South Korea's Resources, International Trade, and National Income Accounts

1. Resources
Natural Resources 

• coal
• tungsten
• graphite
• Molybdenum
• hydropower potential 

Labor

• The working conditions are 40 ~ 44 hours a week. 
• The minimum wage was set at 4,320 won per hour, and 34,560 won per day (8 hours day).
• Labor force is 25.1 million (2011 est.)
• Agriculture: 6.4% 
• Industry: 24.2% 
• Services: 69.4% (2011 est.)
• South Korea is a market-based economy
• High technological industrialized economy

Capital

• Arable land: 16.58% 
• Permanent crops: 2.01% 
• Other: 81.41% (2005)

2. International Trade
Exports

• Export Amount: $556.5 billion (2011 est.)  
• To Whom: U.S.A, Japan, and China. 
• What Korea Exports: wireless telecommunications, equipment, motor vehicles, semiconductors, computers, steel, ships, petrochemicals.  

Imports

• Import Amount: $524.4 billion (2011 est.)
• To Whom: U.S.A, China, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and Australia (2011 est.)
• What Korea Imports: machinery, electronics and electronic equipment, oil, steel, transport equipment, organic chemicals, plastics

Exchange Rate

• South Korean won (KRW) per US dollar -1,107.3 (2011 est.)

3. National Income Accounts

Consumption

• Electricity consumption = 455.1 billion kWh2011 est.)
• Oil consumption = 2.195 million bbl/day (2011 est.) 
• Natural gas = 43 billion cu m (2010)
• Nuclear = 14% (2008 est)

Investment

• Current Account balance = $29.79 billion (2011 est.)
• Gross fixed = 25.9% of GDP (2011 est.)

Government  

• Lee Myung Bak is the current South Korean president
• There are three different branches: executive, judicial, and legislative branches
• The current structure is semi-presidential system
•  The South Korean civil service is large, and remains a largely closed system, although efforts at openness and reform are ongoing.

courtesy of Wikipedia and the CIA World Factbook

Recent Stats of South Korea

1. GDP = 3.6% (2011)
2. GDP/capita = $31,700 (2011 est)
3. Life expectancy at birth

• total population - 79.3 years
• male - 78.12 years
• female - 82.7 years (2011 est)

4. Population below poverty line = 15% (2006)
5. Literacy rate

• total population - 97.9%
• male - 99.2%
• female - 96.6% (2002)

6. Unemployment rate = 3.4% (2011 est)
7. Inflation rate = 4% (2011 est)

courtesy of the CIA World Factbook

Global Economical Success of a Country

In the article, six different sections are presents about civilized countries through a global perspective. The main themes and concepts are depicted as follows: racial tensions and the country’s standard of living. In today’s society, racial tensions are high because people are different due to class status and education. The article mentioned about why people are uneasy about racial tensions and how that affects people’s history. Everybody has their own individual history that strike attention to each other of the similarities and differences of one’s country. A country’s standard of living determined how well the economy functions within the country, like GDP and the ability to produce goods and services for a population. The amount of resources one's country determined the how well the society is. 

The determinants of a society’s success are based on technology, income, country’s history, resources, economical, political, and legal frameworks, and population. Each of these assets determines the success level to determine why some countries are rich or poor. Also, by the amount of available goods and services the country can provide its members.

These ideas can be applied to today’s global economy because each country has its own uniqueness that is portrayed in country’s history, culture, and background. In order for the countries to achieve needs to have abundant amount of goods, technology, and resources for the society to be considered better off.