south korea history research paper

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South korea’s economic development, 1948–1996.

Michael J. Seth Michael J. Seth Department of History, James Madison University
https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277727.013.271
Published online: 19 December 2017

At its independence in 1948, South Korea was an impoverished, predominately agricultural state, and most of the industry and electrical power was in North Korea. It faced a devastating war from 1950 to 1953, and an unpromising and slow recovery in the years that followed. Then, from 1961 to 1996, South Korea underwent a period of rapid economic development, during which it was transformed into a prosperous, industrial society. During these years, its economic growth rates were among the highest in the world. Under the military government of Park Chung Hee (Pak Chǒng-hǔi), which came to power in 1961, the state gave priority to economic development, focusing on a combination of state planning and private entrepreneurship. Possessing few natural resources, it depended on a low wage, educated, and disciplined labor force to produce goods for exports. As wages rose, economic development shifted from labor to capital-intensive industries. Focusing initially on textiles and footwear, South Korean manufacturing moved into steel, heavy equipment, ships, and petrochemicals in the 1970s, and electronics and automobiles in the 1980s. Two major reforms under the administration of Syngman Rhee (Yi Sǔng-man, 1948–1961) helped prepare the way: land reform and educational development. However, it was the commitment to rapid industrialization by the military governments of Park Chung Hee and his successor, Chun Doo Hwan (Chǒn Tu-hwan), that brought about the takeoff. Industrialization was characterized by a close pattern of cooperation between the state and large family-owned conglomerates known as chaebǒls . This close relationship continued after the transition to democracy, in the late 1980s and 1990s, but after 1987, labor emerged as a major political force, and rising wages gave further impetus to the development of more capital-intensive industry. In 1996, South Korea joined the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, being internationally recognized as a “developed state.” Although living standards still lagged behind those of North America, Western Europe, and Japan, the gap was significantly narrowed. After 1996, its economic development slowed but was still high enough to achieve a per capita income comparable to the countries of Western Europe and to shift from a borrower of to an innovator in technology.

South Korea
contemporary South Korea
development
Park Chung Hee
industrialization
modernization
laboring (working) class

Economic Development from 1948 to 1961

At its creation in 1948 , South Korea ranked as one of the world’s poorest states. Twelve years later, in 1960 , it remained so with a per capita income about the same as Haiti. A number of factors contributed to that poverty. South Korea was predominantly an agricultural society, but it did undergo some industrialization during the Japanese colonial rule, from 1910 to 1945 , mostly in the northern provinces. The Japanese colonial administration created a professional civil service and an efficient, development-oriented state that worked closely with private business and banks to achieve economic targets. But it was a predatory, exploitative development designed to benefit Japan rather than Korea.

Korea was partitioned in 1945 by the Soviet Union and the United States, who then fostered the creation of two states: the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) in the north and the Republic of Korea (ROK) in the south. The DPRK inherited most of the industry, most of the mining, and more than 80% of the electric power generation. The ROK possessed most of the productive agricultural areas, but these were barely adequate to feed the densely inhabited country’s rapidly growing population. South Korea faced additional challenges: the repatriation of the large population of resident Japanese after the liberation resulted in a loss of many skilled workers, professionals, and teachers; an influx of refugees from the North; the loss of Japan as its main market for its agricultural exports; and a turbulent political situation in the country. These problems were compounded by the highly destructive Korean War, 1950–1953 .

South Korea’s economic takeoff, its spurt of rapid industrialization and economic growth, began in the early 1960s under the direction of the military government. During nearly three decades of military-led governments, the economy was rapidly transformed in a process sometimes referred to as the South Korean “economic miracle” or the “miracle on the Han,” referring to the Han River that flows through Seoul. The years before 1961 , by contrast, are dismissed as a time of stagnation, inflation, corruption, and dependence on foreign assistance. In fact, the period from 1948 to 1960 is sometimes seen as an interregnum between the development-oriented colonial state that preceded it and the military government that followed it. 1 Real economic growth was only 4 percent a year, less than 2 percent per capita when the high birthrate is factored in. 2 This real but modest rate of growth meant that, in 1960 , the country was still extremely poor.

The years after the war, from 1953 to 1961 , saw only a slow recovery despite the country being one the world’s largest recipients of foreign aid per capita. There was a lack of central planning and only modest investment in infrastructure. Misallocation of aid funds, government corruption, an unrealistically high exchange, political volatility, and the threat of renewed war with North Korea all made the country unappealing to domestic and foreign investors. Fear of recreating colonial dependency on Japan prevented Seoul from opening the country to trade and investment with its booming next door neighbor. With few natural resources, the country produced little that the rest of the world wanted, and its international trade was miniscule.

South Korea followed an import substitution industrialization policy typical of many postcolonial states after World War II. This was less a carefully constructed strategy for economic development than a rather haphazard system of protecting consumer industries such as food processing, textiles, and items such as toothpaste and soap. The over-valued currency kept its potential exports uncompetitive. South Korea’s exports in this period consisted mainly of small amounts of tungsten, rice, seaweed, iron, and graphite. In 1956 , these amounted to $25 million against the import products amounting to $389 million, a huge deficit made up for by the infusion of U.S. aid funds. 3 Almost all of the nation’s foreign exchange earnings came from the U.S. aid. In fact, the country was heavily reliant on American assistance, not only for postwar reconstruction but for public finances. American aid accounted for nearly 80% of all government revenues and a substantial portion of South Korea’s entire gross national product (GNP). Foreign aid, along with the inflated exchange rate, was also used to support crony capitalism. The state under President Syngman Rhee had close ties to elements of the business community, but these were used as a means to finance the regime by channeling U.S. dollars into government coffers. The government gave out import licenses to favored businessmen to buy commodities. Since the official exchange rate of the hwan did not reflect any market reality, this meant that import licenses were highly profitable.

Nonetheless, some of the basic foundations were being laid out for the country’s later economic growth. As riddled with self-serving, corrupt officials as it was, the Rhee administration also had many able and talented people in the areas of economics, education, and finance. To these were added a steady stream of South Koreans who were going to the United States to study science, engineering, public administration, economics, education, and a variety of other fields. They often were employed as young technocrats by the government. In 1958 , the administration created the Economic Development Council, a body of these technocrats that began to draw up plans for long-term economic development. The Rhee administration, however, collapsed in 1960 , before they could be implemented.

More importantly, two fundamental changes took place in South Korean society before 1961 that contributed enormously to the country’s economic takeoff. One was the rapid expansion of education. From 1945 to 1960 , the enrollment in primary schools increased three times its size, secondary schools more than eight-fold, and higher education ten times. By 1960 , 96% of all children of primary school age were attending school. Additionally, state and private groups carried out highly successful adult literacy programs. As a result, South Korea, in 1961 , had the best-educated work force of any country with a comparable income level. The other major change was land reform, carried out in 1950 on the eve of the Korean War, which limited property holdings to 7.5 acres (3 hectares). In 1944 , 3 percent of landowners owned 64 percent, but in 1956 the top 6 percent owned only 18 percent; tenancy had virtually disappeared. 4 Traditional peasants became small entrepreneurial farmers, and many landowners invested in business or established schools. 5 Land reform brought stability to the countryside and redirected much of the capital and entrepreneurial energy of the old landlord class toward commerce, industry, and education.

Economic Take-Off

South Korea’s “economic miracle” began under the military government of General Park Chung Hee (Pak Chǒng-hǔi), who came to power in a coup in May 1961 . The previous year had seen the overthrow of President Rhee’s authoritarian regime in a student-led revolt and a rather chaotic experiment in parliamentary democracy under Chang Myun (Chang Myǒn). Under Chang Myun, the government drew up a long-term plan for economic development that partially served as the basis for the new military regime.

The new military regime of Park Chung Hee did not have clear ideas about what to do about the economy. What it did have was a determination to end the country’s poverty. Partly this was a matter of national pride and a desire to free the nation from its “mendicant” status as an economic ward of the United States. Park questioned whether South Korea could preserve its “self-respect as a sovereign nation, independent, free, and democratic” while being so dependent on the Americans, who financed a little over half the government’s budget. This meant, he remarked, that the United States had “a 52 percent majority vote with regard to Korea.” 6 Besides the desire to free their country from its economic dependency on America, the new military leaders were motivated by competition with a rapidly industrializing North Korea. It was clear that the country was falling behind North Korea, undermining Seoul’s claim as the legitimate government of all Koreans. Initially, the military leaders turned on the business community and its corrupt relationship between businessmen and the government. But after detaining and fining fifty-one prominent leaders, including Lee Byung Chull (Yi Pyŏng-ch’ŏl), the country’s richest, they began working closely with them to harness their entrepreneurial skills to the national effort at economic development. Park appointed thirteen to the Promotional Committee for Economic Reconstruction, with Lee as chair. 7 In this way. the military government began its partnership with the country’s entrepreneurial elite.

Several steps were taken to direct the state toward economic growth: the development of five-year economic plans, the redirection of the economy from import substitution to exported-oriented industrial development, and state control over credit. The Park regime created an Economic Planning Board (EPB) staffed by technocrats to direct economic growth. The EPB head served as a deputy prime minister, outranking all other cabinet members. The state nationalized all commercial banks and reorganized the banking system to give control over credit. 8 It then provided low interest loans to businesses according to the needs of economic plans. Most historians regard the First Five-Year Development Plan to be the point of economic take-off. Launched in 1962 , it called for a 7.1 percent economic growth rate for 1962–1966 , by encouraging the development of light industries for export. Despite skepticism by many American advisors that it was unrealistic, the target was exceeded with the economic growth rate averaging 8.9 percent, propelling South Korea on its path to rapid industrialization. Exports grew 29 percent a year, manufacturing 15 percent a year. 9 A Second Five-Year Plan, 1967–1971 , followed, which gave greater emphasis to attracting direct foreign investment and improving the basic infrastructure. 10

A major feature of South Korea’s economic development was its focus on acquiring technical skills. The state created a number of centers to promote research and the dissemination of technical knowledge to business enterprises such as Korean Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), established in 1966 . It also promoted technical education by expanding the number of vocational secondary schools and two-year technical colleges, and encouraged students to study abroad, although many of these did not return. At the same time, the Park administration made impressive progress in professionalizing the state bureaucracy. Officials received appointment through a highly competitive civil service examination system and were promoted based on clear guidelines for merit. Attracted by good pay and benefits, job security, and enhanced prestige, many of the country’s top university graduates as well as those with overseas degrees entered the ranks of the bureaucracy. As a result, a highly competent, respected set of officials were able to help guide and promote economic and social development. 11

Since Park’s economic development policies were driven by economic nationalism and the desire to achieve autonomy for his country, he was concerned about avoiding foreign economic control. Consequently, he initially limited direct foreign investment into the country. Soon, however, on the advice of his economists, he began easing up on these restrictions. In 1966 , the Foreign Capital Inducement Act exempted foreign managers from income taxes, provided tax holidays, and streamlined the process for investing in the country. 12 Despite Park’s desire for autonomy, South Korean economic development was tied to the United States. Washington gradually began to reduce direct aid, but its technical assistance remained crucial to South Korea’s economic development. Perhaps most importantly, the United States absorbed the majority of the country’s exports. South Korea was also able to use political and military relations with the Americans for economic development purposes. Park sent 300,000 troops to support the Americans in Vietnam; in exchange, South Korean firms were to be given lucrative contracts to supply goods and services to the South Vietnamese, American, and allied military forces. South Korean firms such as Hyundai gained valuable experience in completing construction and transportation projects for the United States in Vietnam, experience that they applied to win contracts in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Japan was also important in South Korea’s economic development. Park normalized relations with Tokyo in 1965 , over the heated objections of Koreans who feared a return of Japanese dominance, if not a revival of colonial hegemony. Korean cheap labor and Japanese capital and technology were a good match. In the years after the treaty, Japan was a major foreign investor in South Korea, second only to the United States. In the decade after the treaty, trade between the two countries expanded more than ten times; Japan supplied nearly 60 percent of foreign technology between 1962 and 1979 . 13 The U.S. market and Japan’s investments and technology transfers greatly facilitated South Korea’s economic transformation. Japan was also a useful model for imitation. During the colonial period and after, Koreans learned much from Japan about what a non-Western country could do to successfully modernize and industrialize. As one Korean put it, the policy of his country’s business community was “Do what the Japanese have done, but do it cheaper and faster.” 14

In the 1970s, there were changes in the direction of economic development—a shift to heavy industry and the production of capital goods, accompanied by more restrictive policies on direct foreign investment. The change was motivated by a desire to become economically and politically autonomous. The United States started to appear less reliable as a military and political partner, as it established relations with the Peoples Republic of China in 1971–1972 and, as Americans began their withdrawal from Vietnam, President Nixon began calling for a reduction of U.S. forces in Korea. It now seemed to the leadership more urgent to make the country more economically self-reliant, able eventually to manufacture its own armaments and capital goods and to compete with North Korea’s own heavy industrial development. Self-reliance was reinforced in 1973 by new restrictions placed on direct foreign investment. The shift to these heavy and chemical industries required the government to play an even greater role in aiding and guiding industrial development. The companies favored by the Park regime were able to grow and expand, some into industrial giants.

The change in economic direction was accompanied by a more authoritarian turn by the Park regime. In 1963 , the country was returned to civilian rule, although in reality, the power was still in the hands of the military. Park was elected three times in semi-open presidential elections: 1963 , 1967 , and 1971 . Then, in 1972 , he declared martial law and promulgated a new constitution that gave him nearly dictatorial powers. Using these powers, Park redirected the economy toward the development of heavy and chemical industries inaugurating the HCI (heavy and chemical industry) phase of South Korea’s economic development. In 1973 , six industries were targeted: steel, chemical, metal, machine building, shipbuilding, and electronics. This stage of industrial development was concentrated in five small provincial cities, four of them in Park’s home area, Kyŏngsang, in the southeast part of the country: Yŏsu-Yŏchŏn, for petrochemicals; Ch’angwŏn, for machine-building; P’ohang, for steel; Okp’o, for shipbuilding; and the Kumi complex for electronics. 15

Despite the fact that many foreign experts believed South Korea was neither ready nor large enough to support a heavy industrial base, the plan was largely successful. The economy grew by double digits despite a less favorable international situation in the 1970s. In the decade from 1972 to 1982 , steel production increased fourteen times. The petrochemical industry did not become that competitive, but others such as steel, led by the state-owned Pohang Iron and Steel Company (POSCO), did. POSCO operated the world’s largest steel-making complex, an efficient operation that successfully competed in the world steel markets. Shipbuilding was another success story: in the 1980s, South Korea became the world’s second largest shipbuilder, with a reputation for being able to complete orders for new ships quickly and on time. These successes were tempered somewhat by the fact that the energy-intensive industries were launched at a time of sharp increases in petroleum prices, in 1973–1974 . However, the outflow of foreign exchange to pay for more costly imported oil was soon compensated in part by the inflow of earnings from Korean construction companies and their workers in the Middle East. Thus South Korea weathered the economic crisis quite well. More serious problems were inflation, which reached an annual rate of 40 percent in late 1979 , and the country’s mounting foreign debt. The country has become a major borrower to finance not just new investments but also huge infrastructure projects, such as expanded power generation, telecommunications, port facilities, and roads.

Big Business and the State

The South Korean government, after 1961 , worked closely with selected business entrepreneurs to achieve development goals. These entrepreneurs created large family owned conglomerates known as chaebŏls . Eventually some grew to enormous size and came to dominate the economy. Under Park and his immediate successors, the state—through its ownership of the banks—poured credit into a few companies to develop industries targeted for development. The chaebŏls received exemptions from import duties on capital goods and special rates for utilities and the state-owned rail system. Firms engaged in enterprises not favored by the development plans found it difficult to gain access to credit: nor could they receive special discounts and exemptions. Each chaebŏl leader found it necessary to work closely with the government and contribute generously to pro-government political campaign coffers and to pet projects favored by regimes of Park and his successor Chun Doo Hwan.

A key to this alliance between big business and the state was the performance principle. The state constantly monitored chaebŏls to determine if they were using their support efficiently. They had to demonstrate their ability to produce results, that is, to efficiently meet economic targets and compete in the domestic and foreign marketplaces. When they were not performing well they lost state support. Thus performance in meeting economic targets, and not political connections, was the basis for preferential loans and other forms of state assistance. Another factor was that the government did not allow any chaebŏl to achieve a monopoly but rather encouraged competition among several in each industrial sector to keep them efficient. Corruption was generally not tolerated, at least the kind of behavior that reduced the efficiency of the firms. As a result, there was considerable fluctuation in the fortunes of the chaebol groups. Of the top 100 firms in 1965 , for example, only 22 were in the top 100 for ten years. And only 30 of the top 100 firms in 1975 were still in the top 100 in 1985 . 16 The successful chaebŏls expanded rapidly, with the top ten conglomerates growing at three and a half times the GDP growth rate. 17 As they grew, they tended to expand horizontally, branching out into a highly diversified range of activities, often far removed from their original core businesses.

