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

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

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

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…