Please visit http://nkrg.org for more information.

Speaker: Steven Lee, Department of History, University of British Columbia

The American occupation of Korea between 1945 and 1948 has been the subject of a number of dissertations, books, articles, and book chapters over the past several decades. Most authors have examined the occupation either as a self-contained era of Korean history and Korean-American relations or as part of the wider story of the origins of the Korean War.

This paper will examine the history of the occupation in a new light. In particular, the 1945-1955 period will be treated as an extended, though interrupted, American occupation of southern Korea. An examination of the interplay between Korea and the United States within a wider framework of extended occupation offers us an excellent opportunity to analyze how Cold War dynamics impacted Koreans and Americans, and how, in turn, the diplomacy of these two states shaped the broader parameters of conflict in East Asia.

Steven Hugh Lee is associate professor of history at the University of British Columbia. He is the author of two books, “Outposts of Empire: Korea, Vietnam, and the Origins of the Cold War in Asia, 1949-1954″ (McGill-Queens Press, 1995) and “The Korean War” (Longman, 2001), and a co-edited volume, with Yunshik Chang, entitled “Transformations in Twentieth Century Korea” (Routledge, 2006). He is currently working on two book projects: a global history of the twentieth century (Blackwell Press), and a study of warfare in East Asia since the late nineteenth century (Cambridge).

Produced in full cooperation with a number of international broadcasters such as BBC and TBS (Japan), this eye-opening documentary is based on material gathered from a team of courageous journalists who starting in May 2007, spent ten months roaming though nine different countries including China, Russia, Thailand, Japan, England, and the US, to collect first-hand accounts of North Korean refugees and their ongoing struggles. In an unprecedented move, these reporters risked their own lives by disguising as North Korean refugees, then exposing themselves to life-threatening situations such as being smuggled into forbidden lands whereupon they came in contact with over 300 real-life North Korean refugees. In the process, they managed to unravel the shocking truth behind the rumored human trafficking in the China-North Korea border and the illegal drug trafficking involving military personnel.

Some of the highlights include accounts of trafficking of North Korean women refugees at the Tumen river on the China-North Korea border; the story of a female refugee sold off to a Chinese man as a surrogate mother; heartfelt testimonies from stateless refugee children; the risky airborne escape of one refugee with a forged Chinese passport; and a first-time look at Siberia’s lumbering plant which houses many North Korean refugees. In the end, On the Border does not try to dissect the North Korean political system or debate the South Korean sunshine policy; instead the film simply brings to light the human rights issues affecting the lives of forgotten refugees who are in desperate need of a voice.

(Editorial Description by YesAsia.com)

Official Website: http://www.chosun.com/ontheborder/

Monday, November 9, 2009
4:00 – 6:00 PM
108N – North House
Munk Centre for International Studies
1 Devonshire Place, Toronto

This event is part of the North Korea Documentary Series sponsored by North Korea Research Group

Speaker: James Person, Program Associate, North Korea International Documentation Project, Woodrow Wilson Center

North Korea’s national ideology of self-reliance, or Juche, is in its simplest form a rejection of Korea’s subservient role in the hierarchical Sino-centric system of international relations that prevailed in East Asia through the late 19th Century. North Korean leader Kim Il Sung first introduced Juche in December 1955, at the height of an internal policy dispute over post-war development strategies that nearly subjugated Pyongyang to the Moscow and Beijing-dominated international communist movement.

When first introduced, Juche served as an anti-foreign or anti-hegemonic slogan designed to discredit those who sought to mechanically import Soviet and Chinese practices to North Korea. Juche evolved over the course of the next decade through a series of practical responses to domestic and international challenges, and by 1965, Kim Il Sung declared Juche to be the official ideology of the DPRK.

Although North Korea has never been truly self-reliant (though the self-portrayal of self-reliance was nearly made a reality with the collapse of Pyongyang’s trading partners in the late 1980s and 1990s), it has managed to balance its relations, never becoming overly-dependent or subservient to any other state. Indeed, North Korea’s recent “150-day battle” can be interpreted as an attempt to mobilize indigenous human and material resources to avoid becoming overly-dependent on China.

James F. Person is Coordinator of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholar’s North Korea International Documentation Project and Program Associate with the History and Public Policy Program. He is currently completing a PhD in modern Korean history at the George Washington University, where he also teaches a course on North Korean history. His dissertation is on North Korea’s relations with China and the Soviet Union and the evolution of Juche Thought from 1953-1966. His recent publications include “‘We Need Help from Outside: The North Korean Opposition Movement of 1956″ (Cold War International History Project Working Paper No. 52), and “New Evidence on North Korea in 1956″ CWIHP Bulletin 16.

