$500 GDP/capita in the 60s. Now, they're on the technological frontier with Samsung, Hyundai, and LG -- gradually ripping market share from our most cherished technological innovators.
WTF happened?
How did South Korea get so rich?
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Currency peg. Industrial policy. Strong government support of banking sector.
The first is broken by Soros, but the second two are precisely what stop it from growing even further. Chaebol useful in a world with very very weak finance but rent seeking and not needed once financial system is developed.
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Their government protected fledgling industries (e.g. didn't import many U.S. autos in order to allow Hyundai to grow). At the same time, they became pals (politically and through somewhat open trade) with the U.S. Add in hard work and good education, and the GDP growth starts making sense.
This doesn't touch on all the complexities of why the Korean economy grew over this time, but it at least gives you a starting point.
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The South Koreans got rich from the economic hitmen who worked with the big corporations and the neoconservatives to hoard resources and keep the North Koreans and the Marxist Latin American countries poor and enslaved. BTW, I like making out with barnyard animals.
-Naomi Klein.