ANNOTATED CHRONOLOGY OF

KOREA’S SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

FROM RICE PADDIES TO FLAT PANEL DISPLAYS

Moo-Young Han

Professor of physics, Duke University

Editor-in-Chief, Society of Korean-American Scholars

[This article is based on two papers, a 5-part series published in January-April of 2000 under the same title in the Korean-American Forum at the Society of Korean-American Scholars website at www.skas.org and a paper presented in May, 2003 under the title “Contribution of South Korea’s science and technology to the global development, 1953-2003” at the annual Korea conference, Walker Institute of International Studies, University of South Carolina.]  

1. Introduction
 Korea's science and technology (ST) as we know it today is only four decades old; it did not exist, in any meaningful form, prior
 to the 1960s, the time period that marks the beginning of Modern South Korea under the strongman rule of Park Chung Hee.
 As Korea embarked on its first major push for industrialization at that time, development of accompanying technologies
 became critical and the need for scientific infrastructure to support such efforts became imperative.
 
 The success of Korea's industrialization is nothing short of a miracle, prompting such phrases as the "Miracle along the Han
 river" and the "Korea Model." The transformation from the shimmering surface of rice paddies to the dazzling flat panel displays 
 that showcase the laptop computers of the world all in a matter of only four decades is certainly impressive. It parallels the
 speed with which, in the latter half of the 19th century, Japan transformed herself from the feudal samurai society to the one
 of modern industries and technologies.

Toward the end of the 20th century, however, various political and social ills, mismanagements and shortfalls of the quick
  build-up became visible and have eventually led to the unprecedented economic crisis in Korea. Often the crisis is
  dubbed a financial crisis. It is more than that, much more. It was financial, structural, governmental and cultural crises all
  rolled into one. Drawing lessons from this crisis, or 'meltdown' as some call it, Korea has been conducting massive, full-scale
  reform and restructuring. So far, the reform and restructuring efforts have largely been concentrated on business and financial
  sectors.

Development of Korea's ST has closely paralleled that of overall economy, which has been almost completely dominated by
  chaebols and export-oriented industries. It started with hurriedly assembled hodgepodge of institutes and organizations
  focusing on reverse engineering, licensing and copying, imitations, and at times right-out pirating.

Soon things began to develop along more orderly policies, setting priorities and building up research institutes, national
  initiatives and targeted projects. At the close of the 20th century, Korea lists some 100 odd ST research centers -
  Science Research Centers and Engineering Research Centers both established at universities, some 30-odd GRIs, the 
  Government-supported Research Institutes, and about a dozen research centers in private sector - and has invested a
  large amount of funds to ST research and development. In 1998 alone, Korea spent some US$1.35 billion, ranking 6th in
  the world in terms of investment size in ST programs.

Just as was the case with business and industry, however, development of Korea's ST has had its own share of ills - lack
  of vision, lack of coherent policies, rapid turnovers of policymakers and ensuing changes in the implementation of policies,
  lack of human resources, just to name a few. The sprawling number of research institutes suffers as much from mediocre
  policies and talents as from reckless expansion and duplication. When one comes right down to it, there isn't much to
  show for all the money and efforts that have gone into Korea's ST programs. The paucity of patents obtained from
  advanced countries by Korean individual researchers and/or research institutes and the plummeting rankings in the ST
  competitiveness are just two of many stark evidences of what may rightfully be called an ST crisis.

As the 20th century drew to its close, the ills and problems of Korea's ST have become more clearly visible. The
  cancellation of the mid-sized passenger aircraft development project (KCADC), the termination of a neutrino physics
  project (HANUL), and the faltering of the nuclear fusion project (KSTAR) represent only the most visible of the failures
  that epitomize realistic limitations in the capabilities of Korea's ST.

It is now the 21st century. For Korea's ST to be able to live up to its expectations and promises, fundamental reform and
  restructuring of Korea's ST landscape are imperative, just as much as in business, government, financial systems, and
  education. With a view to gaining a perspective on Korea's ST, I have compiled this annotated chronology of Korea's ST.

