South Korea Goes From Beggar to Best After Lessons of 1997 Slump

SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg

Underpinning the nation’s industrial success are the chaebol, large, family-controlled conglomerates held together by a network of crossholdings. Their size, government support and access to capital have made many world leaders -- Samsung, for example, in mobile phones and flat screens, Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. in shipbuilding.