The financial panic of late 2008 and the global economic recession that followed has been the greatest economic shock since World War II. While North Asia was caught up in the recession, the process of economic development was not derailed, and the panic could prove to be only a footnote in the twenty-first century history of the region. Growth in line with countries’ unrealized potential could bring convergence to a high level of prosperity in the region. The most serious threats to this outcome are that (1) countries within the region and the United States fail to adopt policies to support a rebalancing of the growth process in the global economy and (2) the wrong lessons are drawn from the recent financial failures, leading to a retreat from markets and from globalization rather than better regulation of markets within a global framework. With its role as a member and the 2010 chair of the Group of 20 (G-20), now the key global forum for economic and financial management, Korea can play an important role in avoiding these risks.