system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5:How was South Korea able to become an economic superpower and in a seemingly short amount of time?

Absolutely no natural resources to speak of, a victim of a war, the result of which split an already small country to 2 smaller ones, on paper to me this looks like every odds are against them. To me at least, their odds are worse than Japan. So how did they come this far? And what does it say about the unification of the Koreas?
gpt
After the Korean War, South Korea was left an extremely poor and war torn country. And you are right, the odds were stacked against any sort of economic miracle. The country was heavily agricultural based and had a GDP per capita lower then most sub saharan African countries. However during the 1960's, a new military dictatorship government took power through a coup and put economic development as its top priority. It received financial aid from the US by sending Korean troops to Vietnam and received many soft loans from Japan by establishing diplomatic links. The government oversaw the creation of heavy industrial complexes by using this initial influx of capital. Heavy investments in steel building industries, ship building industries, etc were made and the Korean people were mobilized to build these giant new industrial complexes day and night. At the same time, the military government implemented many new domestic policies aimed at improving living standards and education amongst the entirety of the Korean population. For example, schools were made mandatory and rural villages were given access to raw materials to replace straw roofing and lessons in clean hygiene were frequently given. Slowly but surely, the South Korean GDP began to rise as the investments in heavy industries began to pay off and the money was continually reinvested into economic development under the government's hand. By the 1970's, the economic growth in South Korea was in full swing as the entire nation was now transitioning from an agricultural society to a manufacturing society. The government's efforts at modernization now began to pay off as Korea now for the first time had a generation of an educated work force to contributed to its growing economy. By the 1980's, Korea had transformed into a modern society and the repressive military government was over thrown and a transition to a democratic government was made. The free market thrived as South Korea now invested heavily in information technologies and we get to the post manufacturing society that is South Korea today where it is now a knowledge based economy. Within the short span of three decades, the average Korean worker saw his value rise over 100 fold from living in absolute poverty to joining the ranks of economic powerhouses around the world. The relative homogenous nature of the Korean society made economic development policies extremely effective. The economic miracle we see today in South Korea is the result of a generation of Koreans who worked their fingers to the bone building a modern nation within a decade from nothing.