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Home › Forums › Core Seminars › East Asia since 1800, Fall 2022 › session 10 Korea after division (Jennifer Jung-Kim)
clay dube.
Crystal Hsia(We'd love to hear your aha moments of the materials!)
Ramabadran SudarshanA great presentation by Prof. Jennifer. Korea is also one of the most wired countries in the world. Internet access has reached the entire population(almost). It is also one of those countries that has an advanced information and communication technology infrastructure. It has also done well on the e-governance aspect. It is consistently ranked well per the UN E-Government Development Index. Possibly this component can be incorporated when designing curriculums for students as well.
Ramabadran SudarshanKorea is also the foremost in Asia to have a full fledged public diplomacy act. And how they formulated one is also a great case study. As some may know public diplomacy is a form of global communication. Public diplomacy is how a country communicates to foreign audiences(government to the public or even public to public nowadays) through the prism of values, culture, policies. K-pop, wave etc are all integral to this.
Ramabadran SudarshanIn what ways do inter-Korean relations play a role in determing election prospects for those contesting in S. Korea?
Ramabadran SudarshanIf I am not mistaken S.Korea has also bid to host the World Expo 2030.
Ramabadran SudarshanWould like Prof. Jennifer's thought on the importance of Busan Film Festival. Another medium for Korea to introduce its culture to the global audience?
Ramabadran SudarshanProf. Jennifer mentioned about the possible diminshing role of the civil society. How does she see S. Korea's civil society playing an important role in the days to come especially in a multi-centric world?
Ramabadran SudarshanInteresting that Prof. Jennifer mentioned how S. Korea transformed from being a receipient to donor. I do not think S. Korea has ever donated to any country/institution/organisation with strings attached, and she can correct me if I am wrong. When I say strings attached obviously the quid pro quo aspect. And if I am right, this is a unique example as well to highlight how S. Korea is a donor without conditions. Especially with the current geo-political realities.
Ramabadran SudarshanGeneral Park Chung Hee came to power through a coup in 1960s. His writings and readings, especially of German history and the Japanese model led the way for the Korean manufacturing model, I would say. Even though he came in for some criticism from the US, World Bank, he did not budge. He sowed seeds for Korean manufacturing to flourish and a state-led industrial policy.
Denis VovchenkoI enjoyed the excerpt from Robinson! A rare example of a balanced treatment of a Cold War conflict! Some might even have accused him of a being crypto-Communist! He mentioned a lot of examples of mass popular support in the South for the North Korean occupation and land reforms that it introduced (pp. 116-117). At the same time, he did not mention any widespread collaboration with the ROK and US forces during their control of most of N. Korea. Is this difference due to Robinson’s bias or in the lack of scholarship of what happened in the North in the fall of 1950?
Denis VovchenkoIn her lecture, Jennifer implied that both sides were prone to escalate tensions leading to the Korean War outbreak. Robinson mentioned that most scholars agree now that Kim Il Sung was from being Stalin’s puppet and took the initiative (115). At the same time, Robinson dismissed as “a conspiracy theory” the argument that Rhee also took the lead in the push to start hostilities (115). On the same page, he mentioned that both Rhee and the US had been confident of the ROK army’s advantage early in 1950. With that confidence, their earlier willingness to escalate makes sense, right? What is your take on the role of the US and ROK in the outbreak of the Korean War?
Molly Cowan JohnsonWhat would the human rights violations under Chun Doo Hwan be comparable to? Cultural Revolution in China? Nazis in Germany? The ‘re-education camps’ seem a little like the Cultural revolution? Was there and ideology attached to it or what was it for?
How does the conservatives in Korea compare with conservatives here in the us?
Denis VovchenkoWhat do you make of the Vietnam vs. Korean Wars memory gap mentioned by Robinson on p. 115? I remember that difference in two monuments on the National Mall (the Korean War memorial being more modest and not featuring the names of the fallen GI’s).
Denis VovchenkoJennifer mentioned economic success (the Korean “wave”) clouded by mistreatment of immigrant labor. Does it include N. Korean defectors? The world-popular shows (“The Squid Game” and “The Parasites”) suggest the decline of the S. Korean middle class. How true or exaggerated is that kind of portrayal?
Denis VovchenkoIs there any pride in S. Korea for N. Korea’s achievements? In teaching world history, we often have to make shortcuts by drawing parallels – I would like to compare N. Korea’s significance in East Asia to Cuba’s appeal to Spanish-speaking Latin American countries (but less in Brazil). Both socialist “holdovers” survived the rigors of the 1990s to exert a surprising amount of soft or hard power.
After all, in the Olympics athletes from both competed as one team. Arguably, N. Korea is less dependent on China than S. Korea is on the US, right? N. Korea’s nuclear and space programs are seemingly more advanced than what Seoul has developed in those two areas. Even President Trump gave credit to Kim Jon Un as “the Rocket man” (tongue-in-cheek).