South Korea is a country located in Asia. According to AbbreviationFinder, KR is the two-letter ISO code of South Korea, and KOR is the three-letter country abbreviation for South Korea.

Yearbook 1997

South Korea. According to Countryaah, the national day of South Korea is August 15. South Korea’s economy was in bad shape during the year. The prohibited labor movement KCTU’s protests against the regime’s new labor law laws continued into 1997 with hundreds of thousands of workers on strike. Car factories, shipyards and hospitals were crippled by the battle for widened employers’ right to dismiss or relocate labor. Only after the government and opposition agreed to discuss changes in labor law did the protests ebb out.

Instead, the scandal surrounding the steel and construction giant Hanbo was noticed. When Hanbo went bankrupt in January with debts of close to $ 6 billion, a corruption gang with tracks was also discovered right in the center of power. Founder Chung Tae Soo admitted that the group had given gifts to Politician. He was prosecuted for bribery along with nine others, including several bank executives and MPs.

The Hanbo affair forced a public apology from President Kim Yong Sam, whose advisers figured in the scandal. Kim admitted that his election campaign in 1992 had been expensive, but he refused to state where the money came from. President’s son Kim Hyun Chul was singled out as a key figure in this, but was released. In June, Chung Tae Soo was sentenced to 15 years in prison. embezzlement and bribery. His co-defendants were jailed for 3-7 years.

But the scandal rolled on. Kim Hyun Chul, incarcerated for tax fraud and scam with campaign funds, was sentenced in October to three years in prison – one for the president and his ruling party NKP (New Korea Party) onerous verdict.

In the December 18 presidential election, where Kim was not allowed to run for re-election, the NKP (renamed the Grand National Party) was running for former Prime Minister Lee Hoi Chang. The main opposition parties, the liberal NCNP and the conservative ULD, stood with the NCNP leader and former dissident Kim Dae Jung. After an even election campaign, Kim Dae Jung was the winner; formally he takes up his post in February 1998. The outgoing and incoming head of state agreed to pardon the ex-presidents Chun Doo Hwan and Roh Tae Woo, jailed for treason and corruption. Chun and Roh were released December 22.

In the fall, East Asia’s economic problems hit South Korea hard. Currency and share prices collapsed, growth slowed and several large companies failed. Finance Minister Kang Kyung Shik was dismissed. The government was forced to swallow its pride and try to save the economy. through crisis loans of nearly $ 60 billion under tough conditions from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Tensions with North Korea persisted, though formal peace talks finally started in Geneva on December 9. Shortly before, six people, including a reputable professor, had been arrested for espionage on behalf of North Korea.

Economy

The South Korean economy has undergone a profound transformation after the end of the Korean War. The per capita GDP went from around US $ 82 in the 1950s to over US $ 30,000 in the 2000s. During the 1960s, the country was radically transformed through development, modernization and industrialization policies desired by military juntas and implemented by giving a strong boost to exports and thanks to substantial state aid to businesses.

In short, Korea has achieved considerable levels of growth and has transformed from a predominantly agricultural nation into a hyper-technological country, boasting the highest rate of Internet access, a leader in semiconductor manufacturing and a world innovator in consumer electronics.

However, Korea’s rapid growth, constant throughout the first half of the 1990s, began to show some weaknesses with the 1997-98 economic crisis.. In particular, the pronounced debt-to-risk capital ratio and massive recourse to short-term foreign loans undermined the resilience of the system. At the end of 1997, thanks to the bankruptcy of some of the main industrial groups in the country and the flight of foreign investors, the country was forced, to avoid the collapse, to resort to the help of the International Monetary Fund, which disbursed a loan of 57 billion dollars. A series of measures adopted by the South Korean government made it possible to contain the financial problems. The credit for the recovery, however, must mainly be attributed to the restructuring carried out in the labor market and to the measures introduced by the new administration, aimed at attracting foreign investments. In the first four months of 1999, GDP increased by 5.4%; sustained development, combined with the deflationary pressure on the currency, pushed the annual growth rate up to 10.5%. The crisis could therefore be said to be fundamentally reabsorbed towards the end of 1999 and the loan from the International Monetary Fund was paid off shortly thereafter.

• Shopareview: Offers climate information of South Korea in Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, covering maximum and minimum temperature for each of 12 months. Also includes when is best time to visit this country.

In the 2000s, after having recorded a 5.7 increase in GDP in the first quarter of 2008, at the end of the year it had already fallen to 3.3 to collapse in 2009, coinciding with the world crisis: in the second quarter it was -4, 2. The recovery was equally rapid. The peak was in mid-2010: + 8.7%. Then a gradual decline, albeit with positive rates, up to + 1.5% in mid-2012, a year which however ended with a satisfactory + 3.7%, according to Trading Economics data. In essence, South Korea’s response to the global recession was prompt: the crisis was averted thanks to the timely stimulus measures of the economy and the consumption of domestic products, which somehow offset the reduction in exports.