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Facing Realities on North Korea
Henry A. Kissinger

It is time to face realities. We are now in the 15th year during which America has sought to end North Korea's nuclear program through negotiations. These have been conducted in both two-party and six-party forums. The result was the same, whatever the framework

Changing North Korea
Andrei Lankov

When it comes to dealing with North Korea the United States and its allies have no efficient methods of coercion at their disposal; the regime is remarkably immune to outside pressure. Its leaders cannot afford change, so they make sure their state continues to be an international threat, using nuclear blackmail as a survival tactic while their unlucky subjects endure more poverty and terror. Since outside pressure is ineffective

Relief Over Freed U.S. Journalists Tempered by Long-Term Implications - Henry A. Kissinger
Freed Journalists
(c) M. Ryder

Relief Over Freed U.S. Journalists Tempered by Long-Term Implications
Henry A. Kissinger

Amidst the widespread relief that the two American journalists have avoided the brutal fate meted out to them by a North Korean court, it may seem captious to consider the long-term implications. The impulse to save two young women from 12 years of hard labor in a North Korean gulag is powerful. Yet now that this goal has been achieved, we need to balance the emotions of the moment against the precedent for the future.

'Never Again' in North Korea? Think Again
Jonah Goldberg

For decades now, we've known that what's going on in North Korea is too terrible to contemplate. Even so, what once haunted us as an ill-defined and foreboding suspicion has clarified into the secure knowledge of broad and systemic evil.

Today, North Korea; Tomorrow, Iran - Nuclear Weapons
By Paul Greenberg

North Korea has been playing around with nuclear weapons again, this time setting off an even bigger underground explosion. To which the five veto-wielding powers at the United Nations have responded much as they did the first couple of times the North Korean regime defied the UN by setting off nukes: with oh-so-serious, oh-so-official statements.

Time to Test North Korea - Nuclear Weapons
Global Viewpoint

John Bolton, a leading neo-conservative official during the Bush administration, is a former U.S. undersecretary of state for arms control and international security affairs and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. In this interview Bolton provides his opinion on North Korea's nuclear weapons testing and what the United States and the World needs to do in response

North Korea's Nuclear Weapon Challenge
Henry A. Kissinger

The Obama administration has so far dealt publicly with the North Korean challenge in an understated, almost leisurely, manner. The challenge goes far beyond the regional security issue. For the United States, it involves relations with an emerging superpower (China); relations with a re-emerging Russia; relations with key U.S. allies (Japan and South Korea); and a major escalation in the threat of proliferation to non-state parties.

10th Seoul International Financial Forum Kicks Off

Campaigning Begins for By-elections

Large Retailers Adopt Carbon Emission Report Cards

College Entrance Exam Scores Reveal Regional Gap

Accident Insurance to Be Available for Bicycle Riders

S.Korea Ready to Launch Own Satellite

SK Telecom to Provide WiBro Service in Jordan

Korea-EU FTA an 'Opportunity to Beat Crisis'

Korean Economy Regaining Foreign Confidence

N.Korea to Be Discussed in S.Korea-Japan Meeting

Assistance Should Focus on Low-Income Earners

Feeling Guilty for Eating Rice

Unemployment Soars in March

Kim Ji-soo Promotes Ceramics Expo

Kosdaq Sees Record Trading Volume

Reduced Taxes for Apartment Buyers to Be Expanded

Fleet Sales Could Damage Hyundai in U.S.

New Iranian Proposal Aims to End Nuclear Dispute

Suicide Bomber Kills 10 in Iraq

Housing Market Sees Slight Recovery

Swiss Bank Cuts Jobs as Global Unemployment Soars

Thai Gov't Cancels Ex-Prime Minister's Passport

Survey Reveals Teens' Porn-Browsing Habits

N.Korea Celebrates Founder's Birth

Korea to Get First Domed Ballpark

U.S. Economy Shrinks a Bit More Slowly

N.Korea Expelling U.S. Monitors from Reactor Site

Will England Resort to IMF Assistance?

