Geographical location, topography, climate and economic situation of Korea

South Korea is located in the southern part of the Korean peninsula, with the 38th parallel of north latitude as the armistice line, and borders North Korea in the north. The Korean Peninsula is located in the northeast of the Asian continent, extending from north to south, with a total length of 1 100 km. South Korea has a total area of 99,600 square kilometers. South Korea's territorial waters meet the westernmost waters of the Pacific Ocean. The Korean Peninsula is bordered by China and Russian in the north, the East Sea of Korea in the east, and faces Japan across the sea. In addition to the peninsula connected with the mainland, there are 3,200 islands in South Korea. One of the most famous is Jeju Island, which is called Oriental Hawaii.

zone

The mountainous area accounts for about two-thirds of the area of the Korean peninsula, with diverse topography, low hills and plains interlaced. The low mountains and hills are mainly distributed in the central and eastern parts, and the altitude is mostly below 500 meters. Taibai Mountain runs through the east coast, forming the backbone of the southern peninsula. Several parallel mountains extending to the side of the Yellow Sea form low hills, including Taibai Mountain, Shang Qing and Xiaobai, among which Xue Yue and Wutai Mountain are famous for their beautiful scenery. The highest peak of Xiaobai is Zhiyi Mountain, which runs from northeast to southwest at an altitude of 19 15m. Halla Mountain is located in the middle of Jeju Island, with an altitude of1950m, which is the highest peak in Korea. According to ancient legends, immortals live on Mount Hannah. Therefore, Halla Mountain used to be called Yingzhou Mountain, and together with Mount Kumgang and Zhiyi Mountain, it was called the three sacred mountains. The plains are mainly distributed in the south and west, and the altitude is mostly below 200 meters. There are plains such as Hanjiang Plain and Xiangtan Plain along the Yellow Sea, and small plains such as Jinhai Plain and Quannan Plain along the South China Sea.

climate

The northern part has a temperate monsoon climate, and the southern part has a subtropical climate, with remarkable maritime characteristics. Winter is long and cold, summer is hot and humid, and spring and autumn are quite short. The lowest temperature in winter is-12℃, and the highest temperature in summer is 37℃. The average annual rainfall is about 1500mm, and the rainfall from June to August is relatively large, accounting for 70% of the whole year. The annual average precipitation is about 1500mm, which gradually decreases from south to north. South Korea has four distinct seasons and short spring and autumn. Summer is hot and humid; Winter is cold and dry, and sometimes it snows. The temperature difference in different parts of Korea is quite large, with the average temperature ranging from 6℃ to 16℃. In the hottest August of the year, the average temperature is 19℃ to 27℃. 65438+ 10 is the coldest month, with an average temperature of-8℃ to 7℃. It is often windy and rainy in early spring, and strong winds bring "yellow sand" to inland deserts in Asia, commonly known as sandstorms, which have gradually increased in recent years. By mid-April, the weather is getting warmer, and Korean farmers level rice fields every year to prepare for planting rice. There are many typhoons in summer and autumn, and there will be plum rains in summer.

General situation of economy

Under the rule of Li Chengwan, South Korea never paid attention to economic development. After park chung-hee took office, he determined the development strategy of export-oriented economy and started the famous "miracle of Hanjiang River". South Korea's economy began to grow gradually, achieving a "triple jump" in industries such as electronics, automobiles, steel and shipbuilding. Driven by the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games, there was a growth of 12.8% that year. South Korea's agricultural development is extremely slow, and it does not occupy an important position in the national economy, and its proportion in the gross national product is also declining. The grain self-sufficiency rate is not high, showing a downward trend. Korea used to be a traditional agricultural country. The proportion of agriculture in the Korean economy is getting smaller and smaller, and its status is getting lower and lower. South Korea is a big importer of agricultural products, and its import volume tends to increase. However, its agricultural market is extremely sensitive to foreign investment, and it is an economic sector with a small degree of opening to the outside world. The existing cultivated land area is 6.5438+0.782 million hectares (26.73 million mu), accounting for 654.38+0.789% of the country's land area, mainly distributed in the western and southern plains and hilly areas. The proportion of the total land area is shrinking. The per capita arable land area is 0.54 mu. With the progress of industrialization, the agricultural population is gradually decreasing, and the existing agricultural population accounts for about 6.8% of the total population. South Korea's manufacturing industry is very developed, and its main industrial sectors are steel, automobile, shipbuilding, electronics and nuclear industry. 20 1 1 year, South Korea's GDP exceeded 1000 billion US dollars, falling to 15 in the world. According to the public ranking on the World Bank website, South Korea's GDP is 15 after Australia (14). The main reason why the International Monetary Fund is bearish on South Korea's economic prospects is that foreign demand for Korean goods has plummeted, and South Korea's exports have fallen faster than expected. According to the data released by the government, South Korea's exports fell sharply year-on-year, with a record decline. South Korea's job market is also not optimistic. Since June, 5438+February, 2008, due to the fear of rapid economic deterioration, a large number of enterprises in South Korea laid off employees on a large scale, resulting in the double-digit unemployment rate in South Korea. Recently, South Korea's current account deficit has been expanding, the foreign exchange situation has deteriorated seriously, and credit difficulties have intensified. As a result, the Korean exchange rate has depreciated sharply, the real purchasing power of the people has shrunk seriously, and the decline in private consumption has become increasingly serious. The news that the Nordic country Iceland went bankrupt shocked the whole world. Although the impact of the international financial crisis on the Asia-Pacific region is relatively small, experts generally believe that South Korea, which also opens its financial market, may become the "Asian version of Iceland". As the Korean won continues to weaken, those small and medium-sized enterprises with US dollar or Japanese yen loans are struggling and can only watch the principal and interest to be repaid roll up. In order to ensure foreign exchange reserves, the Bank of Korea banned the extension of some foreign currency loans due, and a large number of Korean enterprises faced the fate of bankruptcy. The number of bankrupt enterprises in Korea has increased sharply. South Korea's extreme poverty rate (the proportion of extremely poor families to the total population) is relatively high, and the growth rate is also very fast. OECD analyzed the poverty rate according to the proportion of poor people, and the results showed that among the 30 major member countries, South Korea ranked sixth, reaching 14.6% (based on 2006). This figure is significantly higher than that of Switzerland (8.7%), Britain (8.3%) and Germany (1 1%). In addition, this figure also exceeds the average level of all OECD countries (10.6%).