Minidragons; South Korea; 101

Funding provided by financial guarantee insurance company strength security liquidity FDIC tomorrows security. The mini dragon is for small Asian lands without natural wealth. Have the hottest economies on Earth. Like little Japan. They're pouring out computers cars TV sets toys and clothing. Their impact is visible in our homes in our jobs. Everywhere we look. Are they a threat to America. Or is there growing prosperity an opportunity for us. And the lesson of what determined people can accomplish. My question is is it really to work hard. Tonight meet the first minibreak. South Korea the world's newest and most ambitious industrial powerhouse. Like the people in the other mini dragon country as Koreans are in a hurry to change their lives. South Korea Singapore. Hong Kong.

Taiwan. Centuries of tradition. And culture. Devastated in war. Now the new economic power is of Asia. South Korea. Singapore. Hong Kong. Taiwan. These are the mini dragon. The dragon you know is the symbol of China because the countries you are about to see so greatly influenced by Chinese values. We have make them mini dragons. These values by Confucius honor family

education. This of them. My work and putting the benefit of the country for yourself. This year. Will show you why these countries are so important. They may be tiny in size but they are giants of export and America's future will be increasingly bound up with their success. Let's start with some. I. Mean. You will be. In Korea there's a word on to explain the country and its people. You mean both bitterness and the resentful acceptance of faith born from centuries of oppression and inequality. It's a boy's life lies at the heart of Korea's moves. Oh oh.

They're here to sing songs of anger and frustration with their economic miracle an economic miracle that has taken South Korea in a single generation from a starving third world country to a modern industrial state manufacturing and exporting goods for the rest of the world. But South Korea's success is no miracle. It was bought with the sacrifices of low paid workers. It was bought at the cost of government dictatorships and martial law and at the cost of giant industrial conglomerates that dominate Korea's land and wealth. Now. People are no longer willing to pay the price. South Korea is at a crossroads. To succeed in the future it must find a way to satisfy the demands of its people and sustain economic growth.

That too may not be compatible. Oh. He had me in ancient days. Korea was called The Land Of The Morning Call him. It's an unlikely name for a country of such hardship where nothing's ever come easy. Kim Young Knox family has farmed here for 10 generations but farmers are a

part of the new economic miracle. Kim now supplements his income by fishing in a country with few natural resources. The people themselves are the most valuable resource they endure. Kim wants a better future for his eldest son. Kim Hogge Young is 18 years old and dreams of going to university in Seoul. For over a year. Now he has studied up to 20 hours a day seven days a week for the entrance test a test more than 75 percent will fail him every day. My parents expect the most of me because I am the first son. Their dream is for me to become a judge or a lawyer. Now it's my dream and I won't

disappoint them. When Kim's father was in school higher education was only for a privileged minority. Now it's open to anyone who can pass that tough college entrance exams. Even the son of a poor fisherman from you'll pole village. Kim lives with his father and mother grandmother and younger brother and sister in a house they've owned for generations. The family is the foundation of Korean life. Each new generation has a responsibility to support the last. Kim's parents have dedicated their whole lives to seeing their son go to college. When Kim graduates he'll take care of them. He could take the tank. When I made up my plan when I was in high school

a very detailed plan even down to the date. If my plan works out 10 years from now I'll be a judge or a prosecutor. And so. Kim's grandmother is almost 90 years old. During her lifetime she and her family have experienced the end of Korea's ruling dynasty almost 40 years of Japanese occupation. A bitter civil war and now the new economic miracle. It's less than 200 miles from Europos village to Seoul. But it's a journey from South

Korea's past into its future. Seoul is now the fourth largest city in the world. Three quarters of South Korea's people live in its cities and more arrive every day. Is. This human tide has been the wrong few well-known South Korea's economic miracle. Resource managed and controlled by a small elite of all powerful industrialists. The companies they own. Lucky Goldstar. Samsung. They. Have built the new economic order and their own fortunes in the process. These conglomerates are called chevre. In Korean It means a group with a lot of money.

