Korea Focus is a monthly webzine accessible at (www.koreafocus.or.kr), which includes editorials, columns, features, interviews, and essays on Korean current affairs and related international issues. Since its inception in 1993, the journal has served as a foremost source of objective information on Korea, contributing to a broader understanding of Korean society and promoting Korean Studies among academic institutions and policy think tanks abroad. The articles are selected from leading Korean newspapers, news magazines, and academic journals. * In addition to the webzine, the content of Korea Focus is available via e-book service for mobile devices. Those who are interested in subscription may register their email address at the website.
Korea Focus is a monthly webzine accessible at (www.koreafocus.or.kr), which includes editorials, columns, features, interviews, and essays on Korean current affairs and related international issues. Since its inception in 1993, the journal has served as a foremost source of objective information on Korea, contributing to a broader understanding of Korean society and promoting Korean Studies among academic institutions and policy think tanks abroad. The articles are selected from leading Korean newspapers, news magazines, and academic journals. * In addition to the webzine, the content of Korea Focus is available via e-book service for mobile devices. Those who are interested in subscription may register their email address at the website.
Korea Focus is a monthly webzine accessible at (www.koreafocus.or.kr), which includes editorials, columns, features, interviews, and essays on Korean current affairs and related international issues. Since its inception in 1993, the journal has served as a foremost source of objective information on Korea, contributing to a broader understanding of Korean society and promoting Korean Studies among academic institutions and policy think tanks abroad. The articles are selected from leading Korean newspapers, news magazines, and academic journals. * In addition to the webzine, the content of Korea Focus is available via e-book service for mobile devices. Those who are interested in subscription may register their email address at the website.
KOREA FOCUS is a monthly webzine and a quarterly journal, featuring commentaries and essays on Korean politics, economy, society and culture, as well as relevant international issues. The articles are selected from leading Korean newspapers, magazines, journals and academic papers from prestigious forums. Since its inception in 1993, the journal has served as a foremost source of objective information on Korea, contributing to a broader understanding in Korean society in the international community and promoting Korean studies at academic institutions abroad. It is circulated among major international organizations, universities, libraries, Korean studies institutes and individual researchers in some 150 countries.
This book studies the sources of inequality in contemporary South Korea and the social and political contention this engenders. Korean society is becoming more polarized. Demands for ‘economic democratization’ and a fairer redistribution of wealth occupy centre-stage of political campaigns, debates and discourse. The contributions offer perspectives on this wide-ranging socio-political change by examining the transformation of organized labour, civil society, the emergence of new cleavages in society, and the growing ethnic diversity of Korea’s population. Bringing together a team of scholars on Korea’s transition and democratization, the story the books tells is one of a society acutely divided by the neo-liberal policies that accompanied and followed the Asian financial crisis. Taken together, the contributions argue that tackling inequalities are challenges that Korean policy-makers can no longer postpone. The solution, however, cannot be imposed, once again, from the top down, but needs to arise from a broader conversation including all segments of Korean society. The book is intended for a readership interested in South Korean politics specifically, and global experiences in transition more generally.
Against the backdrop of China’s mounting influence and North Korea’s growing nuclear capability and expanding missile arsenal, South Korea faces a set of strategic choices that will shape its economic prospects and national security. In South Korea at the Crossroads, Scott A. Snyder examines the trajectory of fifty years of South Korean foreign policy and offers predictions—and a prescription—for the future. Pairing a historical perspective with a shrewd understanding of today’s political landscape, Snyder contends that South Korea’s best strategy remains investing in a robust alliance with the United States. Snyder begins with South Korea’s effort in the 1960s to offset the risk of abandonment by the United States during the Vietnam War and the subsequent crisis in the alliance during the 1970s. A series of shifts in South Korean foreign relations followed: the “Nordpolitik” engagement with the Soviet Union and China at the end of the Cold War; Kim Dae Jung’s “Sunshine Policy,” designed to bring North Korea into the international community; “trustpolitik,” which sought to foster diplomacy with North Korea and Japan; and changes in South Korea’s relationship with the United States. Despite its rise as a leader in international financial, development, and climate-change forums, South Korea will likely still require the commitment of the United States to guarantee its security. Although China is a tempting option, Snyder argues that only the United States is both credible and capable in this role. South Korea remains vulnerable relative to other regional powers in northeast Asia despite its rising profile as a middle power, and it must balance the contradiction of desirable autonomy and necessary alliance.