Although most became publically traded, the chaebŏls were essentially family-run businesses. Family members held the top managerial positions with second tier offices staffed by those with school or hometown ties to them. 18 Control was kept in the family by low inheritance taxes and marriage networks. 19 Most were products of the post-liberation period. Of the fifty largest chaebŏls in 1983 , only ten predated 1945 . 20 A majority were established in the 1950s and 1960s. Most were well established by 1980 . Among those with colonial roots was Samsung, founded by Lee Byung Chull. Lee started out with a trading company in 1938 . In the 1950s, he established the Cheil Sugar Refinery and the Cheil Textile Company. He developed a close relationship with the Rhee regime, which provided him with profitable import licenses in return for contributions to Rhee’s Liberal Party. Initially targeted by Park Chung Hee for corruption and cronyism, he soon established an important working relationship with the new military government. Lee’s new Samsung (Three Stars) group acquired a reputation for being efficient and well managed. Involved in many areas, in the late 1960s, Lee made electronics his prime focus. By the early 1980s, Samsung was one the world’s largest manufacturers of TV sets. In the mid-1980s, it moved into the semiconductor business promoted by the government.

Ssangyoung (Twin Dragons) was another older chaebǒl , originating in the late colonial period as a textile manufacturer. Under Park, its owner Kim Sung Kon (Kim Sŏng-gŏn) branched out into many industries, including trading, construction, and automobiles, becoming one of the six largest chaebŏls in the 1970s and 1980s. Most of the chaebǒl founders emerged after 1945 . The most successful of these was Hyundai, founded by Chung Ju-yung (Chŏng Chu-yŏng), who started out with a construction company that worked for the U.S. Army and the Korean government. He came to the attention of the Park regime for his ability to complete tasks, such as a bridge over the Han River, ahead of schedule. After 1965 , Hyundai Construction received many contracts to build in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War, and in the Middle East in the 1970s. Chung established Hyundai Motors in 1967 to build the first South Korean car, which became known as the Pony. He established Hyundai Shipbuilding and Heavy Industries in 1973 in response to the HCI initiative. Later in the early 1980s, Hyundai entered the electronics industry and became in time the largest of the chaebǒls .

Another chaebǒl , Lucky-Goldstar was originally founded by Koo In-hwoi (Ku In-hoe) as Lucky Chemical Company in 1947 , the country’s major toothpaste manufacturer. 21 In the 1960s, he went into the electronics business under the Goldstar label. In 1995 , the Lucky-Goldstar company changed its name to LG, eventually becoming one of the world’s largest consumer electronics firms. Daewoo began in 1967 , as a trading company established by Kim Woo Jung (Kim U-jung). Having established a reputation for efficiency, Kim was given two failed enterprises—Shinjin, an unsuccessful automotive company, and the failing Okp’o shipyard—and managed to turn them into a major manufacturers of cars and ships. By the 1980s, South Korea’s economy was increasingly dominated by these largest of these family-owned conglomerates.

Social Transformation

As the economy grew, South Korea underwent a radical social transformation. This was most clearly seen in the rate of urbanization. Millions of Koreans left their rural homes to find work in the urban areas. Parents sent their kids to the cities to get a better education, and their children seldom returned. In 1960 , farmers made up 61 percent of the population. This fell dramatically to 51 percent in 1970 , and to 38 percent in 1980 . 22 By comparison to the cities, development in rural areas saw much slower growths. In fact, industrialization in the 1960s came partly at the expense of the countryside, whose development was visibly neglected. Farmers suffered from low prices for their crops, prices set by the state to keep food relatively cheap. Then, in part to shore up his rural base of political support, Park launched the New Village ( Saemaǔl ) Movement in the winter of 1971–1972 to promote rural development. Local governments were enlisted in programs to educate farmers to modernize their farms and their homes. Much of this was carried out in a heavy-handed manner. For example, he ordered all rural households to replace their thatched roofs with tiles, which were more fireproof and considered more modern. These were expensive, and the poor often had to settle for corrugated metal roofs painted blue or orange to simulate tiles. Village committees were established to formulate and carry out their own improvement schemes. Rural-urban income disparities, however, were closed only in the 1980s and 1990s, when the state increased the prices it paid for the agricultural produce in order to protect farmers from the imports. As urban incomes rose, workers could afford higher food costs. In general, by the 1990s, there was greater income and regional equality than in most developing and many developed countries.

South Korea’s swift economic development was accompanied by an equally swift decline in the birth rate. The Park regime’s technocrats generally accepted the argument by Western advisors that cutting the birthrate was essential for fast economic growth and modernization. Working with the Planned Parenthood Federation of Korea, which was formed in 1961 by the International Planned Parenthood Federation, the state sent family planning staff to local clinics. In 1968 , the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare created Mother’s Clubs for Family Planning and introduced oral contraceptives. A government program to recruit and train women in rural communities to instruct their neighbors in birth control proved effective. The state carried out major family planning campaigns in 1966 and in 1974 and began a female sterilization campaign in the 1980s. 23 By the early 1990s, the birth rate had fallen to replacement level and soon fell below that. While family planning efforts were probably important at first, the country’s shift to smaller families was characteristic of most societies as they became more urbanized and more middle class, and as women became better educated.

Educational development also proceeded rapidly throughout the period from 1961–1996 , with secondary education becoming close to universal in the late 1980s, and higher education enrollments reaching the levels of developed countries by the 1990s. Higher education enrollments, however, did not lead to a significantly higher percentage of labor participation by women who also entered the professional and managerial careers at much lower rates than that of most states at comparative levels of economic development. Health standards saw considerable improvement, with infant mortality rates matching those of most European countries by 1996 . Consumer growth was lower than the GDP growth. Lack of a social welfare safety net encouraged high rates of savings, as did the bonus system, in which workers received bonuses, usually set aside for savings, up to 400% of the monthly salary. Consumer desire was also constrained by state policies, such as keeping the prices of luxury goods extremely high and restricting foreign travel.

A Maturing Economy

On October 26, 1979 , President Park Chung Hee was assassinated. A period of political turmoil followed, compounded by the 1979 oil price hikes, a bad rice harvest, and an alarming 44 percent inflation rate, resulting in the economy contracting 6 percent in 1980 . But the economy quickly recovered. The 1980s saw high rates of GDP growth, peaking in the years 1986–1988 , at 12 percent annually the highest in the world. After that the growth rate slowed down, but the economy continued to expand through 1996 at an average rate of 7 percent. 24

Chun Doo Hwan, another military man who had served as president from 1980 to 1988 , continued Park’s developmental policies for the most part. However, as the South Korea economy matured in the 1980s and 1990s several major changes in the economy took place. Exports diversified and shifted to medium and high tech goods, with the industry becoming more capital and less labor intensive. Textiles exports declined in relative terms in the 1980s, replaced by consumer electronics, computers, and semi-conductors as lead exports. In 1983 , the first Hyundai cars were exported. By then, the country had become one of the largest shipbuilders and steel exporters in the world. Export markets also became more diversified, with less dependence on the United States. A serious problem was massive trade imbalances with the United States, still the biggest overseas market, which led to American pressure on the ROK to adopt a code of voluntary restraints on exports. Despite large trade surpluses with the United States, the South Korean economy continued to suffer from trade deficits as a whole. This was due partly to large imports of oil to fuel its heavy industry, although a drop in oil prices after 1982 helped somewhat. The ROK also suffered from huge trade deficits with Japan, which supplied Korean firms with capital equipment and industrial parts. South Korea, however, maintained its ability to work out technology transfer arrangements so that this dependency on imported technology diminished over time. Government-funded research centers such as the KIST, meanwhile, made impressive strides in promoting technological and scientific expertise. Gradually, the country expanded its trade with Southeast Asia, Europe, and, significantly, with China, after 1991 , when Seoul and Beijing opened trade offices in each other’s countries.

There was also a shift back in terms of attracting direct foreign investment and becoming less dependent on foreign borrowing. The country’s foreign debt rose from $2.2 billion in 1970 to $27.1 billion in 1980 . 25 It peaked at $47 billion in 1985 , but declined after that. 26 While the state reduced its foreign debt, however, corporate debt rose as the chaebŏls borrowed money to finance their expansion drive. To prevent overexpansion and needless duplication of investments the National Assembly passed a Chaebŏl Specialization Reform in 1993 . The top thirty chaebŏls had to list core industries that would be their focus. This, however, was not effectively implemented; the number of subsidiaries owned by the major chaebŏls actually increased by 10% between 1993 and 1996 . 27

From 1987 , economic development was impacted by democratization. That year the country held free and open elections for president, and the state lifted most political censorship, and many over of its controls over civil society ended or lessened. The administrations of the popularly elected presidents, former general Roh Tae Woo ( 1988–1993 ) and former opposition leader Kim Young Sam ( 1993–1998 ) did not possess recourse to the wide range of actions available to their predecessors. The era of strong-armed governments was over, and the economy had to contend with a newly empowered labor movement and a politically active middle class that now had a real input into policy-making processes. The years 1987 , 1988 , and 1989 saw widespread strikes and soaring membership in militant, non-government affiliated labor unions. Wages rose sharply in the late 1980s and early 1990s, in part due to the greater power of labor unions, the membership size of which increased approximately 15 percent a year. While benefitting millions of working class Koreans and increasing domestic purchasing power, wages from 1988 to 1996 rose much faster than productivity, threatening the competitiveness of Korean exports. Rising wages also contributed to inflation, leading to the appreciation of the won .

Democratization, likewise, brought about the end of some of the measures to control foreign exchange. For example, restrictions on foreign travel were ended in 1988 , resulting in a surge of overseas tourism by the new middle class. Importation of luxury foreign products increased. The state countered this by carrying out campaigns to avoid “excessive consumption,” in some cases threatening tax audits for those who bought goods such as luxury foreign cars. However, the overall rise of consumption in the 1990s was further aided by increasing pressure from the United States and the signatories of the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs to open its markets. It also proved harder to discipline the larger chaebŏls that became “too big to fail”—their bankruptcies now risked damaging the national economy. There was also increasing concern among the public about the crony capitalism involving bureaucrats and politicians. Bribery, kickbacks, secret political funds, and bank accounts by officials and businessmen under false names were very much a part of the South Korean system. By the early 1990s, the pervasive corruption in business and government not only offended the moral sensibilities of the public but was also seen as a hindrance to the nation’s transition into a modern, First World country. A series of scandals in the mid-1990s, involving all nine of the leading chaebŏls and their connections with former presidents Chun and Roh, brought to light the depth of crony capitalism. Nonetheless, the same patterns of alliance among big business, the bureaucracy, and the ruling government persisted.

In 1996 , South Korea became a member of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a thirty-member group of developed nations. Symbolically, South Korea had graduated from a developing country to the ranks of the wealthy developed nations. But it still faced many economic problems. South Koreans still worked among the longest hours of workers among the OECD nations, and the quality of life had not reached the levels of developed countries. Many South Korean companies had over-extended themselves, staying afloat only with low-interest loans from the state-controlled banks. The size of corporate debt reached frightening proportions when, in 1997 , the Asian financial crisis hit the country, requiring an international rescue package. Newly elected President Kim Dae Jung carried out a number of needed reforms, forcing chaebǒls to reduce subsidiaries in order to concentrate on the core businesses and reduce their debt-equity ratios, and he carried out measures to liberalize the labor market. The effects were immediate, with a brief near double-digit growth rate during 1999–2000 , and South Korea moved from a debtor to a creditor nation in just a few years. Unfortunately, the speedy recovery reduced the urgency for further needed reforms. The economy continued to be dominated by huge conglomerates with enormous economic and political influence. South Korea entered a period of slower growth after 2000 , although it was still fairly high compared to most OECD members.

By 2017 , the Republic of Korea had a global reputation for technological innovation, its GDP per capita was slightly above the EU average, and it ranked among the highest in the world in health standards and educational attainment. Yet it faced many challenges. China, which by 2004 had replaced the United States as South Korea’s largest trading partner, was a profitable market, but it was also becoming a formidable competitor. Unemployment, once negligible, was rising among both university and non-university graduates. The country had become a major exporter of entertainment, but other sectors of the service economy were underdeveloped. Many South Koreans feared that the domination of the economy by a few huge chaebǒls such as Lotte and Samsung (the latter the world’s third largest publically traded company by sales volume) was stifling many smaller start-ups and having too much influence on public policy. With one of the lowest birthrates and longest-lived population, it was facing an aging population, a shrinking workforce, and an inadequate social safety net. The country began importing immigrants, but it was difficult for such a highly homogeneous society to accept the challenges of multiculturalism. And there were concerns about air and water pollution and other environmental costs of its economic development. These were mostly the problems of a mature, prosperous, technologically advanced country, for by the second decade of the 21st century , that is what South Korea had become.

Discussion of the Literature

The so-called South Korean “economic miracle” has attracted considerable attention from students of economic development. Much of the literature, especially in the 1980s and 1990s, focused on explaining the reasons for the country’s successful development and drawing lessons for other developing nations. Some scholars have viewed South Korea’s economic growth as a product of a unique set of historical circumstances. These include the timing of its development—when there were fewer export-led economies to compete with—the openness of the U.S. market, the proximity of Japan at a time when the Japanese were seeking to move production to low cost countries, the rivalry with North Korea for legitimacy and the need to compete with it, and the relative lack of ethnic and sectarian strife in this homogenous society. 28

Some scholars have pointed to the importance of U.S. aid, technical assistance, and the presence of U.S. troops to guarantee security and assure foreign investors. From 1946 to 1976 , the United States provided $12.6 billion in economic assistance: only Israel and South Vietnam received more on a per-capita basis. 29 Korean immigrants also played some role; they provided a link to the American wig business, to name one industry. 30 Some historical studies have placed a great deal on the importance of Japan, providing some of the foundations during colonial rule and serving as a model to emulate.

South Korea’s economic development has often been examined within the context of the general rise of the Pacific Rim of Asia after 1950 , and particularly as one of the “four tigers” along with Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. It has been argued that they were developmental states , a term coined by Chalmers Johnson for postwar Japan—states that gave overwhelming priority to economic development. Researchers have also seen South Korea along with most of the other miracle economies as possessing a strong state capable of overriding vested interests. 31 The general interpretation is that South Korea inherited a powerful centralized bureaucracy and national police from the Japanese colonial administration, and that the security-minded American military occupation and the subsequent Syngman Rhee regime made use of these instruments to suppress leftist dissent and maintain internal security. After 1961 , military rulers further centralized authority and directed the state toward economic development. The state then was able to achieve autarky and impose its will on society. This argument appears most valid for the 1960s and 1970s, when the military government was able to exercise discipline over the business class and suppress labor movements. Just how strong the South Korea state was and how important the role of business, labor, and other interest groups were in shaping policy has been a matter of discussion. 32

Some Korean and Western writers tend to refer to the so-called “Confucian ethos” that contributed to the economic success of South Korea, along with that of Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. South Koreans came to attribute much of their success to these traditional values as well. By this, they mean hard work, discipline, respect for learning, frugality, and the importance of family, the emphasis on education, the high esteem in which civil servants were held that attracted talented technocrats to serve the state, and even to the willingness to delay gratification that resulted in the high savings rate that characterized the period of rapid economic growth. Yet, South Koreans possessed this “Confucian” heritage before 1961 , as did North Koreans. Many scholars found it necessary to look at specific development policies and historical contingencies to explain the economic transformation of South Korea, including the roles played by land reform, by educational development, and by the ways the country achieved technical transfers.

A great deal of attention has been paid in recent years to the social cost of economic development. The suppression of labor and political dissent, the authoritarian nature of the Park Chung Hee and Chun Doo Hwan regimes, and exploitation of cheap female labor have been cited among negative consequences of rapid economic development. Hundreds of thousand young women worked and lived in cramped company dormitories called “beehives,” for long hours and low wages. But by concentrating close together, often suffering from sexual assault by police, they often organized and resisted. In the 1970s and to the mid-1980s, women participated in labor unions and in labor strikes at a higher rate than male workers. The role of women in the labor force constitutes a burgeoning new field for scholars of Korean economy. 33 The labor force grew rapidly in the 1960s under Park’s drive for industrial development, but the workers were kept under tight restrictions. South Korea had a system of company unions relatively easy for large employers to control. Efforts to organize strikes were brutally repressed by the police. Corporate heads were quick to call upon riot police to break up demonstrations. They also employed thugs called kusadae (“save our company troops”) to beat up labor organizers, a practice that became common in the 1980s. 34 Working conditions were often appalling, with scant regard to safety and long hours. Working conditions began to improve in the 1980s and 1990s, and the workweek peaked at 54.5 hours in 1986 and was even into the 1990s the longest in the world. 35

A number of scholars have specifically examined the role of Park Chung Hee administration in promoting South Korean economic development. Some regard his authoritarian but disciplined and goal-oriented leadership as a key to the country’s economic take-off. Others have argued that he largely borrowed from the economic plans already drawn up by the democratically elected previous regime headed by Chang Myun, or that his heavy-handed policies were sometimes counter-productive. 36 Other scholarship has looked at the close cooperation between state and business, including the network of corruption that has plagued the country. The exact nature of the cooperation has been the subject of a number of studies. 37 Scholars continue to examine the concentration of the economy into a small number of family-owned and run chaebǒls .