  1900 - 1960: At the dawn of the 20th century, Korea - Chosun Dynasty at that time - was on the verge of a total collapse. 
  Weakened and corrupt to its core, it was whipsawed into the military and geopolitical conflicts among China, Japan and
  Russia. Two wars, the First Sino- Japanese War of 1894 and the Russo-Japanese War of 1904, sealed the fate of Korea
  and by the time she was annexed by Japan in 1910, it was a matter of simple formality and Chosun Dynasty was no more.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the words and concepts of science and technology were virtually non-existent in
  Korean society. Through the first half of the 20th century and into the beginning of the 1960s, the situation as far as
  science and technology were concerned remained much the same. To be sure, some science courses were taught at a
  handful of universities but only as purely academic subjects. It can be safely said, however, up until the early 1960s
  Korea was a nation with neither modern technologies nor R+D infrastructure to support such technologies.

In 1960, South Korea's per capita GNP was $80 a year, about the same level as today's Ghana and Sudan. In MELTDOWN 
  (Prentice Hall, 1999) Mark Clifford and Pete Engardio write about Korea in the 1960s: "South Korea was in wretched shape...
  The economy was in ruins... Famished beggars roamed the streets of Seoul. Koreans in the country ate roots and bark...
  The average South Korean's annual income was lower than that of the average Indian's. Society was in chaos, corruption
  endemic." No science, no technologies, no research and no development. The year 1960 is the time-zero for Korea's ST.

  2. 1960s

1961 The Beginning of Modern South Korea
  Ending 13 years of civilian rule, Park Chung Hee took over Korea in a military coup in May, 1961.  For 18 years, until he was 
  assassinated by one of his closest aides in 1979, Park ruled Korea with an iron hand. This is when the big push for
  industrialization began and ensuing development in science and technology R&D in Korea.

1966 KIST
  As Korea embarked on its first massive programs for industrialization, its immediate solution was importation of foreign 
  technologies, mostly from the U.S.and Japan. In 1966, KIST, the Korea Institute of Science and Technology was
  established as the nation's first integrated technology center to meet industrial needs. KIST's R&D activities were directed
  towards finding solutions for simple and practical problems arising from the application of imported technology.

For about 8 years from 1981 to 1989, KIST went through a period of an identity crisis. In 1971 KAIS, the Korea Advanced
  Institute of Science, was established at a site adjacent to the KIST campus. KAIS was established as an educational
  institution engaged in basic sciences, a graduate school in basic research.  In 1981, in what many considered to be an
  ill-conceived plan, KIST and KAIS were merged into a single institute, which was then named KAIST, the Korea
  Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.

It was a marriage in names only; on the one hand, a basic research with graduate students on such academic topics as
  the theoretical elementary particle physics, and, on the other hand, R&D projects for such topics as the automatic
  transmission technology for automobiles.

In 1989, the original identity of KIST was restored when it was separated out from KAIST.  KAIST - now without KIST -
  retained its name, however. The name KAIS disappeared, only to have been reincarnated with a slight permutation of
  letters; KIAS for Korea Institute of Advanced Study was established in 1996 as a new component of KAIST.

In the meantime, KIST, while still a part of KAIST, went on to establish several new sister organizations: SERI (1981),
  the Systems Engineering Research Institute, GERI (1985), the Genetic Engineering Research Institute, and STEPI
  (1984), the Science and Technology Policy Institute. Sometime in the year 2000, STEPI is scheduled to be absorbed
  into KOSEF (1977), the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation. The family history of Korea's science and
  technology institutes is as complex as it is lacking of significant achievements.

1967 MOST

For the first time, the Ministry of Science and Technology was established as an executive branch of the Korean government.
  It is the central agency for overseeing nation’s ST policy, administering ST affairs and coordinating national R&D programs.

There is a little more to the official name Ministry.  As there are in the U.S. government the full-fledged departments (e.g.
  Department of State or Department of Commerce) and sub-cabinet Administrations and Agencies (e.g. Environmental
  Protection Agency or National Air and Space Administration), there are in Korea the full-cabinet departments called Bu
  (rhymes with boo) and several sub-cabinet administrations called Cheo (rhymes with CHUrch). Both are officially referred
  in English as Ministries.

MOST has remained as the Science and Technology CHEO since its founding in 1967 till 1998, when Kim Dae Jung's
  administration promoted it to the full- fledged BU status.

