Asian financial crisis and its impact on ROK's economy and society

The 1997 Korean crisis arose as a result of external debt maturity mismatch. When the region was hit by the Asian monetary crisis, there was not enough confidence in the economy of Korea and Korean banks could not rollover their short term debt. I argue that this lack of confidence on the part of international investors was caused not only by the wider regional crisis but also by non-economic factors in Korea such as corruption, student radicalism, a general strike and military incidents with the DPRK. In the text I provide an economic summary of the crisis and a discussion of problems in Korean society as well as a narrative of Korean political history in the crisis years. Keywords: Korean financial crisis, Asian Financial Crisis, IMF, corruption, student movement, general strike, ROK, DPRK, 1990s