Primary Sources

Bank of Korea . Economic Statistics Yearbook ( Kyǒngje t’onggye yǒnbo ). Seoul: Bank of Korea. Published annually in Korean and English since 1960 with a great deal of statistical data.
Korea Herald . Many articles and editorials on economic and social issues since 1953; tends to be pro-government.
Korea Times . Contains many articles and editorials on economic and social issues in Korea since 1950; sometimes critical of government policies.
Park, Chung Hee . The Country, The Revolution and I . Seoul, South Korea: Hollym Corporation, 1970. President Park Chung Hee’s justification for his rule. Worth reading for the insights it brings into the thinking and aims of his regime.
Republic of Korea, Economic Planning Board . Economic Statistical Yearbook ( Kyǒngje t’onggye yǒn’gam ) Seoul, South Korea: Economic Planning Board. Published annually from 1961, contains statistics and other factual data in Korean and English.
Republic of Korea, Korean Development Institute . Social Indicators in Korea . Seoul, South Korea: Korean Development Institute. Published annually since 1979 with many useful statistics on economic and social development.

A History of Korea: From Antiquity to the Present (review)

Donald Baker
Center for Korea Studies, University of Washington
Volume 17, Number 1, Spring 2012
pp. 210-214
10.1353/jks.2012.0010
View Citation

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The Oxford Handbook of South Korean Politics

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2 The History of Korea, 1905–1945

Hyung-Gu Lynn, AECL/KEPCO Chair in Korean Research, University of British Columbia and Editor, Pacific Affairs

Published: 08 December 2021
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This chapter provides an overview of key questions, issues, and debates in the scholarship on the political history of Korea from 1905 to 1945. Japan placed Korea in protectorate status in 1905 and colonized the country in 1910. After nearly forty years under colonial rule, the dominant narrative in the scholarship in South Korea from 1945 to the mid-1980s focused on Japanese colonial oppression and the Korean struggle against it to achieve national independence. The focus of this chapter is on subsequent approaches that have supplemented, qualified, challenged, and refined interpretations of this era. These include analysis of the causes behind the emergence of modern nationalism in Korea; the internal political polarization between left and right and the internal conflicts within each camp that formed the domestic foundations for the division of the Korean Peninsula after 1945; the bureaucratization that, according to some scholars, served as the template for the developmental state that emerged in South Korea during the 1960s; and the dissolution of absolute monarchy as a viable system of governance in the post-1945 period.

1. Introduction

The period of 1905–1945 in modern Korean history has had a long-lasting and outsized impact on the public memory in Korea. Post-1945 political leaders such as Rhee Syngman, the first president of South Korea, and Kim Il-sung, the first leader of North Korea, mined the period as a source of political legitimacy and public appeal by invoking their anti-Japanese, pro-independence activities overseas during these years. School textbooks in both Koreas continually reinforce a binary narrative pitting Japanese colonial oppression against Korean resistance and independence movements, while legal and political issues stemming from the period have plangent resonance in bilateral relations between South Korea and Japan in the 2020s, despite the decades that have passed since liberation in 1945, and the fact that normalised diplomatic relations between the two countries were established in 1965 ( Lynn 2000 ).

The dominant narrative in the scholarship, especially from 1945 to the mid-1980s, also focused on Japanese colonial oppression and the Korean struggle for national independence. While further documentation of independence movements and colonial atrocities remain essential areas of research, these have been supplemented by other approaches that have helped to generate additional depth, precision, and nuance. More specifically, historians have analysed the processes and the causes driving the formation or the expansion of modern Korean nationalism under the crucible of colonial rule; the intensification of fractures along the entire political spectrum; the socio-economic transformations and the emergence of a middle class during the 1930s; the implications of industrialisation, mobilisation, and militarisation that occurred from 1936 as lodestars for the array of economic planning and mobilisation, policies implemented in South Korea in the 1960s, the so-called developmental state; and the dissipation of monarchy as a sustainable form of government.

This chapter provides an analytical overview of the essential questions, issues, and debates about Korean politics from 1905 to 1945, a period during which Japan ruled over Korea as a protectorate (1905–1910) and as a colony (1910–1945). It is not intended to be an encyclopaedic or descriptive summary; rather, the aim is to highlight and examine major transformations that occurred during these years and their implications for the study of post-1945 politics.

Organised into five sections and a Conclusion after this Introduction, the chapter first outlines the implications of the Protectorate period (1905–1910) for the study of Korean politics, flagging in particular the interplay of domestic Korean modernisation efforts, imperialist jockeying for influence and control among international powers, and the impacts—or lack thereof—of major, unpredicted events and agency on Korean politics. Second, it covers the development of modern nationalism or the emergence of a collective Korean ethnic identity that encompassed, rather than superseded, other units of identity based on locale, region, class, clan, gender, and age. Third, it outlines the polarisation of politics between left and right and diversification within these categories. Fourth, it briefly assesses the attempts to trace the origins of the so-called development state of 1960s South Korea to economic planning of the colonial bureaucracy during the 1930s. Finally, the chapter addresses the emergence of republicanism and the waning of monarchy as desirable forms of government, before presenting a conclusion.

2. The Protectorate Period, 1905–1910

Japanese colonial rule of Korea officially started on 29 August 1910 with the public announcement of the Treaty of Annexation. Contemporary observers and later historians underscored the inevitability of imperialist expansion and the ineffectiveness of Korean efforts to modernise prior to 1910, but the pre-history of colonialism was in fact a complex interplay of international power politics, truncated domestic reforms, and major assassinations that raise questions about the relative importance of individual political actors relative to structural dynamics.

To be sure, imperialist ambitions and international politics did loom large over the period. From the mid-nineteenth century, Korea had been forced to wend its way between foreign powers, namely China, Japan, the United States, Britain, France, and Russia, competing for influence over it. Japan forced Korea to sign its first port-opening treaty in 1876 through gunboat diplomacy, while China held sway over the Korean Peninsula from 1885 until 1904 through its representative in Seoul, the Imperial Resident, Yuan Shikai ( Larsen 2008 ). The First Sino–Japanese War of 1894–1895 was fought largely over indirect control of Korea, paving the way for a period of Russo–Japanese competition. Increasing tensions over Korea and Manchuria prompted Japan to shore up its alliance with Britain (Anglo–Japanese Alliance Treaty of 1902) prior to the outbreak of the Russo–Japanese War of 1904–1905. Japan’s victory over Russia secured its control over Korea and recognised via the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth in September 1905, a process brokered by the United States. The importance of international politics can be gleaned from the fact that despite lobbying from Korean leaders, US President Theodore Roosevelt’s position on the Japanese protectorate in Korea was that there was really nothing to be done ( Duus 1998 ). The Eulsa Treaty of November 1905, with Japanese troops from the war still occupying Korea, officially rendered the country a protectorate of Japan, a dependent state granted a degree of internal administrative autonomy, but whose major foreign policy decisions were to be controlled by its ‘protector’ or suzerain state. The first Japanese Resident General was former Prime Minister Itō Hirobumi, apparently sealing Korea’s slide towards colonisation.

But a second major issue infusing the study of pre-1910 history is the extent and impact of domestic reforms launched by the Korean government prior to 1905. Historical accounts that focus on the machinations and jockeying of foreign powers can render Korea a marginal agent in its own history. Admittedly, numerous contemporary Western diplomats and missionaries were dismissive of the capacities of the Korean government in the early 1900s, but recent scholarship has shown that the modernisation efforts undertaken by the Korean King (Emperor after 1897), Gojong, were more comprehensive than previously depicted and that the Korean government made numerous attempts to invoke international law to prevent being colonised ( Yi 2000 ).

Korea became the Great Korean Empire in 1897, allowing Gojong to elevate himself from King to Emperor, not for reasons of ego, but in order to gain equal footing, at least technically, with the emperors of Japan and China under international law. More substantively, Gojong undertook a programme of modernisation, called the Gwangmu Reforms (1897–1905), that introduced new weapons for the Korean military and new regulations governing clothing and haircuts, and initiated the construction of infrastructural services, such as the expansion of the postal system, telephone and telegraph, electricity, water pipes, streetcars, trains, and public parks. In addition, grassroots organisations, such as An Chang-Ho’s Sinminhoe (New People Association) established in 1907, emerged in this period, propelled by the goal of increasing public access to education, medical facilities, and other social services ( Yu 1997 ).

Korea also attempted to use international law to counter the trajectory towards colonisation in the years prior to 1910. Gojong sent a trusted advisor, Hyeon Sanggeon, as early as 1903 to convince officials in France, the Netherlands, and Russia to recognise Korea’s perpetual neutrality, and declared his country’s neutrality under international law at the outbreak of the Russo–Japanese War in 1904. However, European governments and the two combatants in the war ignored Korea’s entreaties and filing. The Emperor also sent a letter to the Hague Conference of 1906 to again request support for Korea’s neutrality and sovereignty, and in 1907 sent three envoys to the Hague Peace Conference for that year to protest Japan’s violation of Korea’s sovereignty ( Jeon 2014 ). The Korean delegates were denied entry into the conference and Itō Hirobumi and his Korean Prime Minister, Yi Wanyong (whose name, much like that of Norwegian Nazi collaborator Vidkun Quisling, became synonymous with ‘traitor’ as he was the signatory to the Treaty of Annexation in 1910, which sealed Korea’s colonisation), forced Gojong to abdicate his throne in July of the same year ( Im 1993 ). Only five days after Gojong’s son Sunjong ascended to the Emperorship, Itō pushed through the Japan–Korea Treaty (also known as the Jeongmi Treaty), which transferred remaining governing powers to the Japanese Resident General, and thereby allowed him to dissolve the Korean army.

The attempt to use international law was not limited to the Korean government. From 1905 through to 1907, guerrilla forces known as the Righteous Armies ( Uibyeong ), joined after 1907 by former members of the Korean army, battled the Japanese army, despite being vastly outnumbered and outgunned. In 1908, one of the guerrilla leaders, Yi In-Yeong, applied to foreign embassies in Seoul for recognition as an army at war under international law, but this effort ended in vain. While armed resistance continued, peaking in 1908 with around 70,000 Koreans participating in 1,450 clashes, there was a dramatic decline after a sustained offensive by the Japanese in 1909 to stamp out insurgents ( Kang 2004 ).

A third area involves untying the Gordian knot of causality, motivations, and agency in the years 1905–1910. One challenge has been to recognise and study the full range of responses to colonisation among Koreans at a depth beyond the compilation of a catalogue of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ historical figures. If some of the guerrillas from the Righteous Armies made their way to Manchuria and the borderlands in the north to continue armed resistance, a minority of Korean organisations, such as the Iljinhoe , welcomed colonisation as a platform for equality and integration of Korea and Japan as a propellant for modernisation and as a bulwark against Western imperialism ( Moon 2013 ). Such Pan-Asianists and other prominent ‘pro-Japanese’ figures, such as Yi Wanyong, have been dismissed as rapacious and corrupt traitors that do not merit research, other than as objects of condemnation and vituperation, leaving their motivations relatively under-analysed. Another challenge has been the need to sift through the seemingly contradictory beliefs within each individual. For instance, while An Junggeun is widely celebrated as a national hero in contemporary South Korea for his assassination of Itō Hirobumi at the train station in Harbin, China in October 1909, the narrative requires some finessing to integrate the facts that while An was indeed angered by Japan’s exploitation of Korea, as outlined in his Fifteen-Point explanation for killing Itō, he was also a Pan-Asianist, who believed that China, Korea, and Japan had to unite to defeat Western imperialism. Further complicating matters is that some scholars underline the fact that Itō was not in favour of colonisation and sought to maintain a protectorate status against the wishes of rival politicians such as Yamagata Aritomo and the Japanese army, resulting in Itō resigning from the Residency General in April 1909 ( Moriyama 1987 ), while others argue that Itō acceded to colonisation plans in 1909 prior to stepping down from his post in Korea ( Ogawara 2010 ). Korean activists also assassinated a US advisor to the Japanese Residency General, Durham Stevens, in San Francisco in 1908, but the historical reality remains that the two assassinations did not prevent Korea’s colonisation. Considering the causes of Korea’s colonisation requires care and precision in order to avoid post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy; render assessments of the relative importance of individual political actors, agency, and single events against more cumulative structural dynamics in general; and analyse the more specific possibility that individuals such as Itō and Stevens may not have been such major players on the Korean political stage, at least by 1909, as depicted in textbook accounts.

3. Modern Nationalism

The question of when modern nationalism in Korea emerged is inextricably tied to the relative weight placed on the March First Movement of 1919. On 8 February 1919, Korean students in Tokyo, inspired in part by Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points speech in 1918 supporting the principle of national self-sovereignty and the sudden death of the former Emperor, Gojong, in January of the same year, read out loud a declaration of independence. On 1 March 1919, thirty-three leaders from various religions and denominations signed a declaration of independence in a restaurant, which in turn was read out loud by a student in Pagoda Park in Seoul, attracting large crowds. Gojong’s funeral, which was scheduled for 3 March, also drew large crowds that chanted for independence. Peaceful demonstrations rapidly spread throughout Korea, so that by May, nearly all corners of the Peninsula had demonstrations. Most experts agree that between one and two million people, young and old, students and workers, men and women, participated in the Movement, which lasted from March to the end of the year. The Government General responded with violence, leading to several massacres of unarmed civilians, mass arrests, torture, and subsequent international attention. One of the atrocities was the Jeamni massacre on 15 April 1919, in which villagers were herded into the local church, locked in, and burnt to death by Japanese military police. Despite the Government General’s attempts to cover up the massacre, the Canadian missionary Dr Frank W. Schofield was able to relay the information concerning the events to the international media ( Clark 1989 ).

There are three notable points of debate in research on the March First Movement. First, timing of the emergence of modern nationalism is a point of some dispute. While universally acknowledged as the largest mass demonstration for national independence in modern Korean history, some scholars view the March First Movement as a culmination of a grassroots nationalism that first emerged during the late nineteenth century, while others view it as evidence of a new, modern national identity that emerged after colonisation. Regardless of whether the spotlight is directed towards latent class consciousness evident from the nineteenth century, or a new twentieth-century anti-colonial collective identity, there is agreement among academics that the oppression under the initial years under Governors Terauchi Masatake (1910–1916) and Hasegawa Yoshimichi (1916–1919), a period labelled ‘Military Rule’, was a major causal factor in fuelling the development of modern Korean nationalism. The colonial state, renamed the Government General of Korea, used strict controls over economic activity, censorship of the press, heavy presence of military police, violence, and systematic imprisonment of any dissidents to establish colonial rule. In the notorious ‘105 Persons Incident’, the Government General arrested over 700 Korean Christians who were largely members of the aforementioned Sinminhoe for allegedly plotting to assassinate Terauchi. Despite public protests from Western Christian missionaries that the case had been entirely fabricated by the Government General, 105 people were sentenced during the trials held in 1912 (they were eventually given amnesty in 1915 due to international pressure; Kim 2016 ).

A second point of dispute has concerned the core causes of March First and, by proxy, modern nationalism. The mainstream historiography has stressed the combination of the oppressive nature of the Japanese colonial period from 1910 to 1919, widely circulating rumours to the effect that the former Emperor Gojong had been poisoned by the Japanese, and the catalytic effect of an external stimulus, in the form of Wilson’s Fourteen Points speech of 1918 in which the US president expressed support for the principle of self-sovereignty for the South ( Manzela 2007 ). In contrast, scholars hewing to a grassroots or people’s ( minjung in Korean) history perspective argue that the font of nationalism should be traced to peasant rebellions of the 1800s, in particular the Donghak Peasant Rebellion of 1894–1895. In the North Korean historiography, the external stimulus takes an alternative form, namely the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, which in this account inspired farmers and workers to rise up against the Japanese colonial overloads. Others, while keeping an eye on international contexts, trace the emergence of modern ethnic nationalism to the late nineteenth century, at least among intellectuals and political elites, as they grappled with the Social Darwinist conception of competition among races and states, in contrast to research which argues that the transition from regionalised forms of identity (e.g. provincial, city, village, etc.) to national ones occurred during the Military Rule period ( Kim 2010 ).

Third, even with the widespread acknowledgement of the significance of the March First Movement, there have been calls to diversify research on it beyond the tracing of the development of modern Korean nationalism and its impact on politics. There are at least three burgeoning areas of research in South Korean academia, fuelled in part by its hundredth anniversary of the March First Movement in 2019—local history, socio-economic contexts, and international connections. There has been an exponential growth in the number of local histories that map the ways in which the Movement spread to and manifested in towns and villages, as well as descriptions of the range of Japanese police response in these locales (e.g. Heo 2018 ). Studies of socio-economic factors as background conditions for the Movement have increased since the 2010s, pointing to the surge in production from the First World War boom, combined with stagnant wages and inflation as supplements to colonial oppression as the sources of resentment and alienation among the general Korean populace ( Pak 2014 ). On the international dimensions, researchers have investigated reactions and activities of individual Western missionaries, as well as the variances in views of foreign powers among the thirty-three original signatories who anticipated some form of support from Wilson (e.g. Choe Rin, Choe Namseon), as well as others who declined to participate (e.g. Yun Chi-ho) because they anticipated no actual support from any of the Western powers. Other studies have focused on concrete efforts to recruit foreign aid, such as the case of Yeo Un-hyeong, who met with Charles Crane, a close advisor to Wilson, in Shanghai during 1918 to push for US support of the Korean independence movement ( Jeong 2017 ). Historians have also scrutinised the tactical indifference of the United States during the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, where the Korean delegates’ efforts to gain the support of Western governments for Korean independence ended in vain, despite spending January to August in Paris ( Kim, S. 2009 ).