Asia's 'Leading Economic Indicator' in Economic Shock

To fry croquettes without breaking them

Obama Promotes Tax Policies, Thousands Protest

Rising Golf Star Danny Lee Turns Pro

U.S. Treasury Says China Not Manipulating Currency

Chewing Gum Relieves Stomach Pain

Clinton Announces U.S. Anti-Piracy Measures

White House Condemns N.Korea Over Nuclear Talks

Seoul Delays Decision on WMD Initiative

More Botox Uses 'Spell Bright Prospects for Manufacturer'

China Outpaces Its Rivals on Road to Recovery

Study: Illegal Immigrants Having More Children in U.S.

Somali Pirates Attack Another U.S. Ship

Lessons from the Roh Moo-hyun Investigation

Obamas Welcome New 'First Dog' to White House

Why Americans Respect Their Ex-Presidents

Crackdown on Neglected Cars Starts

Gyeonggi Gives Green Light to Express Train Lines

More Than 2 Million Visit Korea in Q1

Prices of Imported Raw Materials Lowest since July 2005

10 Major Industries Face Restructuring

Michelle Wie Pulls Out of Pro-Am Event

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Police: Couple nurtured virtual child while real baby starved
Police have arrested a South Korean couple whose toddler starved to death while they were raising a virtual child online, authorities said.

How's the environment doing? Ask the buildings
Imagine that you could double the size of your apartment as a reward for saving electricity, water and gas. It's an idea proposed by the Seoul-based design collective Randomwalks and architect Lee Min-soo for the green redevelopment of Incheon, outside the South Korean capital.

Weapons testing turns deadly in S. Korea
An explosion at a state-run weapons research lab north of Seoul killed one person and injured five on Thursday, South Korea's semiofficial Yonhap news agency reported.

Korean navies exchange fire
North and South Korea said their naval forces clashed Tuesday in disputed waters, and each blamed the other for what is the first such violent incident in seven years.

Eye on South Korea
CNN takes an in-depth look at South Korea, including how the nation is working to become a brand leader on an international scale and on how the nation is recovering from the global economic recession.

Beyond the barbed wire: the accidental paradise of the DMZ
While the world remembers the fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago, one frontier of the Cold War remains intact; the demilitarized zone that separates North and South Korea.

U.S. broadband lags Asian nations
South Korea leads the world in providing broadband services, according to a study released on Thursday. The United States did not make the top 10.

Long-separated Korean families have reunion
Some families long separated by the Korean War saw their loved ones Saturday for the first time in years near the border between North and South Korea.

Border traffic normalized between two Koreas
Cross-border traffic between North and South Korea returned to normal Tuesday, ending eight months of restrictions imposed by the North, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.

Koreas reach deal to reunite families
North and South Korea reached an agreement Friday on reunions for families separated for decades by the Korean War, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.

South Korean rocket fails to reach full orbit
South Korea's space program suffered a blow Tuesday after a satellite launched from its first space rocket failed to reach proper orbit, a science official said.

Two Koreas to discuss reunions for split families
North and South Korea will hold three days of talks on reunions for families torn apart by the Korean War and divisions between the two countries, South Korea's Unification Ministry said Tuesday.

S. Korean leader gets message from Kim Jong Il
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak on Sunday met with a visiting North Korean delegation, and received a message from the North's reclusive leader Kim Jong Il, according South Korea's state media.

South Korea delays first rocket launch
South Korea's first rocket launch has been delayed because of a technical glitch, the country's official news agency reported.

Former South Korean leader, Nobel winner on respirator
A former South Korea president who won the Nobel Peace Prize for fostering better relations between North and South Korea has been placed on a respirator in a hospital, a news agency reported Thursday.

N. Korea gives S. Korea ultimatum over industrial complex
North Korea Friday unilaterally informed South Korea that all contracts relating to a jointly-run industrial complex along their border are null and void, according to South Korean officials.

