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Travel to South Korea — Unbiased reviews
and great deals from TripAdvisorKorea, South
| Republic of Korea National
name: Taehan Min'guk President: Lee
Myung-bak (2008) Prime Minister:
Han Seung Soo (2008)
Current government officials
Land area: 37,911 sq mi (98,189 sq
km) Population (2008 est.): 49,232,844
(growth rate: 0.3%); birth rate: 9.8/1000; infant mortality rate:
5.9/1000; life expectancy: 77.4; density per sq km: 501
Capital and largest city (2003 est.):
Seoul, 10,287,847 (city proper) Other large cities: Pusan, 3,504,900;
Inchon, 2,479,600 (part of Seoul metro. area); Taegu, 2,369,800 Monetary unit: won
Languages:
Korean, English widely taught
Ethnicity/race:
homogeneous (except for about 20,000
Chinese)
Religions:
no affiliation 46%, Christian 26%, Buddhist 26%,
Confucianist 1%, other 1%
National Holiday:
Liberation Day, August 15 Literacy rate: 98% (2003 est.) Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2007 est.):
$1.201 trillion; per capita $24,800. Real growth rate: 5%.
Inflation: 2.5%. Unemployment: 3.3%. Arable land:
17%. Agriculture: rice, root crops, barley, vegetables,
fruit; cattle, pigs, chickens, milk, eggs; fish. Labor force:
23.99 million; agriculture 3.2%, industry 39.6%, services 57.2%.
Industries: electronics, telecommunications, automobile
production, chemicals, shipbuilding, steel. Natural resources:
coal, tungsten, graphite, molybdenum, lead, hydropower potential.
Exports: $371.5 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.): semiconductors,
wireless telecommunications equipment, motor vehicles, computers,
steel, ships, petrochemicals. Imports: $356.8 billion f.o.b.
(2007 est.): machinery, electronics and electronic equipment, oil,
steel, transport equipment, organic chemicals, plastics. Major
trading partners: China, U.S., Japan, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia
(2004). Communications: Telephones:
main lines in use: 26.866 million (2006); mobile cellular: 40.197
million (2006). Radio broadcast stations: AM 61, FM 150,
shortwave 2 (2005). Radios: 47.5 million (2000). Television
broadcast stations: 43 (plus 59 cable operators and 190 relay
cable operators)(2005). Televisions: 15.9 million (1997).
Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 315,537 (2007). Internet
users: 34.12 million (2006). Transportation: Railways: total: 3,472 km
(2006). Highways: total: 100,279 km; paved: 87,032 km
(including 3,060 km of expressways); unpaved: 13,247 km (2004 est).
Waterways: 1,609 km; use restricted to small native craft.
Ports and harbors: Chinhae, Inch'on, Kunsan, Masan, Mokp'o,
P'ohang, Pusan, Tonghae-hang, Ulsan, Yosu. Airports: 105
(2007). International disputes:
Military Demarcation Line within the 4-km wide Demilitarized Zone has
separated North from South Korea since 1953; Liancourt Rocks
(Take-shima/Tok-do) are disputed with Japan.
Major sources and definitions
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Geography
Slightly larger than Indiana, South Korea lies
below the 38th parallel on the Korean peninsula. It is mountainous in the
east; in the west and south are many harbors on the mainland and offshore
islands.
Government
Republic.
History
South Korea came into being after World War II,
the result of a 1945 agreement reached by the Allies at the Potsdam
Conference, making the 38th parallel the boundary between a northern zone
of the Korean peninsula to be occupied by the USSR and southern zone to be
controlled by U.S. forces. (For details, see Korea, North.)
Elections were held in the U.S. zone in 1948 for
a national assembly, which adopted a republican constitution and elected
Syngman Rhee as the nation's president. The new republic was proclaimed on
Aug. 15 and was recognized as the legal government of Korea by the UN on
Dec. 12, 1948.
On June 25, 1950, North Korean Communist forces
launched a massive surprise attack on South Korea, quickly overrunning the
capital, Seoul. U.S. armed intervention was ordered on June 27 by
President Harry S. Truman, and on the same day the UN invoked military
sanctions against North Korea. Gen. Douglas MacArthur was named commander
of the UN forces. U.S. and South Korean troops fought a heroic holding
action, but by the first week of August they were forced back to a
4,000-square-mile beachhead in southeast Korea. There they stood off
superior North Korean forces until Sept. 15, when a major UN amphibious
assault was launched deep behind Communist lines at Inchon, the port of
Seoul.
By Sept. 30, UN forces were in complete control
of South Korea. They then crossed the 38th parallel and pursued retreating
Communist forces into North Korea. In late October, as UN forces neared
the Sino-Korean border, several hundred thousand Chinese Communist troops
entered the conflict, pushing MacArthur's forces back to the border
between North and South Korea. By the time truce talks began on July 10,
1951, UN forces had crossed over the parallel again and were driving back
into North Korea. Cease-fire negotiations dragged on for two years before
an armistice was finally signed at Panmunjom on July 27, 1953, leaving a
devastated Korea in need of large-scale rehabilitation. No official peace
treaty has ever been signed between the former combatants.
