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South Korea, officially the
Republic of Korea and often referred to as Korea is a
presidential republic in East Asia, occupying the southern half of the
Korean Peninsula. Also known as the "Land of the Morning Calm", it is
bordered by China to the west, Japan to the east and North Korea to the
north, with which it was united until 1945. Its capital and largest city
is Seoul, the world's second largest metropolitan city.
South Korea is a major economic power and
one of the wealthiest countries in Asia. It had one of the world's
fastest growing economies since the 1960s, now highly developed and one
of the three largest in Asia and 13th largest in the world. Forming the
G20 industrial nations and the world's top ten exporters, it is a member
of the United Nations, WTO, OECD, APEC, EAS and ASEAN+3, defined as a
High Income Nation by the World Bank and an Advanced Economy by the IMF
and CIA. A major non-NATO ally, it has the world's sixth largest armed
forces and one of the ten largest defence budgets in the world.
Nicknamed as an Asian tiger, it is still among the world's fastest
growing developed countries and a Next Eleven state, forecasted to
surpass the income per capita of Germany, UK and France in 16 years.
Today, its success story is known as the "Miracle on the Han River", a
role model for many developing countries. |
