The political economy of occupation: United States foreign economic policy in Korea, 1945-1949

The subject of this dissertation is American economic policy in Korea from 1945 to 1949. One of the most difficult tasks of American Military Government in Korea was to maintain political stability under deteriorating economic conditions. Americans achieved the minimum of political stability necessary to establish a separate regime in southern Korea. This American political policy was complemented and supported by its economic policy. The American economic operation in Korea was a crucial factor in the development of American policies in Korea. In the same way that the American political objectives and actions changed the direction of Korean history, American economic policy and its implications in Korea determined the future development of the Korean economy. In this study, American interests in Korea and in the Far East are examined in economic terms. The American policy was regional, that it focused on developing Japan as an economic center in the Far East and determined Korean economic policy in terms of its relationship to the Japanese economy.;Significantly, the American occupation left an economic legacy on the Korean economy. Economic planning, centralized state control of the economy, political utilization of economic assets, and above all, a framework of dependence on foreign trade as a main source of economic development were bequeathed by the Americans to the Korean successors.;This study deals primarily with the formulation of American economic policy and with American findings on the Korean economy upon which they based their policy. The United States planned and carried out a policy of economic stabilization through the maintenance of production and relief aid. Japanese property was another important source the Americans exploited for operating the Korean economy and for reducing American payment for the cost of the occupation. This study examined the American policy on the redemption of Japanese vested property in Korea, limited land reform, the continuously anti-leftist labor policy, the fiscal policy characterized by deficit financing, the Civilian Supply Programs, American planning of Korean foreign trade, the grant-in-aid program for the economic rehabilitation, and finally the formation and the failure of the Korean Aid Bill.