Environmental Situation in Korea - Between Rapid Growth and Pollution Control (1999, Korea)

Environmental Situation in Korea - Between Rapid Growth and Pollution Control (1999, Korea)

The second half of the 1990s was a period of re-accelerating economic growth in South Korea while overcoming the Asian currency crisis. While export expansion and urbanization encouraged the modernization of the industrial structure, it also brought serious environmental problems to the fore. In particular, the rapid increase in the number of automobiles in the Seoul metropolitan area worsened air pollution, and nitrogen oxides and suspended particulate matter became a health hazard. In addition, urban pollution began to be recognized as a social problem due to a combination of factory emissions and inadequate treatment of industrial waste.

In response to this situation, the Korean government tightened environmental regulations and promoted stricter emission standards through amendments to the Air Quality Protection Act and the Waste Management Act. A separate collection system for containers and packaging waste was also introduced, and a system for promoting recycling and resource circulation was institutionalized. This move is in step with the Containers and Packaging Recycling Law to be enforced in Japan, and is part of the institutional "environmental legislative rush" in East Asia.

At the same time, civil society played a major role. Dissatisfaction with the environmental destruction accompanying economic growth has energized citizens' movements, and environmental policies have been strengthened at the local government level with the participation of local residents. Internationally, the Korean movement strengthened its network with environmental NGOs such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, and the Korean movement became linked to the global environmental justice movement.

Korea's efforts are often compared to Japan's reenactment of the "rapid economic growth and pollution problems" experienced in the 1960s and 1970s, and while the Japanese experience was referenced, Korea was unique in that it combined regulation and citizen participation at an earlier stage. In 1999, Korea had become an important testing ground in Asia for the search for a "balance between growth and environmental protection," a trend that was closely watched by the international community.