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Korea's economic development during the last 60 years can be summed up as simply extraordinary.
This is especially true considering the fact that the nation is divided by a heavily armed border and had to start from scratch in the aftermath of liberation from Japanese rule and the ashes of the Korean War.
In 1953, before the dust of war even settled, Korea's GDP was just U.S.$ 1.3 billion with a per-capita annual income of less than $70. But 60 years later, Korea had achieved the economic miracle of raising its per-capita income 300 times to more than $20,000 last year. Korea's GDP is well over $900 billion, making it the world's 13th-largest economy.
Fueling the phenomenal growth was exports. In 1948, outbound shipments amounted to just around $20 million a year. But today exports have jumped almost 15,000 times to more than $320 billion, especially cars, computer chips, ships and IT products.
The nation's living standards have improved dramatically.
A major sign is the number of cars on the streets, which has increased from 46,000 in 1970 to about 15 million in 2005. The number of households owning a car has jumped from one out of 100 to nine in 10.
Also, the tech-savvy country topped the OECD list with 93 percent of local households having access to the Internet last year, when back in 1949 only two people out of 1,000 had a phone.
But Korea's unprecedented development has brought to various side effects common to developed countries.
Korea's population rose from 20 million in 1949 to 49 million. But Koreans are living longer and having fewer and fewer babies. The average life expectancy has gone up by more than 15 years over the period while in 2006 Korea's population grew at a rate of just 0.33 percent, far lower than the OECD average.
As the economy grows, so does its level of pollution. Korea emitted nearly 450 million tons of carbon dioxide in 2006, more than the OECD average of 430 million tons.
Another characteristic is Korea's focus on education. Koreans ranked third among OECD countries when it comes to spending on education, which accounted for more than 7 percent of its GDP.
Korea has come a long way, but along with the growth a set of new issues and problems has also emerged for the country to reflect on.
Arirang News
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