North and South Korea talks last only 22 minutes
Details emerged Wednesday from the first government-to-government talks between the two Koreas in more than a year.

S. Korea reroutes flights, cites 'threat'
South Korean commercial airlines have rerouted their planes after North Korea said it could not guarantee the safety of flights near its airspace.

Clinton in South Korea as missile controversy brews
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in South Korea on Thursday on the third leg of her four-nation tour of Asia.

N. Korea preps for satellite launch amid 'space development' claim
Denying recent intelligence suggesting it is preparing to test a long-range missile, North Korea signaled Monday it is gearing up to launch a satellite, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

N. Korea ups ante in standoff with S. Korea
North Korea said Friday it has nullified all political and military agreements with South Korea, an extreme move that could raise tensions between the neighbors and lead to a military clash, South Korean state-run media reported.

S. Korea looks to buy North's nuclear fuel
South Korea has said it will send a delegation of nuclear experts to North Korea this week to survey its unused nuclear fuel rods and possibly buy them.

SKorea: Kim Jong Il's Health Has Improved
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il appears to have recovered enough from a stroke to run the country without difficulty, South Korea's spy chief told lawmakers Tuesday.

2 Koreas Hold Military Talks Amid Tension
Working-level military officers from North Korea and South Korea met Monday to discuss improving their lines of communication amid strained ties between the divided nations, officials said.

Six dead in South Korea fish knife frenzy
A financially strapped South Korean man went on an arson and stabbing rampage in Seoul on Monday, leaving six people dead and seven others wounded, police said.

South Korea Sees Nothing Unusual in North Korea
South Korea's government and private analysts questioned media reports Sunday that North Korea was poised to make an important announcement possibly concerning the health of its leader, Kim Jong Il

South Koreans Are Shaken by a Celebrity Suicide
The "Nation's Actress" is found dead in her apartment after being attacked by aggressive online rumors

Blind masseurs jump from bridge
Police in South Korea have arrested 26 blind masseurs who were threatening to jump from a bridge to protest a government decision they say will rob them of their livelihood.

Boarding house fire kills 6 in S. Korea
A fire at a boarding house early Friday killed five men and one woman, injuring 11 other people, South Korea's Yonhap news service reported.

US Allowed Korean Mass Executions
The American colonel tried to stall, but the declassified record shows he finally told his South Korean counterpart it "would be permitted" to machine-gun 3,500 political prisoners, to keep them from joining approaching enemy forces during the Korean War

Scores hurt in S. Korea beef protests
Thousands of protesters battled riot police in downtown Seoul early Sunday morning after a rally opposing South Korea's decision to import U.S. beef turned violent. More than 100 were wounded, the state news agency reported.

S. Korea to resume U.S. beef imports
South Korea's government said Wednesday it would resume imports of American beef this week, hoping to move on from a crisis that battered the pro-U.S. administration with weeks of anti-government protests over food safety.

S. Korea, US Agree on Beef Imports
All U.S. beef exported to South Korea will come from cattle less than 30 months old, officials said Saturday, in a deal made to placate South Korean protesters

S. Korean beef protests force government shake-up
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak plans to shake up his cabinet this week after massive protests, triggered by a deal his government reached to resume U.S. beef imports, the state news agency reported Monday.

South Korea backs off importing U.S. beef
No U.S. beef will exported to South Korea until the countries agree on limiting shipments to meat from cattle of a certain age, South Korea's agriculture minister said Tuesday.

South Korea to resume U.S. beef imports
South Korea will open its market to most U.S. beef, a senior government official said Thursday, according to state media.

S. Korea leader 'baffled' by mad cow fears
South Korea's president has apologized on national television for failing to take on board concerns in his country about mad cow disease.

North Korean officer defects to South Korea
A North Korean soldier defected across the demilitarized zone and sought asylum in South Korea on Sunday, according to a South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman.

