Their success is, I think, highly correlated to their mass testing campaigns. South Korea had drive-through testing facilities up within 48 hours of the outbreak, so they knew exactly how the virus spread and who to quarantine or not.
Add to this an existing culture of using face masks and gloves in public (i.e. supplies of those things were already in place), and you've got a very different scenario compared to most of Europe for example.
> Add to this an existing culture of using face masks and gloves in public (i.e. supplies of those things were already in place), and you've got a very different scenario compared to most of Europe for example.
This is a big one. Around these parts wearing a mask means people assume you're sick or immunocompromised.
Add to this an existing culture of using face masks and gloves in public (i.e. supplies of those things were already in place), and you've got a very different scenario compared to most of Europe for example.