People do not lack strength; they lack will, the French poet and novelist Victor Hugo once said. The words perfectly describe the government’s attitude thus far towards fixing the banking sector.

Twenty years after the Asian financial crisis, South Korea seems to have learned its lesson, having taken great pains to strengthen its economic resilience.

This month marks the 20th anniversary of the Asian financial crisis—or, more precisely, of the event that triggered the crisis: the devaluation of Thailand's baht.

Following the International Monetary Fund's controversial actions in the Asian financial crisis of 1998, when it conditioned liquidity assistance to...