South Korea to Resume U.S. Beef Imports
South Korea agreed to resume U.S. beef imports that had been halted over mad cow disease, clearing a key hurdle to a broader trade deal with Washington

Report: S. Korea, U.S. reach beef deal
Hours before a U.S.-South Korean summit, the two nations have reached an agreement that could clear the way for South Korea to resume imports of U.S. beef, a South Korean news agency reported Friday.

North Korea: South Korea driving relationship to 'catastrophe'
North Korea cut off dialogue with South Korea on Thursday, claiming the peninsula was on the brink of another war.

What is telematics?
In South Korea, telematics is big business. If it sounds like a buzzword to advertise the latest purveyor of high-tech must-have gadgets, its etymology is no less firmly rooted: "tele" means remote; "matics" means information. Cruising right alongside wireless broadband and DMB (Digital Media Broadcast) cell phones, telematics refers more specifically to automobiles receiving remote information from commercial service providers. These services could include Global Positioning System (GPS), on-demand entertainment, Internet and Web access, or weather and traffic conditions.

'Wired' South Korea is underexposed
South Korean Chang Won-kim was always a writer and a tech-head, so he quite naturally entered the blogosphere in 2005. His English-language, technology-themed, Seoul-based blog Web 2.0 Asia was inspired by both the need and the personal ambition to convey the evolving state of South Korea's all-too-domestic online industry to the rest of the world.

Can South Korea's President Deliver?
While he was mayor of Seoul, Lee Myung Bak was known for thinking big. He'll need his ambition more than ever as President

Question of the Week: Energy sources
With oil peaking at $100 a barrel, the world energy crisis continues to push countries to develop alternatives to handle depleting fossil fuel sources.

Warehouse blaze claims 40 lives
A massive fire swept through a newly constructed warehouse in Icheon, South Korea Monday, burning for several hours and setting off a series of explosions that killed 40 workers inside, fire officials have told CNN.

Internet groups forging a community of charity
South Korea has long enjoyed some of the fastest and most widely available broadband Internet access on the planet. Top online gamers are bona-fide TV celebrities, and long before MySpace, there was South Korea's Cyworld, a social networking site launched back in 1999.

Report: 14 sailors missing
Fourteen seamen were missing Tuesday after a ship carrying nitric acid sank off the coast of South Korea in rough seas, maritime police said, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

South Korea straddles the politics of change
South Korea's last presidential election, in December, 2002, took place against a backdrop of escalating tension on the Korean peninsula over North Korea's nuclear program and the Bush administration's refusal to negotiate with Pyongyang.

A Win for South Korea's 'Bulldozer'
Lee Myung Bak sweeps to victory in South Korea's presidential election on promises to revitalize the economy

Koreans Struggle to Clean Oil Spill
Thousands of people used shovels and buckets in a massive operation Sunday to clean up the South Korea's largest oil spill, which blackened beaches along the country's western coast.

South Korea's Cloudy Campaign
The front-runner in the country's presidential race is cleared of fraud allegations, thus averting a setback that could have cost him the upcoming election

South Korean cinema struggles with High Definition
As South Korea's Pusan International Film Festival -- widely recognized as Asia's most important film showcase and market -- wraps up its 12th year, one thing has become apparent, at least for the domestic industry: High Definition filmmaking hasn't quite reached the omnipresent proportions many believed it would have by now.

Eye on South Korea: Your e-mails
South Korea is reputed to be the most wired country in the world. CNN has asked readers to weigh in on the topic. How is technology affecting daily life in South Korea, and influencing the rest of the world? Below is a selection of responses, some of which have been edited for length and clarity:

South Korea: CNN video coverage
South Korea is reputed to be the most wired country in the world -- broadband Internet in almost every household and every primary, junior and high school; free television broadcasts on cell phones; professional online gamers with rock-star status; humanoids replacing hosts, clerks, nannies and sentries; 17 million members on Cyworld; and a robot in every home by 2020.

