In the past, South Korea's authoritarian governments literally bulldozed huge construction projects like the Seoul-Pusan highway through people's homes and natural barriers like mountains in the name of national economic interest.
The tactic worked: the country made the leap from developing to developed world in a single generation.
But with democratic progress during the past two decades, this unilateral pursuit is no longer possible. Citizens have become much more sophisticated and mature.
In recent years, major displays of public opposition have caused the government to delay several high-profile projects.
In 2003, a plan to build a nuclear waste storage plant was shelved for 20 years because of objections from environmentalists and residents. Two islands off the west coast were selected as a potential site, but residents, backed by environmental groups, came close to rioting, forcing the government to scrap the plan at a huge cost.
The latest mega-project to fall victim to people power is the Seoul-Pusan high-speed railway. A female Buddhist monk called Jiyul staged a hunger strike in order to get Seoul to carry out an environmental assessment of a plan to build a tunnel through a picturesque mountain. The work is the final stage of the country's first bullet train project. After 100 days of fasting, the frail monk got her wish.