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South Korea is famous for its starring role in the cold war and for being one of the last places on earth where you can peer across the front line to the communist world. South Korea is located in Eastern Asia, the southern half of the Korean Peninsula bordering the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea. The country's climate is temperate, with rainfall heavier in summer than winter. The countryside is mostly hills and mountains; there are wide coastal plains in the west and south. The population is 48.4 million.
South Koreas's capital, Seoul, is a modern city with international standard hotels and tourist infrastructure. Hotelz Asia can assist with Hotel reservations in Seoul and 15 other regional cities and towns in this exciting country.
Hotelz Asia does not offer hotel reservations in North Korea as a mark of protest against the ongoing mistreatment and starvation of the people of North Korea by its government.
Korea was an independent kingdom under Chinese suzerainty for most of the past millennium. Following its victory in the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, Japan occupied Korea; five years later it formally annexed the entire peninsula.
After World War II, a republic was set up in the southern half of the Korean Peninsula while a Communist-style government was installed in the north. During the Korean War (1950-1953), US and other UN forces intervened to defend South Korea from North Korean attacks supported by the Chinese. An armistice was signed in 1953, splitting the peninsula along a demilitarized zone at about the 38th parallel. Thereafter, South Korea achieved rapid economic growth with per capita income rising to roughly 14 times the level of North Korea.
In 1987, South Korean voters elected ROH Tae-woo to the presidency, ending 26 years of military dictatorships. South Korea today is a fully functioning modern democracy. In June 2000, a historic first North-South summit took place between the South's President KIM Tae-chung and the North's leader KIM Jong Il.
Since the early 1960s, South Korea has achieved an incredible record of growth and integration into the high-tech modern world economy. Four decades ago GDP per capita was comparable with levels in the poorer countries of Africa and Asia.
In 2004, it joined the trillion dollar club of world economies. Today its GDP per capita is 14 times North Korea's and equal to the lesser economies of the European Union. This success through the late 1980s was achieved by a system of close government/business ties, including directed credit, import restrictions, sponsorship of specific industries, and a strong labor effort.
The government promoted the import of raw materials and technology at the expense of consumer goods and encouraged savings and investment over consumption. The Asian financial crisis of 1997-99 exposed longstanding weaknesses in South Korea's development model, including high debt/equity ratios, massive foreign borrowing, and an undisciplined financial sector.
Growth plunged to a negative 6.9% in 1998, then strongly recovered to 9.5% in 1999 and 8.5% in 2000. Growth fell back to 3.3% in 2001 because of the slowing global economy, falling exports, and the perception that much-needed corporate and financial reforms had stalled.
Led by consumer spending and exports, growth in 2002 was an impressive 7.0%, despite anemic global growth. Economic growth fell to 3.1% in 2003 because of a downturn in consumer spending and recovered to an estimated 4.6% in 2004 on the strength of rapid export growth. The government plans to boost infrastructure spending in 2005. Moderate inflation, low unemployment, an export surplus, and fairly equal distribution of income characterize this solid economy.
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