Recent trend of rapid growth in the basic research activities in East-Asian newly industrialized countries bring about the change in the world knowledge production structure. Particularly, Korea showed the changing patterns not only in the number of publication, but also in the aspect of structural change of basic research activities. The stylized facts of basic research activities in Korea can be summarized in three aspects; first, selective development patterns, second, reverse pattern of evolution, and finally, the rapid growth of basic research activities in major firms. This paper analyse the evolutionary patterns of basic research activities in empirical base and propose the policy implication for supporting basic research activity in newly industrializing countries.