Korea Focus May 2015

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Table of Contents

- Korea Focus - May 2015

- Politics 1. Korea Faces Danger of Being Seen as a ‘Swing State’ 2. Korea Should Have Joined China’s Infrastructure Bank Sooner 3. Mao Zedong and Syngman Rhee 4. [DEBATE] Proposal for Region-based Proportional Representatives in General Elections

- Economy 1. Welfare Finance and Dishonorable Politics 2. Jeju Island as a Base for Global Energy Revolution 3. Is the American Century Over?

4. Program or Be Programmed

- Society 1. [DEBATE] Use of Chinese Characters in Primary School Textbooks 2. ‘Multiethnic Korea’ Shouldn’t Ignore Immigrant Children 3. A Coffee-roasting Korean Lawyer in Jakarta 4. Parents’ Generation Fails to Prepare for Future Growth

- Culture 1. World Heritage Must Not be Misused to Sanitize Japan’s Wrongdoings 2. Tokyo is Winning the Battle for Influence in Washington 3. Yellow, Red and Blue ― Feng Shui Colors for Auspicious Interiors 4. What’s There to Learn From North Korean Music?

5. Dongdaemun Design Plaza Marks First Anniversary with Fragile Content

- Essays 1. Recent Increase in Household Debt and its Implications

- Features 1. ‘Waiting for Godot’ on Stage over 45 Years 2. Walking a Tightrope of Nostalgia and Survival for a Single-screen Cinema 3. The Fate of a Tower of Learning Built on Plagiarism

- Book Reviews 1. Life of a Marginal Woman Abandoned by Modern History

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2. Korean People are Inherently Carefree, Curious and Playful

- Interview 1. Prosecutor Talks about the Burden of Being the ‘First Woman’ 2. The Reason She Wears Hanbok and Draws Women Dressed in Hanbok

- COPYRIGHT

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- Korea Faces Danger of Being Seen as a ‘Swing State’

- Korea Should Have Joined China’s Infrastructure Bank Sooner

- Mao Zedong and Syngman Rhee

- [DEBATE] Proposal for Region-based Proportional Representatives in General Elections

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Korea Faces Danger of Being Seen as a ‘Swing State’

Civic activists oppose the deployment of THAAD in Korea and the Korea-U.S.-Japan triangular missile defense, at a rally in front of the Defense Ministry in Seoul on April 10.

Park Cheol-hee Professor, Graduate School of International Studies Director, Institute of Japanese Studies, Seoul National University

In American politics, a state that does not traditionally favor a specific party in presidential elections is called a “swing state.” There are quite a few political scientists in the United States who view Korea from a similar perspective, contending that it is awkwardly walking a tightrope between the United States and China as the two superpowers compete for greater influence in Northeast Asia.

A term that refers to the United States and China as the Group of Two, “G2” is not widely used worldwide. Indeed, Americans are reluctant to use the expression because they do not consider China as an equal and China shuns it because it does not intend to steer the global agenda like the United States nor is it capable of doing so. Nevertheless, G2 appears routinely in the Korean media. Only the Koreans have embraced the term as they regard China as the second strongest nation after the United States.

Few nations have increased their investments and trade in China as fast as Korea.

A quarter of Korea`s total exports go to China and Korea`s investment in China has surpassed its investment in the United States. In addition, China is second to the United States as the most popular destination of Korean students. However,

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these factors alone have not caused Korea to be seen as a swing state. It is because Korea confronts Japan over historic issues while strengthening its alliance with the United States and at the same tome increasing amicable relations with China.

The Japanese, increasingly hostile toward Koreans, feel that Korea is getting closer to China. They ignore the fact that Korea and Japan both have democratic and market economy systems. Observing the acrimony between Korea and Japan, China tries to pull the strategically important Korea closer to its side. The Chinese would not expect Japan to leave the bosom of the United States but believes that it is possible for Korea to shift its allegiance. The historical disputes in Northeast Asia provide adequate problems to keep Korea and Japan at bay.

When we look at our diplomatic passages, the “swing state” concerns among American observers cannot be preposterous. President Park Geun-hye has so far held summit talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping five times but had none with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Korea signed a free trade agreement with China after barely three years of negotiations, but an FTA with Japan is still pending after more than 10 years. Seoul also is actively promoting defense cooperation with China but is taking only perfunctory action with Japan.

Korea announced it would join the China-initiated Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) ignoring misgivings on the part of the United States and Japan. Tokyo is appealing to Washington that it is the only legitimate alliance partner in the region in view of Seoul`s supposedly unsettled diplomatic orientation. Japan is the real friend of America, Japanese leaders argue. They point out that Japan supports the U.S.-proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership, a regional regulatory and investment agreement; it is ready to provide military help for the United States in the Asia-Pacific region through collective defense; and it is contributing to international security with its positive pacifism.

Thus, Abe was bestowed the privilege of addressing a joint session of U.S. Congress on his latest visit. Seoul, for its part, should undergo exhaustive soulsearching about its diplomatic direction amid the current power maneuvering in East Asia. Foreign Ministry officials boasting of “love calls” from both Beijing and Washington may not be totally wrong but show no awareness of the risky position they have taken. A difficult time will come when both superpowers insist

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that Korea choose between them.

It will be good if Seoul could enjoy the status of a swing state by adroitly manipulating China and the United States. But Korea can quickly lose trust from both countries if it regularly vacillates between them. Oscillation without correct strategic judgment on where the nation should be anchored will only be an evasion of choice or an indefinite delay.

Amity with China is essential, but the United States and Japan are the props of our security as long as North Korea poses a serious threat. Our leaders should be reminded that their failure to mend relations with Japan could damage the nation`s ties with the United States. Korea and Japan need to double mutual efforts to resolve the issue of historical differences through frank dialogue in diverse channels. If Japan disregards a staunch U.S. ally like Korea it cannot expect full success of its strategy to promote a coalition of democracies and Abe`s diplomacy cannot but be discounted as aiming at just a half of the world.

[Chosun Ilbo, April 13, 2015]

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Korea Should Have Joined China’s Infrastructure Bank Sooner

Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se, right, meets Chinese Foreign Minister Wang in Seoul on March 21, before a trilateral foreign ministers' meeting of Korea, China and Japan.

Choi Byung-il Professor, Graduate School of International Studies Ewha Womans University

After considerable vacillation and hand-wringing, the Korean government seems to have finally decided to join the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). Seoul is expected to submit its application to be a founding member of the bank before the end of March. [Editor`s Note: Seoul applied for AIIB membership on March 27 and was accepted on April 11.] I can`t be sure, but it is widely believed that the Korean government was worried to the very end about how the United States would react. But what is certain is that by prevaricating so long many of the benefits that could have accrued to Korea have been lost.

At the Korea-China summit held last July in Seoul, Chinese President Xi Jinping urged that Seoul join the AIIB and that the two countries conclude their free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations by the end of the year. President Park Geunhye responded favorably on the FTA, but she hesitated when it came to joining the AIIB. Observers suggested that the reason for her hesitation was U.S. opposition to the new international bank.

Even if Washington had demanded that Seoul stay out of the AIIB, the Korean government should have expressed its intentions sooner. This is because the Park

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administration had taken great pains to develop plans for improving East Asia`s infrastructure, particularly as part of its Eurasia Initiative. Moreover, a regional infrastructure bank could help Korea break out of its stubbornly low growth rate.

China`s plan for the infrastructure bank stems from the simple calculation that the supply of available capital is insufficient to meet the demand in the Asia-Pacific region for investment in projects like roads, railways, port facilities, airports, telecommunications networks, and power plants. The World Bank and the Asian Development Bank are falling short. The AIIB will hopefully fill the gap and contribute to improving Asia`s infrastructure.

Washington suspected that as the holder of the largest share of the bank`s assets Beijing would have a free hand in the bank`s investment decisions. This would shake up the U.S.-led global economic order. The United States wanted to avoid a situation where authoritarian and non-democratic counties could be swept into China`s economic orbit. These considerations led Washington to put pressure on its allies not to join the bank, on the grounds that AIIB`s decision-making process was not in line with international standards.

Actually, the United States has inadvertently served as the midwife to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. The existing international financial institutions have been keeping a lid on China`s influence on their operations despite the nation`s ascent to G2 status. When the G20 was created in 2008 to deal with the global financial crisis, its members agreed to reform the Western-led governance structure of the global financial institutions, most notably the International Monetary Fund (IMF). However, the U.S. Congress has refused to implement this decision for the past several years.

Let`s look a little bit farther back. When the region was engulfed in the flames of the Asian financial crisis in 1997, Japan proposed creating an Asian Monetary Fund. However, Washington strongly opposed the move and nothing came of it.

This is because the United States could not allow the institution it was leading, the IMF, to have its influence undermined by a competing institution.

When the IMF arrived in Asian capitals in 1997 to put out the raging financial fires, it issued conditions that the occupants of the homes on fire had to meet. If they did not promise to lose weight, get up earlier in the morning and lead a

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healthier lifestyle, the IMF would not put out the fires. It proceeded to have the owners of the homes on fire sign documents pledging to fulfill the promises made. Until the documents were signed, the IMF would stand with its arms folded. How could the homeowners not get angry and try to form an alternative institution?

As the war of wills between Washington and Beijing became intensified, America`s closest ally, the United Kingdom, suddenly made the shocking announcement that it intended to participate in the AIIB. Suddenly, the battle began to shift in China`s favor. A series of announcements came from other Western countries like Germany and France that they too would participate. This was followed by one of America`s closest allies in Asia, Australia, coming forward to announce that it was positively considering joining the AIIB. If things hadn`t gotten this far, I wonder what the South Korean government`s choice would have been.

Of course, this is not to say that joining the AIIB is free of worries. Although China has been highly critical of the international economic order imposed by the United States, it is also unilaterally setting the terms of operating the new bank.

This situation reminds us of the daughter-in-law who chafes under a harsh mother-in-law, only to eventually become the very same kind of harsh mother-inlaw. The steps that China has been taking are not consistent with calling itself a “new economic superpower.”

Despite these concerns, the Korean government should have been more proactive and strategic and not waited until the last moment to announce that it would join China`s infrastructure bank. For starters, had Korea joined the AIIB earlier, it could have tried to have the bank based in Korea rather than in China. Sadly, Seoul never got to play that card. Korea also could have used its diplomatic skills to improve the bank`s governance structure and place more of a check on Beijing`s unilateral tendencies. Seoul`s earlier move probably could have helped expand the number of countries participating in the bank to strengthen China`s initiative.

None of these happened because the AIIB and the Korea-China FTA were not strategically linked in Korea`s economic diplomacy blueprint. The Korean government must place the nation`s interests before anything else, even if it means getting red in the face with our closest ally.

[Dong-a Ilbo, March 24, 2015]

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Mao Zedong and Syngman Rhee

A choir performs at a ceremony marking the 140th birth anniversary of the Republic of Korea's first president Syngman Rhee on March 26 at a church in central Seoul.