March First did not result in Korean independence, but it did prompt a major shift in Japanese colonial policy. The new Governor, Saitō Makoto (1921–1927; 1929–1931), appointed after an overhaul of the top positions within the Government General in the aftermath of the March First Movement, oversaw under the banner of ‘Cultural Rule’ the implementation of an array of policies that combined clearer incentives and indirect oppressions, for example allowing the publications of privately run Korean newspapers and periodicals, while at the same time strengthening censorship protocols ( Kang 1979 ). But the independence movement continued within Korea through the 1920s and 1930s, covering the spectrum from non-violent demonstrations to assassination attempts, everyday forms of resistance to advocacy via emerging mass media ( Sin 2005 ). In fact, Saitō was the target of a bombing attempt upon his arrival in Seoul in September 1919 and evaded several other attempts on his life through the 1920s.

At the same time, many Korean organisations refocused their activities to overseas advocacy or fighting guerrilla wars along the northern border, and there would not be a repeat of the scale of the March First Movement until liberation in 1945. This is not to say that there were no independence movements within Korea, but that mass demonstrations of similar scales did not occur. For instance, when Sunjong, Gojong’s successor, died in April 1926 and the funeral was scheduled for June of the same year, the Government General braced for a repeat of the March First Movement, mobilising some 7,000 troops into the Seoul area. Student activists did in fact coordinate with socialists to organise demonstrations for independence in what came be called the June 10th Movement, which resulted in around 1,000 people being imprisoned. In another case, from November 1929 to March 1930, student-organised demonstrations spread from the city of Gwangju throughout Korea, with an estimated 54,000 Koreans in 320 schools participating in what later became known as the Gwangju Student Independence Movement ( Yun 2010 ).

4. Political Polarisation and Diversification

Another major thread of research has scrutinised the political divisions that crystallised during the 1920s and 1930s as explanatory factors for the loss in momentum of the independence movement within Korea by the late 1930s and as the fountainhead for the post-1945 division of the Peninsula. Even if Cold War calculations and the physical presence of US troops in the South and Soviets in the North were the ostensible reasons, domestic divisions had laid the foundations for the post-liberation period. While acknowledging the impact of international forces and Cold War structures on the politics of the Peninsula, in-depth research that details the extent to which communism and socialism gained traction during the colonial period has helped to generate an understanding of the origins of the Korean War beyond simply a proxy war between the United States and China/Soviet Union ( Cumings 1981 ). Within the broad rubric of political polarisation and diversification, there are three intertwined scales and areas of research: the right–left relationship; fractures within each grouping; and the role of technology in politics.

The first area, right–left separation, has been the most densely researched, due in part to the convenient linkages to the division of the Peninsula. The inability to generate support from foreign governments despite the massive scale and scope of the March First Movement presented several choices among activists: an exodus from Korea to focus on independence activities from overseas locales; working within the incentive structures of Cultural Rule and weighing the possibility of advocating for self-rule, rather than independence, as a first step; enduring institutionalised discrimination; or exploring alternative ideologies such as socialism, communism, and anarchism. The 1920s witnessed the rapid growth of socialism, communism, and anarchism among intellectuals and students through underground publications and organisations, as well as through classrooms for Korean students in Japan and Comintern (Communist International) meetings for those in the Soviet Union and China. Moreover, the Comintern also initially encouraged communists in East Asia to embrace anti-colonial nationalism and social projects in order to generate support and momentum, allowing for cooperation with ‘revolutionary’ religious organisations ( Tikhonov 2017 ). Thus, within Korea, when the industrialist Kim Seongsu, who founded the Korean daily newspaper Donga Ilbo in 1920, helped launch the Korean Goods Promotion Movement in 1923, communists and socialists were highly critical, labelling it a co-option of the independence movement by profiteering bourgeoise. Yet at the same time, leftists continued to cooperate with a minority of Christians and Buddhists who were sympathetic to their social action agendas. The period of relative pragmatism ended when, after multiple attempts at establishing a party that were extinguished by the colonial police, the Korean Communist Party was officially launched in 1925. This widened political rifts as the Comintern, which had begun taking a more radical turn, urged the newly established party to view the March First Movement as a ‘failed bourgeoise revolution’ and to take an explicitly anti-religious stance, particularly against Christianity ( Sin 2019 ).

The second field of internal disputes has been studied on a more fine-grained scale. Despite the polarisations noted above, an organisation that presented a unified front of left and right, the Singanhoe (New Root/Trunk Society) operated within Korea from 1927 to 1931, alongside a sister organisation for women, the Geunuhoe . Some of its left-leaning members supported the Wonsan General Strike of 1929 that brought the city to a halt, and also triggered subsequent work stoppages in other cities throughout Korea. This in turn triggered intensified police crackdowns and arrests of leftist Singanhoe members, while those who had kept themselves at a distance from the Strike were not subject to overt harassment ( Yi 1993 ).

In addition to police repression, internal disputes over ideology and tactics also diluted the group’s cohesion. The Comintern retracted its recognition of the Korean Communist Party in 1928, citing its ‘reformist’ tendencies to compromise ideals, which in turn amplified divisions among factions within the socialist and communist camps based on their willingness to continue in the united front or not. The Geunuhoe split from the Singanhoe and ultimately dissolved due to a fallout between the Christian and socialist factions, and the constant marginalisation by male colleagues ( Jang 2019 ). Division in the anarcho–communist camp and subsequent conflicts between these two groups accelerated the evaporation of cohesion in the left. Within the nationalist or bourgeoise groups, left and right divisions emerged, centred on the issue of whether or not to pursue colonial self-rule (based in large part on the Home Rule debates in Britain regarding Ireland) as an intermediary step towards long-term independence ( Pak 1992 ).

Third, the print and communications technologies, the medium by which the ‘imagined community’ of the nation state was formed ( Anderson 1983 ), had a double function in colonial Korea. On the one hand, the diffusion of print, and to a lesser extent, radio and film, helped to diffuse a standardised version of Korean identity and language. Two Korean-language daily newspapers were established in 1920, while numerous other magazines and periodicals were also published during the decade. Radio was introduced to Korea in 1927, with the broadcasts of one station using both Japanese and Korean languages. A dedicated Korean-language station was added in 1933. While all media were under strict censorship, which was particularly stringent on references to Marxism and communism, and on radio, their diffusion has been central to the notion of ‘colonial modernity’, the emergence of various forms of modernity under colonial conditions ( Shin and Robinson 1999 ). On the other hand, print forums became increasingly focused or segregated, resulting in magazines that were affiliated with commercial print, socialism, socialism, or labour associations. For example, communist publications persisted largely underground and discrete from the mainstream due to the legal restrictions.

Governor Minami Jirō (1936–1942) implemented an array of wartime mobilisation policies, resulting in coerced assimilation policies and increased oppression that sharpened the divide not only between left and right, but also between those who remained in Korea and those who moved overseas. Bans on the use of Korean in public places such as schools and government offices, enforced name change policy, discouragement of the wearing of traditional white clothing, the drafting of Korean youths into the Japanese Imperial army, the mobilisation of women and men into labour corps for munitions factories and mines, the closure of privately run Korean-language daily newspapers in 1940, and the implementations of the notorious ‘comfort women’ system were just some of the policies that had lasting and traumatic impacts on collective memory ( Higuchi 2001 ). In addition, state-controlled Korean-language publications featured writings exhorting Koreans to contribute to the war effort by public figures who had previously been leaders of the centrist or bourgeoise independence and women’s movements (e.g. Yi Gwangsu, Yun Chi-ho, and Kim Hwallan/Helen). At the same time, the police engaged in divide-and-conquer tactics, simply imprisoning and torturing some communists and socialists, while ‘converting’ others to issue public apostasies of left-wing ideologies.

The complex imbrications of ideologies, tactics, gender, class, and apostasy were bundled under a narrative emphasising unified Korean opposition to Japanese colonial rule in post-1945 South Korea, obscuring the issue of who exactly was a collaborator or not. The South Korean government did hold a series of trials in 1948–1949 to judge those who had collaborated with the Japanese colonial rulers. However, due to Syngman Rhee prioritising anti-communism and bureaucratic utility over truth and reconciliation, none of those charged served their sentences; and yet, communism remains illegal in twenty-first-century South Korea. In North Korea, the government undertook a more extensive liquidation of ‘collaborator’ assets to expedite the process of entirely abolishing private ownership of land ( Kim 2013 ).

5. Developmental State

When the South Korean economy was struggling in the 1950s, seemingly perpetually dependent on US aid, many observers pointed to period of 1905–1945 as having truncated economic development and growth. When the frame switched in the 1980s to explaining the sources of South Korea’s ‘Miracle on the Han’, revisionist scholars pointed to the state-directed colonial period economy as the wellspring for capitalist development via the effectiveness of the colonial state’s industrial policies; the provision of opportunities for entrepreneurial experience in a market economy; and the consequent growth in human capital ( Woo-Cumings 1999 ). The concept of ‘colonial modernisation’ as an alternative to ‘colonial exploitation’ has been debated intensively in South Korea, in part due to the largely overlooked fact that the arguments for colonial modernisation or the Government General as genesis of the developmental state echo reports published in 1946 by Suzuki Takeo, a Japanese economist who had been a professor at Keijo [Seoul] Imperial University from 1928, who had been commissioned by the Japanese Foreign Ministry. The debates have centred on whether increases in production occurred and in what specific industries, who profited from the secular increases in output, whether Koreans who were not collaborators benefitted, and the causal mechanisms behind this development and growth. As a result, a steady stream of empirical, conceptual, and didactic research and commentary has been produced on the political economy of the period in Korean and Japanese, in contrast to the sporadic scale and scope of output on the subject in English.

The colonial state was undoubtedly interventionist in social, economic, and political arenas. Governor Ugaki Kazushige (1927; 1931–1936) explicitly prioritised industrial and agricultural growth in the 1930s; the statistics indicate significant growth in manufacturing and heavy industries during this decade. Campaigns to promote primary industries, such as the 1931 slogan promising ‘sheep in the north and cotton in the south’ accompanied increased investment into manufacturing and heavy industries from Japanese conglomerates. Large-scale, capital-intensive industry conglomerated in the northern regions of Korea in the form of mining operations, hydroelectric dams, and chemical industries, with the city of Hamhung becoming home to one of the largest fertiliser factories in the world during the 1930s ( Kang 1985 ). However, whether the economic development and growth can be attributed to effective planning by a group of uber-bureaucrats appears less clear than much of the developmental state literature seems to assume.

The first issue is that economic development had multiple actors, not just the colonial state. Even in the 1920s, Korean, Chinese, and Japanese labourers, Japanese conglomerates based in Tokyo, Korean entrepreneurs, and Japanese settlers who operated small-to-medium firms held a diverse range of rights and interests. This resulted in cases where Japanese entrepreneurs wanted more Government General promotion of specific industries, yet also demanded protection of their rights against Korean competition ( Uchida 2011 ). Moreover, some Korean-operated textile firms, such as the Kyeongseong Spinning, using cotton and wool produced in the southern parts of the colony, grew in the 1920s and 1930s during a time when the Government General was more focused on agricultural projects, such as the Rice Production Increase Plan in Korea that ran from 1925 to 1934.

Second, publications in English have been sparse on specifics in terms of institutions and individuals responsible for the economic planning in the Government General. The overwhelming majority of substantive studies on colonial decision-making and policy implementation processes have been published in Japanese and Korean ( Jang 2007 ; Yi 2013 ). Therefore, there is a keen need for more precise, in-depth research published in English on the workings of the Government General in terms of personnel continuity and decision-making processes to assess whether origins of the developmental state can be traced to the colonial period.

Third, logically, the years between 1945 (the end of Japanese colonial rule) and 1962, when the South Korean President Park Chung-hee launched his First Five-Year Plan, need to be analysed to mount a persuasive case that the colonial state was the prototype of the developmental state. Indeed, Korean-language scholarship has seen an increase in the number of studies on capital accumulation, the impact of aid, economic plans and planning, and multiple other dimensions of state and private-sector economic activity in the 1950s ( Yi 2012 ). In addition, there are promising avenues that focus on the lasting legacies of the colonial period transmitted through individual experiences imprinted into key individuals such as Park Chung-hee ( Eckert 2016 ) that might allow for less emphasis on direct bureaucratic continuity and more focus on human capital.

A similar chronological jump also allows for assertions of continuities between the colonial period and North Korea’s economic plans of the 1950s and 1960s without any examination of the specific institutions, economic theories, or individuals (e.g. Choe Yonggeon, allegedly the architect of the country’s economic plans) who were essential to its operations during the 1950s and the 1960s. Details on internal debates, primary policy challenges, and changes over time over this period (e.g. gradual constriction of private enterprises that occurred in the 1950s; disputes between agriculture first and heavy industry first factions) have been elucidated in numerous publications in Korean ( Yi 2004 ). A loose parallel to the human capital or imprinting approach for North Korea is the view of the country as a ‘guerrilla state’, in which organisational structures, strategies, and tactics of the country mirror through direct memory and experience those of the Korean guerrilla units that fought against the Japanese army during the colonial period ( Wada 1998 ). The fact that North Korea’s economy plateaued in the mid-1970s also remains largely unaddressed in the attempts to apply the colonial developmental state model to North Korea’s economic planning during the 1960s, triggering interesting questions about the half-life of the colonial developmental state and the limited utility of using continuity or path dependence as an analytical tool.

6. Monarchy to Republic

One area of emerging research is the question of when and how the monarchy ended and republicanism began in Korea. If the transition from monarchy to republic in a recent case such as Nepal occurred only after a brutal ten-year civil war (1996–2006), the process for Korea was less clear and more protracted. When South Korea was ruled by a string of strongmen, such as Syngman Rhee during the 1950s, and Park Chung-hee in the 1960s and 1970s, several social scientists asserted that the colonial period was an interregnum that restricted access to meaningful political participation for Koreans, and thereby disabled the growth of democracy. The empirical evidence paints a more complex picture: there were Koreans appointed as provincial governors, one served a term as Education Bureau Director in the Government General (roughly the equivalent of a Cabinet minister), others were employed in large numbers in the Government General (albeit generally around half the total of the Japanese officials and concentrated in the lower ranks, with lower wages), and one former gangster employed by the colonial police to break up labour union meetings, Pak Chungeum, who made his way to Japan and was eventually elected to the Imperial Diet in 1932 and 1937 ( Matsuda 1995 ).

The genealogical pursuit of the origins of republicanism has gravitated around the activities and limits of the Provisional Government of the Republic Korea, which was established in Shanghai on 11 April 1919 as a conglomeration of several Korean political organisations in exile. Detailed studies of its activities and internal tensions, such as the reasons why the first president of the Provisional Government, Syngman Rhee, was impeached in 1925 and why prominent figures such as Sin Chaeho left it to pursue writing and anarchism after repeated disagreements with Rhee about ideology and political tactics have been increasing in number ( Seo 2012 ). Other works have focused on the Provisional Government’s efforts to organise armed battles against Japan in China, the carrying out of assassination plans against Japanese officials, and the activities of Kim Gu, who was the President from 1927 on, lobbying efforts in the international political arena, among other subjects.

More conceptually, there has been a continuing debate as to whether March First signalled the beginning of republicanism rather than 1926, 1945, or 1948, given that the demonstrators chanted for independence rather than mourned Gojong’s death, and the fact that the Provisional Government was inspirited in large part by the scale and the scope of the movement in Korea ( Yi 2019 ). Close readings of the Provisional Government’s Constitution, the explicit reference in its name to ‘republic’ and its other texts have been parsed by scholars as origins for the Republic of Korea (South Korea). This argument is complicated by the relative paucity of research on the so-called Yi Gang incident, when Gojong’s fifth son, Yi Gang, attempted to join the Provisional Government in Shanghai but was caught in Dandong in 1919 and returned to Korea by the colonial police. Nonetheless, available records indicate that debates between republicans and monarchists lasted intermittently into the late 1920s ( Pak 2007 ).

The end of monarchy in de jure terms occurred when Japan colonised Korea in 1910 (although there is as yet unresolved debate among historians and law specialists concerning the legality of the 1910 Treaty), but a subject that has been relatively understudied is the process of how monarchy as a form of governance and the Korean Imperial family as possible leaders within it faded from elite and public perception. In de jure terms, the Korean royal family was incorporated into the Japanese Imperial Household system in 1910, with Sunjong demoted from emperor to a king and confined to one of the royal palaces in Seoul until his death in 1926 ( Shinjō 2015 ). In de facto terms, Gojong’s forced abdication in 1907 and death in 1919 very likely marked the end of monarchy as a viable form of government, even after liberation.

Since Sunjong did not have any offspring, the next in line within the Korean Imperial family was Yi Eun, one of Sunjong’s younger half-brothers. Yi Eun had been taken to Japan at the age of seven in 1907 by Itō Hirobumi ( Kim, C. 2009 ). In 1920, he was married to Princess Nashimoto Masako (later known as Yi Bangja/Pangja, a Korean reading of her name), a first cousin of the wife of the Show Emperor, Empress Kōjun, as a part of a series of orchestrated marriages between Korean and Japanese royals designed to symbolise the integration of the colony. The couple visited Korea with their newborn son, Yi Jin, in April 1922, to considerable media coverage. But the baby suddenly died in May, sparking rumours that Jin had been poisoned by Korean activists. The couple did not visit Korea when their second son, Yi Gu, was born in 1931. Other members of the Korean Imperial family, such as Princess Deokhye and Yi Gang also faded from public view during the 1930s. After liberation, South Korean newspapers contained only sporadic mentions of Yi Eun and his family’s woes (he lost his royal status and nationality under the new Japanese Constitution in 1947 and was forced to sell the family’s home in 1952).

