#Shigak no. 2: Comfort Women Issues and Ahn Cheol-soo’s New Political Party

By | February 25, 2014 | No Comments

Ahn Choel-soo, South Korea's charismatic leader of "새정치연합" ("New Political Party") | Image: Jinho Jung/Wikipedia, Creative Commons 2.0

Ahn Choel-soo, South Korea’s charismatic leader of “새정치연합” (“New Political Party”) | Image: Jinho Jung/Wikipedia, Creative Commons 2.0

This issue of “Shigak” (시각) buttresses some of the Sino-NK community’s dominant research themes. One major subject concerns defectors resettling in the South: there is cause for concern at average income levels, which remain far below the national average, but this is mingled with optimism at the growing number of defectors entering South Korea’s elite universities. Most refugees must battle against ingrained social prejudices, but it is worth noting that things are slowly getting better, especially for the young.

Elsewhere, this edition comes with an international flavor: foreign workers find themselves mistreated at a museum headed by a close ally of President Park Geun-hye, a former Japanese leader speaks publicly on the comfort women issue, and, as ever, there is the question of how to teach East Asia’s conflicted history. Finally, AhnLab founder and respected philanthropist Ahn Cheol-soo breaks cover and reveals the name of his new political party.

Each bimonthly volume of Shigak features only the most important tweets posted by Sino-NK analysts in the preceding period. These are augmented with essential annotations and a small dose of concentrated analysis. Shigak, meaning “perspective,” is a multilingual data collection effort that uses Twitter to curate sources dealing in key political, social, and economic issues on South Korea. Each bimonthly issue takes only the most important tweets posted by Sino-NK analysts under the hashtag #시각 and augments them with essential annotations and a small dose of concentrated analysis.

Shigak is edited by Steven Denney and Christopher Green. Back issues can be found on the dedicated page.

Download the second release at the link below.

#Shigak no. 02February 4 – February 23, 2014

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