Freedom and Crisis 1988–97

• Main Author: Pacheco Pardo, Ramon
• Format: Book Part
• Language: unknown
• Published: Oxford University Press 2022
• Subjects: Nordpol*
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197659656.003.0005; https://academic.oup.com/book/chapter-pdf/48366535/oso-9780197659656-chapter-005.pdf

Abstract The Seoul 1988 Olympic Games were South Korea's "coming out" party as a developed and democratic country, boosting minjok and South Koreans' pride in their own country. High rates of economic growth and a growing middle class continued throughout the early years of South Korea as a democratic country. In this context and coinciding with the final years of the Cold War, Roh Tae-woo, South Korea's first post-dictatorship president, launched Nordpolitik, a policy for the South to support the North, which was already much poorer. As a democratic country, South Korea pushed with economic liberalization to an extent unseen previously, following Washington Consensus policies. This helped to boost growth, and South Korea eventually joined the OECD in 1996—seen as a mark of its developed economy status. At the same time, democracy brought freedom to culture and the arts. By the early 1990s, South Korean artists were laying the groundwork for the emergence of K-Pop. In 1997, however, South Korea suffered its biggest economic crisis since the Korean War as a result of uncontrolled economic liberalization and domestic corruption.