Syngman Rhee, according to several accounts, feared the return of the monarchy, and thus refused repeated requests from Yi Eun and his family to return to the country. Rhee did meet with Yi Eun in Tokyo in 1950 during an official visit to meet Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers in East Asia, but declined to allow Yi to enter Korea in 1960. It was only in 1963 under Park Chung-hee that Yi Eun and Bangja were allowed to return to South Korea ( Yi 1973 ).

7. Conclusion

Intense debates continue to roil around the extent, nature, impact, and legacy of the various changes that occurred during 1905–1945. Even in areas of apparent agreement, there are noticeable differences. March First is a major national holiday in twenty-first-century South Korea, while in North Korea, it is commemorated, in large part as Kim Il-sung in the official history is said to have participated in the event as an eight-year-old, but is not a national holiday. The difference in degrees of celebration is rooted in the fact that the North Korean state narrative places far greater weight on the role of Kim Il-sung and his guerrilla resistance during the 1930s and 1940s against the Japanese army, and highlights that the lessons learnt from March First were not just the abiding power of modern ethnic nationalism and collective demonstrations pace South Korea, but the futility of peaceful resistance and the need for a strong individual leader to serve as a vanguard for liberation and revolution.

Manichean contrasts between idealised independence movements and relentlessly menacing Japanese colonial state had a clear instrumentalist role to play in post-1945 South and North Korea. Consolidating the national identities in the two new countries was an urgent task, one that required sweeping narratives that accented the ineluctable rise of independence movements, whether infused by communism or liberalism, and shunting aside more complex and vexing nuances of the colonial period. Older historiography generally hewed closely to the anti-communist nationalism of the South, and the anti-imperialist communism of the North. Starting in the mid-1980s, concordant with South Korea’s democratisation in 1987, a wider range of approaches on Korea’s colonial period appeared in the South, including those that re-examined the roots of Korea’s modern ethnic nationalism, centred around interpretations of the March First Movement of 1919; the dynamics and implications of political polarisation between the left and right and further fragmentation with each camp that materialised during the 1920s; the short-term and long-term implications of economic development and growth in the 1930s that, according to some writers, served as the template for the developmental state that emerged in South Korea during the 1960s; and the dissolution of absolute monarchy and the rise or republicanism as a desirable system of governance for a liberated Korea.

Even then, there remain several areas of elision and lacuna, some of which have been identified in this chapter. More importantly, the years 1905–1945, despite the dominating presence of colonialism, contain complex processes that cannot be merely celebrated or demonised, or wholly captured by analyses that rely on monocausal explanations, ex post facto vituperations, and essentialised categories of nation or race. Further research that delves into archival sources to develop robust foundations of empirical sources, displays a firm command of the salient scholarship in at least three languages (Korean, Japanese, and English), and engages with and applies theoretical frames with depth and precision will be essential for strengthening our understanding of, and ability to navigate, this period in Korea’s political history.

*All Korean-language titles and author names have been rendered in Revised Romanization system, rather than the authors’ preferred versions, with the exception of common variants for personal names (e.g. Kim, Pak) and places (e.g. Seoul). All Japanese names and titles have Romanized using the Revised Hepburn system, with the exception of commonly used place names (e.g. Tokyo).

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NATURE INDEX
27 May 2020
Correction 02 June 2020

How South Korea made itself a global innovation leader

Leigh Dayton 0

Leigh Dayton is science and innovation writer based in Sydney, Australia.

You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

South Korea is a global leader in information and communication technologies. Credit: Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images

South Korea’s position as one of the world’s most innovative nations is a remarkable achievement considering that, for the first half of the twentieth century, it was an agrarian-based Japanese colony, then a battle ground.

It is second only to Germany in Bloomberg’s 2020 Innovation Index, having reigned at the top of the 60-country list for the previous 5 years. In the separate 2019 Global Innovation Index, published by Cornell University, INSEAD and the World Intellectual Property Organization, South Korea is at number 11 and Germany is in 9th place among the 129 countries ranked.

Both indices highlight South Korea’s outstanding performance in research and development (R&D) intensity, an indicator based on R&D investment by government and industry and the number of researchers working in and between both sectors. For example, South Korea had the greatest share of researchers who moved from industry to academia in 2017 to 2019 among 71 countries, data from academic recruitment firm, League of Scholars, show.

Top-down success

The high R&D intensity that helped South Korea become a global leader in information and communication technologies has emerged from a historically ‘top-down’ innovation system that promotes “close collaboration between government, industry, and the academic community in the process of nation building”, says Tim Mazzarol from the University of Western Australia in Perth, who specializes in innovation and entrepreneurship.

Nature Index 2020 South Korea

President Park Chung-hee drove South Korea’s economic development between 1961, when he took power in a military coup, until 1979, when he was assassinated. Park shifted the economy from its post-war dependence on technology imports and the construction of industrial facilities by foreign companies to focus on home-grown labour-intensive industries, such as clothing and textiles. Crucially, strong support for R&D was central to his first Five-Year Economic Development Plan in 1962 and manifest in his establishment of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) in 1966, and the Ministry of Science and Technology the following year.

These instruments supported the emergence of large industrial groups called chaebols, which were owned and controlled by South Korean individuals or families. The government pushed the chaebols to invest heavily in R&D while shielding them from competition. With increased R&D intensity that focused on applied knowledge, chaebols such as LG, Lotte and Samsung were driven towards new heavy industries, including petrochemicals, car manufacturing and shipbuilding, as well as consumer electronics.

Histogram comparing R&D spend as a percentage of GDP for leading nations

Sources: Nature Index; OECD Gross domestic spending on R&D (indicator) https://doi.org/10.1787/d8b068b4-en (Accessed 8 May 2020)

Samsung — the classic chaebol

Samsung is a case in point. The company that started life as a grocery trader in 1938 is now South Korea’s largest chaebol, operating in industries as diverse as electronics, insurance, construction and shipbuilding. In 2018, it produced roughly 15% of the nation’s gross domestic product.

Its founder, Lee Byung Chul, with help from government protectionist policies, expanded into textiles after the Korean War, electronics in the 1960s, then heavy industries, aerospace and computing during the 1970s and early 1980s. By the 1990s and 2000s, Samsung was a world leader in tablets and mobiles, and in the design and manufacture of computer chips. The company is South Korea’s leading corporate institution in the Nature Index by far, based on contributions to research articles published in the 82 high-quality natural science journals tracked by the Index. With a Share of 10.36 in 2019, it ranked 28th among the country’s institutions overall, eclipsing its nearest rival in the corporate ranks, LG, which had a Share of 1.99. Samsung also features in each of South Korea’s nine leading corporate-academic collaborative pairs in the Nature Index.

The most productive pairing is with Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) in Seoul, with 159 joint articles between 2015 and 2019. Their collaboration is particularly strong in electrochemistry and the development of new energy sources such as lithium-ion batteries ( J. K. Shon et al. Nature Commun . 7 , 11049; 2016 ). Other partnerships include Seoul National University in Seoul, (41 articles) and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in Daejeon (35 articles).

Samsung’s top ten

Samsung Group’s top ten collaborating academic partners on articles in the Nature Index journals are split between United States and domestic institutions. Here they are ranked by bilateral collaboration score (CS), 2015–19. CS is derived by summing each institution’s Share on the papers to which authors from both have contributed.

*Count = Article count

Investing in the future

Park’s successors continued to promote research and innovation as the driver of national economic and social advance. Government and industry investment in R&D soared, and basic-research capabilities were expanded. By the mid-1980s and early 1990s the government’s attention had shifted to high-tech industries such as semiconductor design and manufacture. For instance, in 1971 it founded KAIST, which remains a leading national research university (see ‘Manipulating brains with smartphones’).

Manipulating brains with smartphones

A team of researchers at KAIST — not to be confused with the KIST, with which it was initially integrated — has fulfilled a dream of neuroscientists worldwide.

Working with colleagues at the University of Washington in Seattle, they have built a novel device capable of remotely controlling the brain circuitry of mice, via a smartphone. It is the first wireless neural device that can continuously deliver multiple drugs and coloured light beams to control brain circuits. Until now, researchers needed rigid metal tubes and optical fibres to accomplish the task.

The device could speed up the study of diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, addiction, depression and pain, says team leader and electrical engineer, Jeong Jae-Woong. Weighing 2 grams, it uses LEGO-like replaceable drug cartridges, a probe the thickness of a human hair, and powerful, low-energy Bluetooth to deliver the drugs and light, which turn neurones on or off without hurting the rodents. This ‘plug-and-play’ interface was the major challenge, Jeong says.

After two years of laboratory and animal trials, the proof-of-concept paper was published in Nature Biomedical Engineering ( R. Qazi et al. Nature Biomed. Eng. 3 , 655–669; 2019 ) by the team of neuroscientists and engineers from electrical, mechanical and software backgrounds. Jeong plans to commercialize the device and technology.

Targeted nation-building programmes were also established. In 1995, for example, the government began a US$1.5-billion, ten-year plan to build up the national broadband infrastructure and provide public programmes about maximizing its use.

The 1997 Asian Financial Crisis prompted many chaebols to shift from the reliance on low-value added exports characteristic of a ‘tiger’ economy towards technology and knowledge-intensive products and services such as semiconductors, mobile phones and mobile applications.

Working with chaebols, the government began developing regional innovation centres such as Gyeonggi, an area of nearly 13 million people surrounding Seoul, which is now regarded as the nation’s economic and innovative powerhouse.

The centre brought industry R&D and production infrastructure together with local and national universities and research facilities. For instance, the Gyeonggi-based Samsung Electronics, Samsung’s flagship subsidiary, is collaborating with SKKU Chemistry to develop a semiconductor material that can reduce the amount of radiation exposure while taking medical X-ray images. By 2010, South Korea had 105 regional innovation centres and 18 techno-parks, as well as 7 federal programmes to strengthen the competitiveness of industrial cluster programmes.

Although government funding continued to promote R&D spending and programmes to boost translational development and scientific, engineering and managerial expertise, the weight of major investment in R&D shifted to the corporate sector in search of patents and profits. Private R&D spending accounted for nearly 80% of South Korea’s total R&D spending in 2019, ahead of leading innovative nations such as Germany, Sweden and Switzerland, at 70%. The shift was supported by R&D tax incentives and importation of foreign technology.

Graphic illustrating the movement of reserachers between industry and academia for several nations

Source: League of Scholars

The new breed

In the 2010s, small to medium-sized businesses in biotechnology, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, and broadband-based firms began to emerge. Founded by a new generation of entrepreneurs, they were backed by government funding and supported by the national technological infrastructure.

Woowa Brothers is one example, among many, of the strategy’s success. The Seoul-based 2010 start-up exploited the national broadband to build a mobile food-delivery application connecting restaurants, customers and riders.

In December 2018, Woowa joined the ‘unicorn’ club — a rare status denoting a privately held start-up valued at more than US$1 billion — with investment from national and international venture-capital sources. In December 2019, Germany’s Delivery Hero bought the company in a $4-billion deal that will see co-founder and chief executive, Kim Bong Jin, manage the Asian business, including South Korea, Vietnam and Hong Kong. A delivery robot, self-driving technology and an online customer and revenue-management system for restaurants are in development.

The South Korean government’s systematic approach has been the crucial factor in creating an innovative economy adept at turning ideas from laboratories into products and industries. Martin Hemmert, an expert in east Asian innovation systems, at Korea University, adds that the cultural mindset evident in South Korea helps. “Complacency is not on the cards. The glass is always half empty,” he says.

Even so, as Mazzarol concludes: “It’s a miracle when you consider where Korea was.”

Nature 581 , S54-S56 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-01466-7

This article is part of Nature Index 2020 South Korea , an editorially independent supplement. Advertisers have no influence over the content.

Updates & Corrections

Correction 02 June 2020 : This article originally gave the incorrect founding date for KAIST. It was founded in 1971, not 1981. The article has now been corrected.

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Economic History of South Korea Research Paper

Introduction, economic history of south korea, economic philosophies of south korea & influential economists, important economic events that took place in the history of south korea, economic policy that south korea follows and its reason, suggested changes, necessity and way of implementation, does south korea follow its own economic policies/ philosophies, historical shape of sk economy, other internal & external influences, works cited.

This research paper concentrates on economic history of South Korea including economic philosophies, important economic events, Asian financial crisis, economic relationship between South Korea and the United States, increased economic integration with China, recent economic development, foreign direct invest, and so on.

Harvie and Mosayeb (3) and Indexmundi (1) pointed out that South Korea was one of the poorest countries in the globe in 1952 though it experienced slow economic growth from the middle of 1950s, but the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita of this country was comparable with African and Asian developing countries.

In addition, Harvie and Mosayeb (3) stated that the economy of this country was heavily reliant upon assistance from the USA though the government concentrated more on the investment in education to develop skilled labor force and help the country achieving an implausible record of growth and global integration to become a high-tech and largely industrialized regime.

After liberation from Japan’s colonial rule, North Korea had mainly maintained trade relation with socialist countries and faced financial hardship after collapse of the Communist; on the other hand, South Korea had joined the trillion-dollar club of world economies due to inspiring economic growth by promoting indigenous industrial firms and maintaining good trade relationship with the USA (Indexmundi 1).

However, Harvie and Mosayeb (3) stated that the establishment of growth and development strategy (1962 to 1971) played a vital role to develop national economy to achieve the status of NIC and the implementation of this strategy influenced government, banks and investors to develop relationship with entrepreneurs to use properly the foreign direct investment and other funds in industrial sectors.

According to the view of Harvie and Mosayeb (3), growth strategy was successful because the average annual growth rate increased by 4.4%, per capita boosted by $204 and exports increased by $1092 million from 1962 to 1971.

They further added that this country had faced a number of economic challenges in 1970s because of sectoral imbalance between light and heavy industrial segments, introduction of HCI promotion strategy, loophole in the export oriented industrialization program, mismanagement and lack of confidence in top-management, and falling exports from this country.

However, the economic growth slowed from 1976 to 1978 due to reduction of export, oil price hike, domestic political crisis, and instability in labor market though the government saved the national economy by taking effective measure in 1890s, for instance, new government concentrated on the economic stabilization and liberalization by opening market, promoting small companies and restructuring integrated trade policy.

Ciobanu and Ciulu (2) argued that the economic philosophy that majority of South Koreans follow is the Walrasian Equilibrium, the economic theory that amalgamates as:

Without emphasizing the conceptual framework of lucrative economic balance;
It is more essential to inspire imbalances caused for economic development and growth while a stagnation balance would involuntarily arrive.

Without any doubt, under capitalism, such economic philosophy looks like an essential factor that entails within an extended area as a common feature of progression of human race and majority of South Korean economic actors have aligned with this philosophy.

Although in real life practice, the Walrasian equilibrium has evidenced as a vulgarized form of economic philosophy and applied impudently in the disturbed or imbalanced development and failed to prove its efficiencies, but carried irrevocable imbalance.

Due to integration of such economic philosophies, the South Korean economy has shaped in a complex nature by unpredictable growth policy linking with a selection of growth driven economic forces with random temperament of assorted factors those seriously effects on the market without any indication.

The economic philosophies of Debreu, the Nobel economist of 1983, also has a greater influence in the South Korean economy who kept his efforts to bring balance under the limited resources, the over-demand has treated as the gap of net demand along with overall resources, the net demand has pointed out by the gaps of consumption and production.

Debreu argued that in the market while the net demand would be equal to the total resources, then the over-demand tends to zero and the market would gain perfect equilibrium and it is essential for the South Korean economy to overcome dependency on the external factors.

Ciobanu and Ciulu (3) also added that the economist Boltzmann’s philosophy has some influence in the South Korean economy where the parameters characterize the system setting with realistically unevenness with the aim to make certain that the economy has gained highest degree of growth.

The economy of South Korean has fashioned with a command system, where the state functions as a decision-maker, allocates financial capital and controls over the consumption of natural resources without influencing the market; thus, it may categorize as a partially centralized economy, but the corporations enjoy full autonomy balancing with external and internal variables.

The position of this country in the period of 1960s and 1980s has already discussed in section of economic history of South Korea; however, this part concentrates more on the position of this country on Asian financial crisis in 1997, the role of IMF and economic reforms, Inter-Korean Economic Relations and so on.

Asian Financial crisis in 1997

Manyin (6) expressed that economic crisis in 1997 was an influential event in the country’s history; conversely, Indexmundi (1) stated that economic downturn of 1997-98 exposed venerable weaknesses in South Korea’s growth model including high debt/equity ratios along with massive short-term foreign borrowing because of investors lost confidence in the economy and capital fled.

In addition, Indexmundi (1) reported that GDP plunged by 6.7% in 1998, which was one of the most influential factors of national economy as this country entered into a severe recession because of GDP reduction; however, the following figure demonstrates the actual condition of economy in 1998 –

On the other hand, Manyin (7) pointed out that Asian financial crisis created unemployment problem along with increase in the real interest rates because of the rise in the inflation rate, which was influenced the government to take loan and other financial support from International Monetary Fund.

However, this crisis created negative impression among many South Koreans about the US trade policy and the role of IMF, as many actions of IMF was contentious, for instance, asking high interest-rate to recover was notorious (60% paid-up interest rate), which is comparatively higher in normal financial situation; thus, this economic event was great influence on political factors (Manyin 7).

