How Not to Misread the North Korean Mind—Psychology and History

“Déjà vu” was my impression of the Hanoi Summit. North Korean leaders simply cannot make real steps towards denuclearization. This is obvious if you put your feet into Kim Jong-un’s shoes. Also they have many records of turning around. In order to read their minds, psychology and history are more important than following and analyzing their words or than depending on theory books.     

A Geo-Economic Object or an Object of Geo-Political Absorption? Competing Visions of North Korea in South Korean Politics

Abstract

The so-called Sunshine Policy launched by the liberal regime of South Korea brought about a significant transformation in its visions of North Korea. Through it, North Korea became an “object of development.” This was something different from the previous idea of North Korea as a politico-military target. However, to conservatives, North Korea remains within the politico-military realm as an object of territorial and ideological absorption. As a result, political conflicts in South Korea in the conception of North Korea – between a geo-economic object and an object of geo-political absorption – entail competitive appropriation of the discourse of “China’s colonisation of North Korea” and affect the way North Korean territory is produced.     

“Korean Japanese”

Until recently, resident Koreans in Japan, former colonial subjects and their offspring, have had only two options for staying in Japan: naturalization, which required assimilation and the adoption of a Japanese identification, or zainichi status, which meant remaining Korean nationals and keeping their own ethnic identity. Choosing the zainichi option was a way for resident Koreans to express their resistance to Japan's naturalization system, which they saw as a legacy of assimilationist colonial policy. In the early 1990s, however, greater numbers of resident Koreans began to seek naturalization. In part, this was because they were beginning to redefine ethnicity as separate from nationality. Thus, they thought, they could retain their Korean identity even after naturalization. This development, coupled with the rise of a multiculturalism movement in Japan, set the stage for the recent emergence of a third option for staying in Japan, “Korean Japanese,” that is, Japanese nationals with Korean ethnic identification. By analyzing articles written by Sakanaka Hidenori, an influential immigration official who has expressed support for the Korean Japanese option, this article demonstrates that this new identity option as presented by government officials is actually in line with the earlier colonial discourse of ethnic hierarchy and assimilation. While cautioning against an easy acceptance of the government's calls for the Korean Japanese option, the author explores its potential for revitalizing the political presence of resident Koreans in Japan.     

North Korea – Challenge for the Major Powers

Abstract

Since North Korea is one of the world's most enigmatic societies, it is difficult to understand precisely the factors determining its policies. The prevailing power structure, the primary political considerations, and the stability of the current order are each subject to question. Meanwhile, a history of relations between the United States and North Korea reveals repeated movements forward followed by renewed breakdowns. In general terms, China is a crucial actor as the North's chief economic and strategic supporter, with South Korea also vitally important. Russia currently plays a limited role, and relations between Japan and North Korea are hostile. At the close of 2006, negotiations are once again underway but with no agreements reached. Thus, it is difficult to be optimistic about an early resolution of the key issues despite some favorable signs.     

South Korea’s policy toward Russia: A Korean view

The article focuses on delineating South Korea’s policy toward Russia. First, it gives a cursory review, from a historical perspective, of how South Korea came to normalize diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union and has continued to maintain its diplomatic relations with Russia in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union in an attitude of increased pragmatism. Second, it examines the salient features of South Korea’s diplomatic milieu, especially in terms of its strategic security and economic interests, in a bilateral and regional context in the post-cold war era, in light of its newly established diplomatic relationship with Russia. Finally, South Korea’s policy agenda vis-à-vis Russia is identified in various arenas, including diplomacy and security; bilateral and multilateral economic cooperation; and regional multilateral secruity regime-building.     

North Korea’s foreign relations: Diplomacy of promotive adaptation

Dramatic changes in East Europe and the Soviet Union resulted in North Korea’s doubling its effort to shield and defend itself from disturbances emanating from the outside. Yet, President Kim Il Sung of North Korea has also opted for new diplomatic moves of realignment in existing ties with China and the Soviet Union and is also seeking new rleations with Japan and the United States. North Korea’s diplomatic adaptation in 1990–91, such as its balancing diplomatic acts vis-à-vis the major allies and adversaries, is examined, and so is the North Korean dilemma of reconciling national interests and ideology. While Pyongyang’s nonaligned nations diplomacy is temporarily stalled, its Un diplomacy is likely to be activated as a result of the simultaneous entry into the United Nations with South Korea in 1991.     

The nature and status of trouble spots in North‐east Asia

James Traub, The Best Intentions: Kofi Annan and the UN in the Era of American Power. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2006. ISBN: 9780747584452, R214, 448 pages.

Christopher Landsberg, The Quiet Diplomacy of Liberation: International Politics and South Africa's Transition. Johannesburg: Jacana Media, 2004. ISBN 1–77009–028–2, R123.00. 264 pages.

