This is Planet Money from NPR.
Welcome back, everyone, to Planet Money Summer School World Tour.
The only international economics degree where the currency of interest is frequent flyer miles.
And so far, including this episode, we have circled the globe and racked up 46,289 miles.
Double diamond.
I think we deserve an upgrade.
And why not?
We should fly first class into today's destination, Seoul,
South Korea, a country that has experienced quite an upgrade itself.
Last week in Argentina, we learned about a very rich country that had lost its shine.
Today in South Korea, we see the opposite, a country that has written the playbook for rising from poor to rich.
When the Korean War hostilities ended in 1953, Seoul was a city in near total ruin.
People were living in rubble and shacks, going hungry.
Things were grim.
Now Seoul, South Korea, is a glittering modern city.
The country is home to Samsung, Hyundai,
and the hot semiconductor company SK Hynix, not to mention the silky song stylings of BTS.
Hope this brings more young people to the podcast.
Bora Hay, new listeners.
So how did Korea pull this trick off?