IMF 20 Years On: S. Korea’s Never-ending Crisis

Near the end of the service, Pastor Huh Woon-ho asked the packed tent of congregants a question he already knew the answer to: “What happened 20 years ago?” The churchgoers instinctively knew what Huh was getting at, and responded in low-voiced unison, “The IMF crisis.” Before that, the worst financial crisis in South Korea’s history and arguably the most traumatic event since the Korean War, Huh helmed a church in an actual building in Seoul, instead of this drafty tent. But when many of his