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South Korea is far from being a model democracy. Yet compared with their compatriots in the North, South Korea's 37.5 million citizens enjoy a surprising amount of freedom to worship, travel, work where they choose, and even to speak their minds. In the past few weeks, Park has allowed far more public dissent than he has for years, even though some observers complain that the new liberty was mere window dressing for the two-day Carter visit. Nevertheless, Kim Young Sam, newly elected leader of the New Democratic Party, has taken advantage of the respite to demand the complete restoration of democracy, and has said that he would be willing to talk with North Korea's dictator Kim II Sung about reunification. Sums up one Washington specialist: "The oppressive machinery is still there, but it has been applied much less in recent years."
Despite Park's repressive measures, he is generally given credit for astutely managing South Korea's economic "miracle." When he came to power in 1961, the median annual income was less than $100. In 1979 it may reach about $1,500. A recent study by the World Bank concluded that South Korea has been by far the most effective country in the developing world in equably sharing its growing wealth between urban and rural areas. The annual growth rate since 1962 has averaged 9.3%, allowing South Korea to transform itself into a semi-industrialized state that may soon leave the ranks of the underdeveloped nations. Last year exports totaled $12 billion, of which $4 billion went to the U.S. Some 1,500 U.S. companies are now represented in South Korea.
There are some signs that the gold-rush days may be over. Inflation is running at an annual rate of 15%; labor shortages and urban congestion have become major problems. Although the government has begun a stabilization program to redress imbalances and control inflation, an economic downswing could spell trouble for Park, who until now has deflected political dissent by producing prosperity.
To be sure, many Korean laborers get subsistence wages for long hours and Dickensian working conditions. Still, there is ample evidence that the quality of life is gradually improving as South Korea's hard-earned wealth trickles down. Life in the cities and the countryside has a long way to go to match that in Japan or the West, but it is far superior to what North Korea has to offer. For many South Koreans, who remember the grinding poverty they endured as a war-destroyed nation just a quarter-century ago, the rewards of modernization still outweigh its abuses—and Park's rule is more tolerable than the alternatives.