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Russia's economy is roughly the size of South Korea's, and barely a 20th the size of America's.
ECONOMIST: Russia: Unequal abroad, punchier at home | The
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Although none was jailed, the government said the amnesty was necessary because the businessmen needed to be cleared of their criminal records in order to help South Korea recover from a slowing of its economy.
ECONOMIST: South Korea
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The building blocks of a modern economy--bridges, roads, power lines--are at about the level of South Korea a quarter century ago, according to the Construction and Economic Research Institute of South Korea.
CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia | Korea: Korea's Big Show
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Just as South Korea's economy is something of a half-way house, so is its democracy.
ECONOMIST: What Lee Myung-bak still needs to do
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According to a study in 2005 by Michael Enright, Edith Scott and Ka-mun Chang, if the area, including Hong Kong and Macau, were a separate country, it would be the world's 18th-largest economy and its 11th-biggest exporter, ahead of South Korea and India.
ECONOMIST: The workshop to Hong Kong's front office
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At one point its economy grew faster than that of any other big country bar Japan and South Korea.
ECONOMIST: Getting it together at last
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But tourism was one of the rare bright spots for South Korea's economy last year, when exports fell 1.3%, their first decline since 2009.
WSJ: Seoul Bets on Chinese Tourists for Lunar New Year
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The launch is a culmination of years of efforts by South Korea Asia's fourth-largest economy to advance its space program and cement its standing as a technology powerhouse whose semiconductors, smartphones and automobiles command global demand.
NPR: SKorea: Satellite Working Normally, Sending Data
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It isn't rare in South Korea, where family-owned chaebol dominate its economy, to see company owners convicted of white collar crimes being granted presidential pardons.
WSJ: South Korea Plans to Pardon Former Samsung Chairman
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But such forward thinking has transformed South Korea from one of the poorest countries in Asia to an advanced high-tech economy that's home to major tech firms like Samsung and LG, as well as the most wired population on the planet.
CNN: Future tech and puppy love in South Korea
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South Korea, the world's tenth-largest economy, was effectively bankrupted by the withdrawal of Japanese money, he says.
FORBES: The Panic Spreads