Why Chaebols are Destroying South Korea

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Our first Korea video on the Demographics Collapse:

A bag of macadamia nuts.

That’s all it took to expose the broken power structure at the heart of South Korea’s economy.

In 2014, Korean Air executive Heather Cho forced an international flight to return to the gate because the nuts weren’t served on a plate. She screamed at the crew, made the chief flight attendant kneel, and left him behind in New York.

This wasn’t an isolated incident. It was an expression of a deeply rooted phenomenon in Korea known as Gapjil, the abuse of power by the elite.
And the people who most often commit Gapjil? The heirs to South Korea’s most powerful corporations.

This video unpacks the rise of the Chaebols, family-run conglomerates like Samsung, Hyundai, SK, and Lotte, who control everything from ports and banks to media and manufacturing. These five groups alone account for nearly 45 percent of South Korea’s GDP.

We explore how Korea’s postwar industrial policy gave rise to these giants, why they’ve become untouchable, and how their unchecked power has corroded the country’s economy, labor market, and political system.
From crony capitalism and corruption scandals to jobless growth and SME exploitation, the Chaebol system has warped Korea’s democracy and economy. Their dominance is so extreme that Korean stocks trade at a discount to peers, not because the companies are weak, but because foreign investors don’t trust them.

And it’s not just investors. Koreans themselves are losing faith.
Through secretive ownership structures, tax avoidance, related-party transactions, and monopolistic practices, Chaebols have crushed innovation, suppressed wages, and locked younger generations out of opportunity.
In the end, this isn’t just a story about bad business.

It’s a story about how concentrated power kills meritocracy, eats away at democratic values, and builds a nation run not by the people, but by dynasties.

This is: Chaebols, the Puppetmasters of the Morning Calm

00:00 - Intro
01:57 - Origins
05:58 - Crony Capitalism
08:33 - Economic Dominance
11:51 - Conclusion