Korean Crisis: Unraveling Of The Miracle In The Imf Era

Korean Crisis: Unraveling Of The Miracle In The Imf Era

Product Description Donald Kirk explores the reasons for Korea s economic crisis, its aftermath, and its impact on the system that brought it about. He traces a variety of events that constituted the crisis, including a series of scandals at the height of the Korean miracle; the efforts of the one-time dissident Kim Dae Jung as president to curb the overweening power of the chaebol, or conglomerates; and the outside intervention by the IMF and the country s desperate efforts to obtain foreign investment. At the same time, the book explores another overwhelming problem, that of coming to terms with North Korea, which is suffering from famine but still a threat. Based almost exclusively on the author s original reporting from the onset of the crisis through the intervention of the IMF, this book is the first to look at Korea s experience of the regional turmoil in Asia. Review Donald Kirk is a veteran observer of the Korean scene. He has a talent for blending politics, economics, and culture into a lively story that those interested in the heroic as well as tawdry sides of the ongoing Korean miracle wont want to miss. William Stueck, author of The Korean War: An International History Kirks sweeping, detailed study chronicles one of the most important economic events of the late 20th century. A veteran journalist in Asia, Kirk shows the local and global causes and consequences of the crisis in the highest levels of the Korean government and in the lives of ordinary working men and women, in the excesses of wealthy corporate leaders and the struggles of money changers in the back alleys. If you are an investor in Asian markets, a student in Asian studies, or anyone interestsed in the history and future of what Koreans now call the IMF generation, this is a book for you. Roy Richard Grinker, George Washington University, Author of Korea and its Futures: Unification and the Unfinished War ...a lively study that should be read by anyone interested in the contemporary Korean scene. Pacific Affairs About the Author Donald Kirk is the Seoul correspondent for the International Herald Tribune.