South Korea is in a Hidden Crisis

Props to Korea fitting 2 dystopias in a single peninsula

If 2.1 is considered to be the minimum birth rate required for a stable population than it's horrifying that south Korea's is below 1

Small fun fact: There's a city in Mexico called Pesqueria that has so many Korean migrants that the city has been nicknamed ''Peskorea''

I am Korean, but there are many crises in Korea. The future is dark, but eating fried chicken disappears my worries and makes me so happy.

As someone who tutored kids in South Korea, I can confirm that that is indeed your typical 3rd grader rofllmao. The difficulty of their high school math exams is beyond godlike. Me as a kid would have failed out in 5th grade if I was a student there. It's probably much harder to get into Seoul National University as a student in the Korean system than it is for us to get into top end Ivy League schools. It's so ridiculously hyper competitive.

As a gyopo it's almost scary to see third graders exiting extracurriculars at 9pm, and I barely see kids ages 13 to 16 on the streets, because they're all studying, thanks for shedding some light on this distopia.

Currently, Korea is experiencing the biggest problem with the extreme congestion of the capital(Seoul). However, because there are no jobs, no young people want to go to other areas, and companies are headquartered only in Seoul, and no one wants to go to other areas. As a result, house prices in Seoul are rising and competition for jobs is getting fiercer. Who would want to have a baby in such an intensely competitive atmosphere? Universities: 'All' competitive universities are located in Seoul. Korea has risen because of Seoul, but Korea is falling apart because of Seoul. The wage gap between large companies and small and medium-sized companies is so large that the social atmosphere is encouraged for those working for small and medium-sized companies to feel inferior for life. And only 10% of people enter large companies.

I've been in Korea for 2 years now. I've always felt this underlying stress everywhare that is growing like a ticking bomb. Everyone feels it. but choose to ignore. I decided to leave Korea on the second day I slept in. It didn't get any better with the time. No expat I know feels like home here. Finally I graduated and I'm moving to Finland. I have got nothing against Korean people but I guess it's the system that is cooking everyone alive like a pressure cooker.

Sad to hear there seems to be no solution to solving this. My own mom, who is the most positive and hard working person I know, admitted that the economic inequality situation is terrible and it's hard for her own business to go anywhere

You forgot to mention that South Korea has a elderly homeless crisis as well as they don’t really have social security. So in conjunction with the current economic woes of the youths, S. Korea is going to become a nation of homeless old people.

I lived in Korea for 5 years as a Korean who grew up in the west. It's absolutely brutal there. I left because I saw no hope for my future if I kept living there. There is no respite. Only brutal competition every single day of your life, struggling to get ahead of your competition who are also working their ass off for the exact same goals that you are. Kids? You'll be living under the poverty line if you have too many, and because of the unstable employment due to the economy being dependant on exports, it's just... So hard to even think of having kids. I feel terribly guilty for having left, if I could contribute to Korea I would but how can I make a difference when all the decisions are made by people who are so high up in their ivory tower they can't even see me? I just have a heavy heart:(

Korea is over. The birth rate is now around 0.6, but it's only the beginning. Currently, there are 0.38 in some districts of Seoul and 0.31 in Busan. Korea is just a country that is over and quickly appears and disappears.

Never have known that a foreigner would know and explain about South Korea better than I could ever have.

As a 25-year-old Korean, this video is quite accurate. YouTube, numerous dramas and movies show Korean fantasies, but the reality is different. The conflict between men and women has reached its peak, and the older generation promotes generational conflict by giving them the nickname of the "MZ generation" that we don't even want. Not a few young Koreans, including myself, are pessimistic about their lives and have little excitement. So we're only looking for stimulation and we want to forget about the dark future. "Miracles on the Han River" is also a thing of the past. The older generation is destroying what our ancestors have created by greed, and we are ruining it by giving up. In every way, Korea is definitely in crisis. Thank you for making such a detailed video.

The reason S. Korea imports so much oil is not for its own consumption, but because there are many world-class oil refining and chemical companies in South Korea. They import crude oil, process it and export it again. Of course, the Korean Peninsula is a very barren land where not even 1 mL of oil is produced, so oil must be imported for survival.

Geopolitics has been a hobby of mine for some time and your way of explaining things is by far the best I've seen on youtube. Freaking hilarious and accurate. Subbed

As Korean, I'm very surprised you have researched really well about S.Korea. Young ppl like me still wants to live in Seoul since it is very difficult to find a job elsewhere (Of course there are works to do in other places but the salary isn't that good). So, the price of real estate is sky rocketing in Seoul which makes difficult for young ppl to get a proper place to live. Due to such problem, more and more youngsters give up getting married or even if they get married, they rather choose not to have a child because having a child costs a lot either.

One funny thing is that Chaebols, the large conglomerates, are actually the ones that follow the labor laws, provide tons of benefits for its workers and have better work life balance because they are filthy rich and can afford to provide those to their workers. It's actually the small, medium sized companies that work with Chaebols who have it the worst. They are not part of those conglomerates so they not only get paid worse, but they have to work overtime to meet the deadline the conglomerates have set for them, leading their workers to work till death

Shocked to see I hadn't subscribed yet (saying this as I'm subscribing). Man, your content is so good. I love your sense of humor and the way you present geopolitics in a joking, but highly informative way is just gold.

North Korea actually allowed several kpop acts to perform in the country as recently as 2018.