Books

Donald Kirk explores the reasons for Korea’s economic crisis, its aftermath, and its impact on the system that brought it about. He traces a variety of events that constituted the crisis, including a series of scandals at the height of the Korean miracle; the efforts of the one-time dissident Kim Dae Jung as president to curb the overweening power of the chaebol, or conglomerates; and the outside intervention by the IMF and the country’s desperate efforts to obtain foreign investment. At the same time, the book explores another overwhelming problem, that of coming to terms with North Korea, which is suffering from famine but still a threat. Based almost exclusively on the author’s original reporting from the onset of the crisis through the intervention of the IMF, this book is the first to look at Korea’s experience of the regional turmoil in Asia.