State-Society Relations
Identity, Security, and the Nation: Understanding the South Korean Response to North Korean Defectors
In this review essay, Dr. Sarah Son summarizes her contribution to an Asian Ethnicity special issue (Spring 2016) on North Koreans in South Korea. Her work explores the simultaneous portrayal of this group as both “us” and “them” in public policy discourse.
Rhetoric vs Reality: 5.24 and North Korean Workers in Dandong
In response to sanctions on South Korean business and Pyongyang’s will to export more labor, the focus of inter-Korean exchange has shifted to the city of Dandong, “another Kaesong Industrial Complex,” according to anthropologist Kang Ju-won. Christopher Green looks at Kang’s recent article on Pressian.
Red Scares and History Wars: #Shigak no. 25
The latest issue of #Shigak reports on new developments and top stories in South Korea for September and October. In this issue, Park Geun-hye goes to Washington, the number of multicultural families continues to increase, and Moon Jae-in gets labeled a… communist?
Yongusil 80: The Developmental State and Politics of Industrial Complex Development in South Korea
Seoul National University geographer Bae-Gyoon Park challenges the validity of the developmental state thesis in a recent paper on the Masan Free Export Zone. Park recapitulated his findings at an event hosted at the University of Toronto. Daniel Park recaps his presentation.
2nd Miracle on the Han: Mass Media Unites over History by Ministerial Fiat
The South Korean mass media rarely unites in condemnation of a domestic policy, but controversial and deeply flawed plans to “re-nationalize” the production of secondary school history textbooks made it happen. Christopher Green investigates.