浅析奥巴马政府的对朝政策

在应对处理朝鲜半岛危机中,美国一直扮演着一个关键的角色。奥巴马上台后,朝鲜半岛危机出现了急剧的变化,这也让人们对奥巴马政府的对朝政策更加关注。实际上,在2009年春美国国务卿希拉里访问亚洲后,奥巴马政府的对朝政策就产生了很大的变化。朝鲜半岛不断升级的紧张局势,使得美国有机会重振其世界领袖的雄风,重新确立美日韩在东亚的铁三角同盟关系,并通过不断的联合军事演习对朝鲜施加了除军事动武以外的巨大压力,同时也侧面敲击和缓解了中国力量在亚太地区伸展的势头。奥巴马的外交理念是做一个实际的理想主义者和一个有理想的现实主义者,其对朝政策的核心策略就是软的更软,硬的更硬,以硬逼软。     

韩国-东盟FTA对中国农产品出口韩国的影响分析

对中国与东盟农产品出口韩国的产品相似性指数及国别比较优势指数进行测算的结果表明,双方相似性较高,竞争也较激烈.但对中国与东盟农产品的价格竞争力在韩国-东盟FTA全面生效前后的变化进行比较分析的结果表明,韩国-东盟FTA对中国农产品出口韩国的影响很小.其原因有二:一是韩国-东盟FTA中韩国的农产品开放度较低;二是东盟供给能力有限,即使享受FTA特惠税率而拥有明显的价格优势,其出口也很难完全替代中国.     

中韩自贸区建设及其对吉韩合作的影响

自2012年5月启动自由贸易协定谈判以来,中韩两国在30个月的时间里进行了14轮谈判,目前已草签协定文本,两国将于年内正式签署协定并予以生效。中韩两国之所以能在较短的时间里达成如此高水平的自贸协定,与其各自的自贸区战略密切相关。中国自贸区战略的目的是通过积极推进自由贸易区建设,加强同合作伙伴的相互依存关系,配合我国全方位和平外交战略的推进;韩国自贸区战略的目标是通过与主要国家和地区相互取消关税等贸易壁垒,作为包括海外企业在内的生产基地,成为全球"自由贸易轴心"。中韩间现已形成全方位、深层次、互利共赢的良好发展格局。与国家间贸易快速增长形成对比的是,进入21世纪后吉林省与韩国的贸易额一直在5亿~7亿美元区间波动。中韩自贸协定的达成,对于吉林省而言,可谓机遇与挑战并存。     

Financial liberalization in South Korea

This article analyzes the process of financial liberalization in South Korea from the perspective of financial globalization through an international political economic approach. Korean financial liberalization has been highly influenced by the outside pressure of the United States, the OECD and the IMF, as well as by the big business conglomerates (chaebols), as a powerful domestic interest group. In a broad perspective, South Korea's entrance into the OECD, the Financial Services Agreement under the WTO and the Structural Adjustment Program of the IMF after the 1997 financial crisis were important moments for Korea's financial reforms. There are two viewpoints on the causes of the Korean financial crisis. From a domestic viewpoint, South Korea had a weak financial market system and its financial liberalization process was too premature to create a stable financial market when Korea met the financial crisis. In a globalization perspective, financial globalization intrinsically encourages uncontrollable short-term financial capital flows across borders, thus financial crisis is inevitable regardless of a strong or weak domestic financial system. This article compares these two viewpoints in the case of South Korea.     

Repression and development in the periphery: South Korea

Abstract

American social scientists have recently expressed deep concern over the stare of “human rights” in the third world The source of this concern can be pinpointed precisely as the “new moralism” of the Carter Administration. Like Mr Carter, these social scientists address the problem by isolating human rights as a distinct phenomenon which can be dealt with in the abstract, detached from the root characteristics of the political economy within which it occurs. The typical analysis focuses on the individual dictator, who, ostensibly, has available to him a range of choices on the amount of social control that is to be maintained. For example, if the United States were to exert pressure and to discontinue aid, then, according to this view, the dictator would restore democratic rights.     