Future tech and puppy love in South Korea
With its anonymous skyline and mind-numbing traffic, Seoul may not seem like a sci-fi city. And yet it's blazing one very high-tech trail.

S. Korea scandalized by fake degrees
South Korea's top universities said this week they will set up a system to detect academic fraud after a disc jockey, a revered Buddhist monk and an aging actress were swept up in a fake-degree scandal.

U.S., South Korea pledge relief to North
North Korea's neighbors and international aid agencies sought Thursday to help the impoverished country cope with floods that have decimated large swaths of farmland, endangering citizens already struggling with food shortages.

S. Korea-U.S. summit comes at critical moment
South Korea's President Roh Moo-hyun sits down for a summit meeting with President George W. Bush on Thursday at a time when the security alliance between the two countries that has helped maintain stability in Northeast Asia for more than half a century faces unprecedented challenges.

S. Korea to pull troops from Iraq
South Korea -- a major supporter of President Bush's Iraq policy -- has announced plans to pull a third of its troops out of Iraq in 2006, a National Security Council spokesman said Thursday.

8 troops die in S. Korea rampage
A South Korean soldier stationed along the Korean demilitarized zone has gone on a shooting rampage, killing 8 of his colleagues, the nation's defense ministry has reported.

N. Korean ship docks near Seoul
For the first time in over two decades, a North Korean ship docked in a South Korean port Sunday, the start of a series of voyages to pick up fertilizer donated to North Korea by the South Korean government.

Cloning success hailed, feared
A breakthrough in human embryonic stem cell research by scientists in South Korea has been hailed as ground-breaking, with the potential to fight a host of ailments, but some people have raised ethical concerns.

S. Korea asks North to return boat
South Korea's military will ask North Korea to return a small boat that ignored warning shots and crossed into Northern waters.

Superstar gamers hot property
It's a cold Tuesday night in South Korea and tens of thousands of people are staying indoors to watch online gaming matches on television.

Dialing up to do business
Big money is changing hands every day in South Korea, and a large percentage of it is happening at the touch of a cellphone button.

Buck the falling dollar
In late February when South Korea's central bank said that it was planning to shift some assets out of U.S. Treasuries and into other currencies, the disclosure set off a day of panic selling in th...

U.S. helicopter down in S. Korea
A U.S. soldier died and a second was wounded when a military helicopter crashed on Saturday while conducting a training exercise in South Korea, officials said.

Dollar tumbles, bonds slide
News that a number of central banks indicated they would diversify their reserves out of Treasuries and into other investments such as the euro sent the dollar tumbling Tuesday, and pressured bonds as well.

S. Korea selects new capital site
South Korea has confirmed it will move its future seat of government to a rural site south of its capital Seoul.

Mystery as more defectors land
A second wave of defectors believed to be North Koreans has arrived in the South in a secretive mass defection that has seen the refugees flown in from an unidentified Southeast Asian nation.

S. Korea: No changes to troop plan
South Korea says it will go ahead with its plan to deploy thousands of troops to Iraq despite a televised threat from militants to kill a South Korean hostage.

S. Korea outlines Iraq dispatch
South Korea will begin deploying more than 3,600 troops to the Erbil region of northern Iraq in August.

Koreas agree to military hotline
North and South Korea have agreed to set up a military hotline in a step towards easing tensions along their heavily fortified border.

U.S. confirms S. Korea troop cut
The United States has notified South Korea and Japan it plans to move about 3,600 troops from South Korea to Iraq, senior Pentagon officials confirmed to CNN.

S. Korea eyes political stability
South Korea's government has pledged economic and political stability Friday, a day after parliamentary elections which saw the pro-government Uri Party win a slim majority.

S. Korea backs pro-president party
South Korea's main opposition Grand National Party conceded defeat in the country's parliamentary election Thursday to the pro-government Uri Party, which is allied with impeached President Roh Moo-hyun.

Koreas cancel economic talks
The impeachment of South Korea's president has prompted the cancellation of economic talks planned Monday, after South Korea refused a request by North Korea to hold them in Pyongyang.

