first introduced to Koreans by their Japanese overlords earlier in the
century.
The regime seized private banks owned by Samsung, Hyundai, and the
like and barred them from future bank ownership. The banks gave too
much financial power to the industrialists and were prone to creating
financial bubbles and backdoor deals. President Park forced the barons to
manufacture their way into his good graces. State-led consortiums pooled
together capital and technology to help Korea race ahead in steel,
shipbuilding, and petrochemicals. His regime set tough export quotas,
pitting company against company. If one fell behind, its state loans would
be cut, and the chaebol would collapse.
And finally there was the torrent of foreign money. American donor aid
for military bases in South Korea and huge payments from the United
States in exchange for Korean troops being sent to fight in Vietnam, as well
as Japanese payments totaling $800 million—reparations intended to
restore diplomatic ties—were put to use in building a sophisticated network
of roads, infrastructure, and ports that fired up industry.
The chairman of the steelmaker Posco stood before employees in June
of 1965 and told them, “This is a steel factory built with Japanese
payments, the price of which was the blood of our ancestors. If we fail it
will be an indelible sin against history and the South Korean people.”
Chung Ju-yung, founder of Hyundai, was even more blunt, hurling an
ashtray and slapping his senior executives if they failed to reach the
rigorous financial goals the company had set.
B.C. Lee became the first chairman of the Federation of Korean
Industries, a council of business elders who convened to align their goals
with the regime’s and to protect the chaebol groups from heavy-handed
intervention.
Through this lobbying group, President Park prodded Samsung to build
a fertilizer plant, a cornerstone of national development and a guarantor of
the regime’s legitimacy.
“The government will offer its full support,” President Park told B.C.
In 1966, after eighteen months of construction and years of securing the
needed Japanese capital, B.C. Lee’s new plant was set to open.
“In the coastal city of Ulsan last week, old and new Korea came into
symbolic confrontation,” reported Time. “The spring mists filtering across
the landscape were mixed for the first time with ammonia clouds, and