Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefThe death earlier this month of Chin Doo-hwan, the most hated of South Korea’s three military dictators, who ruled for nearly a decade until 1988, is a timely reminder of the foundations of the country’s present economic might.Today, South Korea combines global prowess in electronics, semiconductors and shipbuilding (industries boosted by the old regime’s strategic plans) and in culture and services, such as entertainment, cosmetics and food.
The latter were born of the cultural flowering that followed the end of oppression.The country’s contradictory currents of light and dark, paternalistic conglomerates (known as chaebols) locking horns with creative startups, and artistic freedom that butts up against.
Read more on variety.com