A Book About South Korea

choi

John Tamny, From the Third World to the First. South Korea is one of only two countries to have managed 5% growth for five decades. Its economy is now the world's 13th largest. Wall Street Journal, Apr 28, 2017
https://www.wsj.com/articles/how ... he-first-1493330802(
https://www.libertarianinstitute ... rea-war-drums-beat/
(book review on Michael Breen, The New Koreans; The story of a nation. Thomas Dunne Books, Apr 4, 2017)

* In the second URL, halfway down the page. Search the title.

Note:
(a) "On Aug. 10, 1945, American officials had used a National Geographic map to arbitrarily divide Korea along the 38th parallel—without consulting experts or the Koreans themselves * * * By 1948, per capita income [actually per capita GDP] was $86—a level of poverty that, according to the United Nations, placed the country’s citizens on a par with the Sudanese [at the time; whose per capita GDP today is about $2,100]."

Division of Korea
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Division_of_Korea
(section 1.2 End of World War II: On August 10, 1945 two young [Department of State] officers – Dean Rusk and Charles Bonesteel)

(b) "something in the kimchi, night soil in the rice"
(i) Usually the saying is "something in the water" (for good or bad outcomes).
(ii) night soil
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/night%20soil

(c) "Despite these challenges, South Korea now finds itself impressively prosperous. It is one of only two countries (along with Taiwan) to 'have managed 5 percent growth for five decades,' Mr Breen reports * * * Mr Breen also suggests that the South's growth began with dictator Park Chung-hee's 'guided capitalism' in the 1960s, but, as he later acknowledges, the companies [chaebols 財閥] supported by Park 'almost all failed [perhaps except Samsung].' * * * he [Breen] notes that South Korean officials address the idea [of unification] with a forked tongue. On the record, they express their desire for the partitioned peninsula to 'become one again;' off the record, they're either against it or in no great hurry. * * * While the North Koreans have nuclear weapons, Mr. Breen observes, the South Koreans have the better military. Of greater importance—though unmentioned by Mr. Breen—is the likelihood that North Korea lacks the resources necessary to fund a war"
(d) "last year Korean author Han Kang won the Man Booker International Prize."

HAN Kang  韓江
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_Kang
(e) "a country [S Korea] that was once so poor that mothers were forced to drown their babies"