Economic Reform

According to the report of Manyin, IMF has played a significant role in Asian financial crisis to recover economy of South Korea by providing financial packages, balancing growth of business, and giving suggestion to the policy makers on time; therefore, GDP grew by more than 10% within the fiscal year 1999 though this growth slowed in 2001.

As the GDP fall again, it raised few questions regarding the performance of IMF, for example, whether its resources were adequate to cope up the situation as the government of ROK spent only $140.0 billion to bailout ailing banks and mutual funds in accordance with the IMF’s suggestion while it should require 60% of the national GDP to save economy.

At the same time, South Korea has opened its doors to foreign investors, which allowed foreign companies to become shareholder of local industries; therefore, it raised many other related questions, for instance –

Whether rescue package creates any moral hazard or not;
To what extent, the contagion of financial crises can be stopped successfully;
To what extent it could reform the external environment;
To what extent it ensures accountability to develop the concept of transparency

It is important to mention that the South Koreans should concentrate not only on the economic in global economy, but they need to consider the actual share of the foreigner in stock marker while US entrepreneurs hold 40% of share of the industry by taking advantages of the open market.

South Korea’s Increased Economic Integration with China

According to the following figure, South Korea increased business collaboration with China and Japan from in 2002 to strengthen national economy and most importantly, China surpassed the US in case of exports of raw materials from South Korea to produce finished goods at low cost, and this trade relationship helped ROK recover from slow growth of economy (Manyin 11).

Improved Inter-Korean Economic Relations

It has already addressed that Asian recession changed the mind of South Koreans regarding IMF, which helped the policy maker to develop the inter-Korean relations; therefore, Inter-Korean trade has increased by more than 80% since 2001; however, trade relationship with North Korea involved some advantages and disadvantages, such as –

Inter-Korean economic relations are undermining the US foreign policy and it would negatively affect inflow of FDI;
However, South Korean Government believed that North Korea would keep its promise by curtailing its nuclear program as resolving the ongoing North Korean nuclear crisis is a prerequisite condition of relationship development.

Duisburg (13) mentioned that due to global financial crisis in 2008, South Korea evidenced economic shocks connecting with higher inflationary pressure than ever, as disputed foreign exchange reserve and GDP reduced by 4.3%, stock exchange index decreased by 31.4%, export reduced by 34% and unemployment increased by 28%, which demonstrates a terrific economic condition of the country.

From the viewpoint of economic policy analysis, it is a failure of the existing economic philosophy that South Korea has put into practice; however, there is no reason to support the system that would bring economic stability or sustainable growth for the country.

Moreover, the political economy of South Korea with higher degree of US dependency, presence of US military is not at all supportive by the citizens of sovereign State; rather it is much important for South Korea to improve its economic cooperation with Asian emerging nations.

Lee (3) stated that the overall economic progress of South Korea has rooted from three sources, first one is its military intervention along with US army in Vietnam War, second one is female sex labor for both military prostitution and so-called domestic prostitution and the third one is exploitation of illegally migrated labors.

Due to collaboration with US military, they supported to promote economic interest of South Korea and gathering resources for industrialization, industrialization supported by migrant labor resources while militarization and industrialization jointly explored prostitution, as a major contributor in the GDP growth.

The concurrent movement of “Occupy Wall Street” and its influence globally has proven the lesser sustainability, inequality of the capitalism at the core of its system where 99% of the resources have accumulated to the 1% corporate owners and the distressed people are protesting against the state.

The State efforts to pump the economy by enhanced governmental spending and bailout have proved their disqualification to bring balance in the economy.

The academia and the Keynesian economists have failed to identify or prescribe any remedy to overcome the crisis and no hopes yet shown from 2008 to 2011. However, it has already evidenced that the capitalism in the US and European market has already integrated so many attributes of socialism like social securities that proven the poverty of the system.

Marx and Engels (7) pointed out that the modern capitalist society has involved with irrevocable conflicts due to the ownership of production means and unequal distribution of resources leads to resource accumulation to the capitalist or so-called corporate bodies.

At the same time, the capitalist exploitation had no limit until the market collapse due to over production, war for market accusation, which has no remedy without redistribution of the resources. Thus, this paper would suggest the economic reformation in the social ownership under “State Governance” and equal distribution of the resources among the people, which states the political economy of Karl Marx.

At this context, the changes required for South Korea is to come out from the neocolonial political economy of the US integration, remove US army from the country, and emphasis on the reunification both Korea, enhance regional economic cooperation among the Asian emerging countries.

It is also essential for South Korea to change the economic philosophy of open economy experiencing the North Korean planned economy to protect local industries from the aggression of multinationals that periodically destroyed internal resources.

There are two ministries in South Korea named “Ministry of Knowledge Economy” and “Ministry of Strategy and Finance” along with their subordinate economic research institutes to address national and economic policies, there are also sufficient national scholars and talents, but none of them has any liberty to follow their own economic policies aimed to national interest.

The governmental agencies and local economic researchers are working with policy maters under huge pressure of IMF, World Bank and other development agencies to integrate their prescribed policies of liberalization to open the Korean market for Americanization, thus South Korea has no opportunity follow its own economic policy.

Yoon (4) pointed out that the activities of IMF during Asian financial crisis in South Korea looks like a puppet of the USA and urged to trade liberalization with capital market opening for US and western Multinationals without safeguarding the national interest that was long demand of US Department of Treasury, but local authorities were not willing to do so.

IMF and World Bank forced the government if they do not obey such condition, none will provide any financial support to overcome the crisis, and as a result, government was bound to call for a special parliamentary session to pass law for opening the market and trade liberalization.

However, this country is under process to abolish it long philosophical heritage and destroy social, cultural, and religion traditions due to the South Korea’s membership in WTO and integration of globalization.

Kyu (4) pointed out that both the educational and financial development of South Korean have been originated from the perception of South Korean history and cultural, which long rooted from the Chinese philosophy of Confucianism during the reign of “Three Kingdoms” from 57 BC to 935 AD and the philosophy of Buddhism integrated during the Koryo Kingdom (918-1392).

Such integration of spiritual or cultural philosophy fashioned the South Korean State and society to structure its economy, education and political system with the principles of Buddhism and Confucianism with strong influence and privileges of the ruling class and with the class interest of the economic elites of that era.

Lee and McNulty (36) argued that majority of the South Koreans follow the economic the philosophy to keep harmony of life rather than conflict as a tradition of Confucianism; in addition, it conceptualized the cosmological standards that assumed the universe as the coordination of harmony linking dissimilar temperament of diverse elements.

This philosophy explored the belief that all changes of the universe caused as a friction between the extraterrestrial and spiritual forces of ‘Yin’ and ‘Yang’, while the first one indicates ‘shaded and female element’ as well as second one points to ‘sunny and male elements’.

‘Yin’ and ‘Yang’ are absolutely against each other, but cannot survive or sustain without each other and figured with a circle alienated into two segments along with a whirlpool balanced in an equilibrium point.

Due to cultural and religion heritage of Buddhism, the majority of South Korean people uphold the teaching of Siddhartha and aligned towards nondiscrimination considering race, class, color and wealth, all people have the opportunity to become ‘Buddha’ without discrimination, thus, people implied cultural propensity on the way to egalitarianism, all these philosophical factors extremely influenced South Korean Economy.

Ciobanu and Ciulu (5) identified that the underlying driving force of the economic phenomenon of South Korea has amalgamated with the policies both external and internal factors while the features of wealth accretion in the country has evidenced as growth resources were decomposing with moderately balanced extent of internal and external channels. On the other hand, the wealth accretion system facilitated the industries of South Korean to run faster depending upon “two feet” like –

One is internal driver.
Another is external driver.

Ciobanu and Ciulu (5) reported that both drivers mutually generated advantageous situation for the local economy and it was not depending upon single outlet, for instance, during the Asian financial crisis, the real export growth rate of South Korea has significantly reduced, but a real investment environment has developed due to positive action of the policy makers to increase FDI.

Ciobanu, Ioan, and Ciulu, Ruxandra. Secrets of the South-Korean Economic Miracle . 2010. Web.

Duisburg, Werner Pascha. South Korea’s economic policy response to the global economic crisis – a comparative perspective. 2010. Web.

Harvie, Carles. and Mosayeb Pahalvani. Sources of Economic growth in South Korea: an application of the ArDL analysis in the presense of structural breaks – 1980-2005 . 2006. Web.

Indexmundi. South Korea Economy – overview . 2011. Web.

Indexmundi. South Korea GDP (purchasing power parity) . 2011. Web.

Kyu, Lee Jeong. Educational Fever and South Korean Higher Education . 2006. Web.

Lee, Ho-Chul & McNulty, Mary Patricia. Korea’s Economic Crisis and Cultural Transition toward Individualism. 2003. Web.

Lee, Jin-Kyung. “Understanding South Korean Economic Growth through the eyes of Militarism, Sex Work and Migrant Labour.” Journal of International Women’s Studies 12.4 (2011): 1-12. Web.

Manyin, Mark. South Korea-U.S. Economic Relations: Cooperation, Friction, and Future Prospects . 2004. Web.

Yoon, Hyun. The Changing Role of the IMF Evidence from Korea’s Crisis: Asian Perspective. 2005. Web.

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IvyPanda. (2019, March 26). Economic History of South Korea. https://ivypanda.com/essays/economic-history-of-south-korea/

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1. IvyPanda . "Economic History of South Korea." March 26, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/economic-history-of-south-korea/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Economic History of South Korea." March 26, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/economic-history-of-south-korea/.

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Cultural Relativity and Acceptance of Embryonic Stem Cell Research

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Main Article Content

There is a debate about the ethical implications of using human embryos in stem cell research, which can be influenced by cultural, moral, and social values. This paper argues for an adaptable framework to accommodate diverse cultural and religious perspectives. By using an adaptive ethics model, research protections can reflect various populations and foster growth in stem cell research possibilities.

INTRODUCTION

Stem cell research combines biology, medicine, and technology, promising to alter health care and the understanding of human development. Yet, ethical contention exists because of individuals’ perceptions of using human embryos based on their various cultural, moral, and social values. While these disagreements concerning policy, use, and general acceptance have prompted the development of an international ethics policy, such a uniform approach can overlook the nuanced ethical landscapes between cultures. With diverse viewpoints in public health, a single global policy, especially one reflecting Western ethics or the ethics prevalent in high-income countries, is impractical. This paper argues for a culturally sensitive, adaptable framework for the use of embryonic stem cells. Stem cell policy should accommodate varying ethical viewpoints and promote an effective global dialogue. With an extension of an ethics model that can adapt to various cultures, we recommend localized guidelines that reflect the moral views of the people those guidelines serve.

Stem cells, characterized by their unique ability to differentiate into various cell types, enable the repair or replacement of damaged tissues. Two primary types of stem cells are somatic stem cells (adult stem cells) and embryonic stem cells. Adult stem cells exist in developed tissues and maintain the body’s repair processes. [1] Embryonic stem cells (ESC) are remarkably pluripotent or versatile, making them valuable in research. [2] However, the use of ESCs has sparked ethics debates. Considering the potential of embryonic stem cells, research guidelines are essential. The International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) provides international stem cell research guidelines. They call for “public conversations touching on the scientific significance as well as the societal and ethical issues raised by ESC research.” [3] The ISSCR also publishes updates about culturing human embryos 14 days post fertilization, suggesting local policies and regulations should continue to evolve as ESC research develops. [4] Like the ISSCR, which calls for local law and policy to adapt to developing stem cell research given cultural acceptance, this paper highlights the importance of local social factors such as religion and culture.

I. Global Cultural Perspective of Embryonic Stem Cells

Views on ESCs vary throughout the world. Some countries readily embrace stem cell research and therapies, while others have stricter regulations due to ethical concerns surrounding embryonic stem cells and when an embryo becomes entitled to moral consideration. The philosophical issue of when the “someone” begins to be a human after fertilization, in the morally relevant sense, [5] impacts when an embryo becomes not just worthy of protection but morally entitled to it. The process of creating embryonic stem cell lines involves the destruction of the embryos for research. [6] Consequently, global engagement in ESC research depends on social-cultural acceptability.

a. US and Rights-Based Cultures

In the United States, attitudes toward stem cell therapies are diverse. The ethics and social approaches, which value individualism, [7] trigger debates regarding the destruction of human embryos, creating a complex regulatory environment. For example, the 1996 Dickey-Wicker Amendment prohibited federal funding for the creation of embryos for research and the destruction of embryos for “more than allowed for research on fetuses in utero.” [8] Following suit, in 2001, the Bush Administration heavily restricted stem cell lines for research. However, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005 was proposed to help develop ESC research but was ultimately vetoed. [9] Under the Obama administration, in 2009, an executive order lifted restrictions allowing for more development in this field. [10] The flux of research capacity and funding parallels the different cultural perceptions of human dignity of the embryo and how it is socially presented within the country’s research culture. [11]

b. Ubuntu and Collective Cultures

African bioethics differs from Western individualism because of the different traditions and values. African traditions, as described by individuals from South Africa and supported by some studies in other African countries, including Ghana and Kenya, follow the African moral philosophies of Ubuntu or Botho and Ukama , which “advocates for a form of wholeness that comes through one’s relationship and connectedness with other people in the society,” [12] making autonomy a socially collective concept. In this context, for the community to act autonomously, individuals would come together to decide what is best for the collective. Thus, stem cell research would require examining the value of the research to society as a whole and the use of the embryos as a collective societal resource. If society views the source as part of the collective whole, and opposes using stem cells, compromising the cultural values to pursue research may cause social detachment and stunt research growth. [13] Based on local culture and moral philosophy, the permissibility of stem cell research depends on how embryo, stem cell, and cell line therapies relate to the community as a whole. Ubuntu is the expression of humanness, with the person’s identity drawn from the “’I am because we are’” value. [14] The decision in a collectivistic culture becomes one born of cultural context, and individual decisions give deference to others in the society.

Consent differs in cultures where thought and moral philosophy are based on a collective paradigm. So, applying Western bioethical concepts is unrealistic. For one, Africa is a diverse continent with many countries with different belief systems, access to health care, and reliance on traditional or Western medicines. Where traditional medicine is the primary treatment, the “’restrictive focus on biomedically-related bioethics’” [is] problematic in African contexts because it neglects bioethical issues raised by traditional systems.” [15] No single approach applies in all areas or contexts. Rather than evaluating the permissibility of ESC research according to Western concepts such as the four principles approach, different ethics approaches should prevail.

Another consideration is the socio-economic standing of countries. In parts of South Africa, researchers have not focused heavily on contributing to the stem cell discourse, either because it is not considered health care or a health science priority or because resources are unavailable. [16] Each country’s priorities differ given different social, political, and economic factors. In South Africa, for instance, areas such as maternal mortality, non-communicable diseases, telemedicine, and the strength of health systems need improvement and require more focus. [17] Stem cell research could benefit the population, but it also could divert resources from basic medical care. Researchers in South Africa adhere to the National Health Act and Medicines Control Act in South Africa and international guidelines; however, the Act is not strictly enforced, and there is no clear legislation for research conduct or ethical guidelines. [18]

Some parts of Africa condemn stem cell research. For example, 98.2 percent of the Tunisian population is Muslim. [19] Tunisia does not permit stem cell research because of moral conflict with a Fatwa. Religion heavily saturates the regulation and direction of research. [20] Stem cell use became permissible for reproductive purposes only recently, with tight restrictions preventing cells from being used in any research other than procedures concerning ART/IVF. Their use is conditioned on consent, and available only to married couples. [21] The community's receptiveness to stem cell research depends on including communitarian African ethics.

c. Asia

Some Asian countries also have a collective model of ethics and decision making. [22] In China, the ethics model promotes a sincere respect for life or human dignity, [23] based on protective medicine. This model, influenced by Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), [24] recognizes Qi as the vital energy delivered via the meridians of the body; it connects illness to body systems, the body’s entire constitution, and the universe for a holistic bond of nature, health, and quality of life. [25] Following a protective ethics model, and traditional customs of wholeness, investment in stem cell research is heavily desired for its applications in regenerative therapies, disease modeling, and protective medicines. In a survey of medical students and healthcare practitioners, 30.8 percent considered stem cell research morally unacceptable while 63.5 percent accepted medical research using human embryonic stem cells. Of these individuals, 89.9 percent supported increased funding for stem cell research. [26] The scientific community might not reflect the overall population. From 1997 to 2019, China spent a total of $576 million (USD) on stem cell research at 8,050 stem cell programs, increased published presence from 0.6 percent to 14.01 percent of total global stem cell publications as of 2014, and made significant strides in cell-based therapies for various medical conditions. [27] However, while China has made substantial investments in stem cell research and achieved notable progress in clinical applications, concerns linger regarding ethical oversight and transparency. [28] For example, the China Biosecurity Law, promoted by the National Health Commission and China Hospital Association, attempted to mitigate risks by introducing an institutional review board (IRB) in the regulatory bodies. 5800 IRBs registered with the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry since 2021. [29] However, issues still need to be addressed in implementing effective IRB review and approval procedures.

The substantial government funding and focus on scientific advancement have sometimes overshadowed considerations of regional cultures, ethnic minorities, and individual perspectives, particularly evident during the one-child policy era. As government policy adapts to promote public stability, such as the change from the one-child to the two-child policy, [30] research ethics should also adapt to ensure respect for the values of its represented peoples.

