"Most remarkably, the country has achieved global competitiveness in a wide array of industries, from supertankers to microchips." Though lacking natural resources, Korea created the most efficient steel industry in the world. The Korean auto industry, which has five major players (including General Motors), ranks among the world’s top 10 producers. And Korea is the world’s leading maker of memory chips plus such high-tech products as smart cell phones.

Korea is the most wired nation in the world. Morgan Stanley estimates that 68% of Korean households subscribed to broadband internet service last year, compared with an estimated 15% in the U.S. and 8% in Western Europe.

The Roh Administration aims to maintain economic vitality by strengthening market forces. Korea earned top marks from the international community for its handling—and overcoming—the Asian financial crisis of 1997-98. The nation’s foreign reserves exceed $123 billion, the fourth largest in the world, which is approximately two and a half times the country’s short-term external liabilities. And total foreign debt represents less than 30% of Korea’s Gross Domestic Product—very low by international standards.