Engineering Security: The South Korean Developmental State and the Military Origins of Changwon as a Machinery Manufacturing Capital

This paper examines the transformation of Changwon, South Korea, from a rural village into a central production hub. It argues that military-driven industrial policies were fundamental to this transformation and to the country’s rapid postwar industrialization. While existing scholarship has emphasized export-oriented industrialization, this study reveals the crucial yet understudied role of defense production in shaping industrial capabilities and the developmental state. Drawing on declassified government and military archives related to the Yulgok Operation, South Korea’s independent military modernization program (1974–92), this study demonstrates how state-directed strategies for localized arms production fostered both an advanced machinery sector and a domestic defense industry. Under this initiative, Changwon developed critical precision manufacturing capabilities, ranging from machine tools to large-scale industrial facilities, which became indispensable for both military and civilian production. Changwon’s evolution exemplifies “militarized industrialization,” wherein defense requirements catalyzed broader industrial capabilities and reinforced South Korea’s pursuit of economic and technological self-reliance. By analyzing the policies that enabled Changwon’s development, this paper offers fresh insights into the distinctive characteristics of South Korea’s developmental state model and its broader implications for understanding postwar industrialization in East Asia.