Roh prepares defense amid protests
South Korea's President Roh Moo-hyun has began forming his legal defense team amid huge protests against his impeachment.

Korea's interim leader urges calm
South Korea's Prime Minister Goh Kun has urged citizens to remain calm after taking over as interim head of state following an unprecedented impeachment vote against President Roh Moo-hyun.

S. Korea votes to impeach Roh
SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korea's National Assembly has voted overwhelmingly to impeach President Roh Moo-hyun by 193-2, amid dramatic scenes as rival politicians physically battled on the floor of parliament.

Two Koreas talk to 'ease tension'
North and South Korea have agreed to hold high-level military talks on the North's nuclear weapons program and "ease" military tension.

S. Korea FM quits amid policy flap
South Korea's Foreign Minister Yoon Young-kwan has resigned from his post amid a flap over President Roh Moo-hyun's foreign policy.

SAUDIS TO CUT OUT MIDDLEMEN
^ With Saddam Hussein to worry about, you might expect the Saudis to shelve any foreign forays of their own. Not a bit. State-owned Saudi Arabian Oil has announced a $1.4 billion joint venture that...

PERILS OF GETTING TOUGH ON KOREA They really have opened markets more than most Americans think. Heavy U.S. pressure now could t
''To use a crass analogy, we're saying to the South Koreans: 'If you settle out of court with us, you can plea-bargain for a lesser term, but if you take us to court, just remember that we'll be th...

MONEY magazine contents page September 1988 Volume 17 Number 9
MONEY FLASH

NEWS ABOUT YOU AND YOUR MONEY Going for the gold
South Korea is proving to be a canny marketer of gold coins. The first edition of its minting for the 1988 Summer Olympics, to be held in Seoul, was introduced in March and has already drawn strong...

LET DOWN BY THE DROOPING DOLLAR U.S. industrialists haven't found paradise in the plunge they sought. Some companies have regain
THE DOLLAR'S steeper-than-expected drop should be eliciting hallelujahs in American boardrooms. Instead it is barely evoking sighs of relief. True, many U.S. companies are seeing their foreign subs...

South Korea: News & Videos about South Korea - CNN.com
Find stories, videos, and photos about South Korea from CNN.com.

Henry Kissinger Is Released From Hospital in South Korea
The former United States secretary of state was released after treatment for stomach pains, a spokesman for the hospital said.

Kissinger Hospitalized in South Korea
Henry Kissinger, the former U.S. secretary of state, was hospitalized in Seoul for stomach pains, but his condition has quickly improved, said a hospital spokesman.

Seoul Police Link 1,700 Pairs of Shoes to 2 Feet
Police opened an ex-convict’s warehouse and found 170 boxes packed with designer shoes, believed to have been stolen.

City’s Evolution Offers Lessons in Korean Politics
Few are happy about a $14.3 billion project that has morphed from a plan to create a new capital to a university and science park.

Korean Women Flock to Government
Discriminated against in the private sector, educated women are choosing government jobs instead.

Balanced on a Skater’s Blades, the Expectations of a Nation
No South Korean figure skater has won an Olympic medal, as is expected of Kim Yu-na, whose bid for gold will carry political and cultural elements as well.

Olympic Hopes Rest With Skating Favorite Kim Yu-na
Since finishing third at the 2008 world championships, Kim Yu-na has lost only once, breaking records and raising South Korea’s hopes of its first Olympic gold medal in figure skating.

North Korea Fires Again Into Disputed Waters
North Korea artillery fired shells for the second straight day on Thursday into waters near the disputed western sea border with South Korea.

Samsung Life I.P.O. Could Settle Long Dispute With Creditors
South Korean companies, including Samsung Life, could raise as much as $11 billion this year by selling their shares to the public for the first time.

Rule of Thumbs: Koreans Reign in Texting World
Ha Mok-min and Bae Yeong-ho won an international competition to determine who could send text messages the fastest on a cellphone.

