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 17.2By EditorFebruary 19, 2019

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 17.2By EditorFebruary 19, 2019

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.…

Natalia Kim – New Nationalism and New Democracy- Assessing An Jae-hong’s Legacy – Pages 63-72

Volume 17.2By EditorFebruary 19, 2019

Abstract To provide a glimpse into this period and ideas prominent at the time, the article explores the ideas of the Korean intellectual An Jae-hong, a scholar-gentleman whose career spans the nation’s colonial period and was entwined with debates over Korean nationalism. Natalia Kim channels and develops the insights from her work on the period…

Martin Weiser – Unseen Laws- A Quantitative Approach to Developments in North Korea’s Legal System – Pages 22-62

Volume 17.2By EditorFebruary 19, 2019

Introduction The position of law in North Korean politics and society has been a long concern of scholars as well as politicians and activists. Some argue it would be more important to understand the extra-legal rules that run North Korea like the Ten Principles on the leadership cult as they supersede any formal laws or…

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

Volume 17.2By EditorFebruary 19, 2019

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…