Sanyo is South Korea's sixth largest chaebol a family business. And a $9 billion conglomerate. As eldest son Kim Sukh one succeeded his father 15 years ago he and 29 others like him control most of the South Korean economy. That means Drager Draven Orient. We considered it kind of a hole all. So I just didn't satisfy with one. So we said the. Sun held by its workers into a business group of international stature. The government created the chamber. Nurtured and fed them with low interest loans and a monopoly on industry and exports. Their task. To industrialize South Korea. Fast. They succeeded only

too well. Now the government struggles to control the creature it created. San Yong and the other chaebol the South Korea's greatest landlords. Seventy five percent of private land is owned by only 6 percent of the population in South Korea. The chaebol are lords of most of what they surveyed. Him suck one is on his way to meet sannyasins new graduate recruits. A. Sang Young receives five thousand applications a year this year

645 were chosen. Now they're part of this San young family. For the rest of their working lives sang Young all expect their total loyalty and allegiance. And get it. I have a responsibility to subside to stretch off the name of Sango from the history book but it's not just my family. 25000 families their families. Oh oh. And. You know my goal is to keep the company prospering and handed on to the next generation.

Today we are living in a new Korea. We're not isolated anymore. We've got to look to world markets. Even enterprise can make a profit. It has no reason to exist. The Enterprise's ultimate goal is to make profit. He sang young as one of the few Chimbo with a good reputation and good labor relations a rare exception in a country where strikes and riots regularly make world headlines. Workers are demanding higher wages and better working conditions but it's not only workers protesting it's all segments of society. Their main targets governments.

And the chevre. South Korea has the greatest gap between rich and poor in any industrialized nation. And the gap isn't closing. The government is increasingly being blamed for this. No. 2 was elected president of South Korea in 1987 after 16 years of harsh military dictatorship. Growing social unrest forced an election but infighting among opposition candidates split the vote and allowed the government's candidate tell you to take power. Because of his past ties to the military dictatorship. Many don't trust him.

Before democratization. Labor unions were illegal labor organizers like quantum souq were jailed and many were tortured. Now labor unions are legal but tightly controlled. Guanine so is free but closely watched by government agents. A year ago she started a labor center to teach workers how to fight how to organize the powerful. When I first plunged into the labor movement our method of protest was ugly wait just shouting slogans without really knowing what the workers were saying. Now we're finally at this stage where we can give the workers some practical help. At the human rights for laborers center Quon in souq is coaching these workers preparing them for an upcoming round of labor negotiations.

First you have to have good strategies. OK. How are we going to advance our demands. How are we going to defeat the other side. Labor talks are held every spring and every spring workers riot in the streets. The government is trying to set limits on salary increases. We didn't want her husband to have devoted their lives to the workers cars and their uncompromising and my mission management of the workers as the goose that laid the golden eggs of course for the

owners who collect the golden eggs. It must have been very nice for the goose that has to lay three or four eggs each day in terrible suffering. What does your what I tell you then no matter how much they try to oppress the workers by enlisting the help of the workers movement will continue. Yes we're going to force this country to change. My. Tone when I first came to so I was so lonely. I

cried a lot. They called me cry crybaby. Everybody here cries a lot. In the beginning but we have to work for happy. Me Oake was 17 when she left her home village. Her parents could no longer support her seven brothers and sisters so she made her way to soul and found a factory job like so many others before her. The pressure for better working conditions has made the lives of girls like these a little easier. They're still crammed into government subsidized dormitories but the factories in which they work now pay them $10 a day. It used to be 250. The impact of higher wages is threatening the survival of small factories. The workhorses of South Korea's economic miracle. Know young son worked his way up in the garment industry he starting as a soldier in the

country. Ten years ago. He bought this factory with help from his family. Knows company motto begins people with green gather together. And then I don't have time for personal life but I don't feel any stress. God gave me this job and I work with my employees. I was. Grandmother. From. The. First time I handed out paychecks. I was overwhelmed with emotion and my rule changed from receiver to giving us paychecks. In honor of the event I went to the best public bathhouse to clean myself and I had my hair cut in my face shaved since then for the past 10 years I've never once missed this ritual. The factory is home to its workers 11 hours a day six days a week.

