea’s less comfortable past continues to lurk in the minds of Korean intellectuals and haunt casual discussion of Korean economics and politics.
Wireless Peninsula 