Experience:
Diplomatic historian; Archival research in the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RGASPI), the Russian State Archive of Contemporary History (RGANI), the Archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation (AVPRF), the State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF), and the Russian State Archive of the Economy (RGAE), Chinese Foreign Ministry Archive; professorial lecturer, Korea University, Graduate School of International Studies.

Background Information and Documents at:

http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?topic_id=230972&fuseaction=topics.publications&group_id=474507

This information session is highly recommended for anyone interested in participating and/or researching with the North Korea Research Group (NKRG) this year.

Despite their absence from major sporting events on the international stage, North Korea will be among the number of countries who have qualified to send their athletes to Vancouver next February. At the recent Nebelhorn Trophy in Oberstdorf, Germany, a North Korean figure skater–Song Chol Ri–made a rare appearance at the event and placed eleventh place overall, which was enough to qualify for a berth in the men’s figure skating event at the Olympics for North Korea.  For a skater who rarely has the opportunity to compete internationally (his last event was the Asian Winter Games in 2007), Ri’s eleventh-place finish was a surprisingly good result. With his placement at Nebelhorn, Ri will become only the second skater (after Kim Yong Suk in 2006) ever to represent North Korea at the Olympic Games.

As Yoo Gwan Hee notes in his article about figure skating in North Korea, the situation for figure skaters in North Korea is rather different than one might encounter in most countries. Athletes train in group-based environments, which often include ideological elements and self-criticism. Also,  North Korea rarely sends its skaters to international events, hence the low placements of North Korean skaters on the International Skating Union’s official rankings. In a sport like figure skating, where reputation plays a role in judging despite all protests to the contrary, this tends to negatively affect the placing of North Korean skaters when they skate in internationally-judged events. Factors such as these dimish the likelihood that there would be a North Korean counterpart to the famous South Korean skater Yu-Na Kim, who is the incumbent ladies’ world champion and a heavy favourite for Olympic gold come February.

However, the potential is still there. Youtube has a small number of videos of North Korean figure skating, which provides a rare peek at the state of the sport in the country. Here is Ri’s long program at the Nebelhorn Trophy:

Kim Yong Suk at the 2006 Olympic Games (with some helpful English commentary):

A rare video of a North Korean figure skating event, the International Figure Skating Festival for the Paektusan Cup:

Responsibilities of the Managing Director:

• The Director will arrange and attend all the meetings of the Executive Board and will take down minutes of each meeting;
• The Director will administer all internal coordination in the NKRG;
• The Director will be jointly responsible for coordinating and facilitating evnts and activities of the NKRG;
• The Director will maintain and be responsible for the financial records of the NKRG;
• The Director will advise the Executive Board on the financial situation of the NKRG;
• The Director will be jointly responsible for coordinating and facilitating events and activities of the NKRG;
• The Director will create a portfolio of his/her experiences, responsibilities, and contacts to be given to the next Director in order to facilitate a smooth transition The Director will attend all meetings of the Executive Board;
• The term of the Managing Director will be for one year, renewable to a maximum of two years with application to the President who will consult with the Vice-President and the Advisory Board.

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.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009
5:00 – 7:00 PM
108N – Seminar Room, North House
Munk Centre for International Studies,
1 Devonshire Place, Toronto

Register online for this event

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.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009
3:00 – 5:00 PM
208N – Seminar Room, North House
Munk Centre for International Studies,
1 Devonshire Place, Toronto

Speaker: Ruediger Frank, Chair Professor of East Asian Economy and Society and Deputy Head of the Department of East Asian Studies, University of Vienna

Register online to attend this event

About the Speaker

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.

Website: http://wirtschaft.ostasien.univie.ac.at/
Email: ruediger.frank@univie.ac.at

This lecture is part of the Centre for the Study of Korea Seminar Series sponsored by the Centre for the Study of Korea and the Asian Institute at the Munk Centre for International Studies

“At home, North Koreans live under total government control and the watchful eye of the Dear Leader, Kim Jong-il.

But in the Amur region of Russia, almost 1,000 miles (1,600 km) from the border, North Korea has created a home away from home at a series of remote logging camps in which nearly 1,500 workers are employed.

I travelled to one of the camps deep in the forest. A giant monument bearing the words “Our greatest leader Kim Il-sung lives with us forever” stood in the middle.

One of the buildings had a sign which read “Laboratory of Kim Il-sung’s Theory” a commonly used slogan found on North Korean administration blocks. The camp even had its own theatre.

Further into the forest we found a group of North Koreans hard at work. They lived in a mobile wagon, decorated with portraits of the North Korean leaders.

Although reluctant to speak, one told me that he earned the equivalent of $200 per month. Another said that he earned $1 for each truck he loaded and that he could load up to nine per day, but he had not been paid since May.”

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