President Syngman Rhee, after 12 years in
office, was forced to resign in 1960 amid rising discontent with his
autocratic leadership. Po Sun Yun was elected to succeed him, but
political instability continued. In 1961, Gen. Park Chung Hee seized power
and subsequently began a program of economic reforms designed to stimulate
the nation's economy. The U.S. stepped up military aid, strengthening
South Korea's armed forces to 600,000 men. Park's assassination on Oct.
26, 1979, by Kim Jae Kyu, head of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency,
brought a liberalizing trend as new president Choi Kyu Hah freed
imprisoned dissidents.
The release of opposition leader Kim Dae Jung in
Feb. 1980 sparked antigovernment demonstrations that turned into riots,
which were brutally suppressed by authorities. Kim, the most visible
leader of the opposition, was imprisoned again. Choi resigned on Aug. 16.
Chun Doo Hwan, head of a military Special Committee for National Security
Measures, was the sole candidate when the electoral college confirmed him
as president on Aug. 27. In 1986–1987, South Korea's opposition
demanded that the president be selected by direct popular vote. After
weeks of protest and rioting, Chun agreed to the demand. A split in the
opposition led to Roh Tae Woo's election on Dec. 16, 1987.
In Aug. 1996 Roh was convicted on bribery
charges, and Chun was convicted for bribery as well as his role in the
1979 coup and the 1980 crackdown on rioters. In 1997, an accumulation of
corrupt business practices and bad loans led to a series of bankruptcies
and a massive devaluation of South Korea's currency. The political
instability that followed helped former dissident Kim Dae Jung become the
first South Korean president ever to be elected from the political
opposition.
In 1998 the Asian economic crisis bottomed out
in South Korea. The nation began rebounding in 1999, the only sizable
Asian economy to do so.
In June 2000, President Kim Dae Jung met with
North Korea's president, Kim Jong Il, in Pyongyang. The summit marked the
first-ever meeting of the countries' leaders. Kim Dae Jung won the Nobel
Peace Prize in Oct. 2000 for his Sunshine Policy, which included
initiating peace and reconciliation with North Korea.
Roh Moo Hyun of the ruling Millennium Democratic
Party became president in February 2003 and promptly faced daunting
problems. His vow to pursue his predecessor's Sunshine Policy toward North
Korea was put to the test as the North continued to taunt the world with
boasts about its nuclear capabilities. In addition, many South Koreans had
begun to resent U.S. influence over their country. In March 2004, the
conservative national assembly voted overwhelmingly to impeach Roh,
claiming he had violated election laws. More than 70% of the public,
however, condemned the move; the constitutional court dismissed the
impeachment in May; and Roh was reinstated as president.
Researchers led by Hwang Woo-suk stunned the
world in May 2005, when they announced they had devised a new procedure to
produce human stem-cell lines from a cloned human embryo. The country's
reign as the leader in the field of cloning was brief. In Jan. 2006, a
Seoul National University panel reported that Hwang had fabricated
evidence for his cloning research. His downfall was a blow to the entire
nation. Indeed, he had become a national hero and had received millions in
research money from the government.
Prime Minister Lee Hae Chan resigned under
pressure in March 2006, after facing intense criticism for playing golf
rather than dealing with a national railway workers' strike. He was
replaced by Han Duck Soo.
For the first time in 56 years, trains passed
between North and South Korea in May 2007. While the event was mostly
symbolic, it was considered an important step toward reconciliation. South
Korea hopes that eventually a trans-Korean railroad will provide easier
access to other parts of Asia. Given North Korea's failing infrastructure,
such a railroad, however, is years away from becoming a reality.
In July, the Taliban kidnapped 23 South Korean
missionaries from a Protestant church group while they were traveling by
bus in Afghanistan. Two of the hostages were killed after the Taliban's
demands for a prisoner exchange were not met with a positive response by
the Afghan government.
In October 2007, President Roh Moo Hyun and
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il met for their second ever inter-Korean
summit. The leaders forged a deal to work together on several economic
projects and agreed to move toward signing a treaty that would formally
end the Korean War.
Lee Myung-bak, of the opposition Grand National
Party, won December's presidential elections, taking 48.7% of the vote.
Chung Dong-yong, who was endorsed by outgoing president Roh Moo-hyun, took
26.1%. Lee had been dogged by allegations of ethical improprieties, and
the National Assembly voted two days before the election to reopen an
investigation into whether he manipulated the stock of an investment
company. In January 2008, he named Han Seung Soo as his prime minister. A
special prosecutor cleared Lee of the fraud allegations, and less than a
week later he was sworn in as president. Lee said he would work to improve
South Korea's economy and forge closer ties with the United States.
In June, just months into his presidency, Lee
faced massive protests in Seoul over his decision to resume imports of
American beef, which was banned in 2003 after mad cow disease was
diagnosed in the U.S. The protests, which took place in Seoul for about
six weeks before peaking on June 10, implied overall dissatisfaction with
President Lee. Prime Minister Han Seung-soo and all 15 cabinet members
submitted their resignations. Three ministers were replaced, but President
Lee refused to accept the other resignations. South Korea and the U.S.
reached an agreement that said the U.S. would not export beef from cattle
under 30 months of age.
Lee's troubles worsened during the global financial crisis that
crippled many nations in the fall of 2008. His detractors criticized his
response to the turmoil as inconsistent and muddled.
See also Encyclopedia: Korea.
U.S. State Dept. Country Notes:
South Korea
National Statistical Office www.nso.go.kr/ .
Information Please® Database, © 2008 Pearson
Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
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