South Korea´s Current Drama

South Korea´s Current Drama

By: Erreh Svaia

“I couldn't stand back and watch the strong economy that my father envisioned go to ruins.”

Park Geun-hye

As a growth phenomenon I have been following closely South Korea's successful path as a nation, their brilliantly devised strategy based on education and technology which paid huge dividends for them, a country that in the 50s was economically far behind México, and made the big leap forward, creating a powerful nation that easily became one of the biggest success stories in recent times, Korea has gotten a lot of attention from México, after becoming close business partners, with the installation of a manufacturing plant property of KIA this year in Pesquería, a small town in the state of Nuevo León, not too far from Monterrey, the industrial capital city in the northeast of the country, now friendly called "Peskorea, Nuevo León". 

I remember the visit a couple of years ago of Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman, what Paul explained us in the audience was that the main reason why South Korea was able to overcome their disastrous past and become the innovation powerhouse it is today was education, it was, and it still is a very important clue, considering that education is one of the biggest deficiencies in México, one of the main obstacles for the country in order to move from a manufacturing agent into a one more innovation leading player in the style of SK. 

Although the USA's president Barack Obama made recently a tour thru several South Asian countries, it seems that the TPP or Trans Pacific Partnership will be kept in hold while the USA election takes place, as both candidates have clearly shown their intentions either to suspend the trade agreement or to make several adjustments to it, considering the fast forming economic blocks these days, and the reconfiguration of China's economy, this wasted time could mean so much in the future, it has left some major players in suspension for moments, and especially in the case of South Korea still a potential member, comes in a particularly complicate moment, considering China's aggressive advances in the South China Sea, a clue naval corridor of big importance considering it's potential as a trade path in an increasingly growing region, North Korea ever present nuclear menace, with more and more nuclear tests, and even Philippines president Duterte anti USA rhetoric, added to his current flirtations with China, leaving SK in a kind of isolated state at this precise moment, with long tine troubled Japan as a not to convenient partner at the time. 

Not only geopolitically speaking is South Korea passing through a hard time, consider also that Samsung, one of the most important tech companies in that country is going through a deep crisis after the bad performance of their latest smartphones called Galaxy Note 7, with devices exploding in some occasions, causing not only deadly damage to its users, but also economical damage to the company and to the South Korean economy, one more blow, is the recent scandal involving none other than president Park Geun-hye, the first in women in SK to occupy the position, an historical event, considering that South Korean is still a very male dominated nation, and also considering Park's tragic past with both of their parents killed, his father, dictator Park Chung-hee was killed by one of his closest collaboration, now president Park faces the accusation of being under control of a "shadow president" a close friend of her, daughter of a shamanic cult leader that became advisor of Chung-hee, Park's popularity has drastically sank, and voices asking for her resignation are getting louder all over the country, is a very traumatic experience for such an admirable nation, happening in difficult times, a conjunction of unfavorable situations that could deviate South Korea from its successful route.