Kim Dae-ki Visiting Professor, School of Public Policy and Management Korea Development Institute

Bank notes of China pose a lingering question. While other countries print different portraits on their paper money depending on denominations, all Chinese notes feature a single person, Mao Zedong. With its huge population and long history, China must have a good number of great leaders. So why is Mao the only person on the nation`s currency bills?

Mao was responsible for having driven the Chinese people into destitution and held back the country`s economic development for more than a decade. Having established the People`s Republic of China in 1949, Mao launched his ambitious “Great Leap Forward,” a campaign to accelerate the transformation of its agrarian society into a socialist economy through rapid industrialization and collectivization, nine year later. A mandatory system of large rural communes was introduced for agricultural reform and even household iron kettles were requisitioned to boost steel production.

However, the 1958-1961 campaign was a disaster. Agricultural and industrial production sharply declined and, coupled with a severe drought, China suffered the Great Famine that claimed tens of millions of lives. The devastating consequence resulted from an utter failure to implement socialist policies based

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on the principles of common ownership and equity.

Taking responsibility for the fiasco, Mao stepped back and allowed market economy proponents like Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping to try to rejuvenate the economy. But, they were soon purged as “capitalist roaders” in 1966 when Mao mobilized young students as Red Guards to wage the terrifying Cultural Revolution. Ostensibly aimed at imposing socialist orthodoxy and ridding China of “old elements,” the new campaign affected practically all aspects of Chinese life and thus the country remained in “hibernation” until Mao`s death in 1976.

It is a historical irony that South Korea could attain rapid economic development in the absence of formidable competition staged by its huge neighbor. Had China posed competition as it does today, could we ever achieve the myth of progress in that period?

The Cultural Revolution paralyzed China politically and left deep economic and social scars amid violent “class struggle.” Millions of people, including some top leaders, were either humiliated or persecuted, while cultural and religious sites were ransacked. Liu Shaoqi, branded as a “revisionist,” faced severe persecution and died in three years. Deng Xiaoping was deported to the countryside and his son was crippled for life after being denied medical treatment for an injury.

By our standard, Mao is an unpardonable figure and, as a matter of course, he should have faced severe political retribution after his death. But he is still cordially revered in China. Why? A Chinese businessman I recently met provided a lucid explanation. In his childhood when China was embroiled in the Cultural Revolution, he said, he was so shocked to witness his father assaulted by young collegians and falling down to the ground that he even suffered aphasia.

Nevertheless, he said he does not hate Mao because Mao overthrew vested interests and established a new order. Since the new framework was set up, he said emphatically, he could become a successful businessman through competition.

Much as Mao created a new framework in China so did Syngman Rhee play the same role as the founding president of the Republic of Korea. After the establishment of the Republic of Korea government based on free democracy and market economy in 1948, Rhee enforced an epochal land reform that restricted

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the vested rights of landowners. As in China, a new order took root in South Korea and in the new climate many businessmen with indomitable spirit have played their parts in building the Republic of Korea as it is today.

Rhee was autocratic but not as ruthless as Mao in governance. Despite his achievements, Rhee is not properly recognized by his compatriots. Far from respecting him, videos produced by leftists depict Rhee as an object of disgrace.

The treatment Rhee gets from Koreans today sharply contrasts with the way Mao is credited by his fellow countrymen for being “70 percent right and 30 percent wrong.”

This year marks the 70th anniversary of Korea`s liberation from Japanese colonial rule, a time frame that is long enough to overcome any ideological or social splitting in the appraisal of the nation`s founding fathers. March 26 is the 140th anniversary of Rhee`s birth. We need to ponder on the roots of the myth surrounding our nation`s stunning progress.

[Maeil Business Newspaper, March 16, 2015]

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[DEBATE] Proposal for Region-based Representatives in General Elections

Proportional

Election officials and citizens try to drum up voter turnout in the upcoming parliamentary bi-elections at a hikers' plaza in Gwanak District, Seoul, on March 26.

[PRO] Go Seon-gyu Professor Korean Civic Education Institute for Democracy

[CON] Yoon Young-seok Member of the National Assembly Saenuri Party

The National Election Commission (NEC) has proposed a revision of the parliamentary election system that would reduce the number of lawmakers elected from districts and nearly double that of proportional representatives chosen based on regions. Under the proposal, a candidate can be slated simultaneously for both district and proportional seats. Initial reactions are divided. Some welcome the proposal as an alternative to cure the serious regional imbalance of seats won by parties. Detractors focus on the departure from the original purpose of the proportional representation system, which is to put professional experts in parliament.

[PRO] Measure to Ease the Chronic Malady of Regionalism

In October 2014, the Constitutional Court ruled that the current designation of electoral districts for parliamentary elections was “inconsistent” with the Constitution. The top court pointed out that the “value” of a vote varied too 15

widely depending on the size (population) of each electoral district. It demanded that the electoral map be redrawn so that the largest district would have no more than twice the number of residents in the smallest one. Now that the electoral districts should be reshaped before the next general elections, it is desirable that the whole electoral system is reformed to address this and other problems such as uneven representation of parties.

A proper electoral system would reflect the will of the electorate in the number of parliamentary seats distributed among parties. The current system is fundamentally flawed because it has hardened the regional-oriented political structure and obstructed the advancement of minor parties working for the interests of disadvantaged people.

The present system is a mixture of the small district and proportional representation systems with nationwide candidate lists prepared by parties. The voter is given two ballots; one contains district candidates and the other lists proportional candidates. Voters elect 246 lawmakers from as many districts and 54 proportional representatives.

A liberal candidate nominated by the New Politics Alliance for Democracy or its predecessor parties has rarely been elected from the Yeongnam region (Gyeongsang provinces in the southeast). Likewise, a conservative candidate nominated by the Saenuri Party or its predecessors has had little chance of being elected in the Honam region (Jeolla provinces in the southwest). Votes cast for the proportional representation is counted on the national level, so strong regional biases are bypassed.

Political parties are unhappy that the number of votes they receive does not translate into a proportionate number of National Assembly seats. Under the current political environment and election system, both the Saenuri and the NPAD will get a disproportionately high number of seats in Yeongnam and Honam, respectively, and disproportionately low numbers of seats in other regions.

Small parties, which have no traditional turfs unlike larger parties, have remote chances of producing lawmakers in districts. The NEC proposal is aimed at correcting this drawback. It divides the nation into six regions and assigns

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parliamentary seats by their respective sizes of population. For example, Region A which is to have 30 Assembly seats will elect 20 lawmakers from districts and 10 lawmakers through the proportional representation vote. Even when a party loses most of the districts because of lopsided regional support, it can still secure some seats through the proportional system with the aggregate number of votes it collected from the districts.

The NEC proposal would introduce the so-called “close contestant saving system,” which allows district candidates to be included in the proportional representation lists so that they may be saved through the proportional system when they lose in district polls by a thin margin. This method gives parties the confidence to nominate highly-qualified candidates in hotly contested districts and encourages the nominees to exert utmost efforts in district campaigns.

Many opponents to the NEC proposal point out that it is disadvantageous to rural areas where population continues to decline. But additional seats may be assigned to such areas to address the problem of imbalance. Some question the residency requirement for proportional representation candidates, saying that it contradicts the system`s primary mission of electing professional experts. There also are concerns that central party leaders could overly influence the selection of nominees for proportional seats.

Yet, these matters need to be addressed anyway in reforming the process of party nomination. I believe that these questions can be resolved if nominations are made transparently and professionalism is recognized as a primary credential of nominees. The biggest question is whether incumbent lawmakers would agree to reducing the number of electoral districts to about 200 from the present 246.

This certainly is the most realistic obstacle that should be overcome if the nation is to achieve electoral reform. The members of the Special Committee for Political Reform at the National Assembly should be ready to abandon their own privileges to tackle this task.

[CON] Proposal Highly Prone to Accelerate Political Instability

The National Election Commission`s proposal for a revision of the parliamentary election system is designed to amend the regionally-distorted political structure of the Republic of Korea. Its idea is to correct the shortcomings of the small

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district system by recognizing the value of votes cast for losers. It would save candidates who lost in a close contest. However, it raises the question whether such a revision is consistent with the original purpose of the proportional representation system. A cautious approach is needed because the proposal could revive the high-cost election campaigns of the past.

First, we need to consider whether proportional representation based on six regions is consistent with the original purpose of the proportional representation system. Proportional representation is intended to provide the National Assembly with professional expertise in its legislative functions and protect minorities and underprivileged people. If a party places the candidates of districts with traditionally low voter support on top of its proportional representation candidate list, it would defeat the objective of securing experts from various social sectors in the legislature.

Besides, there is no convincing reason for raising the number of proportional representation members to half of the lawmakers elected from districts.

Increasing the number of proportional representatives will naturally strengthen the power of the central party, encourage the establishment of minor parties and likely introduce a majority opposition party in the National Assembly. These all are factors that would invite political instability.

Second, a regionally-based proportional representation system may weaken representation of local interests, particularly in the sparsely-populated rural areas.

The northernmost region in the NEC proposal would encompass the Incheon metropolitan area and Gyeonggi and Gangwon provinces. They are bound together solely for population balance with other regions, ignoring the geographical, historical and cultural differences among the broadly spread localities of the region.

If the NEC proposal is adopted, the number of electoral districts in Seoul and its vicinity would increase while those in other areas decrease. The proposal is feared to further intensify the concentration of population in the Seoul metropolitan area, hampering balanced administrative power.

regional

development

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Third, there is a strong possibility of returning to the high-cost election

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campaigns and money politics of the past. Especially worrisome is the idea to revive local party chapters and allow corporations to make monetary contributions to political parties. Party chapters at city, county (gun) and district (gu) levels were abolished in 2004 to reduce the cost of politics. The NEC now asserts that their revival is necessary to activate party politics, particularly in electoral districts where parties have no lawmakers of their own.

We recall that local chapters of political parties were condemned as “moneyeating hippos” before their forced closures. Rents for offices, personnel expenditures and other operational costs would require huge subsidies from taxpayers` money and possibly cause corruption. If local chapters are to be restored, effective operational systems should be devised in order to minimize burdens to individual lawmakers as well as would-be lawmakers. As for the proposed open primary for nomination, a new device would be needed to prevent the deliberate choice of weak candidates by the supporters of the opposing party to make it an easy contest for their own candidate.

Most problematic is the idea to permit political contributions by social organizations and business corporations, which has been banned to prevent illegal lobbying and collusion between politics and business. The NEC says that direct donations to parties and politicians will continue to be banned and that a donation can be deposited with the NEC within the annual limit of 100 million won. Yet, here is the seed for business-politics tie-ups.

The NEC proposal is very significant in that it reflects major points of discussions that have been going on in the political arena. Now the National Assembly`s Special Committee for Political Reform is obliged to work out a desirable reform plan in careful consideration of the proposal. The bottom line should be to produce a reasonable system that meets the people`s expectations.

