By John Rennie Short

This is my second visit to South Korea. The first time was in 1993. I notice a number of changes to Seoul.

Some are obvious. The banks of the Han River are much greener, more landscaped and more accessible. The city as a whole looks much greener than the uniformly grey of the concrete city I remember. Air quality, despite the huge increase in traffic, is noticeably better although still not great. The sheer weight of traffic as well as the airborne pollution from China creates a pall of smog across the city. Seoul is more globalized: there are Starbucks and more signs in English. South Koreans are more connected to the rest of the world through economic links as well as diasporic connections and Internet traffic.

Of course, there are the things about any foreign country that stand out to a visitor. The ethnic homogeneity continues to be very obvious compared to other powerful economies.

While South Korea is very successful at exporting goods all over the world, it has more difficulty dealing with immigration from overseas. Society is still more economically globalized than culturally globalized. Then there are the very sharp differences. South Korea is one of the world's most educated societies. Almost 90 percent of South Koreans go on to higher education, a truly staggering figure. Colleges and universities are some of the driving forces of national and local economic development.

The confidence and ambition of the rapidly growing economy also stand out against the slower pace of more developed economies. In some cases, the confidence is played out in massive modernization projects such as the new district of Songdo currently being built by the city of Incheon.

There are also more subtle changes. A more mature and pragmatic attitude to the costs as well as the benefits of rapid economic growth is increasingly evident from speaking to the people and listening to their debates. There is a fuller reckoning of the colonial legacy of Japanese control, of the collaborations as well as the resistances.

While there is justifiable pride in economic achievements, there is a deep sense of trauma inflicted on the country by the recent history of colonialism, war, and rapid industrialization. There is a self-conscious grappling with history. Seoul now boasts a new National Museum of Korea, and the grand Joseon palaces of Changdeokgung and Gyeongbokgung are refurbished and open to the public.

Other visible reminders of the past do not have such venerable legacies. You do not have to travel very far from Seoul to see the barbed wire that separates the South and the North _ an affluent country divided from one bordering on mass starvation. Since my last visit, South Korea has prospered while North Korea has spiraled down into even more authoritarian rule, misery and hunger.

Since 1993, democratic governance, then comparatively new in South Korea, has taken firm hold. South Korea is fully recognized as a member of functioning democracies. While political participation is more egalitarian, there are signs that, as in many other countries, income inequalities and wealth differences are increasing. Disparities in income and wealth are increasing.

The very rapid changes have also created generational differences. Young South Koreans now inhabit a very different world from their parents and one unimaginable to their grandparents. While the Confucian tradition remains strong it is being tested by the sharp differences in generational experiences and expectations.

Since 1993, South Korea has prospered yet also experienced the economic crisis of 1997 when the full costs of economic globalization were made more obvious and palpable. A cannier attitude to financial globalization is apparent in the fact that South Korea is less affected than many other country by the global economic crisis that began in late 2008.

The relationship with Japan is more complex. While there are growing links of exchanges in popular culture and direct connections ― Seoul's hotels are filled with Japanese visitors lured by the easy transport and the strong yen ― the issues of Dokdo and the naming of the East Sea/Sea of Japan remain thorny issues without immediate resolve.

It seems to this sympathetic visitor that the country is now poised to enter a more mature period in which the legacies of the past and the prospects of the future are more nuanced and more complex. To visit the emerging city of Incheon or the fast-paced metropolis of Seoul is to get a glimpse of the speed and feel of a high-octane modernity coming to terms with its past and establishing its future role in the world.

I was excited by the prospect of South Korea joining the ranks of affluent democracies as an active participant and Seoul becoming a truly world city as an important hub in the global urban system.

The writer is a professor of public policy at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Md. He can be reached at jrs@umbc.edu.