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Glossary -- South Korea
- chaebol
- Korean translation of the Japanese word zaibatsu, or
business conglomerate. A group of specialized companies with
interrelated management servicing each other.
- chip (jip)
- The household, i.e., family members under one roof; the term
k'unjip (big house) refers to the main family of the
eldest son, while the term chagonjip (little house)
refers to the branch family households of the younger sons.
- Ch'ondogyo
- Teachings of the Heavenly Way, an indigenous monotheistic
religion stressing the equality of man and the unity of man and
the universe. Formerly Tonghak (q.v.), Ch'ondogyo had
approximately 27,000 followers and 66 churches in South Korea in
1988.
- chuch'e (juche)
- The political ideology promulgated by Kim Il Song. The
application of Marxism-Leninism to the North Korean experience
based on autonomy and self-reliance.
- chungin
- The "middle people"--a small group of technicians and
administrators in traditional Korea, subordinate to the
yangban (q.v.), that included astronomers,
physicians, interpreters, legal; specialists, and artists.
- Demarcation Line
- Established under the Korean armistice agreement of 1953;
marks the actual cease-fire line between South Korea and North
Korea.
- DMZ (Demilitarized Zone)
- The 4-kilometer-wide buffer zone along the approximately 241-
kilometer-long Demarcation Line (q.v.).
- fiscal year
- calendar year.
- Five Relationships
- The Confucian concept of ideal social relationships,
formulated by classical Chinese philosophers such as Mencius
(372-289 B.C.), which states that there should be affection
between father and son, righteousness between ruler and minister,
attention to their separate functions between husband and wife,
proper order between old and young, and faithfulness between
friends.
- GDP
- gross domestic product. The total value of all final
(consumption and investment) goods and services produced by an
economy in a given period, usually a year.
- GNP
- gross national product. GDP (q.v.) plus income from
overseas investments minus the earnings of foreign investors in
the home economy.
- han'gul
- The Korean phonetic writing system, developed by scholars in
the court of King Sejong in the fifteenth century, which is used
either by itself or in conjunction with Chinese characters.
- International Monetary Fund
(IMF)
- Established along with the World Bank (q.v.) in
1945, the IMF is a specialized agency affiliated with the United
Nations and is responsible for stabilizing international exchange
rates and payments. The main business of the IMF is the provision
of loans to its members (including industrialized and developing
countries) when they experience balance of payments difficulties.
These loans frequently carry conditions that require substantial
internal economic adjustments by the recipients, most of which
are developing countries.
- p'a
- The lineage, a kinship unit consisting of all descendants of
a common male ancestor who, in many cases, was the founder of a
village. Some p'a contain thousands of households--
chip (q.v.), and members conduct ceremonies at
the common ancestral gravesite. In some villages or hamlets in
traditional Korea, many or most of the people were members of the
same p'a.
- pukpang chongch'aek
- Also seen as Nordpolitik, or northern policy. Reconciling
traditional ties with the West with new opportunities in the
east; establishing self-reliant global posture; expanding and
diversifying trade relations on global scale to cope with trade
protectionism from the United States; improving relations with
P'yongyang.
- to (do)
- Province, used in combined form, as Kangwoon-do for Kangwon
Province, or Chungch'ong-pukto for North Ch'ungch'ong Province.
There are eight mainland provinces and one island province in the
Republic of Korea. Do, or to also means island,
as in Cheju-do.
- Tonghak
- Literally, Eastern learning, an indigenous religious movement
founded by Ch'oe Che-u in the early 1860s, which spearheaded a
popular, anti-foreign rebellion in 1894-95. Later renamed
Ch'ondogyo (q.v.).
- won
- The monetary unit. In January 1989, the exchange rate was
W682.4 per US$1.
- World Bank
- Informal name used to designate a group of three affiliated
international institutions: the International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the International
Development Association (IDA), and the International Finance
Corporation (IFC). The IBRD, established in 1945, has the primary
purpose of providing loans to developing countries for productive
projects. The IDA, a legally separate loan fund but administered
by the staff of the IBRD, was set up in 1960 to furnish credits
to the poorest developing countries on much easier terms than
those of conventional IBRD loans. The IFC, founded in 1956,
supplements the activities of the IBRD through loans and
assistance specifically designed to encourage the growth of
productive private enterprises in the less developed countries.
The president and certain senior officers of the IBRD hold the
same positions in the IFC. The three institutions are owned by
the governments of the countries that subscribe their capital. To
participate in the World Bank group, member states must first
belong to the International Monetary Fund (IMF)--q.v.).
- yangban
- The scholar-official ruling class of traditional Korea,
distinguished for its knowledge of neo-Confucianism and its
monopoly of high government positions; more broadly, families
with lineages descended from scholar-officials, and scholars who
had passed the civil service examinations even though they had
not secured an official post.
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