One stop on my group tour of Korea was the Posco Steel plant in Pohang. It's a source of pride for the country and emblematic of its rapid industrial rise from a poor war-torn country to an economic giant. The story told in short educational films that reminded me of my grammar school days sometimes verges on hyperbole as it effusively praises the will and determination of those who made it happen. Venerated as the man most responsible was president at the time, Park Chung Hee, a strongman of the old-fashioned sort who seized power in a coup then didn't relinquish it until he was shot 19 years later. He's seen here (a little hauntingly) immortalised in wax. This is the president who mythically grabbed the country by the scruff of the neck and dragged it into the 20th Century. There's more to the story of course, but in this space he is rightly venerated as a hero. Outside the gates of the sprawling impressive compound his legacy is more complicated but within this industrial kingdom where steel rolls along conveyor belts glowing red hot and emanating  a terrific heat, his legacy is untarnished.