I read somewhere that it added up to something like 4 or 5 billion (in 1960’s currency)…a few hundred billion short of the trillions you suggest.

Western civ wouldn’t have fire if it wasn’t for Prometheus also, I might add.

Billions, if not trillions, of dollars have been poured into Korea by other nations….

Billions? Yes. Trillions? No.

Korea’s economic rise is largely due to the reforms and policies instituted by Park Chung Hee (an avowed atheist) and some good ole fashioned Confucian work ethic. Foreign aid was merely the spark that created the economic growth explosion which was largely due to the efforts of the Korean government and people. Foreign aid is also a double-edged sword, depending on who you give it to. In the right hands, it can led to national development. In the wrong hands, like self-interested corrupt dictators like Ferdinand Marcos, it can keep that corrupt leader longer in power, and ultimately hurt the country’s growth. So sayeth the Congressional Budget Office (1997)

http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/43x.....Entire.pdf

Maybe, you seem just as near-sighted as those who claim that the US is solely responsible for the current state of the South Korean economy.

The majority of the investments in South Korea from 1953 to 1964 came from foreign economic aid. Foreign economic aid freed the government from having to spend its meager foreign reserve on the import of food and cement. From 1963 or so, South Korea also began receiving low interest loans, which permitted it to go ahead with Park Chung Hee’s development plans and, eventually, eliminate its dependence on foreign aid in 1974. As much as Park Chung Hee’s plans were successful, fact is that if it wasn’t for international aid and low-interest loans, the South Korean economy would not have grown so rapidly as it would have been crippled by foreign debt.

South Korea wasn’t the only benifactuary. After WWII, the U.S. poured billions into rebuilding Japan (and Europe) also. Let us not forget the Yoshida Doctrine, Japan’s policy of letting the U.S. bear most of the burden of fighting the Cold War in East Asia as Japan focused on economic growth.

We may fear for our soul with a Christian religious nut… but we do not generally fear for our lives.

That’s an important point to consider.

korea stops recieving aid in the 70’s i give you that(check)
korea doesnt have to spend billions on its military (check)
those billions are poured into building the country examples are the CHAEBOLs (check)

i am not saying koreans didnt acheive
i am just saying they had a relatively easy path to success based on political and military circumstances.

do you honestly think that koreans would be where they are today had the United Nations not guaranteed their security?

you are now excommunicated for the time being!!