Korea is 'Ireland of Asia'?

Ireland and Korea


Have you ever heard that Korea is 'Ireland of Asia'? I don't know who made that nickname, but Korea is called like that by some people in deed.
Do you agree with that? Well, if you know about Korea and Ireland more, you will say 'Yes'. I found they have pretty lots of things in common.


1. Economical

Both are very small countries. That means it's too limited to depend on only manufactoring as their economies grew. Exportation is obviously necessary to survive. For that reason, both of them focused on especially trading and developing international relations and thoes have rapidly brought  economic prosperity to them.


2. Historical

Korea was ruled by Japan as a colony from 1910 to 1945. Ireland was also controlled by England and became independent in 1921. Resistant spirit that they have all the time against their rulers played an important role in their indepence and they still keep that in mind. Consequently, the spirit appears as han in Korea and bron/caoine in Ireland.
(Han and bron/caoine is a sort of deep sorrow or regret, but not exactly. There's no word to experess that kind of feelings in English. If you want to know about han, click here: Jeong and Han, a look at the Korea psyche.)


3. Geographical

Both of them separated into different parts. Korea is spilt into South Korea(the Republic of Korea) and North Korea(Democratic People's Republic of Korea). Ireland is in the similar situation as well, because Northern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom, not 'Repblic of Ireland'.
Moreover, the two conturies are located on the left side of the superpowers which are Japan and the United Kingdom.


There seems to be quite many reasons why people call Korea 'Ireland of Asia', but it can be vice versa, can't it? As a Korean, I would love to say that Ireland is 'Korea of Europe' rather than previous one! ;)

What do you think about this? Do you think that Korea is simailar to Ireland or vice versa?