South KOREA – From Ashes

This was the longest flight ever ! The jumbo-jet from Detroit was in the skies for almost 14 hours until we landed in Seoul, >>> 
South Korea. Invited by the Korean Advanced Institute for Science and Technology ( KAIST) for a lecture tour, I was picked up, driven to Taejon and looked after. Again, I fell right into a friendly academic community of colleagues and students. And I should add – students who were very devoted to their profession and quite highly respectful of their mentors. This way, I felt very comfortable in the Korean environment which otherwise may be not so easy to figure out, despite the strong American influence as a left-over from the Korean war and a continued presence.

I want to mention this war because South Korea was completely devastated by it.  In 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea, sparking the Korean War, the Cold War's first major conflict. It continued until 1953 with the UN intervention. The Soviet Union and China backed North Korea, with the later participation of millions of Chinese troops.
<<<  North Korean propaganda "art" - and the reality.

After an ebb and flow that saw both sides almost pushed to the brink of extinction, and massive losses among Korean civilians in both the north and the south, the war eventually reached a stalemate. The 1953 armistice, never signed by South Korea, split the peninsula along the demilitarized zone near the original demarcation line. No peace treaty was ever signed, resulting in the two countries remaining technically at war. Over 1.2 million people died during the Korean war.  As the fighting rolled over most of the country several times, the damages were quite extensive – only to leave the country divided similarly as it was before.

There is no comparison between the two Koreas in existence nowadays.  The democratic and free-enterprise South became one of the world leading economical forces with a very high living standard.  The North with its totalitarian regime is an example of a total and lasting system failure – there is only famine, oppression and misery there. While the ruthless regime there is a world’s pariah, they do have a strong and nuclear-equipped army.

That much more one has to recognize the achievements of the South. I stood there with my hat off to their hard work, persistence and defence of democracy.

One thrust particularly impressed me - as they recognized the importance of progressive education and how they acted upon this issue. I noticed that most of their academic staff spoke excellent English, with advanced degrees from leading US universities (except for ONE - he had a degree from the University of Manchester, UK). This was the result of a concerted recruitment action whereby the universities were encouraged to ‘repatriate’ the best ex-pat talent from the USA.  This is how it happened that long-settled-down top-notch Koreans from the USA were enticed by double salaries with tax exemptions to return back to Korea. It worked and South Korean academia is now staffed by the best talent with overseas experience.

Needless to say, the impact of it shows in Korea's tiger economy that soared at an annual average of 10% for over 30 years. Fresh and technologically advanced high-quality Korean brands such as Samsung, the world's leading smartphone and TV maker, LG and Hyundai-Kia.  Korea was named the world's most innovative country in the Bloomberg Innovation Index, ranking first in business R&D intensity and patents filed per GDP.  It has the world's fastest Internet speed and highest smartphone ownership, ranking first in ICT Development, e-Government, 4G LTE coverage and IoT devices online.

And this all in a few decades since the country was burned down to ashes in a vicious war.   
<<< Satellite night image of both Koreas tells the story (CLICK to ENLARGE).

Those business-like attitudes in South Korea perhaps also helped in explaining my own “envelope” experience that somewhat astounded me.  It worked like this: 

- My colleague negotiated my visit and a seminar lecture with his big-wig industrial contacts;
- He delivered me to the visit/lecture. First I enjoyed the plant tour(s) – and then delivered the lecture (on a topic of our mutual technical interest).
- One of the hosts slipped an envelope into my hand – and I discovered that it was stuffed with a cash ‘honorarium’.
And again – and again. This way I visited a selection of leading industrial bio-operations around South Korea and met with a good number of upper management personnel – and that all was quite educational and enjoyable.
It also left a lasting impression of South Korea on me – they mean business !

Mainly, it also revealed the very close cooperative relationship between South Korean academia and industry. Indeed, my colleague at POSTECH (Pohang University of Science and Technology) in Pohang shared his research labs with one of the world’s largest steel manufacturers POSCO (Pohang Steel Company - see their HQ in Seoul ) >>>

I remember that at that time our own research would have benefitted a great deal from a very new and very pricey analytical instrument called ESCA (Electron Spectroscopy for Chemical Analysis). There was only one of these in the whole of Montreal, indeed the only one in the Province of Quebec. When I mentioned this dream-machine to my colleague, he walked me down the hall saying “here” – the lab door opened and there was a shiny ESCA.   “And here,” he added a moment later (and then again) showing me other labs – there were 3 ESCAs on that one hallway. And he could freely use any one of them. That floored me !

●  South Korea is situated on a very scenic hilly peninsula – always something to look at either close by or on the horizon.

●  Busy highway and bullet-train traffic (I tried them both) winds through bucolic valleys full of more urban than village development.

●  The capital of Seoul itself is crowded with 25 million people.  Impressively many busybodies don hiking gear on weekends and head for the surrounding mountains.

Korean Cuisine :    

Korean cuisine is largely based on rice, vegetables, and meats. Traditional Korean meals are noted for the number of side dishes that accompany steam-cooked short-grain rice. Kimchi (pickled cabbage) is almost always served at every meal. Commonly used ingredients include sesame oil, doenjang (fermented bean paste), soy sauce, salt, garlic, ginger, pepper flakes gochujang (fermented red chili paste) and - kimchi cabbage. So many side-dishes !

That actually was what dissuaded me from planning a sabbatical year in Korea as I was being invited. One visit to a large food store did the job – I did not know what half of the foodstuffs there were !  Never mind the different (Korean) writing – there were jazzy pictures on the packaging – but I just could not figure out what was it inside.  Different and “exotic” stuff. It would be quite a different experience to live there - and go grocery shopping !  To understand, you better look at this Korean market video :