Korean currency
In 1902, won was introduced as the official currency unit replacing yang at 1 won = 5 yang. The bank of Korea was established 1909 but soon after in 1910, Imperial Japan annexed Korean Empire. Under Colonial rule, the country was made to use the currency unit "yen" in the name of Korean yen, which took over the Korean won at par. After the division of Korea, the state of South Korea was established and recognized in 1948, and won was again made the official currency of the new state. "jeon" was made the subunit of the currency that divided it into 100 equal parts. Bank of Joseon issued the currency for independent South Korea for the first time that too in banknotes only.
Economy of South Korea
For the first half of the 1990s, the South Korean economy continued a stable and strong growth in both private consumption and GDP. Things changed quickly in 1997 with the Asian Financial crisis. After several other Asian currencies were attacked by speculators, the Korean won started to heavily depreciate in October 1997. The problem was exacerbated by the problem of non-performing loans at many of Korea's merchant banks. By December 1997, the IMF had approved a USD $21 billion loan, that would be part of a USD $58.4 billion bailout plan. By January 1998, the government had shut down a third of Korea's merchant banks. Throughout 1998, Korea's economy would continue to shrink quarterly at an average rate of -6.65%. Korean chaebol Daewoo became a casualty of the crisis as it was dismantled by the government in 1999 due to debt problems. American company General Motors managed to purchase the motors division. Indian conglomerate Tata Group, purchased the trucks and heavy vehicles division of Daewoo.