South Korea’s precarious balancing act
The country has to find a way forward in the face of a rising China and an increasingly unpredictable US under Trump
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IN THE early 1950s, after the devastation of the Korean War, South Korea was among the world’s poorest countries. Today, it is an advanced economy, with a per capita income that exceeds that of Japan.
Much of South Korea’s transformation took place under the protection provided by the US military, underscoring the threat that President Donald Trump’s policies now pose to its long-term prosperity and security.
Over the past decade, the global economy has been rocked by five major shocks: Trump’s first-term trade war with China and his second-term tariffs, the Covid-19 pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the war in Iran.
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