This paper evaluates the social and economic background and policies that have shaped the unique merger motives of Korean firms, and empirically tests merger motives through two research methods. Korea's merger and acquisition market has been influenced by government-led economic management policies, outward-oriented industrialization policies, size-based credit management systems, and distressed firm remediation measures, resulting in mergers and acquisitions that have been involuntary, non-competitive as a buyer's market, predominantly conducted among affiliated firms, and largely driven by the motives of expanding access to financial benefits and improving the financial structure of firms lacking growth resources. These findings are also confirmed by the questionnaire survey: while motives such as pursuing economies of scale and faster growth are similar to those found in other countries, rather than the risk diversification motive through mergers that is prominent abroad, improvement of financial structure and enhancement of external credibility are presented as the primary merger motives. The empirical analysis results using the financial characteristic variables of merging firms and a logit model indicate that growth firms with high growth potential but high debt dependency, which have experienced difficulties in raising growth resources, exhibit stronger motives to merge.