Korea’s distinct lack of progress in making itself the hub of anything has less to do with topography (except in the case of rail and road transport) than other factors. One thing they got right in the hype was its position relative to the demographic center of East Asia. UPS’ US hub of hubs is located in St. Louis, of all places, because it is the demographic center of the States. But in East Asia, UPS, e.g., operates its hubs from Taipei, Hong Kong and Singapore - each targeting a slightly different service area, not only for obvious political reasons, but because of the relative freedom each affords it to operate on its own terms rather than those dictated by the local govt, and/or the local leeches “partners” that govts in places like Korea and Japan effectively foist on foreign entrants to the domestic market - even just the domestic location as a platform for int’l, as opposed to local, commerce. (UPS has a lot of institutional experience with these sorts of issues from its long history of having had to obtain both interstate and intrastate operating rights back in the days when the US trucking business was much more highly regulated than it is now).

Linkd> Lets be fair, St. Louis was the “fortress” hub of TWA for a long time. Then again look what happened to TWA. On the other hand KC is/was a HUGE rail hub largely based on its geography.

Someone, not me, once mentioned it was already the hub of global prostitution.