Koreas Exchange Fire at Sea, Adding to Tension
North Korea fired artillery shells into waters near its disputed western sea border with South Korea, and the South Korean military returned warning shots from smaller weapons.

South Korea Warns North on a First Nuclear Strike
South Korea would launch a pre-emptive strike against the North if there were signs of an impending nuclear attack, the South Korean defense minister said Wednesday.

As World Cup Nears, Asian Stars Go Home
The approach of the 2010 World Cup has temporarily reversed the exodus of Korean and Japanese players to Europe, as they seek match time to boost their chances of appearing at the tournament.

In War Against the Internet, China Is Just a Skirmish
It’s no surprise that China polices Web sites, but now nations like France are also cracking down on Internet users.

N. Korea Threatens to Halt All Talks With Seoul
The strident message came just days after the North had proposed holding further talks and accepted food aid from South Korea.

NYT > South Korea
Updated: Sept. 8, 2009

By Su-Hyun Lee and Sang-Hun Choe

Korea's old name, Chosun, means "the land of morning calm." But the nation has had a turbulent modern history. After 35 years of Japanese colonial rule, it was liberated by the Allied forces at the end of World War II - only to be divided into the Communist North and the pro-Western South. The two sides, the North aided by the Chinese and the South by the Americans, fought the Korean War from 1950 to 1953. The war ended in a cease-fire, not with a peace treaty, leaving the peninsula technically still in a state of war.

Korea Today

Today, the inter-Korean border remains the world's most heavily fortified frontier, guarded on both sides by nearly two million battle-ready troops. To the north, North Koreans live under a totalitarian dictatorship that keeps its people in isolation and hunger. To the south, people live in the freedom of one of the world's largest economies - although the country's once fast-growing export economy has been hammered by the global downturn. Former white-collar workers, for instance, have been forced to go into more physically demanding work or traditional kinds of manual labor that are relatively well paid in South Korea - from farming and fishing to the professional back-scrubbers who clean patrons at the nation's numerous public bathhouses.

South Korea has suffered its worst unemployment since the 1997 Asian currency crisis. According to the National Statistical Office, the unemployment rate had risen to 3.8 percent as of July 2009 - low by American standards, but high for this Asian economic powerhouse. (Since then, economic difficulties have eased somewhat.)

Nonetheless, in South Korea, most households are fitted with high-speed Internet. Players at the "e-sport" professional leagues - dragon slayers in cyber space - have a bigger fan club than traditional pop stars. Cell phone text- and image-messaging has replaced voice calls and e-mails as the primacy tool of communication among the nation's youngsters.

The government of President Lee Myung Bak, a conservative elected in 2007, has upended many of the policies of his immediate predecessor, Roh Moo Hyun, a liberal who had focused on developing ties with North Korea and sent it significant amounts of aid. Mr. Lee has taken a much tougher stance toward the North, pushing hard for it to give up its nuclear program. Many South Koreans had expressed frustration with the North even before its latest nuclear test, on May 25, 2009, and missile tests that followed in early July.

After the death in August 2009 of former president Kim Dae-jung, whose "Sunshine Policy" had led to the two Koreas breaching their border to connect roads and railways, ties seemed to improve slightly. The North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, sent a message of improving ties with South Korea, through a high-level delegation to Mr. Kim's funeral. The delegation met with Mr. Lee in Seoul in the first major political meeting between the two Koreas in nearly two years. North Korea also restored regular traffic for South Korean companies that have operations in a joint industrial park in the North Korean border city of Kaesong. In late August, agreement was reached to resume reunions, begun under Mr. Kim, of families divided north and south.

The Post-Korean War Era

Unlike many other dictators in the third world, the military leaders of South Korea, ruling over a country devastated by the war, had a vision for economic development. They marshaled the country into rapid industrialization. But people wanted more. When people rose up in the southern city of Kwangju in 1980 to demand democracy, the junta dispatched paratroops and tanks to kill hundreds. Student and labor movements rocked campuses and factories throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s. In 1993, military generals relinquished power to Kim Young Sam, the nation's first civilian leader in three decades. One thing that didn't change was a prevalent anti-communist sentiment.

