For personal reasons, I've become very invested in Korean history and culture. I have quite a bit of information in regards to the Sejong Era of Korean history, but I can find little in the way of more modern history, especially for the past century. For the stuff I do find, it's invariably A) More about North Korea and its relation to South Korea and inevitably B) The Korean War. It's as if that's all Western historians care about in regards to Korea, which I find somewhat depressing.
I want to know how Korea turned from what was essentially a backwater at the turn of the 20th century, literally cut in half by a war, and in 50 short years became one of the most advanced, richest countries on the planet. And I believe this can be attributed to its history, particularly its history in the 19th and 20th centuries. I know in regards to the 20th century the Korean War had something to do with that, but that simply can't be the only thing.
So I'm looking for anything and everything that can help me out here. Books, documentaries, podcasts, you name it, I want it. My google-fu has failed me in this regard, and although there's some information I can find by perusing Korean texts, my Hangul isn't good enough to make reading them not a chore.
The Dawn of Modern Korea: the transformation in life and cityscape by Andrei Lankov is a decent reference. It is a light collection of articles originally published in the Korea Times on how different aspects of modern society came to Korea. It does have some slight issues in terms of readability, but nothing majorly detracting.
In addition, The History of Korea by H.B. Hulbert is an excellent resource for pre-20th century Korea, and actually is viewable here: https://archive.org/details/historyofkorea02hulbuoft
Bruce Cumings also has a few books I would recommend for the period between the end of Japanese rule and the end of the Korean War, namely being The Origins of the Korean War, Liberation and the Emergence of Separate Regimes, 1945-1947 and he Korean War: A history.
Under the Black Umbrella: Voices from Colonial Korea, 1910-1945 by Kang Hildi has been recommended to me in the past regarding the Japanese colonization period, but I admit to not have read it myself.
A New History of Korea by Ki-Baik Lee is probably among my favorite books and covers Korean history from the paleolithic age to the 1960s. Harvard University Press has an English translation so you needn't worry about your Hangul proficiency. The same author has another book titled Korea Old and New: A History, which is probably better as a reference than anything else and some people tend to find it a little dry, but I believe it is a very comprehensive look at South Korea following WWII, though it does go over pre-1945 history some as well.
As for specifically how South Korea achieved it's post-50s economic rise, then I would strongly recommend The New Korea: An Inside Look at South Korea's Economic Rise by Myung Oak Kim and South Korea in the Fast Lane: Economic Development and Capital Formation by Young-Iob Chung. Both are very excellent, comprehensive looks at the rise and the causes of it.
I hope this gives you a good start, and I'm sure there are plenty of books I've missed that the others here can add on to.