INTRODUCTION

South Korea is a sovereign state called the Republic Korea, and it is apparently the only official Korean government that the UN recognizes as lawful.

Its neighbors are China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea to the south. Followinf WW2 Korea developed as 2 separate and completely different entities. Not surprisingly, the North became communist while the South remained obscurely capitalist.

MIRACULOUS DEVELOPMENT:
South Korea has enjoyed miraculous development which accounts for driving the nation high in development and economic standards.

South Korea ranks 14th in the world by nominal GDP and

12th by purchasing power parity making it one of the G20 major economies.

It is thus part of the so-called Asian Tigers which comprised of Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. These are the Asian nations experiencing vast development over recent years and are still some of the fastest growing developed countries in the 2000s.

GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT

EXPORT LED GROWTH:

As far as trade is concerned, South Korea holds the grip by being one of the most heavily dependent countries on trade.

figures in 2010 show that South Korea was the sixth largest exporter and tenth largest importer in the world.
With these in mind, one can realize the monumental significance international trade has on South Koreas economy.

EXPORTS AS % OF GDP

ANALYSING THE GRAPH

When looking at figures of Export as a percentage of their GDP, we can notice that there have been evident fluctuations throughout.

Nevertheless, the overall trend shows an increase in the significance of exports as part of GDP.
This suggests that there has been an export lead growth with endless opportunities for South Koreans to grow in the export sector and manufacturing in particular.

AGRICULTURE ON THE DOWNHILL

In the meantime, since 1960s South Korea has evidently shifted from agriculture to other production sectors.

In other words output in the primary sector has decreased by almost 40%, suggesting how South Korea has developed and manifested significant improvement in the secondary and even the tertiary sector.
This has subsequently lead to an industrial revolution which gave ground and prospects for a significant export-led growth.

AGRICULTURE AS % OF GDP:

EDUCATION
South Korea puts increasing emphasis on education as it aims to develop a highly knowledgeable and skilled workforce for the future.

South Korea's education system is hugely technologically

With a large amount of money diverted in the education system, South Korea aims to develop an even more advanced educational infrastructure.

% OF SCHOOL ENROLMENT TERTIARY EDUCATION

ANALYSING EDUCATION
The engaging figures above suggest that South Korea has been on top of the world in terms of its education level.

Since 2002 the percentage of School enrollment in tertiary education has rise from nearly 85% to above 100%.

This implies that South Koreans, are so well established in terms of education and this has been another contributing factor that has accounted largely for the growth of the manufacturing sector such as in Shipbuilding, Automobiles, High-tech products and Armaments. If studied in more precision, the aforementioned industries have benefited from extreme escalation and enlargement since the late 1970s

MANUFACTURING A PROMISING START LED TO A LEADERSHIP IN MARKETS

SHIPBUILDING
During the 1970s South Korea became a leading producer of ships, including oil supertankers. Over the years the industry grew and eventually became the world's dominant shipbuilder with a 50.6% share of the global shipbuilding market . South Korea also owns STX Europe, which is Europe's largest shipbuilder.

AUTOMOBILES
The automobile industry is inarguably one of the largest export industries that has grown extensively since its birth in the 1980s.

Throughout most of the late 1980s, much of the growth of South Korea's automobile industry was the result of a surge in exports with US being the dominant target market. South Korea today has developed into one of world's largest automobile producers with Hyundai Kia Automotive Group being Korea's largest automobile firm.

HIGH TECH
Since 1990, South Korean manufacturers have diverted plenty of their resrouces to a new marketthe high-tech market.

This was in an attempt to diversify and expand the economy even further.
Planning sessions among business leaders led to the creation of industries concentrating on the production of new materials, mechatronics, bioengineering, microelectronics, fine chemistry, and aerospace.

ARMAMENTS
Bringing in mind the geographical position of South Korea, one can realize that it belongs to one of the most heavily militarized regions in the world.

Taking advantage of this, South Korea has developed its armament-manufacturing sector since the early 1970s.
Exports of armaments have now become an essential part of the total South Korean exports with figures reaching $1.03 billion in 2008 and $1.17 billion in 2009 in the meantime South Korea aims to increase the figure to $1.5 billion by 2011.

POTENTIAL NUCLEAR LEADER

South Korea is ranked as the 5th largest producer of nuclear power in the world and 2nd largest nuclear power in Asia.

Nuclear power constitutes 45% of its electricity production and large projects run in background in an attempt to invent advanced and developed nuclear reactors. Nevertheless, South Korea is an emerging nuclear reactor exporter

at the same time it holds negotiations with countries like Turkey and Argentina in an attempt to construct new nuclear reactors.

SOCIETY & POPULATION

The population density in South Korea is currently 487 per square kilometer, which is significantly higher than the global average.

There is a higher population density in urban areas, which resulted from the intense migration of Koreans from the countryside when there was noticeable and promising development in the major cities like Seoul.
the urbanization that took place late in the 20th century was one of the reasons that led to a partial deterioration of public health and safety in general.

POPULATION GROWTH RATE(%)

UNEMPLOYMENT
unemployment levels have remained relatively constant and low over the years something that is largely noteworthy for the country. Even during the outbreak of the global financial crisis South Korea unemployment figures were not affected, something that contributed in avoiding the crisis as a whole. This made South Korea one of the least affected developed countries. In contrast its economic growth rate reached 6.2 percent in 2010, which apparently was the fastest growth for eight years after the peak growth by 7.2 percent in 2002

UNEMPLOYMENT (%)

UNEMPLOYMENT
unemployment figures according to official statistics show that there has been a constant unemployment level between 3 and 4 %, with the maximum reached level being 3.6%. This means that the labor force of the Korean economy was almost completely exploited to successfully establish high growth rates and soaring GDP per capita figures. Allocative efficiency is therefore a bright characteristic of the South Korean economy.

CONTRAINTS TO DEVELOPMENT : NORTH KOREA

credit rating agencies appear to be hesitant towards their economy and in particular their stock market, due to the insecurity and unstableness that exists in the very eastern part of Asia. Subject to blame is the North Koreas unpredictable behavior Deep military crises in North Korea are reflected as an adverse effect on the financial markets of the South Korean economy. This means that regardless of any gratifying growth rates that the South Koreans may achieve, they will always be vulnerable to the irrational North Korean intentions. So the economy can suffer from damaging downgrading by Credit agencies at times when there are warlike intentions in the Western part of Asia

OVERDEPENDENCE ON EXPORTS
out of $1.16 trillion GDP, approximately 0.5 trillion $ is generated from exports. Therefore any exogenous shocks that can take place, may at any time damage the GDP of the country. In the global financial crisis, although South Korea was one of the least affected countries, its growth rates still fell to 0.2% in 2009. It shows how crises in other countries of the world can still have a detrimental impact on the South Korean economy. A large part of the exports such as the High-tech products, have a relatively price elastic demand so a decrease in those exports by even a larger proportion at times of exogenous shocks is expected. Manufacturing employs a huge proportion of the labor force and therefore a drop in exports, can mean a surge in unemployment figures too.