At the dawn of its second half-century as a
republic, Korea is looking to the old virtues
for help in the tough times that lie ahead
BY DONALD MACINTYRE Seoul
o understand why millions of Koreans stayed up until
dawn to watch
20-year-old golf sensation Pak Se Ri win the U.S.
Women's Open in
July, consider how she got where she is today. When
Pak was a
teenager, her family couldn't afford to send her to a gym.
So she strengthened
her legs by running up and down 15 flights of stairs in her
neighbor's
apartment building. Korea's golf courses are priced for the
rich, so Pak
practiced her bunker shots from the sandy banks of a
reservoir near her
home. To toughen her nerves, her dad even made her practice
her swing in
the deserted cemetery where her grandfather is buried. Her
plucky example
was a welcome tonic for a country that has had little to
cheer about lately
amid one of the worst economic crises in its 50-year
history. For Koreans,
Pak made it big thanks to the same traditional values on
which their
resource-poor country has always relied: grit,
self-sacrifice and a taste for
hard work. Says Park Young Moon, a sports commentator for
the Korean
Broadcasting System: "Se Ri proved to Koreans that our
can-do spirit can
get us through these tough times."
There is another reason Pak's success resonates so deeply
with Koreans.
When she started to pull down trophies as a young adult, a
corporate
sponsor eventually paid for a workout room and plenty of
time on the greens.
But still she didn't start doing things the easy way. The
obvious choice was
the Japanese golf circuit, where Pak would have cleaned up.
Instead, she
headed to the U.S. to test her mettle in the toughest
league in the world. So
when Pak sank the winning U.S. Open putt, many of her
compatriots saw a
hopeful metaphor for their country's chances in a tough new
era of free
markets and global competition. The economic crisis has
shattered Koreans'
confidence in their home-grown brand of crony capitalism.
And it hammered
home a message: traditionally closed to the outside world,
Korea must open
up or fall behind. As Koreans race to reinvent themselves,
Pak's win gave a
gloomy nation a welcome shot of confidence.
The country's most famous dissident, now sitting in the
presidential Blue
House, is a great fan of Pak's--and the chief cheerleader
for a more open,
outward-looking Korea. Since coming to office in February,
Kim Dae Jung
has pushed his vision of a free-market economy balanced
with the kind of
democracy he has fought for decades to install. The
President has set the
tone for the great national debate now unfolding, stressing
the need for
reconciliation as this country of 47 million people puts
its sometimes bitter
past behind it. Not everybody is buying Kim's blueprint, of
course. But
Koreans mostly agree on the need for a decisive break with
the past. "Korea
is at a crossroads," says Kim Jong In, a former
presidential adviser on the
economy. "Now that we have a consensus, this is a great
opportunity for
reform."
So as South Korea this week prepares to mark its 50th
anniversary as a
republic, the world should take note. The country may
currently be in the
rough--gross domestic product is expected to decline by 4%
this year--but a
more robust democracy and a stronger economy could emerge
from today's
turmoil. Surviving the crisis is the biggest priority for
most Koreans right now.
But here and there are signs of what the new Korea may look
like.
For a preview, take a stroll through the bustling streets
of Seoul's fashionable
Myongdong district. Ten years ago, its lively pubs and
restaurants served
only Korean beer. The market was tightly closed to imports,
and the Doosan
conglomerate's OB brand was the national brew. These days,
flashy ads for
Budweiser, Heineken and Corona plaster the walls of
Myongdong watering
holes, competing for space with a clutch of domestic
brands. What's more,
even OB isn't as Korean as it used to be. The young people
glugging
tankards of the stuff may not know it, but Doosan sold
control of Korea's
best-known beer to a foreign company in June.
Cover: Photograph for TIME by Shonna Valeska. Hair and
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