In 1999, the Korean government established two new ST councils: NSTC, the National Science and Technology Council,
  and PCST, the Presidential Council on Science and Technology. NSTC is chaired by the President and composed of
  ministers of ST-related ministries and representatives from the ST community, whereas PSTC is an advisory body
  comprised from leaders representing diverse areas of science and technology. MOST serves as the secretariat for the
  NSTC.

1967. AERI/KAERI

  The institute now known as KAERI traces its origin all the way back to 1959. Established as AERI, the Atomic Energy
  Research Institute, it was incorporated in 1967 as an institute of then newly established MOST. In 1973, the name was
  changed to KAERI, the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute.  In 1980, the name was changed to KAERI, the Korea 
  ADVANCED Energy Research Institute.  In 1989, the name was restored back to KAERI, the Korea ATOMIC Energy
  Research Institute.

  In 1996, in accordance with the national policy to streamline the domestic nuclear energy management system, activities
  of nuclear engineering, nuclear fuel designing, and radioactive waste management were transferred from KAERI to
  industries. KAERI maintained a small-scale nuclear fusion research program until the newly started KSTAR nuclear fusion
  project got underway in 1997 under the auspices of KBSI, Korea Basic Science Institute.

  By the end of the 1960s

  The first two 5-year plans, one from 1962 to 1966 and the second one from 1967 to 1971, were laying the groundwork for
  Korea's industrialization. As late as 1970, the three top exports were textiles, plywood and wigs. In 1964, the annual
  export reached the $100 million mark for the first time. As far as the science and technology were concerned, the
  establishment of MOST and KIST marked the beginning of Korea's ST - settling into new buildings and feeling around,
  struggling to define themselves.

3. 1970s: Beginning of Growth

  Having established KIST (1966) and MOST (1967), an industrial R&D research institute and the central governmental agency
  for overseeing the ST policy, respectively, the attention turned to the critical shortage of ST manpower in Korea and this led
  to the establishment of KAIS, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science, in 1971. This three-prong approach - a central
  governmental agency, push for the education and recruitment of ST manpower, and push for short-term industrial R&D - that
  began to take shape in the 1970s would form the foundation for Koreas ST landscape that continues to this day. It produced
  many positive results; it also planted seeds for structural weakness that would hamper and impede rapid progress of Korea's
  ST.

  The one absolutely crucial element that made the development of modern science and technology in Korea possible was the
  blessing of graduate education and training of human resources provided by the universities and corporations in the
  United States. It has often been said  that “Seoul has more PhDs per population than any other city in the world.”  - US-
  trained PhDs everywhere, it seemed.  Without the direct benefit of US education and training, along with technology 
  transfers, Korea’s science and technology, and by extension its economy, would not have been what they are today.
  
  1971 KAIS/KAIST

  As already mentioned in 1966 KIST, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science, KAIS, was established at a site adjacent to
  the KIST campus. KAIS was designed to spearhead the training of future scientists and engineers, a homegrown graduate
  school in all areas of science and engineering. When established, KAIS was one of  its kind in Korea, highly selected body
  of graduate students and the faculty that was becoming staffed more and more by newly recruited PhDs from America.
  Together with KIST for industrial R&D, KAIS would form the very nucleus of Korea's ST.

  Both KIST and KAIS could have developed well independently, but the culture of centralized government bureaucracy could
  not leave them well enough alone. In 1981, through amalgamation of KAIS and KIST, a new entity, albeit with a split
  personality, was formed and named KAIST, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.

  In 1984, a new undergraduate school for engineering was established, KIT, the Korea Institute of Technology, independent
  of KAIST.  In 1989, KIST was finally separated out from KAIST, which was then merged with KIT. KAIST from this point
  onward, to this day, remains an educational institution, consisting of both undergraduate and graduate schools. It has
  become the flagship of Korea's ST education. Establishment of KAIST, often referred to as the MIT of Korea, ranks perhaps
  as the most important milestone of Korea's ST.

  Another chapter in the story of KAIST would come in 1996, when KIAS, the Korea Institute of Advanced Study, was
  established as a component of KAIST. KAIST already has a graduate school; the only visible difference between the
  graduate school of KAIST and KIAS (Note the permutation from KAIS) is that no teaching is involved at the latter. It is a
  typical example of unnecessary duplications that litter the landscape of Korea's ST.

