South Korean International Monetary Fund Agreement, 1997

The South Korean International Monetary Fund Agreement was implemented when South Korea, which was in a foreign exchange crisis, signed a memorandum of understanding with the International Monetary Fund on December 3, 1997. The country's chaebols, or large conglomerates, had engaged in poor business management and overborrowing, and the government had been supporting the chaebols' financial practices when the Asian financial crisis began. The IMF required the introduction of a range of policies (such as fiscal and financial austerity, high-interest rates, the dissolution of the chaebols, layoffs, and implementation of floating exchange rates) as conditions for the bailout. The South Korean government under Kim Young-sam accepted those conditions to stave off a crisis. As a result, corporate bankruptcies, mass unemployment, and a crisis in the real economy accelerated.