The republic of Korea is a country which started in the last years to thrive presenting far-reaching changes in its infrastructure. It has a complete highway and railroad system communicating the main cities, Pusan, Seoul, Taegu, Kwanju, Inh"on, and Taejon, with the principal ports. Communications are better than ever with 7 million households of the 11 million there are with high-speed Internet connections and more than half of the population which totals 48,289,037 inhabitants, having mobile phones. .
Korea has developed several unique characteristics of its people due to its topographical peculiarities. The oceanic and continental inclinations combine to form the basis of the people's identity, which underlies the foundation of the country's culture and arts. Being a peninsula also involves a cultural environment with peripheral and centric features. Under this topographical influence, the Korean people came to develop a peace-loving yet dynamic character that has created a contemplative yet vibrant, optimistic yet sentimental culture. Being a culture, aware of what happens in its surroundings, English is taught at all schools since junior high school and Chinese is a language that many speak in Korea. The predominant religions are Christianity and Buddhism. .
Korea is rich in coal, tungsten, graphite, molybdenum, lead, and has a great hydropower potential. It has a gross domestic product of $931 billion dollars. However, Korea is a nation recovering from a financial crisis and still has a considerable external debt. It has good economic relations with Japan, the Unites States, and China mainly and is member of many international economic organizations such as: APEC, OECD(Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), and WCO(World Commerce Organization). Our strongest industries are: Electronics, automobile production, chemicals, shipbuilding, and steel producing. These industries have caused air and water pollution, as well as acid rain which is produced partly by China and is swept to Korea by the wind.
