THE MIRACLE LIKE ISRAEL THAT IS OF SOUTH KOREA TODAY AFTER WW2 AND AFTER THE KOREAN COMMUNIST SURPRISE ATTACK WITH AN ARMISTICE IN 1953–THE STRUGGLES AND BATTLES THAT HAS DRIVEN AND THRUSTS S KOREA INTO THE ECONOMIC WORLD SCENE FROM ITS HISTORICAL BEGINNINGS AFTER 1953–BOTH COUNTRIES HAVING BEEN SUPPORTED BY THE PROTECTION OF THE USA LEADERSHIP AND ITS CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES AT ITS INFANCY

In a report released by the Japanese government on July 27, 1961, eight years after the end of the Korean War, Korea was described as a country that had no future.
The report concluded that the chances of Korea learning to stand on its own feet from the ashes of the civil war were dismal. The country's large population relative to its small territory and scarce natural resources, and the significant expense required to counter security threats from the communist North were identified as factors in the pessimistic outlook on the country.
Observers were also skeptical of the country's prospects for democracy. During the Korean War, a British journalist wrote that "expecting democracy to bloom in Korea is like hoping for a rose to blossom in a garbage bin."
The modern history of Korea in the past seven decades after the end of World War II, however, dispels such naysayers' views.
Korea is now one of the world's largest economies, with world-class shipbuilding, semiconductor, steel and automobile industries. Its current profile in the global economy stands in stark contrast to what it used to be in the 1960s. Back then, Korea was one of the world's poorest countries, with a per capita gross national product of merely $87 in 1962. The country's No. 1 priority at the time was feeding its hungry people.

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2015/07/116_183622.html