Studying North Korea through North Korean migrants: lessons from the field

This article examines the use of North Korean defectors’ accounts as a source of information for studying the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). Information from defectors fills a vital knowledge gap and improves our understanding of North Korean politics, economics, and society. Witness accounts and interview data collected from people who were born in North Korea but have since left have been widely used by journalists, government agencies, international organizations, non-governmental organizations, and academics. There are, however, serious methodological issues in collecting, organizing, and interpreting information derived from defectors’ accounts. Selection and demographic biases, power relations between researchers and interviewees, monetary incentives, and language barriers are among those issues. We propose focus group discussions and participatory observation as complementary methods of data collection to mitigate the shortfalls of relying on individual interviews.     

Freedom of Expression in South Korea

South Korea is widely considered a consolidated democracy, but there is growing evidence that freedom of expression in South Korea has lagged behind that of comparable Asian countries and that it has deteriorated since 2008. Freedom House downgraded South Korea’s “freedom of the press” status from “free” to “partly free” in 2010 and other international reports also raised concerns on the status of freedom of expression in the country. We identify five problems that have contributed to the deterioration in South Korea’s rankings with respect to civil liberties: abuse of criminal defamation, the rules governing election campaigns, national security limitations on free speech, restrictions related to the internet and partisan use of state power to control the media. We close by considering possible explanations of the phenomenon, ranging from more distant cultural factors and the influence of the Japanese legal systems through the enduring impact of the Cold War. However, the main problems appear political. Governments on both the political right and left have placed limits on freedom of expression in order to contain political opposition, and constitutional, legal and political checks have proven insufficient to stop them.     

North Korea’s nuclear issue

Given the unpredictability of North Korea’s leadership, and its capability to develop nuclear weapons, the North Korean nuclear issue has become one of the most important concerns in the region in the last few years, particularly for the United States, Japan, and, of course, South Korea. Up until January 30, 1992, when North Korea finally concluded the fullscope safeguards agreement, the focus of concern was the very fact that North Korea repeatedly had refused to conclude the obligatory agreement for more than six years since December 12, 1985, when it signed the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).     

Religion and Political Tolerance in South Korea

This paper examines the relationship between individuals' religiosity and its impact on political tolerance in South Korea. Based on the results of survey data analysis, we find that there are inter-denominational as well as intra-denominational differences of religiosity that influence levels of political tolerance among South Koreans. In terms of the inter-denominational differences (the ethnoreligious thesis), we find that Buddhists tend to be more tolerant than Protestants, and Protestants tend to have the lowest level of political tolerance in South Korea. In terms of the intra-denominational differences (the culture wars thesis), religious traditionalists have a lower level of political tolerance than religious modernists in South Korea. This paper argues that there is a statistically significant relationship between individuals' religiosity and their level of political tolerance, and that a composite model (combining the ethno-religious model and the culture wars model) is the best way of investigating such a relationship in the Korean context.     

Future of North Korea at Dead End

Since Chairman Kim Jong-il's reported stroke in August 2008, the stability or instability of the North Korean system has come under the spotlight. North Korea's one-man ruling communist and state-planned economic system will constantly come under pressure at home and abroad for change. For now, North Korea withstands the pressure for change with a strong state mechanism. If Pyongyang continues to allow its systemic rigidity to hinder opportunities for adjustment and change, then the deepening internal contradictions, the people's growing discontent, and increasing discord with the external environment may push the North Korean system to a critical breaking point. As the uncertainties shrouding the North Korean regime and system steadily increase, it has become urgent to accurately analyze and assess the present and the future of North Korea. While preparing for an uncertain future of North Korea, it is also necessary that the members of the Six-Party Talks exercise more efforts to generate genuine and positive changes in North Korea.     

Labor and democratization in South Korea and Taiwan

The article examines the recent work by Rueschemeyer et. al. (1992) and revisits the classic issue of the social basis of democracy. It argues that Rueschemeyer et al. are biased in their definition of democracy, have focused too narrowly on the postures of individuals classes, and have produced a one-sided picture of the role of the workers in democratization. Using the experiences of South Korea and Taiwan, the article argues that the extent of workers's involvement in the democratic struggle depends on their experiences of state domination. The latter, in turn, is influenced by the workers' market positions and the nature of the labor regime in question. The article also argues that workers affect democratization in a macro-structural sense, both by influencing the agenda of the oppositional movement and by shaping the contour of socio-political conflict of society.