[JoongAng Ilbo, March 18, 2015]

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- Welfare Finance and Dishonorable Politics

- Jeju Island as a Base for Global Energy Revolution

- Is the American Century Over?

- Program or Be Programmed

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Welfare Finance and Dishonorable Politics

Leaders of the ruling and opposition parties pose after signing a bill to reform public workers' pension plan, at the National Assembly on May 2.

Kim Byung-joon Professor, Department of Public Administration and Public Policy Kookmin University

Let`s assume that the monthly expenses to employ a worker ― pay, bonus, social insurance premiums and the part of the national pension premium the employer is required to pay ― is 100 on average. The median pay would be 64 when all the member states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development are taken into account. The remainder would go into the state coffers in the form of taxes and social insurance premiums.

In Korea, the worker would take 80, well above the OECD average and in the same league as Chile and Mexico. But the income of 30 percent of the workers in Korea falls below the threshold for income taxes, compared to around 20 percent in many other countries. This means lower income tax revenue and less revenue for government spending.

Income tax revenue as a percentage of gross domestic product is 3.7 percent in Korea, almost 5 percentage points lower than the OECD average of 8.6 percent.

This difference is half the difference between the tax burden of 24.3 percent in Korea and the OECD average tax burden of 34.1 percent. In other words, Koreans pay 70 trillion won less in income tax than they would otherwise.

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Compounding the unrealized tax revenue is the fact that Koreans in the highincome bracket pay less tax than their OECD counterparts and those the midand low-income brackets pay even less. Would it be possible to maintain a high level of welfare when the contribution by those in the mid- and low-income groups is as low as it is now? In a word, it is hardly possible. Where could the money possibly come from?

Many say all that needs to be done is collect more tax from the wealthy. As Thomas Piketty, the author of “Capital in the Twenty-First Century,” noted, the highest income tax rate once surpassed 90 percent in the United States and yet its economy was in good shape. Some say Korea could follow suit. But it does not mean that what was done at the time can be done again.

What made it possible in the United States was rapid economic growth that followed an economic crisis and a war. Moreover, capital mobility was at a very low level, making it difficult for money to flow out of the country. But it is different now. Capital moves around easily and growth is very slow. Korea does not have much room to maneuver in the absence of international collaboration on raising its income tax rates. The highest rate in Korea, which stands at 41.8 percent, is near the OECD average of 43.3 percent. This poses an undeniable limit to what Korea can do to raise its income tax revenue.

Korea has less wiggle room when it comes to corporation tax. Each country strives to lower tax rates to keep its business enterprises from moving abroad and help foreign companies move in and expand their presence in its territory. Of course, a good business environment may make high tax rates tolerable. But it is easier said than done, and in Korea all the more so given its strained security relations with North Korea.

It should be possible to save money by pruning spending and reducing tax favors. It goes without saying that this needs to be done. But the money thus saved won`t be enough to finance all the welfare programs that are required. The government needs to give tax favors if it wishes to help businesses remain competitive on the one hand. On the other, withdrawing tax favors would further complicate the conflicts of interest among those involved.

It is not difficult to conclude that Korea cannot sustain the desired level of social

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services and welfare unless people in the mid- and low-income brackets contribute more. Few countries can achieve such a Herculean task. Strictly speaking, contribution by those in the mid- and low-income groups cannot be a burden because it is returned to them in various forms of benefits. It can be seen as a worthy insurance or group purchase. As such, the state will be able to persuade the mid- and low-income earners to pay more if it wins their trust by presenting a convincing vision of greater welfare for them. Â But the political parties turn a blind eye. They are aware of the issue but feel the political risks they face are daunting. In addition, they are not capable of presenting a worthwhile vision or eliciting concessions from the middle and low income classes. Instead, they keep making unseemly promises to offer more welfare benefits and by collecting more taxes from the wealthy, raise the corporation tax rates and stream spending, each of which obviously has its own limits. Simply put, they are cowardly. Shouting impractical slogans, they beg for support from the electorate. This is why many voters don`t care about which party will win the upcoming by-elections. Â [Dong-a Ilbo, April 7, 2015]

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Jeju Island as a Base for Global Energy Revolution

Guests at the second International Electric Vehicle Expo look at an electric car on display at the International Convention Center Jeju on March 6.

Kim Sang-hyup Visiting Professor, Graduate School of Green Growth, KAIST Chairman, Coalition for Our Common Future

Korea is well positioned to be a winner in the third Industrial Revolution, the futurologist Jeremy Rifkin told me at the 15th World Knowledge Forum. Noting that coal and oil were main energy sources during the first and second Industrial Revolution, he said a country with a new energy paradigm in the era of climate change would be able to take the initiative in the next transformation.

Rifkin foresees renewable energy, electricity storage systems, electric cars and the Internet as key items during the third Industrial Revolution and says Korea is capable of playing a leading role in all of them. The emerging use of smart energy in Jeju Island reflects Rifkin`s reasoning.

Gapado, an islet south of Jeju, is known for its annual spring barley festival. But these days it is drawing tens of thousands of additional visitors as the first “carbonless island” in the world. All of the electric power on the islet is generated by renewable energy. Wind and solar power has replaced fossil fuel.

An energy storage system keeps the electricity flowing when weather conditions are not conducive to wind and solar power production. The Korean-made system is a technologically sophisticated facility. In addition, electric cars are a new

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means of transportation in the islet. They act as “prosumers” ― a coinage for producers-cum-consumers ― with stored electricity sold when they are not in use.

All these are the results of the 2009-13 smart-grid project in Jeju ― the largest in the world. Governor Won Hee-ryong, a young political leader with nationwide fame, wants to turn the entire Jeju Province into a zero-carbon green island by 2030.

Governor Won envisions all of the island`s electric power will come from renewable energy by 2030 ― mostly from winds from the sea that are readily available on and around the island. As part of the project, an 8MWh energy storage system is already in operation at the Jocheon substation.

Governor Won is even more enthusiastic about electric cars. Under his plan to turn Jeju into a test bed for the use of electric cars, he says they will account for 30 percent of all cars on the island by 2020 and all cars will be powered by electricity by 2030. The smart grid will be of great help to the island province`s plan to become a world-class foothold for electric cars by 2017.

Though it is just in its second year, the annual International Electric Vehicle Expo in Jeju drew BMW of Germany, BYD of China, Nissan of Japan and other global automakers when it opened on March 6 for a 10-day run ― a showcase of future energy use.

In the same context, President Park Geun-hye presented the use of smart energy systems as a new model of bilateral or multilateral cooperation during her recent tour of the Middle East as well as the Korea-ASEAN special summit held in Busan last year. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy says their exports are under negotiation with the Philippines, Kazakhstan, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Canada.

Cho Hwan-ik, CEO of Korea Electric Power Corp., which recently hosted an international conference on the power industry in Jeju, said the corporation`s business model so far has been focused on selling as much power as possible.

From now on, he said, priority would be on increasing customer value with the use of smart systems, even if it means reducing the company`s turnover. In this

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regard, Jeju is prepared to give a look into a future “green big bang,” a multitrillion-dollar global energy revolution.

But this is a necessary condition, not a sufficient one. If an opportunity is to be turned into a reality, not only the central and local governments but also entrepreneurs will have to work hard, as if they were gripped by paranoia. Only then can they change history. Otherwise, Korea will not be able to play a leading role in the upcoming era of renewable energy. Rifkin added that China is taking over the opportunities lost by Korea, far more rapidly, massively and consistently than expected. The world will not wait for us.

[Maeil Business Newspaper, March 12, 2015]

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Is the American Century Over?

U.S. President Barack Obama, right, smiles during a welcoming ceremony hosted by Chinese President Xi JinPing at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on November 12, 2014.

Jang Gyeong-deok Editorial Writer Maeil Business Newspaper

Singapore`s founding father Lee Kuan Yew`s death will be a loss to all of Asia.

Above anything else, we`ll miss him because we will have no more chance to listen to his insightful views on Asian values and geopolitics in East Asia. Lee met Mao Zedong when China was isolated from the international community and Deng Xiaoping when China was set to rise. He met almost all successive leaders of the United States, Japan and South Korea.

Lee once told American political scientist Joseph Nye, “The United States recreates itself by attracting the best and brightest from the rest of the world and melding them into a diverse culture of creativity. China has a larger population to recruit from domestically, but its Sino-centric culture makes it less creative than the United States.” He implied that China recruits talent from among its own population of 1.3 billion, but America attracts talent from 7 billion people around the world. He meant that the United States, an open country with soft power, can outdistance China.

Singapore, a city state with a population of 5 million, has no choice but to be sensitive to geopolitical changes. Kishore Mahbubani, a former Singapore ambassador to the United Nations, once said, “We know China will still be in Asia

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in 1,000 years` time, but we don`t know whether America will still be here in 100 years` time.”

A “strange” thing is happening on the Korean peninsula, as observed by Daniel R. Russel, U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, who is currently on a visit to Seoul. South Korea`s decision to join the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and discussions over the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system here are nothing but small ripples. A much larger tide is whirling underneath. It is a kind of basic change that occurs when the world's only superpower is confronted by a formidable challenger. In such a maelstrom, what should we do?

First of all, we should know where the tide hitting the Korean peninsula will head.

Then we should ask if a Chinese century will succeed the American century. This doesn`t mean that we should act adroitly like bats by trying to read the minds of big powers, but suggests that we should understand the nature and stream of the change that is under way around us. Will China dominate the world in the 21st century as the U.K. did in the 18th and 19th centuries and the United States in the 20th century?

Nye said with confidence that this won`t happen. He meant that China can`t match the United States in military, economic and soft power at least over the next several decades. China is building up its military rapidly. But it spends less than a quarter of the U.S. expenditure on its military. The U.S. naval power is stronger than the combined naval power of 17 top-ranking countries coming next to it. The size of the Chinese economy is already bigger than that of the U.S. economy in terms of purchasing power parity. But if its external economic power is measured by market currency rates, China`s economic size is deemed to be only a half of America`s.

The decisive difference lies in soft power. As Lee Kuan Yew foresaw, America`s soft power, including Harvard University and Hollywood, continues to overwhelm China`s, given its capacity to attract talent from around the world.

Then, do small countries like South Korea always have to side with the United States? That is impossible. As Mahbubani has noted, regardless of whether we like it or not, China will still sit close to us 1,000 years later. The United States is

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also well aware that all Asian countries should stay on good terms with both the United States and China. To the United States, China is not a country that should be held in check and isolated; it is a country that should be encouraged to behave gentlemanly with a sense of responsibility. If seen from this point of view, the AIIB dilemma could be solved easily.

As C. Fred Bergsten of the Peterson Institute for International Economics has pointed out, America`s attempt heretofore to prevent its allies from joining the new international financial institution was myopic and hypocritical. It would be desirable for as many countries as possible to participate in it to enable China to more proactively share its responsibility for the integration and revival of Asia.

The THAAD issue is far more complicated. South Korea should take all aspects ― its effectiveness, cost and geopolitical ripple effects ― into careful consideration.

