■ Achieving $1 Billion in Exports in Just 7 Years!

Just seven years after surpassing the $1 billion export mark in 1970, Korea achieved $10 billion in exports. It was a literal miracle accomplished in a mere seven years—an achievement that took West Germany 11 years and Japan 16 years to accomplish. How was this $10 billion export milestone, still discussed among economists worldwide, made possible? The 1970s saw annual export growth exceeding 40%, driven by factors such as expansion into the Middle East that turned the oil shock into an oil boom, general trading companies established to centralize export channels and know-how, the active role of six industrial complexes including Pohang Iron and Steel, and the Export Promotion Expansion Conferences that resolved difficulties regarding the Belt and Road Initiative with the President. At that time, export warriors challenged the export front with the mindset of going to war.

■ South Korea in the 1960s: Exports Were the Only Way to Survive

In the early 1960s, Korea was practically in a state of economic bankruptcy. In 1960, exports amounted to a mere $32.83 million, but imports reached $343.53 million—more than ten times the export value! With U.S. aid shifting from grants to loans, the government launched an export policy to secure food, clothing, and shelter for the people. However, for a nation lacking technology, resources, or capital, exports were nothing more than the extremely primitive act of selling what was available. They sold anything they could—squid, iron ore, bracken, dried radish slices, and even collected urine and ginkgo leaves to sell as raw materials for medicine. Since they lacked the technology to produce goods or the raw materials, manufactured products constituted only a tiny fraction of the total. Nevertheless, thanks to the collective efforts of the entire nation, the milestone of $100 million in exports was finally reached on November 30, 1964, and this day was designated as Export Day. It was a triumph that gave hope that one day we, too, would be able to escape the "barley famine."

■ A Triumph in Just 6 Years: Achieving $1 Billion in Exports!

Achieving the $100 million export milestone brought about a paradigm shift. Driven by the hope that boosting the export industry would lead to national prosperity, the Park Chung-hee administration threw down the gauntlet on the export front. However, export policies met with public opposition from the very beginning. At the time, the world was focusing its efforts on expanding domestic industries rather than exports. The prevailing sentiment was that the bitter experience of the colonial era meant that exporting would inevitably lead to economic colonization, and above all, there was a shortage of funds to import raw materials. Consequently, after much deliberation, the Park Chung-hee administration secured funds through the Korea-Japan Treaty, the dispatch of miners to Germany, and the deployment of troops to Vietnam, and began to spur the development of light industries. It established the Economic Planning Board, the Korea International Trade Association, and the Korea Trade Promotion Agency, granted preferential treatment to export companies, and fostered a nationwide export atmosphere through various slogans, idea contests, and "export songs." Shouting "Let's live well," the people cut their hair without hesitation and even sold rat skins, branding them as "Korea Mink." It was the era of exports, a time that only those who lived through it can truly understand! South Korea finally surpasses the $1 billion export mark.

■ Achieve $10 Billion in Exports Within 10 Years?

Emboldened by the achievement of $1 billion in exports, the government declared a goal of $10 billion within 10 years in 1973, alongside its heavy and chemical industry policy. At the time, the declaration of $10 billion in exports was considered so impossible that it was cited as one of the three biggest laughingstocks, alongside the Ministry of Transportation's electrification of the Gyeongbu Line railway and the Economic Planning Board's goal of a $1,000 income. This was because, amidst an unstable global situation where the U.S. announced the Nixon Doctrine, North Korea—which was wealthier than Korea—constantly sought communist unification, and Vietnam and Cambodia were successively becoming communist, the development of heavy and chemical industries to achieve $10 billion in exports carried so many risks that even the United States, a ally at the time, tried to dissuade it. Furthermore, in 1973, Korea also faced the crisis known as the Oil Shock. How did we overcome that crisis when 1,700 manufacturing companies nationwide faced power supply restrictions, and consumer prices soared by 72% while wholesale prices rose by as much as 100%? Perhaps their final dream was that, even if that time was not a blessing, it at least did not become a source of fear.

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