  To recap, KAIS became KAIST, KAIST spits out KIST but gulps down KIT.  The original KAIS has been reincarnated as
  KIAS as another component of KAIST.

  Mid 1970s: Recruitment of Overseas Koreans

  A major shift in the direction of the brain drain began in the mid 1970s. An all-out recruitment campaign by the government -
  not yet private industries - began to bear its fruit. First a trickle, then a steady flow of US-educated Korean scientists
  and engineers began to return to Korea. Beginning in the mid 1970s, dozens of new research institutes (all government
  supported) were established and this provided new opportunities in Korea. At about the same time the job market for
  scientists and engineers in the US started to tighten up. This push-pull effect set in motion a steady flow of the reverse brain
  drain. Most of returnees were, however, FPhDs, the freshly-minted young PhDs with little or no actual experience. They
  would  fill the posts of many newly - and somewhat hurriedly - established GRIs, the government-related research institutes.

  1976 ETRI

  In the industrial R&D sector, perhaps the most significant organization to be formed, after KIST, is ETRI, the Electronics and
  Telecommunications Research Institute. ETRI was established in 1976 to contribute to the development of economy and
  society by developing new knowledge and technologies in information, telecommunication and electronics and produce
  qualified manpower in information technology (IT) field.

  Often referred to as the Bell Labs of Korea, it has been singularly successful in becoming the backbone for the coming 
  development of electronics and telecommunication industries of Korea, one of the strongest performing sectors in the
  Korean economy. ETRI, along with KAIST, is one of the few success stories that had a profound and permanent role in
  transforming Korea from the land of rice paddies, exporting wigs and plywood to one of the major electronics exporting
  countries in the world.

  1977 KOSEF

  In 1977, KOSEF, the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation, was established as the central organization to support
  and fund basic research in science and engineering, to promote science education of the nation, and to oversee various
  university-related research institutes. The development of KOSEF was slow and gradual. A program for postdoctoral
  fellowship for research commenced in 1982.

  Construction of KOSEFs main office building didn't start till 1987 and it was only in 1990 that KOSEF moved into its office
  building that it now occupies, some 13 years since its establishment. The program for establishing SRCs and ERCs,
  Science Research Centers and Engineering Research Centers, at selected universities was inaugurated in 1990. KOSEF
  is the sole source of funding for all non-industrial research in Korea.

  Often KOSEF is compared to the US NSF. Similarities are obvious - they are the main funding agencies for basic science
  and engineering research. But beyond this there are some important differences. In the U.S., NSF is not the only funding
  agency, there are others - Department of Energy, Department of Defense that includes such traditional sources as the
  Army Research Office and Office of the Naval Research. Another difference - and this is an important one - is that the
  US NSF is an independent and autonomous entity. There is no US Department of Science sitting above the US NSF. In
  Korea, KOSEF is simply an extension of MOST. The head of KOSEF serves at the pleasure of the Minister of MOST,
  whose average tenure is approximately one year, and this MOST-KOSEF hierarchy - very unstable and constantly shifting -
  would set the pattern for the rest of the 20th century that would actually hamper and impede any meaningful long-term 
  development in Korea's ST.

  What started as the centralized and coordinated push for industrialization and rapid development of Korea's ST quickly
  turned into one of the worst centralized bureaucracy. MOST would be staffed, from Minister on down to section chiefs, 
  by professional career bureaucrats with little or no training in science and engineering. Policies after policies would be
  formulated without regard to the merits of science but held hostage to the shifting whims of politicians.

  Worse, the cabinet minister's tenure was on the average less than a year. A new incoming minister would bring in a new
  slate of his team, the cycle reaching down to the lowly section chiefs. Policies would be changed, some would be outright
  overturned, priorities of implementation would be rearranged, and new policies would be formulated more by lobbying by
  those who know the right persons at the right places.

  Most, if not all, bureaucrats who run MOST are not scientists at all. They are graduates of law schools, social science
  colleges and humanities colleges, just 'punching their tickets.'  They decide the policies of MOST that in turn dictates
  the implementations by KOSEF. And this changes with each new incoming Minister!