South Koreans were shocked and humiliated when their country had to beg a $45 billion international bailout amid the region-wide financial meltdown in the late 1990s. They elected Kim Dae-jung, a long-time opposition leader, as president in 1998. He flung the door open for foreign investors, who bought distressed South Korean firms at fire-sale prices, restructured them and exited, often with staggering profits. Many of the people who had rolled out the red carpet for foreign capital felt bitter.

Mr. Kim's election brought long-persecuted liberal forces into power. They focused on engaging North Korea - an approach that resulted in the first-ever summit meeting between the two Koreas in 2000. In its wake, two million South Koreans visited a North Korean mountain resort. And in a scene televised worldwide, aging Koreans separated by the war a half century ago tearfully hugged one another in temporary family reunions.

The Presidency of Roh Moo Hyun

Mr. Kim tried to reshape South Korea's alliance with the United States. Friction with Washington over how to deal with North Korea - with sticks or with carrots - increased under Mr. Roh, who came to power in 2003, vowing not to "kowtow to the Americans" - an election-year slogan hugely popular among the postwar generations of nationalistic and often anti-American South Koreans. But in the second half of his term, Mr. Roh also took major steps toward expanding the Korea-U.S. alliance by completing a free trade agreement with the United States; he also dispatched non-combat troops to Iraq as a partner in the American-led coalition forces.

After a decade of liberal rule, however, South Koreans grew concerned about what many perceived as a growing rift between Seoul and Washington. They also felt "sandwiched" between high-tech Japan and low-cost China. They worried about rising housing prices and unemployment among the young. They thought Mr. Roh was bungling the economy.

Lee Myung Bak in Power

The sentiments translated into a landslide victory for Mr. Lee in the presidential election in 2007. His election put conservatives back in power. He promised to strengthen ties with Washington and run the country like an efficient business. A former construction C.E.O., Mr. Lee is South Korea's first president with a business background.

Mr. Roh jumped off a cliff on May 23, 2009, as prosecutors were aggressively pursuing allegations of corruption against him and his family. He had long insisted that in a country where all the recent presidents were touched by scandal, his government was clean. His death set off a weeklong period of grief and mourning unrivaled in recent South Korean history.

In September 2009, President Lee replaced his prime minister in a cabinet reshuffle that also removed the country's defense minister, who had clashed with Mr. Lee over military spending. Mr. Lee appointed Chung Un-chan, 61, an American-educated economist and a former president of Seoul National University, to replace Prime Minister Han Seung-soo. Mr. Chung, who earned his doctorate from Princeton University, is frequently described in the South Korean news media as a possible presidential candidate.

Mr. Lee had been under pressure from his ruling Grand National Party to revamp his cabinet since the party, amid economic difficulties, suffered a crushing defeat in parliamentary by-elections in April.

A Changing Society

Korean society is changing rapidly. Learning English is a national obsession. South Koreans supply the third largest group of foreign students in the United States after the Indians and the Chinese. They were immensely proud when their former foreign minister, Ban Ki-moon, became the secretary general of the United Nations in 2006.

Dynamic, emotionally rich and descriptive of modernized yet deeply Asian ways, South Korean pop culture - or "K-pop" - has proved widely popular in the rest of Asia. From Japan to Myanmar, people tune into South Korea drama shows and movies. Thanks partly to the "Korean wave," foreign brides from poorer Asian countries like Vietnam flock to marry Korean men in the countryside, where there is a shortage of young women of marriageable age. Asian migrant workers toil in farms and factories in South Korea, doing the menial work many South Koreans shun. Only a few years ago, school textbooks used to declare proudly that Korea is a "homogeneous nation." No more. The country is rapidly turning into a multiethnic society.