Japan is also relatively supportive of stem cell research and therapies. Japan has a more transparent regulatory framework, allowing for faster approval of regenerative medicine products, which has led to several advanced clinical trials and therapies. [31] South Korea is also actively engaged in stem cell research and has a history of breakthroughs in cloning and embryonic stem cells. [32] However, the field is controversial, and there are issues of scientific integrity. For example, the Korean FDA fast-tracked products for approval, [33] and in another instance, the oocyte source was unclear and possibly violated ethical standards. [34] Trust is important in research, as it builds collaborative foundations between colleagues, trial participant comfort, open-mindedness for complicated and sensitive discussions, and supports regulatory procedures for stakeholders. There is a need to respect the culture’s interest, engagement, and for research and clinical trials to be transparent and have ethical oversight to promote global research discourse and trust.

d. Middle East

Countries in the Middle East have varying degrees of acceptance of or restrictions to policies related to using embryonic stem cells due to cultural and religious influences. Saudi Arabia has made significant contributions to stem cell research, and conducts research based on international guidelines for ethical conduct and under strict adherence to guidelines in accordance with Islamic principles. Specifically, the Saudi government and people require ESC research to adhere to Sharia law. In addition to umbilical and placental stem cells, [35] Saudi Arabia permits the use of embryonic stem cells as long as they come from miscarriages, therapeutic abortions permissible by Sharia law, or are left over from in vitro fertilization and donated to research. [36] Laws and ethical guidelines for stem cell research allow the development of research institutions such as the King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, which has a cord blood bank and a stem cell registry with nearly 10,000 donors. [37] Such volume and acceptance are due to the ethical ‘permissibility’ of the donor sources, which do not conflict with religious pillars. However, some researchers err on the side of caution, choosing not to use embryos or fetal tissue as they feel it is unethical to do so. [38]

Jordan has a positive research ethics culture. [39] However, there is a significant issue of lack of trust in researchers, with 45.23 percent (38.66 percent agreeing and 6.57 percent strongly agreeing) of Jordanians holding a low level of trust in researchers, compared to 81.34 percent of Jordanians agreeing that they feel safe to participate in a research trial. [40] Safety testifies to the feeling of confidence that adequate measures are in place to protect participants from harm, whereas trust in researchers could represent the confidence in researchers to act in the participants’ best interests, adhere to ethical guidelines, provide accurate information, and respect participants’ rights and dignity. One method to improve trust would be to address communication issues relevant to ESC. Legislation surrounding stem cell research has adopted specific language, especially concerning clarification “between ‘stem cells’ and ‘embryonic stem cells’” in translation. [41] Furthermore, legislation “mandates the creation of a national committee… laying out specific regulations for stem-cell banking in accordance with international standards.” [42] This broad regulation opens the door for future global engagement and maintains transparency. However, these regulations may also constrain the influence of research direction, pace, and accessibility of research outcomes.

e. Europe

In the European Union (EU), ethics is also principle-based, but the principles of autonomy, dignity, integrity, and vulnerability are interconnected. [43] As such, the opportunity for cohesion and concessions between individuals’ thoughts and ideals allows for a more adaptable ethics model due to the flexible principles that relate to the human experience The EU has put forth a framework in its Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Dignity of the Human Being allowing member states to take different approaches. Each European state applies these principles to its specific conventions, leading to or reflecting different acceptance levels of stem cell research. [44]

For example, in Germany, Lebenzusammenhang , or the coherence of life, references integrity in the unity of human culture. Namely, the personal sphere “should not be subject to external intervention.” [45] Stem cell interventions could affect this concept of bodily completeness, leading to heavy restrictions. Under the Grundgesetz, human dignity and the right to life with physical integrity are paramount. [46] The Embryo Protection Act of 1991 made producing cell lines illegal. Cell lines can be imported if approved by the Central Ethics Commission for Stem Cell Research only if they were derived before May 2007. [47] Stem cell research respects the integrity of life for the embryo with heavy specifications and intense oversight. This is vastly different in Finland, where the regulatory bodies find research more permissible in IVF excess, but only up to 14 days after fertilization. [48] Spain’s approach differs still, with a comprehensive regulatory framework. [49] Thus, research regulation can be culture-specific due to variations in applied principles. Diverse cultures call for various approaches to ethical permissibility. [50] Only an adaptive-deliberative model can address the cultural constructions of self and achieve positive, culturally sensitive stem cell research practices. [51]

II. Religious Perspectives on ESC

Embryonic stem cell sources are the main consideration within religious contexts. While individuals may not regard their own religious texts as authoritative or factual, religion can shape their foundations or perspectives.

The Qur'an states:

“And indeed We created man from a quintessence of clay. Then We placed within him a small quantity of nutfa (sperm to fertilize) in a safe place. Then We have fashioned the nutfa into an ‘alaqa (clinging clot or cell cluster), then We developed the ‘alaqa into mudgha (a lump of flesh), and We made mudgha into bones, and clothed the bones with flesh, then We brought it into being as a new creation. So Blessed is Allah, the Best of Creators.” [52]

Many scholars of Islam estimate the time of soul installment, marked by the angel breathing in the soul to bring the individual into creation, as 120 days from conception. [53] Personhood begins at this point, and the value of life would prohibit research or experimentation that could harm the individual. If the fetus is more than 120 days old, the time ensoulment is interpreted to occur according to Islamic law, abortion is no longer permissible. [54] There are a few opposing opinions about early embryos in Islamic traditions. According to some Islamic theologians, there is no ensoulment of the early embryo, which is the source of stem cells for ESC research. [55]

In Buddhism, the stance on stem cell research is not settled. The main tenets, the prohibition against harming or destroying others (ahimsa) and the pursuit of knowledge (prajña) and compassion (karuna), leave Buddhist scholars and communities divided. [56] Some scholars argue stem cell research is in accordance with the Buddhist tenet of seeking knowledge and ending human suffering. Others feel it violates the principle of not harming others. Finding the balance between these two points relies on the karmic burden of Buddhist morality. In trying to prevent ahimsa towards the embryo, Buddhist scholars suggest that to comply with Buddhist tenets, research cannot be done as the embryo has personhood at the moment of conception and would reincarnate immediately, harming the individual's ability to build their karmic burden. [57] On the other hand, the Bodhisattvas, those considered to be on the path to enlightenment or Nirvana, have given organs and flesh to others to help alleviate grieving and to benefit all. [58] Acceptance varies on applied beliefs and interpretations.

Catholicism does not support embryonic stem cell research, as it entails creation or destruction of human embryos. This destruction conflicts with the belief in the sanctity of life. For example, in the Old Testament, Genesis describes humanity as being created in God’s image and multiplying on the Earth, referencing the sacred rights to human conception and the purpose of development and life. In the Ten Commandments, the tenet that one should not kill has numerous interpretations where killing could mean murder or shedding of the sanctity of life, demonstrating the high value of human personhood. In other books, the theological conception of when life begins is interpreted as in utero, [59] highlighting the inviolability of life and its formation in vivo to make a religious point for accepting such research as relatively limited, if at all. [60] The Vatican has released ethical directives to help apply a theological basis to modern-day conflicts. The Magisterium of the Church states that “unless there is a moral certainty of not causing harm,” experimentation on fetuses, fertilized cells, stem cells, or embryos constitutes a crime. [61] Such procedures would not respect the human person who exists at these stages, according to Catholicism. Damages to the embryo are considered gravely immoral and illicit. [62] Although the Catholic Church officially opposes abortion, surveys demonstrate that many Catholic people hold pro-choice views, whether due to the context of conception, stage of pregnancy, threat to the mother’s life, or for other reasons, demonstrating that practicing members can also accept some but not all tenets. [63]

Some major Jewish denominations, such as the Reform, Conservative, and Reconstructionist movements, are open to supporting ESC use or research as long as it is for saving a life. [64] Within Judaism, the Talmud, or study, gives personhood to the child at birth and emphasizes that life does not begin at conception: [65]

“If she is found pregnant, until the fortieth day it is mere fluid,” [66]

Whereas most religions prioritize the status of human embryos, the Halakah (Jewish religious law) states that to save one life, most other religious laws can be ignored because it is in pursuit of preservation. [67] Stem cell research is accepted due to application of these religious laws.

We recognize that all religions contain subsets and sects. The variety of environmental and cultural differences within religious groups requires further analysis to respect the flexibility of religious thoughts and practices. We make no presumptions that all cultures require notions of autonomy or morality as under the common morality theory , which asserts a set of universal moral norms that all individuals share provides moral reasoning and guides ethical decisions. [68] We only wish to show that the interaction with morality varies between cultures and countries.

III. A Flexible Ethical Approach

The plurality of different moral approaches described above demonstrates that there can be no universally acceptable uniform law for ESC on a global scale. Instead of developing one standard, flexible ethical applications must be continued. We recommend local guidelines that incorporate important cultural and ethical priorities.

While the Declaration of Helsinki is more relevant to people in clinical trials receiving ESC products, in keeping with the tradition of protections for research subjects, consent of the donor is an ethical requirement for ESC donation in many jurisdictions including the US, Canada, and Europe. [69] The Declaration of Helsinki provides a reference point for regulatory standards and could potentially be used as a universal baseline for obtaining consent prior to gamete or embryo donation.

For instance, in Columbia University’s egg donor program for stem cell research, donors followed standard screening protocols and “underwent counseling sessions that included information as to the purpose of oocyte donation for research, what the oocytes would be used for, the risks and benefits of donation, and process of oocyte stimulation” to ensure transparency for consent. [70] The program helped advance stem cell research and provided clear and safe research methods with paid participants. Though paid participation or covering costs of incidental expenses may not be socially acceptable in every culture or context, [71] and creating embryos for ESC research is illegal in many jurisdictions, Columbia’s program was effective because of the clear and honest communications with donors, IRBs, and related stakeholders. This example demonstrates that cultural acceptance of scientific research and of the idea that an egg or embryo does not have personhood is likely behind societal acceptance of donating eggs for ESC research. As noted, many countries do not permit the creation of embryos for research.

Proper communication and education regarding the process and purpose of stem cell research may bolster comprehension and garner more acceptance. “Given the sensitive subject material, a complete consent process can support voluntary participation through trust, understanding, and ethical norms from the cultures and morals participants value. This can be hard for researchers entering countries of different socioeconomic stability, with different languages and different societal values. [72]

An adequate moral foundation in medical ethics is derived from the cultural and religious basis that informs knowledge and actions. [73] Understanding local cultural and religious values and their impact on research could help researchers develop humility and promote inclusion.

IV. Concerns

Some may argue that if researchers all adhere to one ethics standard, protection will be satisfied across all borders, and the global public will trust researchers. However, defining what needs to be protected and how to define such research standards is very specific to the people to which standards are applied. We suggest that applying one uniform guide cannot accurately protect each individual because we all possess our own perceptions and interpretations of social values. [74] Therefore, the issue of not adjusting to the moral pluralism between peoples in applying one standard of ethics can be resolved by building out ethics models that can be adapted to different cultures and religions.

Other concerns include medical tourism, which may promote health inequities. [75] Some countries may develop and approve products derived from ESC research before others, compromising research ethics or drug approval processes. There are also concerns about the sale of unauthorized stem cell treatments, for example, those without FDA approval in the United States. Countries with robust research infrastructures may be tempted to attract medical tourists, and some customers will have false hopes based on aggressive publicity of unproven treatments. [76]

For example, in China, stem cell clinics can market to foreign clients who are not protected under the regulatory regimes. Companies employ a marketing strategy of “ethically friendly” therapies. Specifically, in the case of Beike, China’s leading stem cell tourism company and sprouting network, ethical oversight of administrators or health bureaus at one site has “the unintended consequence of shifting questionable activities to another node in Beike's diffuse network.” [77] In contrast, Jordan is aware of stem cell research’s potential abuse and its own status as a “health-care hub.” Jordan’s expanded regulations include preserving the interests of individuals in clinical trials and banning private companies from ESC research to preserve transparency and the integrity of research practices. [78]

The social priorities of the community are also a concern. The ISSCR explicitly states that guidelines “should be periodically revised to accommodate scientific advances, new challenges, and evolving social priorities.” [79] The adaptable ethics model extends this consideration further by addressing whether research is warranted given the varying degrees of socioeconomic conditions, political stability, and healthcare accessibilities and limitations. An ethical approach would require discussion about resource allocation and appropriate distribution of funds. [80]

While some religions emphasize the sanctity of life from conception, which may lead to public opposition to ESC research, others encourage ESC research due to its potential for healing and alleviating human pain. Many countries have special regulations that balance local views on embryonic personhood, the benefits of research as individual or societal goods, and the protection of human research subjects. To foster understanding and constructive dialogue, global policy frameworks should prioritize the protection of universal human rights, transparency, and informed consent. In addition to these foundational global policies, we recommend tailoring local guidelines to reflect the diverse cultural and religious perspectives of the populations they govern. Ethics models should be adapted to local populations to effectively establish research protections, growth, and possibilities of stem cell research.

For example, in countries with strong beliefs in the moral sanctity of embryos or heavy religious restrictions, an adaptive model can allow for discussion instead of immediate rejection. In countries with limited individual rights and voice in science policy, an adaptive model ensures cultural, moral, and religious views are taken into consideration, thereby building social inclusion. While this ethical consideration by the government may not give a complete voice to every individual, it will help balance policies and maintain the diverse perspectives of those it affects. Embracing an adaptive ethics model of ESC research promotes open-minded dialogue and respect for the importance of human belief and tradition. By actively engaging with cultural and religious values, researchers can better handle disagreements and promote ethical research practices that benefit each society.

This brief exploration of the religious and cultural differences that impact ESC research reveals the nuances of relative ethics and highlights a need for local policymakers to apply a more intense adaptive model.

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[5] Concerning the moral philosophies of stem cell research, our paper does not posit a personal moral stance nor delve into the “when” of human life begins. To read further about the philosophical debate, consider the following sources:

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[7] Socially, at its core, the Western approach to ethics is widely principle-based, autonomy being one of the key factors to ensure a fundamental respect for persons within research. For information regarding autonomy in research, see: Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, & National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research (1978). The Belmont Report. Ethical principles and guidelines for the protection of human subjects of research.; For a more in-depth review of autonomy within the US, see: Beauchamp, T. L., & Childress, J. F. (1994). Principles of Biomedical Ethics . Oxford University Press.

[8] Sherley v. Sebelius , 644 F.3d 388 (D.C. Cir. 2011), citing 45 C.F.R. 46.204(b) and [42 U.S.C. § 289g(b)]. https://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/opinions.nsf/6c690438a9b43dd685257a64004ebf99/$file/11-5241-1391178.pdf

[9] Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005, H. R. 810, 109 th Cong. (2001). https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/109/hr810/text ; Bush, G. W. (2006, July 19). Message to the House of Representatives . National Archives and Records Administration. https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2006/07/20060719-5.html

[10] National Archives and Records Administration. (2009, March 9). Executive order 13505 -- removing barriers to responsible scientific research involving human stem cells . National Archives and Records Administration. https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/removing-barriers-responsible-scientific-research-involving-human-stem-cells

[11] Hurlbut, W. B. (2006). Science, Religion, and the Politics of Stem Cells. Social Research , 73 (3), 819–834. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40971854

[12] Akpa-Inyang, Francis & Chima, Sylvester. (2021). South African traditional values and beliefs regarding informed consent and limitations of the principle of respect for autonomy in African communities: a cross-cultural qualitative study. BMC Medical Ethics . 22. 10.1186/s12910-021-00678-4.

[13] Source for further reading: Tangwa G. B. (2007). Moral status of embryonic stem cells: perspective of an African villager. Bioethics , 21(8), 449–457. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8519.2007.00582.x , see also Mnisi, F. M. (2020). An African analysis based on ethics of Ubuntu - are human embryonic stem cell patents morally justifiable? African Insight , 49 (4).

