This article is written by Anders Riel Muller. South Korea, Part II: Modernization and  global ambitions On April 19, 2011, in  Uncategorized , by tkerssen  Anders Riel Muller South Korea’s development model has often left outsiders wondering how this country went from being one of the world’s poorest nations to an economic super power in less than 50 years. The model has been hailed as one of the best examples of rapid industrialization with relatively little social and environmental costs. Clearly these observers never ventured far outside of Seoul. The social, human, and environmental costs are apparent the further you get away from the urban centers. Even though Korea finally achieved democracy in the late 1980’s successive governments have more or less followed the same economic trajectory. The official image of Korea as a dynamic, global and high tech society is what most visitors and mainstream Koreans see. Environmental, social, and economic policy is centered o...