Taegeukgi Symbolizes 4 Virtues Koreans Need
By Cho Jin-seo
Staff Reporter
"I do not want our nation to become the richest or the most powerful one in the world," said Kim Gu, the leader of Korea's independence movement, when the country did not even possess the technology to make a bicycle.
"I want Korea not to imitate others, but to become a role model of high culture."
More than six decades after Kim stressed the importance of culture and respect in his essay "My Desire," South Korea has become a member of the OECD, a club of rich nations, and is now hosting the leaders of the most powerful economies in the world in a G-20 meeting slated for November.
But people are still wondering whether the country has achieved as much success in winning respect as it has had in making cars and mobile phones.
The government has been approaching the international status issue from the point of brand image - exporters often complain about the "Korea Discount," saying that foreigners have lower regard for Korean goods compared to Japanese or American products.
But Park Eung-kyuk, one of the chief architects of the nation's administration policies, does not think "brand" is a suitable word here.
"A nation is neither a company nor a product. A nation's status is rather like an individual's personality," said the president of the Korea Institute of Public Administration (KIPA). "National status doesn't necessary reflect the country's economic or military power. An ideal nation should also have high moral standards and be able to co-prosper with its neighbors."
Park, formerly dean of Hanyang University's Graduate School of Local Autonomy, was appointed to lead the government think tank last year. One of his missions is to guide politicians and bureaucrats in helping South Korea raise its international status.
Park's idea sounds surprisingly more philosophical than his academic career may suggest. He pulls out a drawing of South Korea's national flag, the Taegeukgi, and cites an archaic transcript to explain that the black stripes on each of the four corners are symbols of the four virtues that Koreans need ― sincerity, trust, love and happiness. "To raise the international status of Korea, we need to be reminded of what Taegeukgi stands for," he says.
One of the fastest and easiest ways to implement the ideal of co-prosperity is to give citizenship to children of foreigners born in Korea, he added.
Government's role in Economy
Park then shows the scholastic side of his character in explaining the growth of the South Korean economy. An expert in the public administration sector, he concludes that one of main reasons was the high-quality of manpower in the government.
"Think about the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s. The bureaucrats in the economic sector were highly specialized and highly capable," he said. "Research shows that the Korean government was financially healthier than more developed nations at the time. Basically, the government used its own surplus to fill the astronomical deficit of private companies, and international organizations could trust that."
The quality of government workers was one of the issues regarding the recent financial crisis. Many experts point out that U.S. regulators could not supervise banks properly because the country's most talented people were in the private sector, while government jobs were taken by less qualified or less ambitious people.
On the other hand, Korean government agencies are never short of a talented supply, because of the high esteem and respect they earn in society. Also, being a civil servant has been the easiest way to break the glass ceiling between social classes, Park said.
However, even an efficient and meritocratic government like Korea's is not without flaws, and the most serious challenges it faces now are myths on privatization and rampant populism in regional administrations, he added.
"People thought privatization could save the nation. But it is not the case, especially in the infrastructure industry. Companies have different reasons for being separate from the government, and they may not serve the best interest of the public."
The role of the government has often been underestimated in Western academic circles when their free-market economies enjoyed continuous growth, but recently more economists are delving into the importance of the state, especially after the financial crisis. Chang Ha-joon, a Korean professor at Cambridge University, argues that most wealthy nations relied heavily on protectionism and the control of a central government at some point in their history to reach "first-world" status.
In the same respect, Park says that the government should not hand over land cheaply to private firms, as it is going to do in Sejong City. "It is much better to rent the land out for a long term, maybe 30 or 50 years," he said.