History In the early 1900"s Japan were the military power in Northeast Asia and in 1910 they took possession of Korea and made it one of their colonies. Korea was ruled by Japan for 35 years during which they made much effort into trying to destroy the Korean way of life and culture. The Koreans were not allowed to speak their own language or to learn about their history during this time. As a symbol of their patriotism the Korean people pay respect to the day March 1st 1919 in which many Koreans were killed or put in prison...
a rise of 39.4% in 1999 to $23.0 billion and 24% in 2000 to $28.0 billion. The U.S. is Korea"s largest export market--followed by the EU and Japan. Korea"s exports to the U.S. were $31.2 billion in 1999 and rose 29% to $40.3 billion in 2000.

One possible cause of the crisis were that the debt South Korea had amounted was for money that was only needed short term; it was mostly for the rapid increase in private sector borrowings. South Korea"s external debt now totals $137 billion Nov. 2000 after having to borrow $58 million after the crisis.