When I picked up the book, the first thought was why the book was named so scary.

South Korea Is Suicide

When I picked up the book, the first thought was why the book was named so scary. However, by the time I closed the book of a little more than 300 pages, I thought I deserved to name a title like this. The book sharply points out problems one by one on various topics such as city, labor, class, marriage, competition, and generation. Personally, because it is an EntJ, if there is a problem, I try to analyze and solve it, but I do not enjoy giving up early. From that point of view, we acknowledge the reality of this book, but I think it is necessary in our society to try to solve each problem pointed out in this book, and that may be the reason why the author put this book to the world.

I think I am one of the people who sees the future of the Republic of Korea positively. However, if I talk about money, which is a topic that penetrates this book, I have no choice but to confess that I am also in line with this book. This is because all assets except real estate are invested in US financial instruments. So, even though I’m saying on the surface that Korea is good and that Korea will do well, if you look at the flow of money, you think that America will do better than Korea, and you think that American companies will do better than Korean companies. Younger people than me are also investing a lot in coins these days, and I can say that money is that cold.

Money flows in that direction because they believe that real estate in New York, US stocks, coins, and real estate in New York will do better than Samsung Electronics. At this point, I can feel the irony that it is desirable for Korean real estate to continue to rise upward in terms of national economic development. Of course, it is going upward at a rate similar to the national GDP growth rate. Anyway, let’s talk in detail about the topics discussed in the book one by one.

The book starts with Koreans who have no money. Of course, disposable income may be higher or similar compared to neighboring countries, but the income that can be practically operated is low due to excessive food prices and private education costs. However, it is relatively low rent and energy prices that support this, which is also difficult to sustainably. Personally, I have to sympathize with this part because I often go on business trips abroad, and even in Northern Europe, which is said to be expensive, apples are half the price of Korea. According to today’s Numbeo data, the price for a meal per person at a regular restaurant is 11,000 won in Seoul and 29,000 won in Copenhagen, while a kilogram of apples is 9,000 won in Seoul and 4,000 won in Copenhagen.

Considering that apples in Singapore and Taiwan are 5,600 won and 6,100 won, respectively, the problem of food prices in Korea is serious. If you go to the mart to cook on the weekend and put everything in there, you will realize that this is simply not cost-effective. Rather, it is a much better choice in terms of quality and labor intensity to eat at a nearby restaurant. I find the cause of this problem in terms of low agricultural productivity and the characteristics of small Korean agriculture. Farmland reforms that were boldly implemented during the First Republic have certainly helped Korea for more than half a century, but agriculture has become a system that can have a negative impact on the present and future of Korea, not on the main economy. The preservation of agricultural income, which consists of government subsidies and direct rice payments, is a point to rethink from the beginning.

After that, the author begins to discuss the old issue of centralization in Seoul. It means that the problem is that the centralization of the metropolitan area is too high compared to Japan, the UK, France, and Germany. Personally, I have a different view on this part. This is because, if you look closely, there are not many places where all regions develop in a balanced way, and it is more efficient to concentrate economic power and infrastructure in large cities. For example, in the Australian state of New South Wales, which is eight times larger than South Korea, there are approximately 8 million people, and Sydney, which occupies only 1% of the area, is 65% of the state’s population, or 5.3 million people. Although the United States says that the capital is not concentrated, Wyoming has a population density of two per km2 and that of New York City exceeds 10,000.

Currently, Seoul’s competitors are not Busan or Gwangju. Seoul must compete with large cities such as New York, London, Tokyo, or Paris, but if the narrow frame of Seoul centralization starts to lock us in, international competitiveness may slow down. In addition, the recent new cities are forming their own industrial clusters, such as Pangyo, Dongtan, and furthermore, areas such as Pyeongtaek and Icheon. Hwaseong-si’s population, which was only 200,000 people until 20 years ago, will probably exceed 1 million within a few years, and Pyeongtaek-si has also recently exceeded 500,000. Pyeongtaek and Hwaseong are virtually in the metropolitan area, so it is difficult to say that they are closer to Chungcheongbuk-do than to Seoul.

If cities in southern Gyeonggi Province such as Pangyo, Dongtan, Icheon, and Pyeongtaek expand like this, they will eventually have no choice but to contact Sejong City through Cheonan and Cheongju, and then a large-scale sustainable industrial belt that extends to Daejeon will be formed. Building infrastructure is a very resource-intensive task. Even if you want to build just 10 km of the subway right now, it costs more than 1 trillion won, and if you want to build only 10 km of the highway, you will need more than 500 billion won. Even if the cost-benefit analysis does not exceed 1, such infrastructure should be sustainable, but it is impossible to install it in a place where people do not gather. After all, infrastructure such as railroads, roads, water supply and sewage, electricity, and district heating must be established in order for people to live comfortably, and in this respect, the existence of cities is indispensable.

In this respect, in Korea, the population continues to move from Seoul to the southern part of Gyeonggi Province