Joseph E Stiglitz, Making Globalisation Work: The Next Steps to Global Justice. London: Allen Lane, an imprint of Penguin Books, 2006. ISBN: 9780713999099, R254, 384 pages.

Omar Nasiri, Inside the Global Jihad: How I Infiltrated Al Qaeda and was Abandoned by Western Intelligence. Johannesburg: Jacana Books, 2006. ISBN: 1770093184, R159, 336 pages.     

The Trump-Kim Summit,Future Scenarios,and Japan’s Policy toward the Korean Peninsula

On June 12, 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump and Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (hereafter DPRK or North Korea) leader Kim Jong Un, Chairman of the State Affairs Commission, met in Singapore for the first time. The two men signed a joint declaration and pledged to work toward denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula and improving bilateral relations. These developments raise several questions. What impact will this summit meeting between the two leaders have on regional security? What sorts of opportunities and risks will that impact produce for Japan? How should Japan deal with this fluid regional situation?     

Organizing K-Pop: Emergence and Market Making of Large Korean Entertainment Houses, 1980–2010

This paper studies the connection between the emergence and market making activities of the large Korean entertainment houses and the global level success of “K-pop,” an increasingly popular type of Korean popular music. We review a set of conventional explanations, respectively pointing to cultural factors, government support, and technological development as core factors that led to the global success of K-pop. We find all three explanations unsatisfactory and, alternatively, building on studies of market intermediaries, argue that the roles of three large entertainment houses—SM Entertainment, YG Entertainment, and JYP Entertainment—have been the most crucial in the development and success of K-pop. Through combining data from Korean music charts, newspaper articles, and revenue data, we trace the increasingly systematic musical production strategies of the entertainment houses and the macro-consequences of their organizational activities.     

Baltic Studies in North America: A Survey of Academic Dissertations 1911–2006

ABSTRACT

The article argues for an extended delineation of increasing Western cultural hegemony in the reconstituted Baltic states. An initial idiom of postcolonial studies is revisited in order to complement their dominant scope in the Baltics, focused primarily on a retrospective cultural study of Baltic/Soviet relationships. The argument elaborates on the urgency of the expanding research agenda regarding the Baltic/European research framework. By pointing out the frequent occurrence of the superiority or inferiority value scale in cross-cultural references sampled from press releases of the Art Museum of Estonia, the article concludes that mainstream cultural self-reflection in Estonia is nowadays subjected to the supremacy of the imagined West European viewpoint.     

Relations with North Africa: a new priority in Portuguese bilateral foreign policy?

Portugal has remained quite distant from coastal North African states for many centuries. Having recently emerged as a prominent player across North Africa, Portugal’s current relationship with the Maghreb countries is unprecedented in its history. Lisbon has invested in building the Maghreb axis as a ‘new priority’ in the architecture of Portugal’s bilateral foreign policy. This policy already took off, and is now beyond the rhetorical plan, where it stood for many years. Portugal and its partner countries across the Mediterranean have reiterated their willingness to keep up with the positive momentum, especially from the past 10 years, deepening bilateral political dialogue and bolstering trade relations. This article puts Portuguese relations with North Africa into context and offers an up-to-date analysis on recent (and ongoing) developments in Luso?Maghreb relations.     

Performing ethnic relations in Russia's North Caucasus: regional spectacles in Stavropol’ krai

Using materials gathered during fieldwork carried out in Russia in 2008 and 2009, this paper examines the ‘Day of Stavropol’ krai 2009’ celebration and links it to debates on ethnic relations, identity and nationalism in post-Soviet Russia. It is argued that celebrations, festivals, parades and other ‘spectacles’ are significant, yet often overlooked, influences on ethnic relations. Although authorities at national and regional scale play a prominent role in governing ethnic relations, it is often the case that they revert to Soviet-era practices – such as the ‘folklorization’ of ethnic groups – and produce a narrative that proclaims the ‘eternal harmony’ of ethnic relations. Given widespread ethnic tensions that exist in Russia, such a representation of ethnic relations is far from the reality lived by people in everyday life. Thus, this paper explores how citizens' understandings of ethnic relations relates to that portrayed by state authorities.     

Democratization in the Middle East and North Africa: A More Ambidextrous Process?

Democratization is always an ambidextrous process. On the one hand, it triggers a universalistic set of norms, events, processes and symbols. On the other hand, democratization involves a much more particularistic set of ‘realistic’ adaptations to the structures and circumstances of individual countries. In analysing the structures and conjunctures of countries in the Arab World during the past decades, scholars looked at them from the perspective of persistent authoritarianism. This essay exploits democratization theory – as well as its converse ? by analysing the universalistic set of events, processes and symbols of democratization elsewhere in the world, and then identifying the particularistic characteristics of timing, location and coincidence that seem likely to affect the political outcome of regime change in the countries affected by recent popular uprisings in the Arab World.     

