Category Archives: Journal

Christopher Green and Steven Denney – ‘An Institutional Approach to Economic Reform and Development- Towards a Developmental Understanding of North Korea’ – Pages 88-111

North Korea is not an average low-income state with a moribund national economy. The outcome of the state’s Suryŏngist-Sŏn’gun ideological and economic structure is a well-run, sector-specific economy within a neglected national economy, all ordered around the maintenance of the ruling system, which is led and tightly controlled by the Kim family. However, the pockets…

Bul-chul Shin and Il han Bae – ‘North Korea’s Dual Network of Mobile Telecommunications Systems and the Futures of the Korean Peninsula’ – Pages 71-87

This paper provides a history of North Korea’s telecommunications system which was first introduced in 2002 and analyses the emergence of a dual network system: the official network fully controlled by the Government, and the unofficial network which was begun for business communications by Chinese residents in North Korea and now is used by the…

Chi Young-hae – ‘Gazing into the Crystal Ball- Environmental Crises as a Formative Factor for the Korea of 2032’ – Pages 54-70

What will be the formative factors for the situation on the Korean peninsula in 2032? This article presents a conjecture against the theoretical backdrop that local social-political processes are conditioned by major changes in the power structure of international relations. It envisages environmental crises, both global and regional, as one of the most decisive elements…

Robert Winstanley-Chesters – ‘2032- Juche-Oriented Environmental Futures’ – Pages 36-53

During the reign of Kim Jong Il, strategies and projects focussed upon environmental development in North Korea were often claimed to incorporate elements of a developmental approach rooted in paradigms of conservation and preservation. The DPRK’s environmental focus has moved towards floral and faunal conservation, growth in an interest in low-carbon and alternative forms of…

Glen David Kuecker – ‘South Korea’s New Songdo City- From Neo-liberal Globalisation to the Twenty-first Century Green Economy’ – Pages 20-35

This essay explores the Republic of Korea’s transition from the embrace of neo-liberal globalisation to a commitment toward building a twenty-first century green economy. It explores South Korea’s place within twenty-first century global challenges, the importance of twenty-first century urbanisation for understanding those challenges, the conceptualization and building of New Songdo City, and a ……

Richard Rutt – ‘Memoirs of Korea in the Mid-1950s’ – Pages 11-27

Once I began telling people I was going to Korea, I realised how little known Korea was in Britain, even immediately after three years of [the] Korean War in which British soldiers had fought and died. Few English people had any idea where Korea was. Great-Aunt Jenny of Handscomb End Farm even asked what part…

Hyun-gwi Park – ‘The ‘Multicultural Family’ and the Politics of Selective Inclusion in South Korea’ – Pages 5-19

Abstract This paper discusses the rationale and the specific circumstances related to the introduction and development of multiculturalism in South Korea from the mid-2000s. It will explicate the confusion and the debates which have arisen around the proliferation of discourses on multiculturalism in South Korea. In doing so, this article highlights the centrality of the…

Pages 115-121 – William Horsley – ‘Korea’s Tipping Point to Democracy- a Correspondent’s View of the Eighties’

Somewhat in contrast to the presentations we heard earlier today, I will present my memories and assessments of South Korea in the Eighties mostly in terms of how the country’s development fitted into the global trend of evolution in the latter part of the twentieth century. It was an era which saw countries in many…

Pages 77-113 – Keith Howard – ‘A Kwangdae in Training, 1981–1984- Fieldwork, and Learning Korean Music in Seoul and Chindo’

I was not a sensible teenager. I wanted to become a musician, or perhaps a composer, despite my parents calling in heavy support from careers advisers briefed of the need to shift my sights towards law or accountancy. Such stories are commonplace amongst musicians and musicologists. Indeed, here, I take my title from one who…

Pages 71-76 – John Owen-Davis – ‘1979 – Days of Rage and President Park’s Assassination’

In this short presentation, I will try to outline what it was like to cover South Korea’s October 1979 riots and the aftermath of the assassination of President Park Chung Hee in the same month. Also, for reasons that will become evident, I will talk about the problems and pitfalls sometimes experienced by foreign correspondents…