  By the end of the 1970s

  The pattern for the development of Korea's ST has been set. The centralized - and highly ineffective - bureaucracy of the
  MOST-KOSEF. KIST and ETRI as the flagships for R&D in technology. KAIST for homegrown human resources and the
  flock of returning Korean PhDs as the source of Korea's ST manpower.  In the next two decades, the 1980s and 1990s, it
  would be essentially the same, just more of it.

4. 1980s: Korea Inc. Comes of Age

  The decade of 1980s marked the turning point in modern South Korea. She went through the most profound changes, both
  politically and economically, on her way to becoming what is the present-day Korea. Politically, it was the decade of
  tumultuous transformation - from 26 years of military strongmen rule, first of Park Chung Hee (1961- 1979) and then of
  Chun Doo Whan (1979-1987). For the first time in three decades, a direct Presidential election was held fair and square
  which ushered in the administration of Roh Tae Woo (1988-1993).

  Throughout the decade the Korea, Inc. - the collusion and its inherent corruption, between the government and the chaebol-
  based economy, would finally come of age. Beginning in the mid-80s, Korea began to register impressive economic gains,
  surging trade surplus and sustained double-digit growth. The explosive economic growth and the end of dictatorship came
  together in 1988 when Korea hosted the Olympic games in Seoul.

  The decade of the 1980s was the decade that was. The future held unlimited promises. Korea could do anything. Little
  noticed were the seeds of structural defects, culturally and economically, that would raise their heads toward the end
  of the 1990s.

  During this seemingly 'golden' 1980s, Korea's science and technology took something of a back seat. Framework for a
  centralized planning and execution of R&D at the national level was set into motion and the new science town in the
  outskirts of the city of Daejon was established. More than any governmental initiatives, however, the most important
  milestone during this period was the establishment, by a private sector, of the second institution of higher learning
  for science and engineering, after KAIST, in the southeastern corner of Korea, the Pohang Institute of Science and
  Technology, POSTECH for short. As was the case with KAIST, POTECH, later to be renamed Pohang University, was
  entirely staffed by US-trained PhDs.

  During the 1980s the focus shifted from the industrial support research of the 1960s and 1970s to laying the long-term
  foundation for the development of science and technology. The tradition of the centralized top-down management
  was firmly put into place when in 1982 Korea began to map out the National R&D Program under the control of the Ministry
  of Science and Technology. Two of the most important developments in the decade were the establishment of the Science
  Town in Daeduk, an outskirt of the city of Daejeon and that of the Pohang Institute of Science and Technology, later
  renamed Pohang University of Science and Technology.

 1982: The National R&D Program

  In parallel with the continuing efforts to acquire high-level scientists and engineers, mostly through overseas training program
  for domestic Korean scientists and engineers and repatriation of Korean experts from abroad, the National R&D Program
  was launched in 1982 by MOST. It was the first comprehensive program directed at the national level. Throughout the 1980s,
  this program supported many government-initiated projects dealing with high-risk research and also industry-initiated projects
  dealing with core industrial technologies that private firms could not develop alone owing to the scarcity of investment funds
  and R&D capabilities. The R&D capabilities of private firms remained marginal throughout this decade.

  Eventually the National R&D Program would expand, coming into the 1990s, and branch out to many-pronged approaches -
  the so-called HAN project, Creative Research Initiative as well as Strategic National R&D Project. The R&D of Korea's
  science and technology remain to this day under the umbrella of the government- controlled programs.

  1983: Daeduck Science Town

  In the outskirts of the city of Daejeon, in central South Korea, was established Daeduck Science Town, the future home for
  most of the R&D bodies of Korea's science and technology. In 1983, to spearhead the movement, KOSEF, the Korea
  Science and Engineering Foundation, was relocated from Seoul to Daeduck Science Town. It would move into its main office 
  building in 1990. Both ETRI and KAIST were also moved to this locale, followed by several more research institutes, some
  private but mostly government-supported.

  1986: POSTECH

  In December 1986, a completely new institute of higher learning devoted to teaching and research in science and engineering
  broke ground in the town of Pohang, the home of Pohang Steel. It was named Pohang Institute of Science and Technology,
  POSTECH for short. It was the second such school established in Korea, after KAIST.