No young wife runs the cafeteria. Here the workers eat breakfast lunch and at 7:30 dinner the end of their working day. Factories like this were prosperous during the growing years when made in Korea and cheap and low quality. Korean goods are so cheap anymore. They're competing with Made in Indonesia made in Thailand and made in China. The first stage of South Korea is industrializing is over. The second stage. High tech quality products doesn't include small factory owners like no young stock but he's determined to survive. It's Sunday at Kiang Buck Palace. Once the home of Korea's kings.

Now a monument to Korea's ancient past. A reminder of the traditions of 5000 years. Old Jong Nam as a section chief in South Korea's economic planning board. He helped put Korea on the path to industrial wealth. He still believes in the traditions his grandfather taught him. Now he's teaching them to his children. When. They come. It's important. We think about our ancestors confusion is confused and used to be he's putting the benefit of the country about yourself. We lost a lot of this when he turned our focus to that too. That's. The Chinese code. So it means

government. So the name of this building means govern. According to tradition the government officials are the people and they have to think about what the people want first. It's a problem for Jong Nam. These traditions he honors are frequently in conflict with the realities of present day. Korea. Or Korea are still bearing the scars of a bitter civil war. On June 25th 1950 the communist forces from the north burst across the border to invade South Korea. Three years of bitter fighting followed two and a half million Koreans were killed. And the country was devastated. So yeah I was an old man. My father died in the Korean War and I was brought up by

my mother. She was in her 20s at the time. She sacrificed her whole life to raise. You know when the song. How he keep her on you. Dan was to have three meals a day. United Nations forces from 16 countries including America fought for the South. Communist China fought for the north. It was a stalemate. A country divided in the aftermath of World War II was now locked into opposing cold war camps. You do know a cease fire means. It's when two sides in the West stop fighting and rest for awhile. So even now we are still in a stage of war. The legacy of the Korean War is the frustration and bitterness of a nation torn

into the heart of a divided country. Divided into north and south. Region poor. Labor and management. It's Nom's job to maintain South Korea's miraculous economic growth despite the divisions with Hague in which you and I know we are better off than the other developing countries. We still haven't solved the basic problems. But I still fear that Korea has another war to climb and then the best the country and to come that was left to sacrifice and unite as a country. The realities Ojos faces in the past year productivity has

dropped by 30 percent. Exports by 20 percent. Labor strikes have caused 50 factories to shut down and the chaebol are looking in other countries for cheaper labor. South Korea's mighty export engine is slowing down its Nom's job to keep it running. Again. In. Kim Hokke young has been accepted into law school at Korea University in Seoul.

One of the most prestigious in the country. Is the first one from his village ever to be accepted there. Everyone in the village was so proud of me. I visited every house and thanked them for their support. I was eager. My father tries very hard not to show emotions to be stern. Sometimes not very successfully. When he heard that I had been accepted into Korea University. He shouted my son you did well. At.

It's the opening ceremony at the University of the class of 1994. Welcome news from this moment you start your precious college life. You are the leaders of the 21st century. You are studying here at Coria University. Leap into the new world. Now it's time for you to learn the condition of university life and the rituals of photons. Students have always been equally countries.

Students are the loudest voice for democracy in South Korea. Today I really feel like a college student. I belong here. I'm apart of this university. Hello everybody. I'm from Gumble high school 15 graduating class now in Korea University Law School. My name is Jim Hall.

He and his classmates. The hardest part of university life is getting graduating is much easier. But a college degree may no longer assure their future. South Korea's drive for education is running ahead of its ability to provide jobs for graduates. Today's generation won't except the factory jobs. They're training to be managers and company executives. 50000 of them won't be able to find a job this year. South Korea which are manufacturing. Employing a blue collar and less educated workforce. But that workforce is quickly drawing up. Worker expectations have been rising steadily with the growing economy.

Workers no longer want jobs on some things so factory owners are forced to pay higher and higher wages. But this is pricing them out of the international market. The garment industry has been hit the hardest. Wants textiles accounted for over half of Korea's export earnings. Now it's down to about 20 percent. Trading companies like these provide the only gateway to the overseas buyer for small factory owners. Most of these companies are owned by the chairman. There.

