Liberalization of the economy of South Korea by the U.S. standards in the 1990s. The role of the global financial crisis of 1997-1998

The paper aims to examine the process of liberalization of the economy of the Republic of Korea (ROK), highlight the key reasons for it and consider the impact of the global financial crisis on the economy of South Korea. The need for such discourse is rooted deeply in the history of the development of the relations between the ROK and the USA. The period of 1990s once again challenged the alliance ROK-U.S. and marked a completely new stage in the development of the Korean economy, which has taken the path of liberalization and removal of trade barriers. In the problem field of the article it is discussed that in the midst of the global financial crisis of 19971998 South Korea's attempts to defend its currency meant that the available reserves of the Bank of Korea were less than $8 billion, what led to widespread fears of default. Therefore, South Korea conducted close consultations with the U.S. regarding the measures to overcome the economic crisis. The government of the ROK was forced to seek financial assistance from the IMF, which ultimately led to a loss of economic self-sufficiency for a certain period of time. Later it turned out many of the required economic measures of the IMF, in fact, were very similar to those developed, but not implemented measures in accordance with the Korean «segyehwa» policy. Despite the severity of the conditions of the IMF, South Korea was able to stay "afloat" and stabilize its financial sector. This article employs the following sources of information: declassified documents, official statements, orders, memoranda, conference transcripts of the online libraries of the USA presidents, scientific books of the Russian historians and the Korean ones. Among periodicals some information was taken from the magazines "New York Times", "Korea Journal", "Korean Journal of International Studies". The paper concludes that development of free trade and cooperation in the alliance ROK-U.S. in the 1990s advanced South Korea to leadership and economic importance. With the help of the USA by the beginning of the 2000s in the economic relations between the ROK and the USA huge amounts of funds were involved. The U.S. was the largest export market for South Korea, and the ROK in its turn was ranked sixth largest market of its exports to the United States.

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