Korean crisis : unraveling of the miracle in the IMF era /

Kirk, Seoul correspondent for the International Herald Tribune, examines the economic crisis and political developments in South Korea since 1997. He traces how conglomerates (the chaebols) and the banking system struggled with poor assets, bad loans, and bleak opportunities and how needed macro and micro economic reforms were thwarted by corruption and the power of the chaebols. There was reluctance to restructure with domestic resources, yet banks and businesses hoped foreign investors would purchase appalling financial and corporate assets at bloated prices. Kirk includes an interesting case study of problems in the automobile industry; as chaebols attempted to downsize, they met resistance from labor. International Monetary Fund policies in South Korea are discussed throughout most of the book, but this presentation is fragmented, incomplete, and analytically weak. The author and South Korean businesses portray the IMF as "the wicked Satan" and therefore systemic economic problems receive superficial examination. Two chapters discuss North Korea's economy, political initiatives to develop economic links between the two Koreas, and the geopolitics of North Korea's military activity, but they are not integrated with the rest of the book. Nevertheless, this is a useful study for those seeking details on the economic crisis and politics in South Korea. Appropriate for comprehensive academic and public library collections. B. F. Hope; California State University, Chico