Sam Pack – ‘If It’s Korean, It Must Be Good’- The Nation Branding of South Korean Popular Culture in the Philippines – Pages 85-101

Volume 17.2

Abstract Filipinos are avid consumers of exported South Korean media products. Teenagers and young adults know the lyrics and dance moves of their favorite K-Pop performers while older viewers are engrossed in the weekly Korean television dramas (known in the Philippines as ‘Koreanovelas’). There exists, however, a fundamental disconnect between the idealised images disseminated in…

Eungseo Kim – The Sino-DPRK Split and Origins of US-DPRK Bilateralism – Pages 73-84

Volume 17.2

Abstract North Korea has identified its official foreign policy as being focused on ‘self-reliance’ since the mid-1906s. Kim Il Sung (Kim Il-sŏng) had been long preoccupied with external interference in internal affairs, so the escalation of the Sino-Soviet schism created an environment in which to eliminate foreign influence in domestic politics and strengthen his control.…

Vladimir Tikhonov – Kim Saryang’s Ten Thousand Li of a Dull-Witted Horse- Remembering the Anti-Colonial Struggle – Pages 1-21

Volume 17.2

Abstract Kim Saryang (real name: Kim Sich’ang, 1914–1950) was among the Korean authors of the 1930s and 1940s who wrote frequently on the issues related to the Korean ethnonational identity, both in Korean and in Japanese. In May 1945, when dispatched on a lecture tour to the Japanese army units stationed in North China, he…

David Kim – A Socio-Religious Volunteerism- The Australian NGO Movement during the Korean War, 1950–1953 – Pages 25-48

Volume 17.1

Abstract The Korean peninsula, like Taiwan (1895–1945), was one of Japan’s colonies in the first half of the twentieth century (1910–1945). The end of World War II brought an opportunity to be independent, but the different ideologies of the Capitalist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc generated the Cold War. The Korean War (1950–1953) was the…

Natalia Kim – Political Memoirs and Collective Memory in South Korea- Turning Points in the Autobiographical Writings of Kim Taejung and No Muhyŏn – Pages 1-24

Volume 17.1

Introduction Emerging as an independent nation in 1948, South Korea went through a difficult phase of political development shifting from a martial and authoritarian regime toward a liberal–democratic one. The April Revolution in 1960, the May 16 coup in 1961, the October Yusin in 1972, the Kwangju Uprising in 1980, and the June Democratic Uprising…

Robert Winstanley-Chesters – Pragmatism And Revolution- North Korean Pomiculture, 1958–1967 – Pages 117-128

Volume 16

Abstract Building on past analysis by its author of North Korea’s history of developmental approach and environmental engagement, this paper encounters the field of pomiculture (or orchard development and apple farming) in the light of another key text authored by Kim Il-sung, 1963’s “Let Us Make Better Use of Mountains and Rivers.” At this time…

Benjamin Young – The Struggle For Legitimacy- North Korea’s Relations With Africa, 1965–1992 – Pages 97-116

Volume 16

Abstract From the mid-1960s to the late 1980s, Seoul and Pyongyang sought to gain international recognition as the sole government on the Korean peninsula. Africa, the site of many newly independent nations during the Cold War, became the primary battleground for this inter- Korean competition. Focusing on North Korean-African relations, this article examines several African…