Beyond de-nuclearization: debating deterrence and North Korea in Asia’s new nuclear age

ABSTRACT

Review of : Jeffrey Lewis, The 2020 Commission report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks against the United States: a speculative novel (Mariner: New York, 2018); Van Jackson, On the Brink, Trump, Kim and the Threat of Nuclear War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018); Sung Chull Kim and Michael D. Cohen, eds., Entering the new era of deterrence, North Korea and nuclear weapons (Washington DC: Georgetown University Press, 2017); and Victor D. Cha, and David C. Kang, Nuclear North Korea, a debate on engagement strategies, second edition (New York: Columbia University Press, 2018).     

The North‐West frontier province and trans‐border country under the new constitution

Indian subcontinent

The Viceroy at Bay: Lord Linlithgow in India. By John Glendevon. London, Collins, 1971. Pp. 288. Illus. Index. £2.50.

The Transfer of Power: Constitutional Relations between Britain and India. Vol. I: The Cripps Mission, January‐April 1942. Edited by Nicholas Mansergh and E. W. R. Lumby. London, HMSO, 1970. Pp. 928. Illus. Map. Index. £7.00.

The Indian Army: Its contribution to the development of a nation. By Stephen Cohen. Los Angeles and London, University of California Press, 1971. £2.85.

The Politics of Nepal. By Leo E. Rose and Margaret W. Fisher. Ithaca and London, Cornell University Press, 1970. Pp. 197. Map. Index. £3.80.

General

Nationalism in Asia and Africa. Edited with an Introduction by Elie Kedourie, London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1971. Pp. 573. Index. £3.00.

Religion and Change in Contemporary Asia. Ed. Robert F. Spencer. London, OUP for Minnesota University Press, 1971. Pp. 172. Map. Index. £3.15.

The Ruler's Imperative. By W. Howard Wriggins. Columbia University Press, 1969. Pp.275. £4.50

Middle East

Peace in the Holy Land: An Historical Analysis of the Palestine Problem. By John Bagot Glubb. London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1971. Pp. 384. Maps. Genealogical trees. Bibliog. Index. £3.15.

The Trucial States. By Donald Hawley. London, Allen and Unwin, 1970. Pp. 380. Maps. Illus. Bibliog. Index. £4.25.

The Wind of Morning. By Sir Hugh Boustead. London, Chatto and Windus, 1971. Pp. 240. £2.80.

Islam: a Way of Life. By Philip K. Hitti. University of MinnesotaPress, (London, OUP) 1970. Pp. 183. Maps. Bibliog. Index. £2.25.

John Company's Last War. By Barbara English. London, Collins, 1971. Pp. 192. Illus. Bibliog. Index. £2.10.

Southeast Asia

North Vietnam and the Pathet Lao: Partners in the Struggle for Laos. By Paul F. Langer and Joseph J. Zaslof. Harvard University Press; London, OUP, 1971. Pp. 262. Bibliog. Index. £2.90.

In Search of Southeast Asia: A Modern History. By David Joel Steinberg (editor), David K. Wyatt, John R. W. Smail, Alexander Woodside, William R. Roff, David P. Chandler. London, Pall Mall Press, 1971. Pp. 522. Maps. Glossary. Bibliog. Index. £4.50.

Burma: A Profile. By Norma Brixler. London, Pall Mall Press, 1971. Pp. 244. Illus. Maps. Bibliog. £3.50.

China

The Security of China. By Arthur Huck. London, Chatto and Windus. Pp. 93. Maps. 60p.

China's Cultural Revolution. By Gargi Dutt and V. P. Dutt. London, Asia Publishing House, 1970. Pp. 260. Index. £3.25.

Education in Communist China. By R. F. Price. London, Routledge, 1970. Pp. 308. Maps. Bibliog. Glossary. Index. £3.00.

Psychological Research in Communist China, 1949–1966. By Robert and Ai‐li Chin. Cambridge, Mass., and London, MIT Press, 1970. Pp. 274. Glossary. Bibliog. Index. £2.65.

Education and Communism in China. Edited by Stewart Fraser. N.Y. and London, Pall Mall Press, 1971. £2.75.

China's Cultural Legacy and Communism. Edited by Ralph C. Croizier. London, Pall Mall Press, 1970. Pp. 313. £3.50.

Modern Chinese Stories. Selected and edited by W. J. F. Jenner. London, Oxford University Press, 1970. Pp. 271. 60p.

The Gate of Darkness: Studies on the Leftist Literary Movement in China. By Tai‐an Hsia. Seattle and London, University of Washington Press. Pp. 266. Index. £3.77.

