Gentrification has become a global phenomenon. However, its different forms and social consequences in East Asian contexts are not particularly well known. Although the term gentrification is relatively new, many urban policies in the developmental states in East Asia have attempted to promote gentrification. This paper investigates how the developmental states in East Asia have adopted the idea of gentrification in their urban renewal policies. The development of urban renewal policy and state intervention in Korea is taken as an empirical framework. An insight into how the state has achieved urban renewal through the interaction of the public sector, private sector, and community. This investigation of the development of urban renewal policy in Korea illustrates how the concept of „gentrification‟ has been formed in the different cultural environments of the East and the West.