[14] Jecker, N. S., & Atuire, C. (2021). Bioethics in Africa: A contextually enlightened analysis of three cases. Developing World Bioethics , 22 (2), 112–122. https://doi.org/10.1111/dewb.12324

[15] Jecker, N. S., & Atuire, C. (2021). Bioethics in Africa: A contextually enlightened analysis of three cases. Developing World Bioethics, 22(2), 112–122. https://doi.org/10.1111/dewb.12324

[16] Jackson, C.S., Pepper, M.S. Opportunities and barriers to establishing a cell therapy programme in South Africa. Stem Cell Res Ther 4 , 54 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1186/scrt204 ; Pew Research Center. (2014, May 1). Public health a major priority in African nations . Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project. https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2014/05/01/public-health-a-major-priority-in-african-nations/

[17] Department of Health Republic of South Africa. (2021). Health Research Priorities (revised) for South Africa 2021-2024 . National Health Research Strategy. https://www.health.gov.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/National-Health-Research-Priorities-2021-2024.pdf

[18] Oosthuizen, H. (2013). Legal and Ethical Issues in Stem Cell Research in South Africa. In: Beran, R. (eds) Legal and Forensic Medicine. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32338-6_80 , see also: Gaobotse G (2018) Stem Cell Research in Africa: Legislation and Challenges. J Regen Med 7:1. doi: 10.4172/2325-9620.1000142

[19] United States Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services. (1998). Tunisia: Information on the status of Christian conversions in Tunisia . UNHCR Web Archive. https://webarchive.archive.unhcr.org/20230522142618/https://www.refworld.org/docid/3df0be9a2.html

[20] Gaobotse, G. (2018) Stem Cell Research in Africa: Legislation and Challenges. J Regen Med 7:1. doi: 10.4172/2325-9620.1000142

[21] Kooli, C. Review of assisted reproduction techniques, laws, and regulations in Muslim countries. Middle East Fertil Soc J 24 , 8 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s43043-019-0011-0 ; Gaobotse, G. (2018) Stem Cell Research in Africa: Legislation and Challenges. J Regen Med 7:1. doi: 10.4172/2325-9620.1000142

[22] Pang M. C. (1999). Protective truthfulness: the Chinese way of safeguarding patients in informed treatment decisions. Journal of medical ethics , 25(3), 247–253. https://doi.org/10.1136/jme.25.3.247

[23] Wang, L., Wang, F., & Zhang, W. (2021). Bioethics in China’s biosecurity law: Forms, effects, and unsettled issues. Journal of law and the biosciences , 8(1). https://doi.org/10.1093/jlb/lsab019 https://academic.oup.com/jlb/article/8/1/lsab019/6299199

[24] Wang, Y., Xue, Y., & Guo, H. D. (2022). Intervention effects of traditional Chinese medicine on stem cell therapy of myocardial infarction. Frontiers in pharmacology , 13 , 1013740. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2022.1013740

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[30] Chen, H., Wei, T., Wang, H. et al. Association of China’s two-child policy with changes in number of births and birth defects rate, 2008–2017. BMC Public Health 22 , 434 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-12839-0

[31] Azuma, K. Regulatory Landscape of Regenerative Medicine in Japan. Curr Stem Cell Rep 1 , 118–128 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40778-015-0012-6

[32] Harris, R. (2005, May 19). Researchers Report Advance in Stem Cell Production . NPR. https://www.npr.org/2005/05/19/4658967/researchers-report-advance-in-stem-cell-production

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[35] Alahmad, G., Aljohani, S., & Najjar, M. F. (2020). Ethical challenges regarding the use of stem cells: interviews with researchers from Saudi Arabia. BMC medical ethics, 21(1), 35. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-020-00482-6

[36] Association for the Advancement of Blood and Biotherapies. https://www.aabb.org/regulatory-and-advocacy/regulatory-affairs/regulatory-for-cellular-therapies/international-competent-authorities/saudi-arabia

[37] Alahmad, G., Aljohani, S., & Najjar, M. F. (2020). Ethical challenges regarding the use of stem cells: Interviews with researchers from Saudi Arabia. BMC medical ethics , 21 (1), 35. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-020-00482-6

[38] Alahmad, G., Aljohani, S., & Najjar, M. F. (2020). Ethical challenges regarding the use of stem cells: Interviews with researchers from Saudi Arabia. BMC medical ethics , 21(1), 35. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-020-00482-6

Culturally, autonomy practices follow a relational autonomy approach based on a paternalistic deontological health care model. The adherence to strict international research policies and religious pillars within the regulatory environment is a great foundation for research ethics. However, there is a need to develop locally targeted ethics approaches for research (as called for in Alahmad, G., Aljohani, S., & Najjar, M. F. (2020). Ethical challenges regarding the use of stem cells: interviews with researchers from Saudi Arabia. BMC medical ethics, 21(1), 35. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-020-00482-6), this decision-making approach may help advise a research decision model. For more on the clinical cultural autonomy approaches, see: Alabdullah, Y. Y., Alzaid, E., Alsaad, S., Alamri, T., Alolayan, S. W., Bah, S., & Aljoudi, A. S. (2022). Autonomy and paternalism in Shared decision‐making in a Saudi Arabian tertiary hospital: A cross‐sectional study. Developing World Bioethics , 23 (3), 260–268. https://doi.org/10.1111/dewb.12355 ; Bukhari, A. A. (2017). Universal Principles of Bioethics and Patient Rights in Saudi Arabia (Doctoral dissertation, Duquesne University). https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/124; Ladha, S., Nakshawani, S. A., Alzaidy, A., & Tarab, B. (2023, October 26). Islam and Bioethics: What We All Need to Know . Columbia University School of Professional Studies. https://sps.columbia.edu/events/islam-and-bioethics-what-we-all-need-know

[39] Ababneh, M. A., Al-Azzam, S. I., Alzoubi, K., Rababa’h, A., & Al Demour, S. (2021). Understanding and attitudes of the Jordanian public about clinical research ethics. Research Ethics , 17 (2), 228-241. https://doi.org/10.1177/1747016120966779

[40] Ababneh, M. A., Al-Azzam, S. I., Alzoubi, K., Rababa’h, A., & Al Demour, S. (2021). Understanding and attitudes of the Jordanian public about clinical research ethics. Research Ethics , 17 (2), 228-241. https://doi.org/10.1177/1747016120966779

[41] Dajani, R. (2014). Jordan’s stem-cell law can guide the Middle East. Nature 510, 189. https://doi.org/10.1038/510189a

[42] Dajani, R. (2014). Jordan’s stem-cell law can guide the Middle East. Nature 510, 189. https://doi.org/10.1038/510189a

[43] The EU’s definition of autonomy relates to the capacity for creating ideas, moral insight, decisions, and actions without constraint, personal responsibility, and informed consent. However, the EU views autonomy as not completely able to protect individuals and depends on other principles, such as dignity, which “expresses the intrinsic worth and fundamental equality of all human beings.” Rendtorff, J.D., Kemp, P. (2019). Four Ethical Principles in European Bioethics and Biolaw: Autonomy, Dignity, Integrity and Vulnerability. In: Valdés, E., Lecaros, J. (eds) Biolaw and Policy in the Twenty-First Century. International Library of Ethics, Law, and the New Medicine, vol 78. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05903-3_3

[44] Council of Europe. Convention for the protection of Human Rights and Dignity of the Human Being with regard to the Application of Biology and Medicine: Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine (ETS No. 164) https://www.coe.int/en/web/conventions/full-list?module=treaty-detail&treatynum=164 (forbidding the creation of embryos for research purposes only, and suggests embryos in vitro have protections.); Also see Drabiak-Syed B. K. (2013). New President, New Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research Policy: Comparative International Perspectives and Embryonic Stem Cell Research Laws in France. Biotechnology Law Report , 32 (6), 349–356. https://doi.org/10.1089/blr.2013.9865

[45] Rendtorff, J.D., Kemp, P. (2019). Four Ethical Principles in European Bioethics and Biolaw: Autonomy, Dignity, Integrity and Vulnerability. In: Valdés, E., Lecaros, J. (eds) Biolaw and Policy in the Twenty-First Century. International Library of Ethics, Law, and the New Medicine, vol 78. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05903-3_3

[46] Tomuschat, C., Currie, D. P., Kommers, D. P., & Kerr, R. (Trans.). (1949, May 23). Basic law for the Federal Republic of Germany. https://www.btg-bestellservice.de/pdf/80201000.pdf

[47] Regulation of Stem Cell Research in Germany . Eurostemcell. (2017, April 26). https://www.eurostemcell.org/regulation-stem-cell-research-germany

[48] Regulation of Stem Cell Research in Finland . Eurostemcell. (2017, April 26). https://www.eurostemcell.org/regulation-stem-cell-research-finland

[49] Regulation of Stem Cell Research in Spain . Eurostemcell. (2017, April 26). https://www.eurostemcell.org/regulation-stem-cell-research-spain

[50] Some sources to consider regarding ethics models or regulatory oversights of other cultures not covered:

Kara MA. Applicability of the principle of respect for autonomy: the perspective of Turkey. J Med Ethics. 2007 Nov;33(11):627-30. doi: 10.1136/jme.2006.017400. PMID: 17971462; PMCID: PMC2598110.

Ugarte, O. N., & Acioly, M. A. (2014). The principle of autonomy in Brazil: one needs to discuss it ... Revista do Colegio Brasileiro de Cirurgioes , 41 (5), 374–377. https://doi.org/10.1590/0100-69912014005013

Bharadwaj, A., & Glasner, P. E. (2012). Local cells, global science: The rise of embryonic stem cell research in India . Routledge.

For further research on specific European countries regarding ethical and regulatory framework, we recommend this database: Regulation of Stem Cell Research in Europe . Eurostemcell. (2017, April 26). https://www.eurostemcell.org/regulation-stem-cell-research-europe

[51] Klitzman, R. (2006). Complications of culture in obtaining informed consent. The American Journal of Bioethics, 6(1), 20–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/15265160500394671 see also: Ekmekci, P. E., & Arda, B. (2017). Interculturalism and Informed Consent: Respecting Cultural Differences without Breaching Human Rights. Cultura (Iasi, Romania) , 14 (2), 159–172.; For why trust is important in research, see also: Gray, B., Hilder, J., Macdonald, L., Tester, R., Dowell, A., & Stubbe, M. (2017). Are research ethics guidelines culturally competent? Research Ethics , 13 (1), 23-41. https://doi.org/10.1177/1747016116650235

[52] The Qur'an (M. Khattab, Trans.). (1965). Al-Mu’minun, 23: 12-14. https://quran.com/23

[53] Lenfest, Y. (2017, December 8). Islam and the beginning of human life . Bill of Health. https://blog.petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/2017/12/08/islam-and-the-beginning-of-human-life/

[54] Aksoy, S. (2005). Making regulations and drawing up legislation in Islamic countries under conditions of uncertainty, with special reference to embryonic stem cell research. Journal of Medical Ethics , 31: 399-403.; see also: Mahmoud, Azza. "Islamic Bioethics: National Regulations and Guidelines of Human Stem Cell Research in the Muslim World." Master's thesis, Chapman University, 2022. https://doi.org/10.36837/ chapman.000386

[55] Rashid, R. (2022). When does Ensoulment occur in the Human Foetus. Journal of the British Islamic Medical Association , 12 (4). ISSN 2634 8071. https://www.jbima.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/2-Ethics-3_-Ensoulment_Rafaqat.pdf.

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[57] Jafari, M., Elahi, F., Ozyurt, S. & Wrigley, T. (2007). 4. Religious Perspectives on Embryonic Stem Cell Research. In K. Monroe, R. Miller & J. Tobis (Ed.), Fundamentals of the Stem Cell Debate: The Scientific, Religious, Ethical, and Political Issues (pp. 79-94). Berkeley: University of California Press. https://escholarship.org/content/qt9rj0k7s3/qt9rj0k7s3_noSplash_f9aca2e02c3777c7fb76ea768ba458f0.pdf https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520940994-005

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[59] There is no explicit religious reference to when life begins or how to conduct research that interacts with the concept of life. However, these are relevant verses pertaining to how the fetus is viewed. (( King James Bible . (1999). Oxford University Press. (original work published 1769))

Jerimiah 1: 5 “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee…”

In prophet Jerimiah’s insight, God set him apart as a person known before childbirth, a theme carried within the Psalm of David.

Psalm 139: 13-14 “…Thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made…”

These verses demonstrate David’s respect for God as an entity that would know of all man’s thoughts and doings even before birth.

[60] It should be noted that abortion is not supported as well.

[61] The Vatican. (1987, February 22). Instruction on Respect for Human Life in Its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation Replies to Certain Questions of the Day . Congregation For the Doctrine of the Faith. https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19870222_respect-for-human-life_en.html

[62] The Vatican. (2000, August 25). Declaration On the Production and the Scientific and Therapeutic Use of Human Embryonic Stem Cells . Pontifical Academy for Life. https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_academies/acdlife/documents/rc_pa_acdlife_doc_20000824_cellule-staminali_en.html ; Ohara, N. (2003). Ethical Consideration of Experimentation Using Living Human Embryos: The Catholic Church’s Position on Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research and Human Cloning. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology . Retrieved from https://article.imrpress.com/journal/CEOG/30/2-3/pii/2003018/77-81.pdf.

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[64] Rosner, F., & Reichman, E. (2002). Embryonic stem cell research in Jewish law. Journal of halacha and contemporary society , (43), 49–68.; Jafari, M., Elahi, F., Ozyurt, S. & Wrigley, T. (2007). 4. Religious Perspectives on Embryonic Stem Cell Research. In K. Monroe, R. Miller & J. Tobis (Ed.), Fundamentals of the Stem Cell Debate: The Scientific, Religious, Ethical, and Political Issues (pp. 79-94). Berkeley: University of California Press. https://escholarship.org/content/qt9rj0k7s3/qt9rj0k7s3_noSplash_f9aca2e02c3777c7fb76ea768ba458f0.pdf https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520940994-005

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[67] Jafari, M., Elahi, F., Ozyurt, S. & Wrigley, T. (2007). 4. Religious Perspectives on Embryonic Stem Cell Research. In K. Monroe, R. Miller & J. Tobis (Ed.), Fundamentals of the Stem Cell Debate: The Scientific, Religious, Ethical, and Political Issues (pp. 79-94). Berkeley: University of California Press. https://escholarship.org/content/qt9rj0k7s3/qt9rj0k7s3_noSplash_f9aca2e02c3777c7fb76ea768ba458f0.pdf https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520940994-005

[68] Gert, B. (2007). Common morality: Deciding what to do . Oxford Univ. Press.

[69] World Medical Association (2013). World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki: ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects. JAMA , 310(20), 2191–2194. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2013.281053 Declaration of Helsinki – WMA – The World Medical Association .; see also: National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research. (1979). The Belmont report: Ethical principles and guidelines for the protection of human subjects of research . U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/regulations-and-policy/belmont-report/read-the-belmont-report/index.html

[70] Zakarin Safier, L., Gumer, A., Kline, M., Egli, D., & Sauer, M. V. (2018). Compensating human subjects providing oocytes for stem cell research: 9-year experience and outcomes. Journal of assisted reproduction and genetics , 35 (7), 1219–1225. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-018-1171-z https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6063839/ see also: Riordan, N. H., & Paz Rodríguez, J. (2021). Addressing concerns regarding associated costs, transparency, and integrity of research in recent stem cell trial. Stem Cells Translational Medicine , 10 (12), 1715–1716. https://doi.org/10.1002/sctm.21-0234

[71] Klitzman, R., & Sauer, M. V. (2009). Payment of egg donors in stem cell research in the USA. Reproductive biomedicine online , 18 (5), 603–608. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1472-6483(10)60002-8

[72] Krosin, M. T., Klitzman, R., Levin, B., Cheng, J., & Ranney, M. L. (2006). Problems in comprehension of informed consent in rural and peri-urban Mali, West Africa. Clinical trials (London, England) , 3 (3), 306–313. https://doi.org/10.1191/1740774506cn150oa

[73] Veatch, Robert M. Hippocratic, Religious, and Secular Medical Ethics: The Points of Conflict . Georgetown University Press, 2012.

[74] Msoroka, M. S., & Amundsen, D. (2018). One size fits not quite all: Universal research ethics with diversity. Research Ethics , 14 (3), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1177/1747016117739939

[75] Pirzada, N. (2022). The Expansion of Turkey’s Medical Tourism Industry. Voices in Bioethics , 8 . https://doi.org/10.52214/vib.v8i.9894

[76] Stem Cell Tourism: False Hope for Real Money . Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI). (2023). https://hsci.harvard.edu/stem-cell-tourism , See also: Bissassar, M. (2017). Transnational Stem Cell Tourism: An ethical analysis. Voices in Bioethics , 3 . https://doi.org/10.7916/vib.v3i.6027

[77] Song, P. (2011) The proliferation of stem cell therapies in post-Mao China: problematizing ethical regulation, New Genetics and Society , 30:2, 141-153, DOI: 10.1080/14636778.2011.574375

[78] Dajani, R. (2014). Jordan’s stem-cell law can guide the Middle East. Nature 510, 189. https://doi.org/10.1038/510189a

[79] International Society for Stem Cell Research. (2024). Standards in stem cell research . International Society for Stem Cell Research. https://www.isscr.org/guidelines/5-standards-in-stem-cell-research

[80] Benjamin, R. (2013). People’s science bodies and rights on the Stem Cell Frontier . Stanford University Press.

Mifrah Hayath

SM Candidate Harvard Medical School, MS Biotechnology Johns Hopkins University

Olivia Bowers

MS Bioethics Columbia University (Disclosure: affiliated with Voices in Bioethics)

Article Details

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License .

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Project MUSE
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Workshop for the Book Manuscript "Searching for 'Postwar' Asia"
Three distinguished discussants will analyze and critique the three papers, offering comments and insights to improve the manuscript. Paper Presentations. Yumi Moon (History, Stanford): Revolution, Freedom, and the Discourse of Violence in US-Occupied Korea,1945-1950. Robert D. Crews (History, Stanford) The Afghan Maelstrom

Article contents

Economic Development from 1948 to 1961

Economic Take-Off

Big Business and the State

Social Transformation

A Maturing Economy

Discussion of the Literature

Primary Sources

Further Reading

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A History of Korea: From Antiquity to the Present (review)

Additional Information

Project MUSE Mission

Bibliography

2 The History of Korea, 1905–1945

1. Introduction

2. The Protectorate Period, 1905–1910

3. Modern Nationalism

4. Political Polarisation and Diversification

5. Developmental State

6. Monarchy to Republic

7. Conclusion

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South Korean History and Politics

How South Korea made itself a global innovation leader

Top-down success

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Samsung’s top ten

Investing in the future

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The new breed

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Economic History of South Korea Research Paper

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Mifrah Hayath

Olivia Bowers

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