Description

For a long time, North Korea was considered to be a special case, an extraordinary socialist country in terms of politics, ideology and economy. The changes in the Soviet Union under Khrushchev towards collective leadership and peaceful coexistence were countered by the creation of an indigenous, heavily nationalist ideology and a strengthening of the cult of personality around the country’s founder and leader Kim Il-sung. The price was high: a restrictive foreign policy and economic backwardness isolated North Korea even within the socialist camp. However, this turned out to be a blessing in disguise: expectations of a collapse after the end of socialism in Europe proved premature exactly because of this „own way“ and the lack of strong ideological, economic and military interdependencies. The system even survived a number of massive shocks, such as the death of Kim Il-sung in 1994 and a famine 1995-1997. Starting around 2000, surprisingly and for a long time ignored by the West, economic reforms started. They changed North Korea’s society profoundly and, as we would argue, in an irreversible way. Since around 2004/05 and in particular since 2008, we observe a return to orthodox, neoconservative values and methods. How did North Korea function before the reforms? What has changed? And why do they take this u-turn now? We will explore these and other questions and try to make sense of the current events such as the missile and nuclear tests. We will also discuss the consequences for regional security and options for a leadership succession. In the end, we will argue that North Korea is on its way to finally becoming much more of an ordinary socialist country, with all consequences.

Professor Dr. Ruediger FRANK, a German national, is Chair Professor of East Asian Economy and Society at the University of Vienna and Deputy Head of the Department of East Asian Studies. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Korea University and the University of North Korean Studies.
He holds an M.A. in Korean Studies, Economics and International Relations and a Ph.D. in Economics. Visiting Professorships included Columbia University New York and Korea University Seoul. He is a Council member of the Association for Korean Studies in Europe, Vice Director of the Vienna School of Governance, an Associate at Japan Focus, and Deputy Editor of the European Journal of East Asian Studies. His first five-month visit to North Korea took place in 1991, when he was a language student at Kim Il-sung University. His major research fields are socialist transformation in East Asia and Europe (with a focus on North Korea), state-business relations in East Asia, and regional integration in East Asia.
See http://wirtschaft.ostasien.univie.ac.at/; Email: ruediger.frank@univie.ac.at

Description

In 1972, South Korean president Park Chung-hee declared martial law with the introduction of the Yushin, or “Revitalization” Constitution. In the following years thereafter, state surveillance intensified in a way that bestowed new urgency upon enterprises whose impact was primarily visual. Visual works commissioned or completed at the behest of the Yushin state distinctly turned on the notion of reciprocal scrutiny: these works were concurrently surrogate “eyes” of the state and objects subject to public inspection. The importance of looking and being looked at was especially well delineated in painting, a medium that gained renewed momentum in seventies Korea through both the expansion of the state-sponsored national documentary paintings project and the consolidation of a Korean artistic avant-garde. The wages of looking was perhaps best demonstrated by the Ecriture series of Park Seobo. Heralded as an exemplar of Korean avant-garde art almost upon the moment of its first unveiling in 1973, the Ecriture series consists of paintings whose size and appearance compelled looking of such closeness so as to open up new possibilities for audiences otherwise accustomed to visual modes seemingly intent on attaining closure.

Joan Kee is Assistant Professor in the History of Art department at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. A specialist in modern and contemporary art with particular interests in East and Southeast Asia, her publications include articles for the Oxford Art Journal, Positions: East Asia Cultures Critiques, Third Text, and Art Journal as well as catalogue essays for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Korean Pavilion for the 2003 Venice Biennale.

Description

This information is for all interested undergraduate and graduate students who would like to be involved with NKRG this year. The session is highly recommended for anyone interested in researching with NKRG as we will talk about our research topics this year, some information about the group, and information regarding the application process.

For more information, please visit NKRG’s website at http://nkrg.org

Description

This presentation will explore South Korean military participation in Vietnam (1965-1973) and South Korean and Vietnamese military sex work for US and South Korean troops. It focuses on South Korean literary representations that examine the linkages between military labor and military sex work as related but hierarchized types of racialized, gendered and sexualized proletarian labors. Through its reading of several key literary texts, the paper attempts to situate differentiated militarization of gendered sexualities—articulated in the form of military labor and military sex work during the Vietnam War era—in the context of South Korea’s state-led industrialization and the American Cold War expansionism in the greater Asian region.

Jin-kyung Lee is Associate Professor in the Department of Literature at University of California, San Diego, where she teaches modern Korean literature. She received her Ph. D. in Comparative Literature from UCLA. Her book, titled, Proletarianizing Sexuality and Race: Transnational Labors of South Korea since 1965, is forthcoming from University of Minnesota Press. She is currently working on another book project, tentatively titled, Modernizing Governance: New Conceptions of Politics, Economics, and Aesthetics in Colonial Korea, 1910-1925.

Description

Information is not yet available.