This text explores the reasons for Korea's economic crisis, its aftermath, and its impact on the system that brought it about. It traces a variety of events that constituted the crisis including: a series of scandals at the height of the Korean miracle; the efforts of the one time dissident Kim Dae Jung, as president, to curb the overweening power of the chaebol, or conglomerates; the outside intervention by the IMF; and the country's desperate efforts to obtain foreign investment. At the same time, the book explores another overwhelming problem, that of coming to terms with North Korea, which is suffering from famine but still a threat.