That's one way of looking at it but I'm not too sure about that. After all, the reason South Korea now enjoys a (mostly) functional democracy is that its peopl

That's one way of looking at it but I'm not too sure about that. After all, the reason South Korea now enjoys a (mostly) functional democracy is that its people were not okay with the ruling class, and fought against the power for decades. Also, Korea went through a lot of social upheaval in the 20th century, which acted as a huge social mixer. The capitalist rulers of 2022 are not necessarily the descendants of old aristocrats of 1890s. Hyundai's founder was famously born to a dirt-poor farmer.