The startling revolutions of recent years have had as great an impact on Northeast Asia as on Eastern Europe. Gorbachev's cautious withdrawal of support for North Korea and his establishment of ties with South Korea have created a need for a new research agenda exploring how communism and capitalism in Asia can be successfully restructured or redirected in a new world order. Focused on systemic issues, this book is the first study to attempt a comprehensive analysis of social and economic development in modem Korea as a whole. As a homogeneous nation artificially divided by the competing ideologies of the Cold War, Korea provides a unique laboratory for comparing divergent development processes undertaken by conflicting social systems. Current theories of Third World development have advocated either capitalist models of modernization or have called for the establishment of self-reliant socialist economies cut off from the world capitalist system. While capitalist South Korea has consistently outperformed Communist North Korea since the mid-1970s, development has not yet brought a fully evolved West-em-style democracy in its wake. "Self-reliant" North Korea achieved successful growth during its first fifteen years, but has since been faced with numerous structural limitations on sustained development, including severe restrictions on political freedom and civil liberties. In the author's view, the experience of the two Koreas suggests that the solution to underdevelopment must be based on the realization that exclusionary theories need modification in the light of special historical and sociological circumstances peculiar to individual nations. This volume offers a valuable interpretation of modem Korean history and constitutes an important contribution to the comparative study of capitalism and communism in practice. It will be of particular interest to specialists in international relations and comparative political systems.

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of South Korean modernization by examining the dimensions of state formation, capitalist development and nationalism.

The contributors to this book explore the current situation of North Korea in various aspects and provide policy suggestions for North Korea to become part of the international community and achieve sustainable development. Focusing on three key areas of economic development, namely, international sectors, agriculture and urban development, and energy and environment, this book lays out recommendations and prospects for North Korea. Authors assess the current situation of North Korea, explore preconditions for becoming a member of the international community, and suggest policies necessary for the sustainable development of North Korea. They cover a wide range of areas including reforestation, WTO accession, and the potential for economic integration with South Korea. These evaluations draw on both what is understood about the current situation in North Korea and comparisons with other countries and territories. This book will be a valuable resource for scholars and policy planners who focus on North Korea.

Offering an alternative discourse on modernization and development viewed specifically from the East Asia perspective, this book focuses its analysis on the Korean experience of modernization and development. It considers the broad range of societal transformations which have occurred over the past half century, utilizing the vernacular language of Korea extracted from everyday life to interpret, characterize, globalize and pedagogically broaden the understanding and the human meaning behind these complex social changes.

This volume explores South Korea's successful transition from an underdeveloped, authoritarian country to a modern industrialized democracy. South Korea's experience of foreign aid gives a unique perspective on how to use foreign aid for economic development as well as how to build a strong partnership between developed and developing countries.

How did a country with a dearth of natural resources, a sprawling population congested in a limited arable land transform itself to a modern industrial state within a generation? How could these have been achieved given the lingering geopolitical threats to its very survival as a state, as evidenced by the Korean War and the internecine aggressive posturing of its neighbor from the north? This book looks at strategies, institutional arrangement, role of entrepreneurs and workers in this odyssey, and on how those factors have worked together through effective leadership to transform South Korea’s economic fortunes.

This volume employs an urban lens to provide a critical analysis of the North Korean style of sustainable urban development in the face of severe sanctions and a scarcity of vital resources. With a focus on five major areas—population, economics, architecture, urban planning, and culture—the authors examine the preconditions that led to the emergence of ideas related to urban sustainability, assess and reassess the trends in sustainable development brought about by market forces, and recommend paths for their further intensification. Since this work covers a variety of topics, ranging from geomancy and social control to economic issues and green architecture (both locally and in comparison with European post-socialist cities and South Korea), it will point to lessons that other countries could learn from. This book will be a valuable reference for scholars, researchers, students, and the general public who have a regional interest in North Korea, Korean unification, and East Asia as a whole; and/or a topical interest in urban studies, urban sustainability, and post-socialist urban transformation.

This book explains that South Korea has transformed itself from a developing to a developed country through a tortuous path.

2011 Updated Reprint. Updated Annually. Korea North Economic & Development Strategy Handbook

This book explores the politics of Korean developmental state and commitment of state agents to rapid industrialization within world political economy, focusing the Korean green revolution. It assesses how differences in state/society relationships affect agricultural research system priorities.