  Postech was staffed almost entirely by Korean PhDs educated overseas, mostly in the United States. Eventually it would
  change its name to Pohang University of Science and Technology (but still retaining its short name as POSTECH). Along
  with KAIST, and also with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, HKUST, it would become one of the
  premier institutions of science and engineering in Asia. Currently it holds about 210 regular faculty members as well as
  about 110 technical staff members and its operating budget is about $10 million annually.

  5. 1990s: Decade of Aimless Excess and Rude Awakening

  The decade of 1990s, the last decade of the 20th century, was a tumultuous period in the development of the Korean society.
  The influx of easy money, mostly borrowed overseas, led to a culture of frenzied greed and 'gold rush' mentality.  It was the
  decade of a new false God, money 'ueber alles.' Until the sobering financial meltdown in late 1997, the money culture became
  a new religion. Science and technology sectors could not escape this new religion either.

  Coming out of the successful hosting of the 20th Olympiad in 1988 and buoyed by the sustained double-digit economic
  growth, the Korean hubris reached its historic high. By 1992, Korea became the 10th largest economy in the world,
  helped much, it turned out by many external factors. A new phrase would be coined - "the Second Japan, a new global
  competitor."  Korea earned its rightful place and rubbing shoulders with G7 became almost its birthright. After all, the
  American dominance has begun to wane and the center of the global gravity was set to jump over the Pacific to Asia,
  heralding the new "Pacific century." Korea, it seemed, has arrived at the right time and at the right place.

  Money was everywhere, too much of it just for grab. Come up with a nice-sounding ST idea and the juice would flow. The
  craze was on. Every corporation, big and small, would make a mad dash at opening overseas branches - just borrow the
  money and rent an office at the World Trade Center in Manhattan. Overseas travel became a new status symbol. If you
  cannot afford an overseas honeymoon, you ain't fit to get married. As the Korean tourists began to flood out, a new word
  would be coined - "the ugly Korean," reflection of the Korean insolence. At a gambling table in Las Vegas, a son of a
  Korean chaebol would think nothing of losing in one night some $300,000. What is a mere $300,000 out of billions of
  dollars of borrowed money? The money became the absolute false God - a new golden cow.

  Science and technology could not just sit idly by and watch all the money parading by. Find someone who knows someone
  at the top, sell an eye-popping idea and the money is all yours. First on the agenda, Korea, as the tenth largest economy
  in the world, absolutely deserved a Nobel prize or two. It simply must be so; all one had to do was to establish an institute
  with expressly unwritten agenda of landing a Nobel or two. Next on the agenda: the thermonuclear fusion. The worldwide
  scientific efforts to develop a sustainable nuclear fusion were bumping into rough waters in such countries as the U.S.,
  Japan and Russia. Perhaps it is high time for Korea to show the world how to do it.

  The Korean hubris would come crashing down in 1997 when, as a direct result of opening the capital market as a condition
  of being admitted into OECD, the financial meltdown exploded in her face.

  1996 OECD

  One of the two highest priorities for bringing Korea to its rightful global presence, during the hapless Kim Young-Sam
  Presidency (1993-1998), was to become a member of OECD, an official recognition that Korea has arrived (the other being
  landing a Nobel prize). Korea practically bent over backward to be admitted into OECD. One of the conditions to be met
  was a complete opening of the capital market to the world. With the gate wide-open for totally unrestrained borrowing
  from overseas banks, the foreign debt quickly mushroomed and this is considered by many experts to be the most
  immediate catalyst for the economic meltdown of Korean in November of 1997. But in the meantime, money would flow like
  there was no tomorrow.

  1996 KIAS, the Korea Institute of Advanced Study

  Today OECD, tomorrow a Nobel. It simply had to be. An erstwhile Minister of Science and Technology filled the ears of the
  hapless then President Kim Young-Sam to give him the funding and he would build a world-class institute that would produce
  a Nobel for Korea in no time. Patterned and named after the famed institute in Princeton (The Institute of Advanced Study),
  the new Korea Institute of Advanced Study was established. In an all-too typical manner, it was established based largely
  on the whim of one person, without an accompanying study of its merits and feasibility and without consultations with the
  academic communities in and out of Korea. Quickly dubbed the ’Nobel prize training camp,’ much as an athletic camp
  training for the Olympic Gold Medals, it has since become a part of KAIST, which has had its own graduate school for
  science and technology. Just another useless duplication so common in Korea's science and technology landscape.