Diplomatic rationale is vital here. We may call China to account for having failed to react more proactively to North Korea`s nuclear threat. We may remind the United States that its attempt to contain China by helping Japan play a bigger role could cause more friction than is necessary on the Korean peninsula.

We hold the key. It would be fatal for us to be swept up into the conflict between Washington and Beijing while failing to make any decision on our own due to a lack of airtight rhetoric, diplomatic prowess and efforts to attain public consensus. The 21st century of the Korean peninsula should be ours, neither America`s nor China`s.

[March 19, 2015]

www.koreafocus.or.kr

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Program or Be Programmed

Children experience physical computing for interaction between digital and analog worlds at the "Software Creativity Camp," held at Seoul Science Park on February 5

Kim Ki-cheon Editorial Writer The Chosun Ilbo

One of the most popular classes at Harvard University is Computer Science 50. In the last fall semester, it drew 880 students, surpassing Economics 10a in attendance for the first time.

CS50 is reportedly among the classes in which students find it difficult to earn good grades. Yet the number of students attending the class, which would hover around 100 in the mid-2000s, is rapidly rising.

Of the students applying for the class, 80 percent to 90 percent have no basic knowledge about computer programming. It is not just science and math majors that apply for the course. Many humanities and social sciences majors do as well.

It is unusual for the course to draw non-computer majors, given that it is neither a required course for all students nor an easy one.

Beginning in the coming fall semester, students of Yale University will be able to take this course. Instead of opening a similar course for its students, Yale agreed with Harvard that they will be allowed to apply for the course and watch lectures streamed live. They will be given the same assignments and take the same tests.

Yale and Harvard students will be allowed to collaborate on an end-term

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software-writing project. It is surprising that Yale, putting aside its pride as an Ivy League school, is

CS50 showcases Bloomberg, then at the age of

launching such an unconventional approach. a boom in coding education in advanced nations. Michael the mayor of New York, made headlines when he said in 2012, 60, that he would enroll himself in an online computer

programming course. At Stanford University, located near the Silicon Valley, 90 percent of the undergraduates, regardless of their majors, take at least one computer programming course. Harvard lags behind, with half of its undergraduates doing so.

In this era, enterprises depend on their software development capability for their competitive power. This is the case not only for the information and communications technology industry but also for other industrial sectors. Some even claim that Apple and Google will dominate the auto industry.

Everyone will need to have a basic understanding and knowledge of software in the future, no matter what their career may be. This is the reason why American university students are drawn to computer science courses.

In this respect, despite its changing perception of software, Korea still has a long way to go. Until recently, the computer science departments at Seoul National University and KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) had difficulty in filling their quotas of freshmen. Few humanities and social sciences majors enroll in computer science courses. Most people tend to regard software as something subordinate to hardware.

Domestic business concerns are little different. Their software utilization stands on average at one-third of the levels in advanced nations. Even at ICT corporations, the higher the rungs are on the corporate ladder, the more difficult it is to find software experts. Some large corporations are increasing the number of recruits with software skills. Yet few of them have outgrown the focus on hardware.

A shortage of corporate leaders well versed in software and software experts is the Achilles` heel of the Korean economy. Professor Douglas Rushkoff of the City University of New York, a media theorist and digital expert, says, “Program or be programmed.” Of course, he is alerting individuals. But corporations and states

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must heed his warning, too. Â [March 18, 2015]

www.koreafocus.or.kr

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- [DEBATE] Use of Chinese Characters in Primary School Textbooks

- ‘Multiethnic Korea’ Shouldn’t Ignore Immigrant Children

- A Coffee-roasting Korean Lawyer in Jakarta

- Parents’ Generation Fails to Prepare for Future Growth

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[DEBATE] Use of Chinese Characters in Primary School Textbooks

Newly enrolled first graders examine thier textbooks after an entrance ceremony at a primary school in Seoul on March 2.

[CON] Lee Keon-bum Chairman Hangeul Culture Solidarity

[PRO] Shim Jae-kee Professor Emeritus Seoul National University

[CON] Teachers Oppose Teaching Chinese Characters

Primary school teachers are deriding the Education Ministry`s plan to use hanja, or Chinese characters, in all primary school textbooks beginning in 2018. Nearly two-thirds of the respondents oppose the use of Chinese characters in school textbooks, according to a recent survey of 1,000 primary school teachers by the Association for Elementary Education in Korean Language. Some people may think young and old teachers have different opinions but no generation gap was apparent, with 64.0 percent of the young teachers and 69.5 percent of the senior teachers in the survey against the curriculum plan. They were joined by 64.1 percent of the principals.

Teachers claim the use of Chinese characters in classrooms could do more harm than good. They argue that it would increase the burden on students and prompt extremely high demand for private tutoring and prior learning. More than 84

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percent of survey respondents said they are worried that students would be slow in reading textbooks interspersed with Chinese characters. This would be the main potential problem with children losing interest in textbooks in general and a gap developing between children who already have learned Chinese characters outside the classroom and those who have not.

Advocates are arguing that Chinese script is good for children`s character education. But some 58 percent of primary school teachers said that it has nothing to do with character education. Aside from the controversy over teaching Chinese characters in classrooms, the evil practice of imposing a heavy burden on young children`s shoulders poses long-term problems.

Asked what would be the biggest problem when schools start teaching Chinese characters, 94 percent of respondents expressed worries about a heavier burden on children; 91 percent about an increasing demand for private tutoring; 96 percent about the introduction of grading exams in Chinese characters; and 94 percent about prior learning of Chinese characters at kindergartens. Some call for English education for young children, others for Chinese characters, and still others for other subjects. How can children satisfy these demands? Or should we force them to bear all these burdens?

Korean children spend an unbelievable amount of time studying and learning. As of 2009, Korean primary schoolchildren spent 44 hours a week on average studying, compared with 52 hours for middle school students and 64 hours for high school students, according to a quinquennial survey conducted by Statistics Korea. These figures are not quite different from those in 1999.

College students spend 26 hours a week studying, half the hours spent by middle school students. Workers spend a weekly average of 40 hours at work, according to a study by the Ministry of Employment and Labor. This means that children are fair game. Korean youngsters vie for top places in the International Learning Assessment of 15-year-old students. At the International Assessment of Adult Competencies for those aged 16-24, Korea ranks third among the OECD member states. But their competencies weaken sharply after they find jobs. Older Koreans finish third from the bottom in terms of competencies.

Young children in our country are groaning under unreasonable burdens imposed

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by our nation`s educational and social structure, which determines their future based on their performance in the college entrance exam. Korean adults read only 0.8 books a month, while Americans and Japanese read more than six books.

Even the Chinese, who have a relatively high illiteracy rate, read about three books a month. Korean adults should be ashamed of themselves.

No matter how important it is to know about economics, we can`t teach primary schoolchildren accounting. At their age, they only should know how to fill out a cash book properly. Even this is important enough. It is important to give them an understanding about financial matters in their daily lives. But excessive ambition can ruin education. We need to give careful consideration to how children learn the meaning of words, how they spend their primary school days, and how much burden they can bear.

[Kyunghyang Shinmun, March 3, 2015]

[PRO] Rebuttal to Objection to Teaching Chinese Characters

In September last year, the Education Ministry announced a plan to use 400 to 500 Chinese characters in textbooks for third through sixth graders beginning in 2018. The plan apparently reflects a national consensus that it is unreasonable to maintain the current policy mandating the exclusive use of the Korean script, Hangeul, which causes considerable inconvenience in our everyday life due to imperfect communication.

Advocates of the exclusive use of Hangeul reacted to the plan by holding press conferences and calling on the ministry to withdraw the plan. We don`t need to reiterate the irrationality of their argument again, because we have already pointed out repeatedly how narrow-minded, uncultured and unhistorical their nationalist-oriented contention is. But just as no parents can remain silent about their children making mistakes, I`d like to explain again how wrong and inaccurate their argument is.

First, they argue that the use of hanja will weaken the identity of the Korean language. What do we mean by the identity of the Korean language? Doesn`t it mean that we try to keep our mother tongue intact and use it properly? Then, do they mean that the current state of our literary and linguistic life, hampered by frequent miscommunications due to ignorance and misunderstanding of technical 36

expressions deriving from not knowing Chinese characters because of our Hangeul-only policy, is desirable? Shouldn`t we try to restore our national language to its original state by learning the basic Chinese characters and eliminating the misguided policy of past decades? In this respect, the proposed resurrection of hanja education at primary schools is aimed at consolidating the identity of our national language, far from weakening it.

Second, the opponents argue that use of Chinese characters would suppress Korean language education. What is Korean language education? Doesn`t it mean teaching students how to speak, comprehend, read and write our language? Has the current system of Korean language education, based on the exclusive use of Hangeul, been successful in achieving this objective? Shouldn`t we start anew teaching Chinese characters at primary schools as a way to correct problems in our current policy which has proved a failure? We are demanding rectifying the wrong practice of the past, far from stepping backward.

Third, they insist that the reintroduction hanja education in primary school textbooks will only add to the already heavy burden of students. Their contention sounds as if learning Chinese characters only would impose a heavier burden on our children today. In the 1950s and 1960s, and even farther back in the past, did anyone advocate discontinuing to teach Chinese characters at primary schools in order to reduce the burden of students? Back then, some people called for the introduction of a Hangul-only school curriculum to push their nationalist agenda, not to lessen the burden on students.

When we started English education at primary schools, nobody objected on the grounds that it would increase the burden of students. Rather, many people welcomed it as a proper measure for the future of Korea, which was aspiring to globalization. Revival of hanja education will help our national culture with its unique qualities harmonize with the trends of globalization. Furthermore, learning a few hundred Chinese characters could be a compulsory requirement for Korean language education, far from an unnecessary burden.

There can always be trial and error deriving from the cultural and social environment in any country. In the 1980s, there arose a sudden spate of enthusiasm about Hangeul-only education as the commercial interests of the publishers and the press dovetailed with educational expediency; it was far from a

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public-initiated language revolution as asserted by the advocates of the Hangeulonly policy.

Our call for the concurrent use of Korean and Chinese scripts and reintroduction of hanja education at primary schools is an attempt for a nationwide language revolution aimed at breaking away from the trial and error of the past. We are not demanding use of Chinese characters in sectors where the exclusive use of Korean script works perfectly. We are asking for the reintroduction of basic Chinese characters as soon as possible, reiterating our conviction that we would be able to lead a proper Hangeul-only literary life only when we understand necessary Chinese characters. We just hope that nobody will do anything wrong for posterity by giving up on the basic hanja education on our path of globalization toward an advanced society.

[Kyunghyang Shinmun, March 16, 2015]

www.koreafocus.or.kr

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‘Multiethnic Korea’ Shouldn’t Ignore Immigrant Children

Students of a school for multiethnic children in Guro District, Seoul, perform a pantomime delivering a message of love at a graduation ceremony on February 12.

