Description of the country:
South Korea also known as Republic of Korea is a sovereign state in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula. The name Korea is derived from the ancient Kingdom of Goguryeo, also known as Koryŏ. It is highly urbanized at 92% of the total population. South Koreans leads a distinctive urban lifestyle and more than half of them live in high-rises concentrated in the Seoul Capital Area with more than 25 million residents. Seoul is the world's sixth leading global city with the fourth largest economy.
Geography of the country:
As whole Korea is a 750-mile-long peninsula located in the easternmost part of the Asian continent. In today’s era, the country is split into South and North Korea, but in the minds of most of its citizens, it remains a single nation that cannot be divided. South Korea has many mountains, but they are small when compared with others around the world. Over millions of years, their peaks have been worn down by rain and wind. Most summits are below 3,300 feet (1,000 meters). High humidity and rainfall gives rise to rropical evergreen jungles in South Korea's Jeju Island. The peninsula is also surrounded by about 3,000 volcanic islands.
Status of economy, research and development:
The Republic of Korea has shown a very successful model of economic progress and social development through government intervention. Its research and development (R&D) system has contributed to this success through strategic acquisition of foreign technologies and national capacity building process. The country’s R&D system is conceptualized as evolving, reflecting the continually changing socio-economic demands of the country in a global economy, with the government performing the key role of managing the acceleration and facilitation of R&D contribution to the socio-economic development of the country.
Status about the different subjects in which extensive research is going on:
South Korea’s growth in Science and technology includes Cyber security, where the national government committed to the training of 5,000 new cybersecurity experts by 2017. Aerospace research, South Korea has sent up 10 satellites from 1992, all using foreign rockets and overseas launch pads, notably Arirang-1 in 1999, and Arirang-2 in 2006 as part of its space partnership with Russia. Robotics has been included in the list of main national R&D projects in Korea since 2003. In 2009, the government announced plans to build robot-themed parks in Incheon and Masan with a mix of public and private funding. Since the 1980s, the Korean government has invested in the development of a domestic biotechnology industry, and the sector is projected to grow to $6.5 billion by 2010. The medical sector accounts for a large part of the production, including production of hepatitis vaccines and antibiotics. Recently, in genetics and cloning has received increasing attention, with the first successful cloning of a dog, Snuppy (in 2005), and the cloning of two females of an endangered species of wolves by the Seoul National University in 2007. The rapid growth of the industry has resulted in significant voids in regulation of ethics, as was highlighted by the scientific misconduct case involving Hwang Woo-Suk