The Creation of Industrial Warriors: Mass Training of the First Generation of Skilled Workers

The mass production of well-disciplined industrial skilled workers was one of the most defining characteristics of Korea’s heavy and chemical industrialization during the 1970s and into the 1980s. The impact of these newly emerged HCI workers on Korea’s rapid development was distinctive in terms of not only their key role in the country’s spectacular economic development but also their collective relationship with the Korean developmental state. Under President Park Chung Hee, in particular, they were molded into what the Park state called industrial warriors to be “the flag bearer of the modernization of the fatherland” (choguk kŭndaehwaŭi kisu), essentially reflecting