Miracle on the Han River brief compared to other countries who experienced similar situations. Chaebol refers to corporate groups in South Korea, mainly run by families, that exercise monopolist or oligopolist control over product lines and industries. They can be compared with conglomerates of the United States and the Zaibatsu of Japan. Sometimes the Korean military itself is considered a chaebol. During the industrialization period of South Korea, President Park Chung-hee supported the rise of chaebol groups, facilitating the growth of these groups in order to trigger economic growth. Inside the operations of chaebol groups, there are many branches that family members control and operate.
Chaebol chaebol had become financially independent and secure, thereby eliminating the need for further government-sponsored credit and assistance. By the 1990s, South Korea was one of the largest newly industrialized countries and boasted a standard of living comparable to industrialized countries. President Kim Young-sam began to challenge the chaebol, but it was not until the 1997 Asian financial crisis that the weaknesses of the system were widely understood. Of the 30 largest chaebol, 11 collapsed between July 1997 and June 1999. Initially, the crisis was caused by a sharp drop in the value of the currency and aside from immediate cash