  1996 KSTAR, the National Fusion Research

  When you think big, think even bigger. Where such advanced science and technologies as those in the U.S., Japan and
  Russia were struggling with only limited success, perhaps it is time for Korea to join the ranks of the world's elites.
  The same erstwhile Minister of Science and Technology who sold KIAS to then President Kim Young-Sam successfully
  sold this idea too. In 1996, the National Fusion R & D Center was established within the Korea Basic Science Institute
  (KBSI). The program was dubbed KSTAR, the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research, and it is in fact still 
  continuing to this day. The ambition simply outran the scientific and technological expertise needed for such a world-
  class undertaking.  According to one high-ranking and knowledgeable source, not directly involved with the project, "the
  demise of KSTAR is not a question of if but when. The project is braindead and it is kept alive to prevent some high-
  ranking heads from rolling."

 1997 The Economic Meltdown and the IMF Era

  About 10 years, 1987-1997, of intoxicating economic growth and seemingly endless supply of (borrowed) money, Korea
  came crashing to its day of reckoning. The rest, as they say, is history.

  1999 The HANUL Fiasco

  Another world-class project involving a novel neutrino telescope, once again ill-conceived and ill-executed by a handful of  
  individuals, came to be outright canceled. As have been reported in the pages of KASTN (www.skas,org), SCIENCE
  magazine and PHYSICS TODAY, what killed the project was a combination of personal animosities, incessant squabbling
  and inept supervision by the funding agency.

  Epilog

  Korea’s science and technology as we know it today happened all in the past four decades, 1960 onward.   There were
  simply no science and technology before that in Korea.  One might ask what made it all possible?   The intelligent and
  hardworking Korea people is, of course, one most critical ingredient.  But there are more and this also illustrates,
  unfortunately, the limitations going forward to the next four decades.  Education and training in the Unites States
  providing continuing flow of human resources is the most indispensable ingredient of the Korea story.  Without the benefit
  of the American education and training, South Korea would not and could not have achieved what she has achieved over
  the past four decades. And herein lies the fundamental weakness of Korea, to wit, its education system and its inability to
  nurture and produce freethinking and creative minds to spearhead new discoveries, new innovations and new ideas that
  can improve its society.  Without a fundamental reform in its educational system and cultural philosophy, Korea’s ST
  must depend on American education and to this extent Korea’ ST can always play catch-up but cannot join the status
  of truly first-class ST society.

  About the author: Bio Sketch of Moo-Young Han

  Dr. Han is a Professor of Physics at Duke University where he has been since 1967.  Dr. Han received his Ph.D. in
  theoretical physics in 1964 from the University of Rochester and his research specialty is in the field of theoretical
  particle physics, especially the symmetry principles of elementary particle physics. In introducing the physically realizable
  quarks (with Dr. Yoichiro Nambu of the University of Chicago in 1965), Dr. Han is credited for having first introduced the
  SU(3) symmetry for quarks, later came to be called the color symmetry of the Standard Model.  The color charges of
  quarks provide the basis for the current theory of nuclear force, called the quantum chromodynamics.

  Dr. Han has authored three recent books which dealt with the popularization of quantum physics: THE SECRET LIFE
  OF QUANTA (1990), THE PROBABLE UNIVERSE (1993), and QUARKS AND GLUONS (1999).

  Dr. Han is a recipient of the highest teaching award bestowed to Duke faculty, the Duke Alumni distinguished Undergraduate
  Teaching Award. In the recent past, Dr. Han  has served as the national President (1985-86) of the Association of
  Korean Physicists in America (AKPA) and as the national President (1991-92) of the Korean-American Scientists and
  Engineers Association.  He is a recipient of the 1998 Global Korea Award by the Council on Korean Studies at the
  Michigan State University.

  In 1996, Dr. Han founded the Society of Korean-American Scholars (SKAS) and served as its Chairman (1996-99) and has
  been its Editor-in-Chief ever since for such publications as the Korean American Science and Technology News
  (KASTN), the Information Exchange for Korean American Scholars (IEKAS), and the Korean American Forum (KAF).
  Dr. Han is the editor of the World Wide Web Virtual Libraries on South Korea as well as North Korea.   In 2001,
  Dr. Han founded the Overseas Korean Senior Professionals Network (OKSPN).