S. Koreans Abuzz Over Their Obsession With the Office

Ban Ki-moon, above, the South Korea-born leader of the United Nations, shown with Gen. Martin Agwai of the African Union force, is celebrated in the Seoul press as a workaholic. Hwang Woo-suk, below, who says he is a pioneer in the field of cloning, is likewise described as a human dynamo. (Pool Photo By Zohra Bensemra)

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"Staying up all night is my habit," Kim told a North Korean newspaper last year. "This is the prime time to work."

Not everyone is impressed with the Korean Peninsula's great gusher of elbow grease.

The hardest-working people in the OECD rank just 23rd when it comes to making money, as many newspaper pundits here have noted. The per capita annual income here is $23,038, well below the OECD average of $31,468.

A columnist for the Hankyoreh newspaper scolded his countrymen this month for their self-destructive lack of sloth.

He noted that parents and children spend far too many hours each day at work or in school, only to come home and spend far too many hours noodling around on the Internet.

South Korea ranks first among OECD countries in home Internet access, at 94 percent.

"Raising children when you lead a compulsive, nervous and empty life is a problem," wrote columnist Kim Young-hwan, who also works for the Korea Human Rights Foundation. "As much as adults are drowning in work, they are drowning their children in education."

South Korean politicians, however, seem to know better than to say discouraging words when it comes to work.

A case in point is the workaholic self-made millionaire businessman who late last year was elected president of South Korea.

Lee Myung-bak, known as "the Bulldozer," ran a campaign based on his rags-to-riches biography and a promise that he could make all South Koreans significantly richer.

In his inaugural address, Lee explained what was necessary: Young people need to work harder, teachers need to work harder and workers need to work harder.

Lee, by the way, won his election by the largest margin since South Korea became a democracy.

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