Contemporary Chinese Law: Research Problems and Perspectives. Edited by Jerome Alan Cohen. Harvard UP; London, OUP, 1971. Pp. 380. Bibliog. Index. £4.75.

Industrial Development in Pre‐Communist China. A quantitative analysis. By John K. Chang. Edinburgh University Press, 1970. Pp. ix + 147. £2.50.

The Chinese Economy under Communism. By Nai‐ruenn Chen and Walter Galenson. Edinburgh University Press, 1970. Pp. 250. £3.00.

Mao Papers: Anthology and Bibliography. Edited by Jerome Ch'en. Oxford University Press, 1970. Pp. xxxiii+221. £2.75.

The United States and China: The Next Decade. Edited by A. Doak Barnett and Edwin O. Reischauer. The National Committee on United States‐China Relations. Pall Mall Press, London. Pp. 249. £3.25.

The Extraterritorial System in China: Final Phase. By John Carter Vincent. Harvard University Press, 1970. Pp. 119. Index. £1.70.

British Policy in China (1895–1902). By L. K. Young. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1970. Pp. 356. Bibliog. Index. Maps. £3.50.

Taikoo. By Charles Drage. London, Constable, 1970. Pp. xl + 280. Illus. Maps. Bibliog. Appendices. Index. £2.25.

The Origins of Statecraft in China. Volume 1: The Western Chou Empire. By H. G. Creel. Chicago and London, University of Chicago Press, 1970. Pp. ix + 559. £7.80.

Far East

Mongolia, A Profile. By Victor P. Petrov. London, Pall Mall Press, 1970. Pp. 179. Bibliog. Maps. Index. £3.25.

Area Handbook for North Korea. By Rinn‐Sup Shinn and others. Washington, US Government Printing Office, 1969. Pp. xvi + 481. $3.75.

Taiwan: Studies in Chinese Local History. By Leonard H. Gordon. New York and London, Columbia University Press, 1970. Pp. 124. Glossary. Index. £1.60.

Learning to be Chinese: The Political Socialization of Children in Taiwan. By Richard W. Wilson. Cambridge, Mass., and London, MIT Press, 1970. Pp. 203. Bibliog. Index. £4.65.

The Philippines: Industrialization and Trade Policies. By John H. Power and Gerardo P. Sicat. Taiwan: Industrialization and Trade Policies. By Mo‐huan Hsing. London, OUP, for OECD Paris, 1971. Pp. 324. Indexes. £4.00.

Personality in Japanese History. Edited by Albert M. Craig and Donald H. Shively. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1971. Pp. 481. £4.75.

A Collection of Stories from Uji: A Study Translation of the Uji Shūi Mono‐gatari. By D. E. Mills. Cambridge University Press, 1970. Pp. 459. Illus. Bibliog. Index. £3.50.

Archaeology

Southern Arabia. By Brian Doe. London, Thames and Hudson, 1971. Pp. 267. Map. Illus. Bibliog. Index. £4.20.

Looking for Dilmun. By Geoffrey Bibby. London, Collins, 1970. Pp. lx + 383. Maps. Illus. Index. £3.15.

Frozen Tombs of Siberia: The Pazyryk Burials of Iron‐Age Horsemen. By Sergei I. Rudenko, translated and edited by M. W. Thompson. London, Dent, 1970. Pp. xxxvi + 340. Illustrated. Bibliog. Index. £12.60.     

The Turkish Republic's Jihad? Religious symbols,terminology and ceremonies in Turkey during the Korean War 1950–1953

On 25 July 1950, a month after the beginning of the Korean War, the newly elected Democratic Party (DP) in Turkey announced that a brigade would be sent to assist South Korea as part of the UN mission led by the United States. The main argument of this article is that although the DP regime is considered a secular and Kemalist one, the state continued the Ottoman tradition and practice of using Islam to gain support for the war and to mobilize the Turkish nation. To do so, the article will show the similarity of both the means and the content of religious propaganda used in the Korean War to those used in the Ottoman jihad in the First World War. This article suggests that parts of the public understood the war as a religious conflict and not just as an ideological one thus indicating the success of the religious messages and their efficiency.     

Chinese and Japanese development co-operation: South–South,North–South,or what?

This article compares the evolution and characteristics of Chinese and Japanese aid, assessing the impact of their aid policies in sub-Saharan Africa from the 1950s to the present. It argues that China and Japan's aid programmes share more similarities than dissimilarities. Both pursue aid strategies that spread allocations across a region rather than concentrating upon specific countries. The article seeks to clarify the following questions. In what way are Chinese and Japanese aid strategies different from each other and Western donors? Should their aid be seen as a form of South–South co-operation that provides an alternative to the West's hegemony in Africa? Or is aid from these donors simply another strategy to control African resources and state elites in the guise of a partnership of equals?