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The Forgotten Political Elites of North Korea
This book comprises the biographies of the North Korean politicians whose actions played a pivotal role in shaping the formation of the country during the late 1940s, the Korean War of 1950-53 and the power struggles of the mid-1950s. Drawing from a rich array of archival material in both Korean, Russian and oral testimonies, this book gives insight into the life stories of key figures such as Pang Hak-se, the founder of North Korea's secret police; Lee Sang-jo, a rebellious and idealistic North Korean ambassador; and Mun Il, the secretary of North Korea’s first leader, Kim Il-sung. The biographies offer fresh perspectives into significant events in North Korean history such as the rise of...
Politics, International Relations and Diplomacy on the Korean Peninsula
This edited volume explores the past, present, and future of the Korean Peninsula, with special focus on South Korea, by connecting developments in politics with those in international relations and diplomacy. The book focuses on how South Korea’s politics and international relations have evolved since the founding of the First Republic in 1948, with particular attention to the period surrounding the 2022 presidential election. The authors provide new insights into Korean politics, including South Korean electoral reform and relations with China and Japan, North Korea’s nuclear capacity, and North–South diplomacy. Beginning with a commentary by Colin Crooks, Britain’s current Ambassador to South Korea and former Ambassador to North Korea, on recent British foreign policy changes and UK–Korea relations, this book will appeal to scholars and students of politics, international relations, diplomacy, and Korean Studies.
South Koreans and the Politics of Immigration in Contemporary Australia
The book explores the politics of immigration in Australia through an in-depth study of the ‘new generation’ of young Korean migrants in Melbourne. States with high rates of immigration such as Australia can largely determine who enter their societies, but some migrants, such as younger Koreans, can determine how and where they live due to desirable attributes such as their skills, education, and adaptability. The book uses Albert Hirschman’s ‘exit, voice, and loyalty’ schema to explore the choices available to such new and would-be citizens, especially when faced with economic, social, and/or political decline in their host society. Through in-depth interviews, the book explores i...
Soviet-North Korean Relations During the Cold War
This book explores Soviet–North Korean relations during the Cold War (1945–1991). Based on many primary documents and sources (including Russian and Korean), it reveals how the influence of the Soviets on Pyongyang diminished during the course of the Cold War, from overwhelming at the time of the foundation of North Korea to negligible at the time of the collapse of the USSR. The book delves into the early history and foundation of North Korea, the August Plenum and the strategy employed by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) in the Sino-Soviet split. It covers topics previously neglected in previous studies on North Korea, such as the preparation and waging of the Korean War, Kim Il-sung’s road to political independence, the widespread mockery of North Korean propaganda by Soviet citizens and the Soviet origins of the design of the North Korean flag. This book will be a valuable resource to students and scholars of North Korea, Russian Studies, the Cold War and Communism.
Korean Film and History
Cinema has become a battleground upon which history is made—a major mass medium of the twentieth century dealing with history. The re-enactments of historical events in film straddle reality and fantasy, documentary and fiction, representation and performance, entertainment and education. This interdisciplinary book examines the relationship between film and history and the links between historical research and filmic (re-)presentations of history with special reference to South Korean cinema. As with all national film industries, Korean cinema functions as a medium of inventing national history and identity, and also establishing their legitimacy—in both forgetting the past and remember...
Assessing the Landscape of Taiwan and Korean Studies in Comparison
In Assessing the Landscape of Taiwan and Korean Studies in Comparison, the chapters offer a reflection on the state of the field of Taiwan and Korea Studies. For the editors, the volume’s purpose was to identify not just their similarities, but also a reflection on their differences. Both have national identities formed in a colonial period. The surrender of Japan in 1945 ignited the light of independence for Korea, but this would be ideologically split within five years. For Taiwan, that end forced it into a born-again form of nationalism with the arrival of the Chinese Nationalists. Taiwan and South Korea’s economic development illustrate a progressive transition and key to understanding this is the relationship between ‘modernization’ and ‘democracy’. By looking at Korea and Taiwan, the chapters in the volume broaden an understanding of the interconnectivity of the region.
Korea and the Global Society
This book explores multiple fields and disciplines around the theme of South Korea’s engagement and exchanges with global society focusing on development cooperation, migration and the media. The core of this volume is an analysis of South Korea’s engagement and reciprocity in global society that has developed out of the country’s shift from aid recipient and migrant sender to aid provider and migrant host. The contributions approach this through the three main aspects of overseas aid, cross-border contacts, and interplay of identities in the mediascape. These themes represent an interdisciplinary array of research that introduces and analyses interconnected and concurrent instances of reciprocity, convergence, tension, inclusion, or exclusion in navigating South Korea’s interactional relations with global society, spanning regions and countries including Africa, Asia, the USA, and Germany. This book will be valuable reading to students and researchers from a wide range of disciplines including sociology, gender studies, ethnic studies, media studies, IR, and area studies, in particular Korean studies.
Sustainable Development and Local Government in South Korea
This book addresses one of the key issues of our time, the process of sustainable transition in modern, industrial societies, by looking at the dynamics associated with this objective at the decentralised local level in South Korea. The creation of eco-cities is a crucial aspect in the ongoing urbanisation of East Asia, and this book investigates specific examples of Korean local governments embarking on the path towards sustainable urban development and assesses their achievements. Making use of a wide range of sources and data collection methods, the book studies two diverse cases in great depth: Suwon City and Jeju Province. By systematically comparing the aims, strategies and decision-making processes in these two examples, the book illuminates the relative roles played by local leaders, central government, civil society representatives, and even international organisations. Highlighting the challenges, driving forces and limitations impacting sustainable transition at the local level, this book will be a valuable resource to students and scholars of Korean politics, decentralisation, urban governance, sustainable development and city planning.
The North Korean Army
This book focuses on the Korean People’s Army (KPA) - the armed forces of North Korea - covering its history, structural organisation and lives of the soldiers and officers within its ranks. Utilising extensive Korean, English, Russian and Chinese language sources, as well as multiple interviews with people who have served in the KPA, this book provides an illuminating insight into the experience of KPA personnel. It presents fascinating and detailed examples of everyday life in the KPA, such as the systems of discipline and reprimands, the experience of women in the army, typical salaries and daily food allowances. The book also succinctly traces the history of the KPA from its foundation under the guidance of the Soviet Union and the experiences of the Korean War, through to the current iteration under Kim Jong-un. This pioneering work will be of huge interest to students and scholars of North Korea, the Cold War, Military Studies and Communism.
International Aid and Sustainable Development in North Korea
This book examines international aid in North Korea, in particular the ongoing policy of withholding aid, through the lens of the impact on the general population to present an argument for sustainable development. Focusing on the human rights of North Koreans and presenting a case for the use of aid as a provision for social change, it explores an alternative narrative to the existing long-drawn-out rhetoric of ‘denuclearisation-first’. The book’s scope includes evaluations of the causes of international sanctions and their impact, the Kim regime’s mitigation of sanctions through marketisation and a digital economy as well as barriers to aid monitoring and the reason for the absence...