No young Sook's factory survives from order to order. Its future depends on the decisions of this man. I. Know. We all want to make it all. I don't feel like. I am. On my. Own. The quality remains poor while labor costs are rising. The trading company can

fill their orders cheaper in other countries. This one is planning to build a factory in Indonesia. No. Problem. For now no young souq gets his order. You'll meet his payroll. But what about next month. And the month after. Poch. Meal and 80 others depend on mr. Know young so he's doing everything he can to stay in business. He started an association in small factory owners to share ideas. These men now manufacture $20 jackets future survival means quality designer

jackets that retail for 100 quality keeps falling and falling. It will never go up. We just have to take the chance. Maybe even borrowing money to buy a better machine. The problem is just as the girls become skilled they get married. When. We started the overseas market we have to go and compare it to China Singapore in the Philippines Indonesia is producing quality. Maybe even a bit in Indonesia. Got markets like this small factory owners outlet for home consumption a market they will increasingly rely on as foreign buyers disappear.

And. Call be made in Korea for Korea. Nnamdi one market has been here for over a century and it's still the place to get the best bargains. So. The senyum corporation celebrates its 50th birthday. Kim Sharpe one has good reason to celebrate. Last year his company get six point two

billion dollars worth of business in 100 countries. Kim is planning to launch his first car into the American market next year. Some people who were wise to do these things. To. Your business is. Struggling to survive after you survive. You have to be stronger. This is young young dragging the valley another creation of Kim Sukh one. Of the. Ski resorts are known.

For people who can afford it. There are now ways to enjoy their leisure time. For 10 years. The Joe Average level. For the communal living standard has been raised dramatically. That you might call it a miracle. Just to put up another sequel. My son told me he didn't need the. Himself one learns to ski in Vermont.

He went to business school in Massachusetts the West taught South Korea's new generation of economic leaders. Now Western businessmen have come looking for a return on that investment. So here's here's Los Angeles. Here's Pauls for this for the house restaurant owner. Not go. Hello gentlemen. Nice to see you. Isn't this going it's going great. Are you playing golf. Going to joke about or project out in the Coachella Valley Golf Course with Coachella Valley. You know warm springs California. This is the prototype for a new hotel that we're going to develop as sweetheart and they have very large rooms that are right on the fair where you can actually walk out the patio and you can tip a ball with you know the other thing is is kind of the gopher's ultimate. That's exactly right. So this is part of a

larger scheme of 1000 acres where you can go vault and to talk to you about the housing component because the housing is the real moneymaker. The price of the houses in this area. Are 50 to 11 million. So you can get something for everybody. But in South Korea houses are not for everybody. The chaebol have decided there is no profit in the low income housing. Most people need. And the shortage grows worse every year. The dream of owning a home is increasingly out of reach for almost half of South Korean families. But. That land is the most valuable asset in the country as small as Korea and the chapel hold the deal.

The government is trying to force them to either build also. So far the chairman have blocked any major reforms. My. God. Oh housing faster democratic reform higher wages and better jobs. The demands are getting louder. But I

every day of the riot police take up their positions on the street to sow. Riots and tear gas seem as common as traffic jam. No part of Korean life is untouched by the inequalities and the people's anger the horror of a divided country. And no person is on. Me. I know.

When one day Kim hockey has come to want to play. It's about a union leader tortured and imprisoned under the National Security Law. The law gives the government ultimate power and control over its people. They. Tried to get my son in. My roommate said he never heard of such things before. But I knew things like that were happening in our country. You know all a. Day.

To me you know. As a government official Oh norm is haunted by the legacy of past injustices. He is touring the country as part of a government campaign to win the people's trust. To assure people that the government is serious about reform. We need more time to know. I firmly believe that the Korean people who want to make a success we are going to succeed. The rich and the leading government officials will help to lead the way. South Korea is struggling with democracy but in small towns and villages it's the economic issues that are the main concern.