Ahn Kyong-whan Professor Emeritus Seoul National University Law School

The world has grown smaller while Korea has grown bigger. It`s been some time since everything happening in Korea began drawing attention from the global community. Usually, sad news rather than happy news, and reproachable things rather than praiseworthy things, tend to draw more attention. This is the destiny and responsibility of a big country.

The same is true with our National Assembly. Until just a few years ago, all sorts of ugly incidents, such as physical clashes among lawmakers, railroading of bills and even throwing tear gas, were the images of the parliament of the Republic of Korea broadcast to the international community. Some foreign tourists visiting the National Assembly compound would secretly wish to watch such mayhem.

But the climate is visibly different these days. At least, physical violence seems to be fading away from the daily routines of our parliamentarians. It is a good thing.

Now, the international community is turning its attention to the inherent role of our parliament, which is making laws. Especially, the focus is being placed on how our National Assembly will coordinate international norms with domestic legal systems. It has been quite a while since lawmakers from the European Union began visiting the National Assembly to urge it to abolish capital punishment.

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It is also noteworthy that a bill on guaranteeing the rights of immigrant children was proposed on December 18, 2014. This is what the global community has steadily recommended. To add a more symbolic touch, the bill was proposed by Jasmine Lee, a naturalized Korean congresswoman who was once an immigrant herself. By electing “Wandeugi`s mom,” as Lee was known through her role as the immigrant mother of a boy named Wan-deuk in the movie “Wandeugi” (English title “Punch”), Korea scored high in the international community.

The core of the bill is to ensure equality for immigrant children in terms of education, health, legal status, child care, and welfare services. Among the 23 lawmakers who signed the bill are many prominent legislators elected for multiple terms. The National Human Rights Commission made recommendations with the same message in 2006, which was a very natural action for the commission responsible for helping international norms on human rights take root in Korea.

The U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discriminations issued even stronger recommendations in 2012.

According to statistics of the Ministry of Justice, there are some 97,000 immigrant children, aged 19 and under, in Korea as of 2013, of whom some 5,000 remain “undocumented.” They are, so to speak, illegal immigrants. How to treat them is one of major challenges for those involved with the international human rights movement.

The U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by nearly all U.N. member states including South and North Korea, stipulates that “children shall be protected against all forms of discrimination or punishment on the basis of the status, activities, expressed opinions, or beliefs of their parents, legal guardians or other family members.” To realize the spirit of this convention as well as Korea`s Child Welfare Act, the government announced its plan to draw up the “first basic plan on the policies for children (2015-2019)” and is scheduled to reveal its outline in early April.

According to the draft, the plan targets “all children aged 17 and under who are residing in Korea.” However, there are no specific items concerning “immigrant children” anywhere in the draft plan to address their education, health, safety and culture. This contravenes international standards and precedents. The government

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agency in charge of drawing up this plan has reportedly explained that the items had been initially included but deleted due to the strong objection from the Ministry of Justice.

I don`t want to believe this report but can`t remove strong suspicions that linger in my mind. In every country, the biggest barrier to international human rights is the Ministry of Justice. Its employees easily fall in a trap of nationalism under the name of national security, public safety and patriotism. They call themselves the “guardians of human rights” but more often than not, they act like the “suppressors of human rights.”

As a matter of fact, it was our Ministry of Justice that most adamantly opposed the establishment of the National Human Rights Commission of Korea. This is why the commission was set up by a proposal of lawmakers, not under the government`s initiative, during the administration of President Kim Dae-jung.

Regardless of their nationality, children are an asset of the Republic of Korea for the future. We are already on the path to a multicultural/multiethnic country.

Throughout the history of mankind, all “empires” were multiracial and multicultural. The virtue of a big country shines when it embraces all of the people within its borders as a single nation, regardless of race, religion or cultural background. Only then can its national power be maximized.

Even today, almost every advanced country in the world is a multiracial/multicultural society. Many people say that Japan is having a hard time largely because of its exclusive nationalism. We should regard every foreigner residing in our country as a potential citizen. Even after they leave Korea, we must consider them equal to overseas Koreans. The United States provides a good example. The U.S. government formulates policies with the premise that everyone living inside its borders could be a permanent resident or citizen someday.

We will be producing “second-class citizens” by disregarding and discriminating against immigrant children, eventually planting seed for social conflict in the future. Even after they leave or are deported, they will continue to harbor animosity toward Korea throughout their lives. Living in the country and being discriminated against, they will grow up as troublemakers; if deported, they will turn into enemies from the outside.

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If the “basic plan on the policies for children,” which is currently on the drawing table, ignores immigrant children, and the Ministry of Justice remains shortsighted with the agency in charge of this issue lacking principles, they must reconsider the plan. The world is watching us. Korea is already drawing criticism for what is seen as a drastic retreat in human rights. Under these circumstances, “a big, advanced Korea” defying its small territory will remain out of reach.

[Chosun Ilbo, March 23, 2015]

www.koreafocus.or.kr

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A Coffee-roasting Korean Lawyer in Jakarta

Korean lawyer Lee So-wang shows the coffee brewing equipment at his coffee shop, Blumchen, in Jakarta, Indonesia. (Photo captured from http://blog.chosun.com)

Bae Myung-bok Editorial Writer The JoongAng Ilbo

I interviewed a “unique” Korean (technically a Korean-Indonesian) in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, last month. Lee So-wang, 49, is a lawyer and CEO of a consulting firm. His company provides various services to foreign firms that have begun or plan to begin operations in Indonesia. The company has its offices in a high-rise in central downtown with about 30 employees.

Aside from work, Lee has a strong interest in everything about coffee. He has read a drove of coffee-related books and acquired necessary skills. His hobby has become a sideline business, a coffee shop that often appears in Indonesian movies and TV dramas.

Upon entering the coffee shop, one thing caught my eye right away: a machine imported from Germany to roast coffee beans. The shop's interior design is also extraordinary. You can taste various kinds of coffee here, ranging from Kopi Luwak, which is an Indonesian specialty, to brand coffee that Lee blends himself.

In Korea, Lee only finished high school. He enlisted in the military right after graduating high school because his father's business had gone bankrupt. Around the time he was about to be discharged, he recognized the potential of Indonesia

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and flew to Jakarta right after finishing his military service. At that time, the Southeast Asian country was beginning to emerge as a promising destination for investment with its abundant natural resources and labor force.

As soon as he arrived in Indonesia, Lee aggressively mingled with locals and mastered survival Indonesian in a couple of months. Then he got himself admitted to a local university and held part-time jobs to pay for tuition. He also made more contacts with locals through his part-time work as an interpreter.

Upon graduation from university, he was offered jobs by many Korean companies. But he decided to start his own business of providing market research service to Korean companies that want to open business in Indonesia. His business thrived after experiencing ups and downs. As his business expanded, he went to a local law school at the age of 42 and became a lawyer.

“No” is practically absent in his vocabulary. Whatever the client`s request is, his answer is always positive like “We will try anyhow” as long as the job is not illegal. He accepts no advance fee before his client`s business gets on track. He makes it a rule to get paid only when his client is completely satisfied with the result. In a foreign country he stood up on his own two feet with honesty, credit and hard working.

While traveling overseas, you sometimes bump into Koreans with unexpected stories at unexpected places. Among those Koreans who are quietly fulfilling their obligations in places I`ve never imagined are a Korean professor who teaches Spanish literature at a university in Chile while writing poems in French, and a Korean doctor who treats the sick in a remote place in Africa. There must be many Koreans like them in the Korean diaspora of seven million people in 176 countries around the world.

Even university graduates find it so hard to land jobs these days. This is not a situation unique to Korea. Unemployment is a universal problem and it is expected to grow worse. The rapidly advancing robotics technology and artificial intelligence is eliminating jobs. The story of a Chinese factory where the number of jobs has nosedived to 100 from 20,000 with robots replacing human workers can be ours soon. Even jobs like pizza delivery and parcel service could face a crisis as drones spread.

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Even mental labor of certain levels is also being replaced by machines at a fast pace. The more advanced a country is, the faster the change is. Developing countries still have some room to maneuver. So it can be an alternative to boldly leave for a developing country to look for a new opportunity, rather than wait for a job you never know when you`re going to get. More young Koreans should turn their eyes abroad.

This Korean lawyer had the foresight to choose Jakarta 26 years ago. In his heart, he says, he still feels like when he first landed in the city as a 23-year-old man.

Maybe this is why he has such clear skin like a young man. He still wakes up at 4:30 every morning to start a day with his heart praying. He responds to every consulting request from clients with the utmost attention and free of charge initially. He believes free consultation is a lawyer`s duty.

“Indonesia is still a land of opportunities,” Lee said, adding emphatically, “Young Koreans can certainly make some achievements if they challenge with real-world experiences.” His next goal is to start a plantation business producing tropical crops such as coffee and cacao at corporate level. He is doing research on land visiting many places around Indonesia.

Landing a job cannot be the only option for young people. If one changes his way of thinking, there are lots of things he can do. There are many places in the world that still remain lands of opportunities; they are waiting for young Koreans.

[March 17, 2015]

www.koreafocus.or.kr

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Parents’ Generation Fails to Prepare for Future Growth

A ferry carrying the first seaborne cargo of goods purchased by Chinese Consumers at Korean Internet shopping malls arrives for customs clearance in Qingdao in March 20.

Ji Hae-bum Director, Institute of Northeast Asian Studies The Chosun Ilbo

In the early 2000s, Qingdao in Shandong Province of China was just like a Korean industrial city. Since the two nations normalized relations, over 30,000 Korean companies have invested in China and more than 7,000 of them made inroads into this city so it was called the “Guro/Banwol Industrial Complex in China.” More than 80 textile companies in Daegu also moved their factories to Qingdao for cheap labor. This was the result of Chinese local governments` policy to attract foreign investment and the efforts made by the experienced government officials who treated foreign investors as VIPs.

However, most of those textile companies from Daegu have shut down or been sold off so few of them remain in operation. In the meantime, there also have been major changes in the status of Daegu and Qingdao. Daegu has become a city that young people leave behind for jobs as its economy stagnated due to the collapse of textile industry. On the other hand, Qingdao has grown up as a global industrial city coming next to Shanghai and Tianjin. The government officials in Qingdao, who visited textile factories in Daegu to ask for investment 20 years ago, have become such influential figures that it`s difficult for Korean entrepreneurs to meet them.

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What went wrong? Looking back, Korean companies adopted a temporary money-making model by moving their factories en masse to China to take advantage of its cheap labor. Korean companies lost their competitiveness as Chinese companies imported better textile machines and manufactured products with the same quality for lower costs. The domestic manufacturing industry hollowed itself out for temporary gains as companies neglected to prepare new items that would sustain themselves so they would remain ahead of Chinese competitors in the future.

It`s not that only labor-intensive industries such as textiles, sewing, jewelry making and dyeing are losing out to China. Doosan Infracore, which once was the frontrunner in China`s excavator market, has seen its market share tumble since a few years ago, as it lost out to aggressive Chinese competitors. Home appliances of Samsung and LG keep getting pushed out of the best stalls at electronics stores. Even the cell phone industry, which has been the last bastion of Korean industry, was caught up by local companies last year.

Unless this trend is reversed, Korea will be degraded into a subcontract site for Chinese economy someday. The problem is that Korean companies are not learning from their mistakes. Many companies still adhere to short-term gains while neglecting to prepare new items for the future.

For example, as online shopping is fast spreading in China, E-mart and Lotte Mart decided to enter Taobao Mall. Their idea is that they would benefit from the successful Chinese model instead of investing money and time to develop their own e-commerce and service models that Chinese companies cannot copy. If Taobao Mall offers the same products for cheaper prices, that is the end for Korean companies.

The same applies to Korea`s travel industry. Korean travel agencies offer much lower rates than their Japanese counterparts, which is even less than the air fare, to attract Chinese tourists. Then they provide poor quality tours and make profits by taking the tourists to shopping malls. Chinese people say, “I want to go back to Japan someday, but I don`t want to visit Korea ever again.” The entire travel industry is rushing in the direction that would kill all of them while the government is just looking on.

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Korean companies have benefited a lot from bilateral economic cooperation with China so far. When the Korea-China free trade agreement goes into effect, the Chinese market will offer even bigger opportunities for them. However, unless the main agents of the Korean economy abandon their idea of focusing only on short-term gains without making strategic efforts to develop new growth engines for the future, the choices made by the parents` generation could result in the loss of jobs for their children`s generation. Young people in Daegu are already suffering from the collapse of the local textile industry. Â [Chosun Ilbo, March 9, 2015]

www.koreafocus.or.kr

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- World Heritage Must Not be Misused to Sanitize Japan’s Wrongdoings

- Tokyo is Winning the Battle for Influence in Washington

- Yellow, Red and Blue ― Feng Shui Colors for Auspicious Interiors

- What’s There to Learn From North Korean Music?

- Dongdaemun Design Plaza Marks First Anniversary with Fragile Content

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World Heritage Must Not be Misused to Sanitize Japan’s Wrongdoings

Gong Jae-su, left, tearfully recalls his days as a slave laborer at Aso coal mines in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan, during a press conference in Gwangju on May 9.

Editorial The Kyunghyang Shinmun

UNESCO World Heritage sites possess outstanding universal value. They are what we pass on to future generations and serve as irreplaceable sources of life and inspiration, according to the World Heritage Committee. Most of the 1,007 World Heritage sites in 161 states are positive assets. There are exceptions, however. For example, the Auschwitz concentration camp listed in 1979 is negative heritage.

Negative heritage has symbolic significance teaching us the lesson that no matter how unpleasant the history may be it must be remembered so that it hopefully will not be repeated. When Poland nominated Auschwitz for inscription on the World Heritage List, it made its intent perfectly clear that the place is an important site for recalling the brutality of mankind and providing evidence of Nazi Germany`s crimes.

What about the sites of Japan`s Meiji Industrial Revolution, a strong candidate for World Heritage designation by the end of June? It would not matter if Japan sought negative heritage classification like the Auschwitz concentration camp. The candidate areas of Kyushu and Yamaguchi were sites of forced labor where nearly 60,000 Koreans worked during the Japanese colonial rule over Korea (1910-1945).

At the Nagasaki shipyard, the atomic bomb claimed more than 1,800 Korean lives. The notorious Hashima coal mine was where hundreds of Koreans labored

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for 12 hours a day, digging 1,000 meters underground. They qualify as “negative heritage” much similar to Auschwitz.

However, Japan`s application stresses the sites` historical value in the industrialization of the nation during the Meiji period. The Japanese masked the colonial history and promoted the site as the cradle of Asia`s modernization. In 1996, Japan succeeded in listing the Hiroshima Peace Memorial (Genbaku Dome) as World Heritage, despite strong opposition from the United States and China.

At the time, Japan only emphasized how it was a victim of an atomic bomb attack, conveniently omitting the fact that it was the aggressor. These are some of the reasons why there are concerns that World Heritage designation is being used to sanitize Japan`s shameful history.

Despite Japan`s earnest inscription efforts, the Korean government was caught unaware because it had not dealt with the issue seriously. It is not too late to diplomatically engage the 21 member nations of the World Heritage Committee to hold Japan in check. While we are at it, we may as well bring to light the need to list the Japanese site as negative heritage condemning Japan for its colonial rule and invasions.

[April 4, 2015]

www.koreafocus.or.kr

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Tokyo is Winning the Battle for Influence in Washington

Korea experts attend a forum of the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. on September 30, 2014. They are, from left: John Merrill, David Straub, Shin Ki-wook and Catherine Moon.

Park Cheol-hee Professor, Graduate School of International Studies Director, Institute of Japanese Studies, Seoul National University

When Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman declared that Korea, China and Japan each bore responsibility for the festering history disputes during her speech at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C. on February 27, the diplomatic capabilities of Korea and Japan were put to the test.

Undersecretary Sherman`s remarks left the impression that Washington was modifying its consistently critical opinion of Japan. To many Koreans, it appeared that Japan was starting to win the battle against Korea in shaping public opinion in Washington.

Last month, at a conference in Washington an American colleague informed me that “Washington has become a battlefield in the Korea-Japan history dispute.”

For Korea, the issue is Japan`s problematic view of its own history. In contrast, Japan seeks to change its negative depiction in American textbooks and assert its claim to Dokdo islets.

Pat Choate, who has done extensive research on the Japan lobby in the United States, published “Agents of Influence” in 1990. In the book, Choate asserts that “Japan is buying Washington.” At first, Japan focused on the officials serving in the Defense and State departments. In the second phase, emphasis was placed

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on lobbyists and advisors to the U.S. government. In the third phase, Choate argued that Japan was buying members of Congress and their aides. Choate revealed the existence of a pro-Japanese group known as the “Chrysanthemum Club.”

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe`s cabinet decided last October to “strengthen Japan`s overseas public diplomacy to explain our basic policy positions and have them assessed as fairly as possible.” Overseas strategic communication is one of the three areas selected by Tokyo to focus on this year. This has led to a tripling in the related budget item for a total expenditure of US$423 million (52 billion yen). The three areas of focus are promoting the proper image of Japan in terms of territorial integrity and history, publicizing the various attractive aspects of Japan through overseas public diplomacy, and fostering the next generation of pro-Japan leaders and Japan specialists.

The Japanese government is now playing a direct role in history-related public relations campaigns rather than entrusting the task to non-governmental organizations or local politicians. A perfect example was seen last November when the Japanese Consulate in New York asked publisher McGraw-Hill to change the wording of its history textbooks. Japan is also promoting the establishment of Japan House in Los Angeles, London and Sao Paulo. In order to strengthen research on Japanese politics, the Japanese government has decided to provide Columbia University with support totaling over $4 million. Tokyo is also considering providing the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Georgetown University each with around $1 million annually.

In reality, compared to Korea, Japan`s Washington lobbying power is vast, elaborate and multi-directional. Out of its increased expenditure of $423 million, the Japan Foundation tripled the amount allocated in 2015 for the Abe Fellowship, which enables American researchers to do work on U.S.-Japan relations. This means that Japan will spend $6.5 million this year to foster a new generation of Japan specialists (some of whom will become pro-Japanese) in the United States.

The private Sasakawa Peace Foundation, which has aligned itself with Prime Minister Abe`s policy objectives, increased the budget for its American think tank from $4.6 million in 2013 to $6.9 million in 2014. This represents a 52 percent

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increase in the funds available for research and conferences on Japan. Out of these funds, $365,000 is allotted for converting the Sasakawa Peace Foundation U.S.A. into an actual think tank staffed by more research fellows.

The annual budget of the Japan Foundation, a leading institution for Japan`s overseas public diplomacy, is around $456 million. The Sasakawa Peace Foundation`s total budget in 2012 was nearly just as much. In contrast, the public diplomacy budget of South Korea`s Ministry of Foreign Affairs was $4.6 million.

The Korea Foundation provides some $2 million a year for think tanks around the world, with $1.4 million of that going to American think tanks.

The gap between Korean and Japanese lobbying power is not just a question of money. Within the United States, membership in the Chrysanthemum Club of Americans who are fond of Japan is robust. At the heart of this group are the Japan specialists in the scholarly and think tank worlds. The leading elder scholars in this group are Columbia University`s Gerald Curtis, Johns Hopkins University`s Kent Calder and MIT`s Richard Samuels. A representative mid-level specialist is Michael Green, who is the Japan Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and teaches at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Former Undersecretary of State Richard Armitage and Harvard University`s Joseph Nye are at the forefront of shaping U.S.-Japan policy.

At the Sasakawa Peace Foundation`s Washington Office, President Dennis Blair, a retired admiral, is representative of the military-intelligence side of the U.S.-Japan relationship. Beyond this, there are plenty of Japan specialists at America`s leading universities. Every think tank that focuses on Asia has a Japan specialist. In addition, at the State, Defense and Treasury departments, there are numerous key officials who consider themselves specialists on a given policy issue relating to Japan. We can add former ambassadors to Japan, retired diplomats, and former defense and intelligence officials to this group. With great affection for Japan they attend every program on Japan in Washington, D.C. There are also Japan hands in the financial and business communities.

The main targets of lobbying by the Japan-friendly groups in Washington are members of Congress and their staffs. At Sasakawa`s Washington Office, the key person is Dan Bob, who is a former senior staffer in the Senate. The president of the Japan-friendly Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation`s Washington Office

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is Frank Januzzi, who is a former senior staff member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. When you add to these organizations the various lobbying groups and law firms who lobby Congress on behalf of Japan, Korea cannot hold a candle to Japan`s lobbying efforts.

Japanese public diplomacy is also focused on fostering the next generation of Japan specialists. The Japan Foundation provides support to Japan specialists through its Abe Fellowship and Doctoral Candidates programs. The Mansfield Foundation also has a next generation leaders group that spends one year working at a Japanese organization, while the Hitachi Corporation provides a fellowship through the Council on Foreign Relations for promising mid-career Americans to spend up to one year doing research in Japan.

Compared to all of this, Korea is still at the stage of learning to walk. At CSIS, the Korea Chair is held by the able Georgetown professor Victor Cha. At the Brookings Institution the SK-Korea Foundation Chair is held by Catherine Moon.

During the first half of 2015, Hyundai Motor and the Korea Foundation are jointly planning to establish the Korea Research Center in Washington, D.C. The Korea Economic Institute, which is funded by the Ministry of Strategy and Finance`s Korea Institute for International Economic Policy, is actively promoting Korea in Washington, D.C. In addition, Scott Snyder has established the Center for U.S.Korea Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations. However, compared to the number of programs focused on Japan, the gap between Korea and Japan is very wide.

Korea has a lot to do to become more widely known in the United States and to lobby for Korean interests in Washington. For starters, Korea must get a better foothold in the academic and think tank worlds by setting up more chair positions and expanding the Korea programs at think tanks. Government funding must be combined with donations from private companies to expand the size and number of specific Korea-related programs in the United States. Hyundai Motor`s support for the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. and SK`s support for Stanford University are good examples.

