South Koreans are infamously impatient. The country zipped through a spectacular makeover from a dirt-poor, post-war agrarian society into a manufacturing superstar. True to its national temperament, it is now aging faster than any other country thanks to one of the world’s lowest birth rates. From the economy to the military—which relies on conscripts to fill its ranks—the situation spells disaster for the country. It has also laid bare South Korea’s reliance on an authorized nationality-based system of quasi-slavery, which has forced foreign laborers to exist on the margins of the society, even though they play a vitally important economic role.
