Some of those successful businessmen barely speak English to this day.
Some of their success was built on exploitation of their workers and customers many of whom speak no English at all.
Possibly you remember scenes from '92 with armed Koreans on the roofs of their liquor stores.
Many of these stores were in black neighborhoods where misunderstandings were common on both sides. Blacks objected to high prices and Koreans objected to rampant theft.
What ever possible outcomes for Korea that the Russians envisioned, they had no problem with national elections on both side of the 38th Parallel in 1945. Not so for the global champion of democracy:
"In anticipation of Japan’s defeat in the Second World War, Yuh organized in 1944 the Korean Restoration Brotherhood (조선건국동맹, Joseon Geon-guk Dongmaeng), a nationwide underground organization. He also formed the Committee for Preparation of Korean Independence (조선 건국 준비 위원회, Joseon Geon-guk Junbi Wiwonhoe).
"In September 1945, Yuh proclaimed the establishment of the Korean People's Republic and became its vice-premier. In October, he stepped down under pressure from the United States Military Government, and organized the People's Party of Korea, becoming its chairman. For the following months of the anti-trusteeship movement and other political changes, Yuh took a line of action in concert with the communists.
"When a movement to unify the political left and the political right arose in May 1946, Lyuh represented the center-left and occupied a position on the center between the left and the right.
"Yuh’s political stance was, however, attacked by both the extreme right and the extreme left, and his efforts to pursue a centrist position was made increasingly untenable by the political realities of the time.
"On July 19, 1947, Yuh was assassinated in Seoul by a 19-year-old man named Han Chigeun, a recent refugee from North Korea and an active member of a nationalist right-wing group. Yuh's death was widely mourned."
Yuh Woon-Hyung - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia