In Memoriam: Hong Nack Kim
Published on: The New York Times
Dr. Hong Nack Kim, a noted scholar of East Asian international Relations, passed away peacefully on Monday, July 7, 2014, at the age of 80. Born in Taegu, South Korea, Dr. Kim was a professor of political science at West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia, where he resided since 1967. Formerly editor of the East Asia Review and editor of International Journal of Korean Studies, he contributed more than 100 articles to such journals as Asian Survey, Pacific Affairs, World Politics, World Affairs, Journal of Northeast Asian Studies, Current History and the Problems of Communism. He was co-editor of six books, including Korean Reunification: New Perspectives and Approaches (Kyungnam University Press, 1984) and North Korea: the Politics of Regime Survival (M.E. Sharpe, 2006), and authored Japanese-Korean Relations in the 1990s (Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 1994).
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Japanese-South Korean Relations Under the Second Abe Government, 2012-2014
Author: Hong Nack Kim
The purpose of this article is to examine recent Japanese-South Korean relations, with an emphasis on the analysis of major issues which have strained Tokyo-Seoul relations since the inauguration of the second Abe government in December 2012. It is a major contention of this article that the souring of recent Japanese-South Korean relations would be attributed largely to the Abe government’s revisionist view of wartime history and partly to its attempt to nullify the “Kono Statement” of 1993, which admitted and apologized for Japan’s guilt in the forceful recruitment of the “comfort women” before and during World War II, and the 1995 “Murayama statement” in which then-Prime Minister Murayama Tomiichi expressed deep remorse and apologized to the victims of Japanese colonialism and militarism before and during World War II. Unless the Abe government discards its revisionist view of wartime history and agrees to abide by these landmark apologies, it will be difficult for Japan to develop close cooperation or partnership with South Korea.
(Pages 2 – 25)
North Korea’s Human Rights Policy: Formulation and Implementation
Author: Robert Collins
The Kim Family Regime’s approach to human rights has always been one of formal policy versus real policy. Formal policy on human rights is based on state documents, starting with the constitution and followed by formal laws such as the Criminal Procedures Act, all drafted and ratified by the Supreme People’s Assembly. Real policy, however, is conducted by Party and state agencies at the direction of the Korean Workers’ Party to protect the regime from enemies within. The primary differences between the two is that the formal policy has no agency that implements the rights codified by the state, while the real policy is implemented in some aspect, large or small, by every party, state, economic, and social organization in North Korea. From the Kim Regime perspective, the right to protect is applied to the regime, not the people. The human rights of the people involve support of the revolution and the benefit of the masses, not the individual. The recent Commission of Inquiry on human rights abuses in North Korea did an impressive job of identifying these issues, and its recommendations are well warranted.
(Pages 26 – 58)
China’s Forced Repatriation of North Korean Refugees Incurs United Nations Censure
Author: Roberta Cohen
The UN Commission of Inquiry (COI), established in 2013 to investigate widespread, systematic, and grave human rights violations in North Korea, has strongly implicated China in North Korea’s commission of crimes against humanity because of its forced repatriation of North Korean refugees and asylum-seekers, who are severely punished once returned. China, however, insists that North Koreans exiting without permission are ‘economic migrants,’ not refugees, and that deportations are essential to maintaining its national security, social order, and border controls, as well as the stability of the Korean Peninsula. Although a preponderance of states at the United Nations have rejected China’s position, China has continued to subordinate UN human rights and refugee standards to its immediate political objectives and continues to deny to North Koreans their right to leave their country and seek asylum abroad.
(Pages 59 – 90)
Military Proliferation in the Kim Jong-un Era: The Impact on Human Rights in North Korea
Author: Bruce E. Bechtol Jr.
North Korea has expanded and enhanced its proliferation efforts around the world since the end of the Cold War. Whether it is in the Middle East, Africa, or even someplace as far away as Cuba, North Korea continues to change its tactics, techniques, and procedures in order to bring in money for the regime and to support the elite, as well as the military and its programs. North Korea’s proliferation program really consists of four key parts: 1) WMD and the platforms to carry them (ballistic missiles), 2) conventional weapons sales, 3) refurbishment of Soviet-era weapons for countries that still use them, and 4) technical and military assistance and advising. These programs have continued in the Kim Jong-un era, and have in some instances even expanded. North Korean proliferation presents an international security dilemma that policy makers should address in many nations – and take efforts to contain.
(Pages 91 – 115)
China and the Korean Peninsula
Author: Gordon G. Chang
Beijing has been losing influence in Pyongyang since Kim Jong-un took power. Why is this occurring? Chinese authorities do not control cash flowing to the North, the U.S. is bypassing China in its dealings with North Korea, rising Korean nationalism is diminishing foreigners’ influence, Pyongyang is beginning to play the Russia and Japan cards, and instability in the Kim regime prevents outsiders from influencing events in Pyongyang. Moreover, despite China’s warming ties with Seoul, pro-North Korea elements still influence policy in Beijing and will prevent a reversal of its fundamental approach to the Korean Peninsula. So China’s new Korea policy, which would ordinarily give it increased leverage in Pyongyang, may ultimately not have that effect, especially if the Chinese initiative toward South Korea falters.
(Pages 116 – 138)
Should The United States Support Korean Unification And If So, How?
Author: David S. Maxwell
This article argues that the priority for the ROK-U.S. alliance must shift to Korean reunification. President Parks’ Dresden Initiative provides an opportunity for the U.S. to support the ROK’s plans for reunification. There are four paths to reunification: the ideal one is peaceful unification; the second is internal regime change leading to the emergence of new leadership that seeks peaceful unification; the third is catastrophic collapse of the Kim Family Regime; and the fourth and worst case is conflict and war. However, if comprehensive policies and a strategy with balance and coherency among ends, ways, and means is developed that focuses on reunification regardless of the path followed, the alliance will eventually be able to reach the ideal path to reunification even if there is collapse or war.
(Pages 139 – 156)
The Future of Innovation in Korea
Author: Troy Stangarone
While there has been much confusion about the meaning of a “creative economy”, at its core, the creative economy is President Park Geun-hye’s vision for job creation and economic growth in the Korean economy that is designed to shift the economy from being one of imitation to one driven by innovation. To achieve this shift, President Park hopes to tap into Korea’s economic strengths, information and communications technologies (ICT), and culture, and apply them to existing industries in new and innovative ways. To achieve this paradigm shift, Korea will need to address a series of issues related to entrepreneurship, research and development, venture capitalism, and the role of universities to successfully transition the Korean economy to one based on innovation.
(Pages 157 – 176)
Does Korea Risk Reprising Japan’s Lost Decades?
Author: Richard Katz
Korea has had a stellar growth record over the past half-century, but, like Japan before it, the miracle economy risks becoming a “fallen star.” Economic patterns and institutions that helped it do so well in the “catchup era,” have now become obsolete. It suffers from a number of structural defects that parallel those that eroded growth in Japan: e.g., pushing labor productivity mainly through capital deepening rather than through Total Factor Productivity; a “dual economy” of super-efficient giant exporters combined with low-productivity, low-wage small- and medium-sized enterprises, particularly in services; and household income constituting too low of a share of GDP to fuel domestic consumer spending power. However, it enjoys some advantages that Japan lacked: first and foremost, the ability to learn from Japan’s sad experience and a recognition by its political leaders that reform is necessary.
(Pages 177 – 202)
