After the Korean War ended in 1953, the peninsula was divided into communist North Korea and capitalist South Korea. The CCSA invested huge amounts of money in setting up industry and infrastructure in South Korea.

Samsung is one of about half a dozen giant Korean companies whose products have become world-famous in the last ten years.

The Samsung plant is in the city of Kumi, one of the fastest-growing of Korea's many centres of high-technology industry. Kumi is just one of many bases that Samsung has throughout the Asia Pacific region.

The Kumi assembly line produces mobile phones for export to markets around the world. The market for mobile phones is currently one of the most lucrative in the hight-technology sector, and the race to develop new manufacturing techniques and new models is taken very seriously.

A generation ago the city of Kumi was in ruins, heavily damaged following the Korean War, a broken-down place surrounded by rice fields. But recently the government has been targeting the area as a centre for development of high-technology industries, especially for the big corporations. This is part of a plan to decentralise industry away from the country's big overcrowded cities.

However, problems have hit the region.

In 1997 a financial crisis affecting the whole of Asia Pacific delivered a severe shock to the big guns of Korean industry. Since then the number of people turning their backs on the large companies to strike out on their own has shot up.

The currency crisis has led to such a drop in the value of the South Korean 'won'. As a result, Korean goods have suddenly become much more expensive abroad, and Korean wages have dropped in value. Factories have closed abroad, including some in the UK, and many Koreans have lost their jobs.

Working for a Big Corporation

In Korea, as in many Asian countries, the relationship between employer and employee is very different from that found in Western Europe.

Working for one of the giant Korean corporations is more a way of life than a job. The employees get good pay and good conditions. The company expects commitment and hard work.

Solmi Bae was recently promoted to group supervisor in the mobile phone assembly area. She came straight to Samsung from school when she was 18.

The work routine is tough. Leisure time is limited and unpredictable.

Koreans spend more hours at work than almost any other nation in Asia Pacific. This is part of the deal with the big companies.

At the Kumi factory there is just one annual holiday, at the end of July and the beginning of August. The whole company closes down for five days.

However, Samsung's high-technology canteen is only one of many benefits that are commonplace with the big Korean corporations.

The company provides a wide range of convenient facilities, including shops, restaurants, laundrettes, dry cleaners, and leisure and sports facilities.

The problem is that employees do not have time to use all the opportunities because their shifts are continually changing.

Environmental Problems Associated With Rapid Growth

Until recently South Korea put all the emphasis on growth. Over the whole of Korea, as in most of the Asia Pacific region, frantic efforts to achieve growth have been part of everyday life. In 40 years Korea has changed from a place where nearly everyone lived in the countryside to one where nearly everyone lives in a town or a city.

The priorities have been to provide homes for everyone, and to modernise and build as fast as possible.

In December 1991, 30 tons of waste water from a high-technology plant were contaminated with phenol, a chemical used in the manufacture of circuits boards. The water was released into the Nakhtong river.

Phenol can be lethal. Downstream in the city of Taegu it contaminated the public water supply.

For the first time ever in Korea, people protested over an environmental issue. Water-purifying kits sold out overnight. The phenol was coming through the water taps in people's homes. Suddenly, the question of pure water was in the newspapers.

The response to this incident has been very positive.

Taegu City started building a new water treatment plant. The company that let the phenol into the river gave three million pounds towards it. The water authorities have installed sophisticated modern equipment to monitor the water.

Professor Park's assessment is that Taegu City no longer cuts corners when it comes to its environmental protection budget. People take the view now that the environment must be cared for. 'This shows that our society intends to be aggressive on environmental issues and to improve them from now on.'

Rural and Urban Life: Contrasts and Links

Almost everyone in Korea still has family working on the land. Korea's rise to its position as a major world producer of high-technology goods has not yet spoiled the strong family roots, often three generations deep, all living, like Solmi's family, in the same house on the same farm.

Solmi's father, Jong Gun Bae, like most farmers in Korea, is grappling with the problem of how to keep rice farming profitable in a fast-changing world.