Current status of bioindustry in South Korea

Presents information on the status of the biotechnology industry in South Korea in 2005. Stages of the country's bioindustry; Research portfolio; Strategies to gain competitive advantage on a global basis; Goals of the industry's generation projects.

A legitimate paradox : neo-liberal reform and the return of the state in Korea

This article examines the neo-liberal reforms that the Kim government implemented in post-crisis Korea. It argues that by embracing the reforms, the state, paradoxically, re-legitimised itself in the national political economy. The process of enacting the reforms completed the power shift from a collusive state-chaebol alliance towards a new alliance based on a more populist social contract - but one that nonetheless generally conformed to the tenets of neo-liberalism. Kim and his closest associates identified the malpractices of the chaebols as the main cause of the crisis, so reforming the chaebols would be the key to economic recovery. Combining populism and neo-liberalism, they drew on support from both domestic and international sources to rein in, rather than nurture, the chaebols.

Reconciling colonial memories in Korea and Japan

The Republic of Korea and Japan share a tumultuous history, but arguably no period has caused greater trauma in bilateral relations than the twentieth century. After Japan’s four-decade long colonial occupation of Korea, the two countries took two decades just to establish diplomatic relations. Subsequent interactions have remained seriously compromised by the memory of colonialism. This article reviews the tensions behind the tempestuous bilateral relationship, focusing on the depiction of Japan’s wartime past in school textbooks. We advance three suggestions for reconciliation: viewing reconciliation not as the restoration of a harmonious pre-conflict order, but as an ongoing, incomplete process; expanding promising bilateral dialogues; and accepting that there will always be differences between Korea and Japan, most notably with regard to representations of the past. Rather than being an inevitable source of conflict, these differences should contribute to an ongoing process of negotiation between the two neighbors.

Korea's developmental alliance : state, capital and the politics of rapid development

South Korea is often cited as a case of miraculous transformation from poverty to prosperity. Korea’s achievement of moving from one of the world’s poorest countries as recently as the early 1960s to the ranks of the ten biggest economies only four decades later has rightly attracted interest from policymakers and scholars alike.

This book identifies the factors that shaped relations between the state and big business in Korea, the ‘developmental alliance’. These factors offer a cogent framework in which to identify and predict changes in power relations between government and business. Rather than merely offering a means of explaining the rapid-growth phase of Korean development, the politics of the developmental alliance also help us understand how and why the Korean miracle turned to crisis in 1997 and why the subsequent recovery has been so uneven. In this way, the book highlights the political power of business, which is often underplayed in discussions of the development of Korea. It also sheds light on the constraints on policymakers during modernisation, and how power is shared among a small number of powerful parties.

Illustrating the tumultuous politics of the ‘developmental alliance’ between business and government during the rise and decline of South Korea’s economic miracle, this book is an essential read for anyone interested in Korean politcs, economics and development,

Rogue en vogue : North Korea and the war on terror

North Korea occupies a unique place in the thinking of US policymakers insofar as it represents both a direct, physical threat and also a reminder of the limits to American power. In numerous ways, North Korea is anathema to the US: it has fulsomely rejected America’s systems of political–economic organisation, its gradual rapproachment with South Korea threatens to undermine the rationale for America’s military presence in Northeast Asia, and its possession of nuclear weapons threatens the safety of the US and its allies. For these reasons, and despite its lowly standing in the international political system, North Korea continues to severely frustrate the superpower’s interests and thus represents an existential threat to the US.

Korea - squandering a mandate for change?

In winning the presidential and legislative elections of 2007-8, the Grand National Party and its leader Lee Myung-bak have attained a potentially unique opportunity to influence South Korea's political, economic and diplomatic trajectory. This paper reviews Korea's 'once in a generation' election and prospects for change under President Lee. Despite the political capital accrued from his party's landslide victories, Lee appears set to replicate previous incumbents of the presidency, each of whom has been overwhelmed by the high expectations of the public on the one hand, and the harsh constraints imposed by Korea's geopolitical position on the other.

The rise of China and South Korea : sunshine and beyond

While China’s re-emergence at both the regional and global levels has attracted much attention, a less discernible development has been South Korea’s bid to adopt a more robust foreign policy. For the decade following the establishment of bilateral relations with the mainland in 1992, South Korea viewed China as a valuable partner that could facilitate its foreign policy goals. Although differing in ambition and capacity, in several respects—their preferred methods of resolving the North Korean nuclear crisis, their expanding trade and investment, and their scepticism about Japanese intentions—the regional perspectives of China and South Korea proved to be highly complementary. However, closer ties with China complicate Korea’s relations with the United States, whose regional leadership China is beginning to challenge. In light of the adverse impact of the rise of China on the Korea–US alliance and other developments (notably the dispute involving the Goguryeo kingdom), South Korea’s views of China have cooled. This paper traces the Korean debate about the rise of China and its implications.

Biopharmaceutical innovation and industrial developments in South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan

South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan are well known as export-oriented developmental states which for decades employed industrial policy to target particular industries for government support. In the past fifteen years, these three countries all identified the biopharmaceutical industry as a strategic sector. This article explores, through economic analysis, the rationale for this decision and the strategies chosen for linking into the global bio-economy with the objective of catching up in biopharmaceuticals. The paper identifies three comparative advantages enjoyed by these countries in the biopharma sector: (1) public investments in basic research; (2) private investments in phase 1 clinical trials; and (3) a potentially significant contract research industry managing latter-stage clinical trials. Governments employ a range of industrial policies, consistent with these comparative advantages, to promote the biopharmaceutical industry, including public investment in biomedical hubs, research funding and research and development (R&D) tax credits. We argue that the most important feature of the biopharmaceutical industry in these countries is the dominant role of the public sector. That these countries have made progress in innovative capabilities is illustrated by input measures such as R&D expenditure as share of gross domestic product, number of patents granted and clinical trials, and volume of foreign direct investment. In contrast, output indicators such as approval of new chemical entities suggest that the process of catching up has only just commenced. Pharmaceutical innovation is at the stage of mainly generating inputs to integrated processes controlled by the globally incumbent firms.

South Korea confronts the rise of China

The rise of China is one of the most discussed topics in the field of international relations. While few doubt that China is indeed “rising”, precisely how this process is unfolding and with what implications, is unclear. Should China’s growing prominence in regional and global affairs be treated as simply the latest in a natural process of states rising in influence, or is it somehow new, different or potentially destabilising? Given that the implications of China’s rise have been acutely felt in South Korea, this paper focuses seeks to typologise the responses of the South to the rise of China.