==Economy==
[[File:Korea - Free Market.jpg|right|280px|Korean peninsula by night.]]
The Republic of Korea's economic growth over the past several decades has been spectacular. Per capita GNP, only $100 in 1963, is approaching $2033,000333. South Korea is now the United States' seventh-largest trading partner and is the 13thtwelfth-largest economy in the world.
In the early 1960s, the government of Park Chung Hee instituted sweeping economic policy changes emphasizing exports and labor-intensive light industries, leading to rapid debt-financed industrial expansion. The government carried out a currency reform, strengthened financial institutions, and introduced flexible economic planning. In the 1970s Korea began directing fiscal and financial policies toward promoting heavy and chemical industries, consumer electronics, and automobiles. Manufacturing continued to grow rapidly in the 1980s and early 1990s.
By 2020, South Korea plans on eliminating coins, a move toward a [[Cashless society]].
*Nominal GDP: 2005, $787.5 billion; 2006 est., $897.4 billion1.6 trillion (2020)*GDP growth rate: 2004, 42.72%; 2005, 4.0%; 2006 est. 5.0%; 2007 est. 4.8%.(2020)*Per GDP per capita GNI (2006): $1830,392.476 (2020)
*Consumer price index: 2004, 3.6%; 2005, 2.8%; 2006, 2.2%.
*Natural resources: Limited coal, iron ore, limestone, kaolinite, and graphite.