To be frank, they suck ass.

They're a capitalists dream, and a democracy's nightmare.

This post is more or less a shorter text version of videos already existing online, I'd advise you to watch them, since they have wayyyyyyyyyyyyy more info, and go wayyyyyyyyyy deeper into the issue. But I haven't seen any posts on this topic so far, so here we go

Chaebols

Chae = Rich

Bol = Clan (or family in this case)

(feel free to correct me in the comments)

Those are rich families which control everything. Every. single. fucking. thing.

Thing as in comapanies and laws. 

The most important one is Samsung, second place is being taken by Hyundai, then SK (several companies in the chemistry industry, finance, energy, and IT. To name a few) and fourth place is taken by LG. There's more, but these are the top 4, which have the biggest influence, and are also internationally known.

What's the problem? (More detailed)

Well, as I already mentioned, these families control everything, and can do so, because the economy basically depends on them. Well, it does. See, Korea doesn't have the best conditions for industrial agriculture, which could bring in money through trading. It also doesn't have raw materials, or at least by far not enough to base their economy on it, like Iron, Silver, Coal, natrual gas, cotton, and whatnot. 

So, what can you do, when you have nothing physical to offer, but need money?

The Solution (but before that, a few more problems, leading to the problems)

Brains! Or what can be accomplished with them. 

In 1910, Korea was formally annexed by Japan. So by WW2, Korea, the whole peninsula (so North and South Korean territories today) had been occupied by Japan. Japan is a cool country now (kinda)(also if it were really awesome if they admitted to their fault in WW2 entirely, and not a few things) but holy shit, back then they had an incredible passion for commiting warcrimes here and there all over South-East Asia. Korea was as I said, no exception. The men got shipped away to Japan, forced to become slaves and do work supporting the war efforts, the women, and girls specifically got turned into "comfortwomen", in other words s**slaves. And with girls I mean minors. Of course, it was claimed that it was all consentual, but I doubt a 12 year old, who doesn't even know what that is, is going to agree on it. And after the first time, to several more. The only somehow positive thing that came out, was the development of Koreas economy. Of course, that didn't happen from kindness, but economic reasons. For Japan of course. You see, Korea had been back in 1910 a rather poor country, which the Japanese empire did not like, since it would be bad for them. So, they funded it, and created companies and firms, which were Japanese owned and operated though. Plus, everything produced in Korea, or from Korea, got shipped to Japan. Because the northern part of Korea did, in still does, have raw goods. But, even after all those efforts, Korea had no big economic impact on Japan. Still, it was tried to connect Korea entirely to Japan, which lead to lots of money being invested in the infrastructure, schools, railroads, and the introduction of new economic and social institutions. I mean, korean names and language were kind of being erased, but that's another story.

NOW, Korea got liberated on August 15th 1945, and 1948 Korea got divided by the Soviets and Americans, into North and South, receiving aid from their supporters. Then 1950 the Korean war happened, where North Korea invaded South Korea, which was completely unnecessary though, because neither side gained much more territory. Also, who the fuck approved of that desicion? 

"Oh yeah, we got liberated from our opressor 5 years ago, who took most of our resources and people. By the way, do you see that guy behind this red line? Yeah, shoot him straight in the face. I know he's Korean, so are we! BUT HE'S FROM THE SOUTH."

So anyhow, that ended sometime in 1953, but not with a peace treaty to officially end the war, no, it was just an armistice agreement. So technically they're still at war. 

Alright NOW the solution

So, after the war, Korea was pushed into poverty once more. Both sides. By the 60s, the South Korean dictator had created a solution though. Chaebols. You see, companies could receive government support. To thrive, a business needs an investor and his money. And the government offered to take that roll, to invest and in addition grant tax breaks and other favors. That was it. The businesses grew, and their decision to sell several different goods instead of one kind of product, paid off.

I'll continue tmrw, it's 3 am rn.

I hope so far I've gotten the facts correct