Unification Rice Helped Koreans Overcome Hunger
By Michael Breen
As the phrase that sums up Korean development suggests, the ``Miracle on the Han River'' is the story of a government-led exodus from the village to the city.
However, it is a measure of just how poor and unprepared the people were for industrial growth, that as the authorities started nation-building, they also had to intervene in a big way simply to ensure everyone had enough to eat. This overlooked chapter in Korea's story explains why there was so much resistance to what now seem like common-sense ideas about building roads and entering new industries. How can we focus on long-term national development, people ― including bureaucrats ― wondered, when we don't know where the next meal is coming from.
This was a question that the president of the day, Park Chung-hee, the army general who conceived and drove the economic miracle, knew very well. As a poor boy, he was familiar with the perennial food shortages. The toughest time of year came in late spring when last year's rice was all gone and the new barley crop was still ripening.
South Korea's road t
Apr 23, 2010