Secondly, we must work to develop Korea`s image as a close and trustworthy ally that can help the United States address the issues on its global agenda. We need to take a close look at the example of Japan using the Japan Foundation to

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establish the Center for Global Partnership to assist the United States in its strategic undertakings.

Thirdly, the biggest task we face is providing support for fostering the next generation of Korea specialists. Most of America`s Asia specialists are either focused on a rising China or traditional ally Japan. The remaining interest in Korea is weak. The most pivotal question is whether we can nurture a new generation of Korea specialists in their 20s and 30s that will one day shape U.S. policy towards Asia. Japan`s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has established the “2020 Project” at Georgetown University to help grow eight young Japan specialists. The time has come for Korea to systematically develop a global talent pool and build up a base of support for Korea among America`s future opinion leaders.

[Maeil Business Newspaper, March 3, 2015]

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Yellow, Red and Blue ― Feng Shui Colors for Auspicious Interiors

Part of the roof of the main throne hall of Deoksu Palace in central Seoul, decorated in dazzling colors of traditional woodwork painting, dancheong.

Kim Du-gyu Professor, Faculty of Liberal Arts Woosuk University

What do people wish for in the Year of the Blue Sheep that has just dawned?

Happiness, wealth, honor and longevity ― these must be on everyone`s wish list.

There are feng shui tips to help you design your home to evoke good luck. Feng shui-based interior design is more popular in the West these days. Why has it spread to the West?

According to the “Yellow Emperor's Classic of Dwellings” (Huangdi zhaijing), an ancient Chinese source on geomancy, happiness is compared to a person with beautiful appearance. A house can be made auspicious as fine cloths can make a man of humble origins look great. This means proper interior design can help bring about good fortune. Hence, as an old saying in the West goes, “men make houses, women make homes.”

Color and lighting are two vital elements of the feng shui interior decoration.

Modern medical research has found that color and lighting have significant influences on our physiological and psychological conditions. Feng shui has stressed their importance for much longer. Among the five cardinal colors symbolizing the Five Elements (wuxing) of wood, fire, earth, metal and water,

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three colors ― yellow for earth, red for fire and blue for wood ― are regarded as auspicious in feng shui. This is the reason why yellow and red were traditionally reserved for the king. In contrast, white and black standing for metal and water, respectively, are avoided because they have cold and rigid feelings.

Lighting is also important. Too sharp objects, noisy things and strong wind, all of which are believed to have sal (inauspicious energy), are shunned because of their negative implications that are associated with sudden misfortune. Inappropriate lighting can cause such misfortune, while harming people`s body and mind by damaging the human retina and optic nerve. It has been also found that lighting influences melatonin production, which is closely linked to sleep as well as sex and growth hormones. Therefore, the negative energy from improper lighting has been dreaded the most.

Lighting in the bedroom (anbang, or the main room in the traditional Korean house) would better be indirect rather than direct, and local rather than general.

The living room needs direct and general lighting to illuminate its entire space and fill it with vital energy. Dining table lighting means more than stimulating appetite. It is directly linked to the everyday living of housewives. The dining table can be where mothers can chat over a cup of tea or a small neighborhood group can worship. Partial lighting using pendant lights is recommended for highlighting the dining table performing these various roles.

Why is the East Asian concept of feng shui eliciting favorable response in the West? It is because of the common features in the relationship between human beings and dwellings. World-famous designer Alessandro Mendini believes that an object can move a man, a similar idea to the feng shui theory of communion between humans and things. Mendini cites color as an important factor in moving a man. He says that “dazzling colors can present energy and pleasure, and wherever in the world, brilliant colors invoke good fortune.”

In his works Mendini mainly uses such high intensity colors as yellow, red and blue, which are also the colors favored in feng shui. These colors stimulate good nature in humans, not the peripheral senses. This is why his works are attracting worldwide attention. In view of his perspective on color, it is natural that Mendini pays tremendous attention to designing lighting fixtures.

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In the West, color and lighting are the two focal points of interior design, in which diversity and softness are the core elements. This corresponds exactly to the feng shui principles of interior design to evoke good luck and happiness. Â [Chosun Ilbo, January 3, 2015]

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What’s There to Learn From North Korean Music?

North Korean People's Army Ensemble perform to celebrate the 23rd anniversary of the late Kim Jong-il's inauguration as supreme commander, on December 24, 2014, in Pyongyang.

Chun In-pyong Professor Emeritus, College of Korean Music Chung-Ang University

“Discussing the spirit of the March 1 Independence Movement is absolutely shameless and despicable. It is nothing more than the gibberish of a deranged lunatic.”

“It is a flippant and nasty babble.”

“If they continue to bark like back alley dogs, they will face a shower of fire.”

“They are acting like a pathetic ass-wiper.”

North Korea has been mounting venomous verbal attacks and pouring curses on the South. The hostile rhetoric is such that you wouldn`t even use against someone you never intend to see again. It is most regrettable that North Korea has become such a vulgar country. Its young leader Kim Jong-un is eulogized as the “supreme dignity” and a “great leader.” It demands the utmost respect for its top leader and yet hurls verbal abuses at another country`s leader. Such insolence is truly astounding.

North Korea`s behavior is abhorrent, but whether we like it or not, we are of the same race and they are our nearest neighbor. No matter how contemptible their behavior is, we are not in a position to simply ignore their existence. Then, is there anything that could be deemed positive about the country?

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As is already known, most music in North Korea is made and used as another means of idolizing its founding father Kim Il-sung and his family. Does this mean all music from the country should be shunned?

It was in 1994 that the North Korean gayago (traditional Korean zither-like instrument also known as gayageum) was first introduced to the traditional music scene in South Korea. Mun Yang-suk, a Korean-Japanese member of the proNorth group, General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, came to the South that year to study gugak (traditional Korean music) at Chung-Ang University. She had majored in gayago at the Pyongyang University of Music and Dance. Her performance of the Korean folk song “Arirang” with a North Korean variant of gayago stunned everyone.

Compared to the traditional 12-stringed gayago in South Korea that has a richer, deeper tone, the sound of her 21-stringed gayago was more fancy and colorful like the shimmering haze of a spring day. The North Korean version of “Arirang” used chords, and so sounded more lively and bright compared to traditional gayago music, and particularly captivated the hearts of young musicians.

Modernized variations of the instrument also exist in South Korea, but Mun`s performance was truly mesmerizing.

Her performance sparked starkly contrasting reactions among South Korean musicians. The majority expressed critical views: “Why play it on the gayago when such music can be more effectively rendered on the piano?” However, young musicians raved, “It`s unbelievable how a gayago can make a sound like that!”

Although the style and technique was based on Western music, an affectionate and warm feeling emanating from the silk strings had touched their hearts.

Mun initially came to Korea as a student, but instantly became a teacher of the modernized gayago. These days in Korea it has become essential for gayago players to know how to play the modern versions of the instrument. Modern gayago has firmly established itself in the traditional music world with organizations such as the KBS Traditional Music Orchestra and the National Orchestra of Korea including it in their performances. Aside from “Arirang,” musical pieces from North Korea, such as “Outpost in Spring,” are a popular choice in the repertoire at official concerts. Composers are also increasingly

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writing music for modern gayago.

Such a phenomenon confirms the probably obvious fact that music is not something that is influenced by critics or scholars. It is about what the general public loves to listen to. North Korea discarded its traditional musical interval system in favor of the triad (a chord of three tones) used in the Western music; it abandoned its traditional vocal technique and adopted the clear, mellifluous vocal style of the West. It also discarded the traditional practice of using sigimsae (ornamentation or embellishments to the main melody) and employed the technique of the Western culture. In contrast to the ideology of juche (“selfreliance” or “independence”) that the North Koreans strongly uphold, it has chosen to depart from tradition and veer toward the style and structure of Western music.

North Korea dismissed the music of the literati on the grounds that it was bourgeois, and pansori (traditional Korean narrative song) met with a similar fate as it was regarded as music made to serve the ruling class. Upon hearing pansori, Kim Il-sung is said to have yelled, “Stop the harsh sound!” So in the end all that was left were folk songs, the music of the masses. The merit of North Korean music lies in that it is accessible to the general public. They promoted simple, cheerful and at times solemn music. Traditional instruments were modernized so that they harmonized well with Western instruments.

In contrast, traditional music has been relatively well preserved in the South.

North Korea chose to break with tradition, but in the process, reaped significant results by devoting efforts to modernizing its instruments. Traditional music in South Korea has strictly adhered to its ancient roots, but has lost mass appeal, whereas in North Korea, it has gained popular appeal by adopting modern ways, but has lost its legitimacy. The two together could create significant synergistic effects. Will the day come when the two Koreas play in harmony?

[Dong-a Ilbo, March 12, 2015]

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Dongdaemun Design Plaza Marks First Anniversary with Fragile Content

Visitors look at exhibits at "Heartwarming 36.5 Degrees Design," a special exhibition which opened on March 17 at Dongdaemun Design Plaza to mark its first anniversary.

Kim Mi-ri Staff Reporter The Chosun Ilbo

March 17, the morning. Curious Chinese tourists are queuing up to sit on the spinning top-shaped spun chairs designed by Thomas Heatherwick at the first floor of the Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP). On the “cave stairway,” now a popular photo zone, an Internet shopping mall model is posing for photos. Under the bridge “connected to the future” across the spaceship-like silvery structure, work is under way to install runways and stages for the Seoul Fashion Week scheduled for the weekend.

These were some of the daytime scenes at DDP, Seoul`s brand-new landmark, which marks its first anniversary on March 23. The multipurpose hot spot seems to have achieved its goal of positioning as the capital`s newest tourist attraction.

The huge futuristic structure represents an ambitious public cultural construction project which cost 484 billion won ($452.6 million) over five years. Overcoming the initial controversies including the resignation of the then Mayor Oh Se-hoon who initiated the project and disputes over the unfamiliar architectural design, DDP has clearly accomplished a “soft landing” in terms of numerical figures.

According to statistics revealed at a press conference held ahead of the first

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anniversary, DDP had a total of 8.37 million visitors during its first year, a remarkable achievement compared to the world`s leading museums, such as the Louvre in Paris and the Tate Modern in London, which attracted 9.3 million and 3.5 million visitors, respectively. The financial situation is also quite promising.

Revenue from various exhibitions totaled 22.3 billion won with expenditures amounting to 21.3 billion won.

Park Sam-cheol, director of planning at the Seoul Design Foundation, said, “For the operation of this facility we received 5 billion won in grant from the Seoul City last year, but this year it seems we can be fully independent financially.”

The DDP`s progress in content development, however, has not been as successful as its financial records. A total of 117 events were held there in the past year, of which a mere 16 were organized by DDP itself. For most of the popular exhibitions, such as those featuring Gabrielle Chanel and Audrey Hepburn and photographs by Henri Cartier-Bresson, DDP simply leased its galleries, while its own exhibitions generally failed to draw much attention.

