.

I find two things odd:

1. That anyone would seriously think Korea is a 3rd world country.
2. That someone would write 'a black man' after the guy's name.

I'm glad someone finally got it right. I find that blacks are more accepting of asian society. @captian: They probably said he was black because some could mistake him for aborigine.

I already posted this in Vietnam forum but here goes again because some people don't have a clue.

According to this link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Developed_cou...ed_economy_list

Human Development Index
Asian Countries with an HDI at or above 0.900: Japan 0.960, Singapore 0.944, Hong Kong 0.944, South Korea 0.937

IMF Advanced Economy List
Includes the following Asian countries: Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan

High-income OECD members
Includes the following Asian countries: Japan, South Korea

World Bank high-income economies
Includes the following Asian countries: Brunei, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan

Quality-of-life survey
Asian Countries in top 30: Singapore #11, Japan #17, Hong Kong #18, Taiwan #21, South Korea #30

The only Asian Countries that qualify for top in all of these categories (High-income OECD members, International Monetary Fund, Advanced economies, Human Development Index at or above 0.9, CIA's The World Factbook, Advanced economies, World Bank, High-income economies, Quality-of-life index Top 30 countries) are Japan and South Korea.


From this link you can see that South Korea is one of the few First World Asian countries.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_World

There really is no debate on the subject of South Korea not being Third World country. Korea is one of the top Asian countries.

There was a debate on whether or not S. Korea is a 3rd world country?

No, but just in case some anti Korea idiot tries to.

This map also shows the First/Second/Third world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:First_se..._worlds_map.svg

What the h3ll is Vietnam considered 2nd world...yet other SEAsian countries who are ahead of Vietnam r not
stupid wikipedia

the map dosen't make sense... Mexico is not third world and North Korea should be.

that's a Cold War era map, so its about the political categories not the economic strengths...but that's where the "Third World" came from = actually those countries not in the Communist OR the Capitalist Camp.

2nd world doesn't actually fit in continuousely with 1st and 3rd world.. 2nd world just means that it's soviet or a former soviet state.

I see... i thought it was dependent on income.. thanks for the explanation.

Here's the definition of the First/Second/Third world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_World

'Third world' is outdated term and it's not commonly used any more. 'Developing countries' is more commonly used.
Also, instead of the 'First world', they use 'developed countries' nowadays.

Sorry, double post. Deleted

Yeah, I don't believe in the first/second/third world labellings anymore. It was a by-product of the Cold War.

The more appropriate terms would be developing or developed countries. I guess you can also use industrialized or industrializing economies too.

Getting back on topic, Korea is a DEVELOPED country.

North is, Shouth is not.
However, the defination of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd worlds are very unclear.

It's clear.

1st World = developed capitalist states

2nd World = communist/socialist states

3rd World - developing states + under developed states

North Korea was 2nd world group but now in 3rd world.

I can't imagine anyone agreeing with that map.

The range of "developing" is way to wide for any practical assessment AND it includes neutral countries like Switzerland, who is certainly "developed".

Putting Russia, the former USSR states and China in one category is hard to fathom too.

But then it shows Greenland as "developed", which I would question because its population is not growing and its development seems limited to foreign investments.

And whether it is by alliances, form of government, or status of development, South Korea is still labeled wrong and not separated from NK which is in a different category on the basis of any of the same three criteria!

Greenland is the part of Denmark as far as I know.