Here. Farmers and businessmen are losing patience with government policies that only seem to benefit the rich. How do we get where we are today. We tighten our belts and we worked hard. Families of the factory workers well. We didn't find them and we're better off. But what's happened you know those who used to work hard. Now when you think about their own share of the pie and why they are you to have taken away think about this. Many of the sons and daughters graduated from high school and entered college this year. How did these two enter college. They finally graduate. Despite all the difficulties. But now what they can't find a job. Ali's sons and

daughters they can't find a job. They wake up in the morning and play a necktie but they've got nowhere to go. We can't expect the economy to keep growing unless the people help. We have to date to get. South Korea today faces a delicate balancing act. It must provide the jobs and salaries people now expect. It must keep the factories and small businesses in business. At the same time it must ensure that charitable invest in South Korea's future. To do this the government has decided it must control wage increases. It is turned to the chair of all its own invention to ask for their support. I guess. When the government asked us to help out in slowing

the wage increase and to help prevent war Glaus resulting from strikes. The guidelines said the limit there is less than 7 percent including raises for promotions as opposed to try to negotiate with the labor unions so that the rest of the industry will follow the pedal. They even said if we don't follow the guidelines we will be pointed out to you. Right now. We always worry about the wealth. Created in the last three decades. It's not just creepy. It is coming. We had to do a bit more push. It may not be our generation but definitely down next.

Bulging. Nahm. Has many goals for his children and for his country. He feels equally responsible for their future happiness. Mean Big improvement. When people are asked to say that the quality of life today is better than yes. And they have faith. Tomorrow will be better. Kim Young has a detailed plan for his future and he will work hard to achieve it. But his success will be determined by the choices his countrymen make. South Korea has reached the crossroads. That crucial step of

industrialization. A step from labor intensive to high tech. It succeeded in the past because government had the power to enforce its policies. But that power is now being challenged. A challenge accelerated by the higher expectations of a newly created consumer society. They. Come in anger and frustration students and teachers farmers and businessmen. Workers and housewives on lawyers who work hard to explain the country

and its people. I. Don't. I. Don't know. What's going. On. In. America.

We can appreciate and applaud the Qur'an struggle for democracy. The quest for a better life has brought many to America. More than a million careers now live and work here. They are some of our newest immigrants and already some of our most successful. But this should come as no surprise to anyone who knows and understand Korea's history. For over two thousand years Korea has been the battleground for foreign invaders. China Russia and Japan have all a claim to Korea at one time or another. If it weren't for their fear determination to survive there would be no Korea today. And that determination to succeed against all odds is a hallmark of the Korean character. One historic tragedy yet to be overcome. Is there a divided country a legacy of the Korean War in which America has played its own part over 50000 Americans lost their lives in that war a war that was never officially ended. Even today 40000 U.S. troops remain on guard in South Korea. The last outpost of the Cold

War. While Seoul Korea has made great strides economically North Korea remains one of the most closed and inflexible communist regimes left in the world today. At a time when communism is in retreat around the globe. The scene of the Berlin Wall coming down was a graphic reminder of Korea's own divided state. And for every Korean at home or in America the question remains when is our time. There are signs of hope that things may be changing. The prime ministers of North and South Korea have met three times in less than a year. These are the first top level contact ever. There have been no dramatic agreements but just the fact that they are talking is remarkable. We are used to label like this that say Made in Korea. Korea's industrialization has a lot of parallels with America. Back in the 1920s. The exploitation of cheap labor led to the organization of

labor unions here. The same conditions in Korea are leading to the same demands closing may still be South Korea's biggest export. But as you have seen. That's about to change. This is Korea's future. Expensive and sophisticated products. General Motors cars sold in America came off the assembly line in South Korea. They also make IBM monitors Caterpillar forklift and one in every three microwaves. An economic innovation hardly one way or another. These are the results of co-operative ventures between American and Korean firms. This sort of cooperation helps the United States compete in a global economy. South Korea has experienced one of the most remarkable turnaround in modern history. Truly an economic miracle. Next we'll look at another miracle on the tiny island of Taiwan.

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