This book is predominantly designed for young students and also for anyone who has a desire to various issues of South Korea. This book, therefore, aims to provide a general yet comprehensive analysis of South Korea, specifically in terms of its socio-economics and administrative system.
This book is the outcome of a ‘knowledge-base’ project that was named “country report.” I began this project in 2019 with a group of researchers to accumulate local knowledge through the lens of public officials of developing countries who are enrolled in the KOICA GMPA program at Seoul National University. I asked international students to write about their countries’ public administration, policy, political, social, and other contemporary issues. Many students worked relentlessly to share their knowledge of their countries, and as a result, we were able to build a preliminary country report series covering more than 26 countries. However, improving the quality of the country reports proved to be a challenge and so I decided it would be beneficial to first write a standard country report on South Korea.
This book offers the following merits. First, we have referred to as many social indicators as possible for an objective description of the administrative and policy issues. Based on the database constructed using Statistics Korea, OECD, World Bank, UN, and IMF, we managed to pull out relevant information. Thus, all the information we have gathered and used can be updated anytime if necessary. Second, we prepared a manuscript through a collaboration platform, Google Docs. Our research staff meet regularly, and they revised the manuscript and gave comments then and there. Third, we have made an effort to offer as many references as possible so that readers can refer to them and use them for their further research.

Ⅰ. Country Review
1. Background
2. Main Conditions and Indicators
1) Geography & Demography
2) Economy
3) Trade & Industry
4) Infrastructure
5) Welfare
6) Poverty
7) Health
8) Education & Human Development
9) Society & Culture
10) Environment
11) National Security & Safety
3. International Cooperation
1) International Relations
2) International Governance
3) Official Development Aid
Ⅱ. Issues in Public Administration and Governance
1. Political Structure
1) How was democracy established in Korea?
2) What is the structure of the legislature, the administration, and the judiciary?
3) What value does the Constitution aim for?
4) Who has the power in the political/policy process?
5) What characterizes the Political Party System in South Korea?
2. The Constitution of Government
1) What are the administrative agencies in Korea?
2) How did Korea reorganize its administrative organization?
3) What is the governmental basis of organizational structural reform?
3. Personnel Management
1) What is the recent trend of personnel management in Korea?
2) How can you become a public servant?
3) Are public servants homogeneous or heterogeneous? How is diversity managed?
4) Is there a government employees pension system? How does it work?
4. Performance Management
1) How can we define ‘performance’ and ‘performance management’? Why do public servants have to accomplish performance?
2) What process does performance management (evaluation) go through?
3) How can we motivate public servants to achieve better and higher performance?
5. Budget Management
1) What organizations are involved in budget management?
2) What does the government budget in Korea consist of?
3) What process does the budget go through?
4) What efforts have been made in Korea for better budget management?
6. Local Administration & Decentralization
1) How has the local administration system evolved in Korea?
2) Which administrative districts have local government?
3) Do local governments maintain substantial authority?
7. Public Sector Reforms
1) Administrative reform in the early stage
2) Administrative reform after the democratization
8. NGO & Civil Society
1) How did NGOs emerge in Korea?
2) How has the status of NGOs changed?
3) Do citizens really trust NGOs?
4) How do citizens participate in the political (policy) process?
5) What is the level of civic engagement?
9. Major Research Institutes
1) What is the status of the research institutions in Korea?
2) How did research institutes develop and diversify in Korea?
3) Why is the role of private research institute regarded relatively insufficient in Korea?
Ⅲ. Conclusion