<p>This volume explains Korea’s labour and social security policy responses during the Financial Crisis period from 1998 to 2000. The crisis was a financial one in nature: Korea was enveloped by the crisis because it’s foreign reserves needed to repay the impending foreign loans were depleted, and because Korean companies were not productive enough compared to their liabilities. But the crisis could not have been overcome just by refilling the foreign reserves. Korea had to restructure its own economic system so as to guarantee that once the foreign reserves were replenished, it would not be depleted again so quickly. The restructuring of the economy and the replacing of the old system with a new system inevitably affected everyone within the system. During the crisis, those within the system suffered from the pains of the adjustment and from the weaknesses of the old system.</p>