From recipient to donor

A Korean farmer threshes rice with a foreign aid worker observing the scene in this photo taken in the 1960s. / Courtesy of USAID

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By Park Si-soo

BUSAN ― Skipping meals were a daily routine for most South Korean citizens with the territory devastated by the 1950-53 war against North Korea.

With no medical services in place, many children and senior citizens fell sick and perished. The government struggled to find ways to feed and look after its people, but little progress was made.

Against this backdrop, the arrival of ships carrying foreign aid products provided a ray of hope for the hunger-stricken country. The assistance enabled Korea to flex its muscles to revive its devastated villages, factories and other facilities necessary to survive on its own.

This port city 450 kilometers south of Seoul was a major destination for foreign aid products.

Roughly 60 years after the first arrival of foreign aid, Korea became an aid-giving state, paying nearly one trillion won ($887 million) or 0.12 percent of its Gross National Income (GNI) to assist fragile and developing countries through official development assistance. It plans to increase the ratio to 0.25 percent by 2015.

These historical photos are provided by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA). They were exhibited during the Fourth High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan, which ended Thursday.