This book is a collection of my articles I have written on Korean competition law and policy through my thirty-year career serving in the Korean government. The central focus of these articles lies on a discussion and analysis of the basic lessons of Korea’s twenty-five-year experience of competition law and policy. Moreover, these writings are concerned with the history behind Korea’s economic transition from a government-managed economy to a market-driven economy.
Korean competition law and policy were adopted largely in reaction to a multitude of inefficiencies and a monopolistic industry structure which had accumulated during the pursuit of a government-managed economic development policy. Up until the early 1960s, Korea faced devastating poverty and a stagnant economy. The Korean government therefore implemented an aggressive growth strategy throughout the 1960s and 1970s, which relied heavily on industrial policy while greatly neglecting competition policies, eventually