The special exhibition commemorating the first anniversary, titled “Heartwarming 36.5 Degrees Design,” which opened on March 17, clearly attests to the ambiguous identity of this giant facility. In an apparent effort to demonstrate the social function of design, the exhibition is comprised of three sections titled “Coexistence,” “Symbiosis” and “Resonance.” However, numerous items ranging from tableware to a baby carriage are displayed in disorderly manner, blurring the overall message.

Despite its pronounced design theme, the exhibition gave the impression that it was intended to promote the three keywords of Mayor Park Won-soon`s governance, that is, “communication, participation and coexistence.” It`s all right to advocate participation, but the exhibition organizers should have kept in mind that there are many citizens who want to see really good works of design. This is advice that they should heed if the DDP is to take firm root.

[March 18, 2015]

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 - Recent Increase in Household Debt and its Implications

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Recent Increase in Household Debt and its Implications

Jeon Yong-sik Research Fellow Korea Insurance Research Institute

I. Background

The government eased regulations on loan-to-value (LTV) and debt-to-income (DTI) ratios in May 2012 and August 2014, respectively, in order to revitalize the sluggish economy, but their effects have remained marginal.

The growth rate of household debt rose from 5.2 percent in 2012 to 6.6 percent in 2014, while the national economy`s nominal growth rate slightly climbed from 3.4 percent to 3.9 percent. Housing transactions inched up after the August 2014 deregulation compared with a year earlier, but the real gross domestic product in the fourth quarter of 2014 rose only 0.4 percent and the growth rate of private consumption lingered at a mere 0.5 percent over the previous quarter. This marked a slowdown from the third quarter when the real GDP and private consumption increased 0.9 percent and 1.0 percent, respectively, from the previous quarter.

Household debt has increased rapidly since the deregulation, intensifying concerns about economic risks. At the end of the fourth quarter of 2014, household credit stood at 1,089 trillion won, up 29.8 trillion won from the previous quarter, and 67.6 trillion won from a year earlier. In the fourth quarter of 2014, household debt increased by 27.6 trillion won from the previous quarter, and 66.4 trillion won from the same period of 2013, marking the steepest increase since 2011.

The International Monetary Fund does not regard Korea`s household debt as a threat to the nation`s macro economy in the short run, but global credit rating agencies warn the enormous size of household debt could upset Korea`s sovereign credit standing. In a recent report, Fitch said, “If defaults on household debt increase rapidly, it could erode the stability of Korea`s economic and financial systems.” The Bank of Korea`s lowering of benchmark interest rate is also fanning worries about household debt.

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This study attempts to examine the changes in household debt, housing transactions and private consumption since the government introduced regulations on LTV and DTI ratios in 2002, and offers policy suggestions. Since 2002, regulations on these ratios have changed 16 times. This study compares the growth rates of household debt, housing transactions and private consumption in the three months before and after each regulatory change since 2007, when reliable data became available. The analysis has significance because the declining positive effects that regulatory measures have on the real economy indicate the domestic economy could have changed structurally.

II. Regulatory Changes and Household Debt

The growth of household debt, on the basis of household credit, has accelerated since the government eased regulations on the LTV and DTI ratios in May 2012.

The quarterly growth rate of household debt contracted from 7.0 percent in the quarter preceding the May 2012 deregulation to 5.5 percent in the quarter following it, but the comparable year-to-year quarterly growth rate before and after the deregulation of August 2014 expanded from 5.9 percent to 6.9 percent.

After the government relaxed regulations in February 2007, the growth rate of household debt slowed from 11.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2006 to 10.6 percent in the second quarter of 2007.

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Korean households take out new loans to repay their existing debt, pay huge lump sums to lease homes or cover daily living expenses, not to buy new homes.

In the backdrop is a realignment of household lending among different financial service sectors. As the differences in LTV and DTI ratios narrow among different financial institutions, the increase of lending has become more noticeable among banking institutions rather than non-banking lenders, which impose relatively higher interest rates on loans.

Household lending by savings banks increased more than three-fold compared with 2013, and most of the new loans were mortgages. On the other hand, household loans by non-banking savings institutions increased by 6.6 trillion won, some 4.1 trillion won of which were not mortgages.

Out of the total mortgage lending by savings banks, the share that went to purposes other than home buying rose to 53.8 percent in the first seven months of 2014. This share rose more than 10 percentage points in the recent three-year period, from 43.2 percent in 2011 to 50.6 percent in 2012, 50.9 percent in 2013 and to 53.8 percent in the first seven months of 2014.

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According to the Financial Supervisory Service, households took out mortgages in the first seven months of 2014 not to buy homes but to “repay existing debts” (33 percent), to “secure living expenses” (25.2 percent) and to “prepare funds for their security deposit or rent” (15.9 percent).

Mortgage lending by the insurance industry has sharply declined since the deregulation of August 2014. At the end of 2014, the life insurance industry`s total lending was 99.428 trillion won, up 17.1 percent from 90.907 trillion won at the end of 2013. At the end of 2014, household lending by the insurance industry, including postal insurance, stood at about 90 trillion won, of which mortgage loans were estimated to be about 29 trillion won. The growth rate of

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lending by life insurers exceeded the 7.6 percent recorded by non-banking financial institutions.

The outstanding mortgages by major insurance companies totaled 24.396 trillion won at the end of August 2014, down 214.6 billion won from 24.608 trillion won at the end of July. Their lending increased by 300 billion won in the first half of 2014, but fell back sharply in just a month. The reduction in mortgage lending by insurance firms seemed to be due to the transfer of mortgage lending contracts from insurance firms to banks after the deregulation.

III. Household Debt`s Influence on Real Economy

1. Housing Transactions

In the quarter preceding the easing of regulations on LTV and DTI ratios in August 2014, the number of housing transactions dropped 18.2 percent from the same period in 2013, but the comparable number increased 8.6 percent after the deregulation, along with rising household debt. Since November 2006, there have been only two periods ― after February 2007 and May 2012 ― when the growth of household debt slowed down as a result of mortgage-related regulatory changes. After the relaxation of regulations in May 2012, the growth rate of housing transactions narrowed from -37.7 percent to -33.6 percent.

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The share of household loans for buying homes is declining, indicating an ebbing impact on home purchases by household debt. Amid the ongoing trends of dwindling home purchases owing to population aging, low birthrate and the increase of single households, the rise in home leasing prices is believed to be the main reason for the recent increase in housing transactions.

With respect to housing supply, new home construction dropped from 666,541 units in 2002 to 386,542 units in 2010, but rebounded to 586,884 units in 2012 before falling back to 440,116 units in 2013. The share of households taking out loans by providing existing homes as collateral for purposes other than buying new homes continues to rise.

2. Consumption

Until 2011, an increase in household debt could be correlated with rise in housing transactions and private consumption. The link in the real economy was clearly pronounced in 2009, even with seasonal factors taken into account. After the strengthening of regulations in 2009, household debt increased 7.4 percent and retail sales grew 10.9 percent. In 2010, the growth rate of household debt

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remained at 8.1 percent because of enhanced regulation, and retail sales also increased by a mere 5.0 percent.

Since 2012, rising household debt and retail sales growth have been far less linked. After the deregulation of August 2014, retail sales grew only 1.4 percent in the fourth quarter of that year, even falling short of the 1.5 percent rise prior to the deregulation. In May 2012, retail sales did not fall sharply compared with figures before deregulation, although housing transactions dropped drastically.

In the past, regulatory changes concerning LTV and DTI ratios triggered a chain reaction of mounting household debt and rising home purchases and consumption. But the causal effects have dwindled since 2012. The domestic housing market has been in a protracted slump because of dwindling demand amid demographic changes and lower expectations about future appreciation in home prices. That has weakened the effect higher household debt has on home purchases. The prolonged economic slump since the 2008 global financial crisis might have dampened the growth of private consumption, but slowdown in mortgage loans has also cut back their contribution to the growth of housing demand and consumption.

IV. Conclusion and Policy Suggestions

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The effects of increasing household debt on revitalizing the real economy have been falling, and the phenomenon can continue for a long time due to the persistence of low growth and population aging.

As demographic changes and the persistent low growth combine to weaken the links between the increase in household debt and revitalization of the real economy, the negative effects of rising household debt are eclipsing its positive effects. This seems to be due to the lower home demand amid a prolonged economic slump and demographic changes as well as pessimism about future home equity value. The effects the increase in housing transactions has on consumption growth have been declining because of the lower expectations about appreciation of home prices, which has dampened the so-called wealth effect.

A lower percentage of younger people in the total population and an increase in single-person households have hindered new demand for homes, and the increasing share of people aged 65 and over will lead to more property sales to lock in retirement savings.

Amid mounting concerns about the surge in household debt after the lowering of the benchmark interest rate by the Bank of Korea, it is becoming increasingly important to control household debt because the effect the increase in household debt has on revitalizing the real economy is abating. With the positive effects on a downward slope, the risks of household debt are believed to have grown bigger than they were before 2011.

The Bank of Korea`s reduction of key interest rate can lead to quantitative increase in household debt and weaker financial health among households if their debt increases faster than their income. The fact that much more of the household debt is being directed at self-employed people`s business and daily living expenses than in the past means heightened income instability in many households.

The government ought to establish a comprehensive policy to manage household debt, and financial institutions should set up proper business strategies, by taking into account the changing economic environment and the future of the financial

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industry. The financial authorities should devise a consistent policy to manage household debt based on objective assessment of the potential risks involved.

The government`s household debt management measures since 2011 have been focused on increasing household income and curbing the quantitative increase of household debt. The deregulation of DTI and LTV ratios in August 2014, however, undermined the efforts to curb the growing household debt as it helped increased household debt rather than reinvigorate the real economy.

Financial service companies should comprehensively examine the potential influence of the factors behind the structural changes in the national economy, such as population aging and the persistence of low growth, and reflect the outcome on their business strategies.

[Appendix]

Since 2001, Korea`s regulations on LTV and DTI ratios have changed on 16 occasions. The regulations on the LTV ratio were introduced in September 2002 to cool down an overheated housing market, and those on the DTI ratio were implemented for the first time in March 2006 to help households honor their debt payments. These regulations were designed to induce financial firms to extend mortgages by taking into account the borrower`s repayment ability instead of relying only on the collateral value.

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 [KIRI Weekly, March 16, 2015, Korea Insurance Research Institute]

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- ‘Waiting for Godot’ on Stage over 45 Years

- Walking a Tightrope of Nostalgia and Survival for a Single-screen Cinema

- The Fate of a Tower of Learning Built on Plagiarism

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‘Waiting for Godot’ on Stage over 45 Years

Samuel Beckett's "waiting for Godot" is performed at Sanwoolim Theater in Seogyo-dong, western Seoul, on March 12, in commemoration of the 45th anniversary of its Korean premiere.

Lee Ji-young Staff Reporter The JoongAng Ilbo

A tree stands on a barren stage with a prattling pair of bedraggled men named Estragon and Vladimir nearby. Waiting for the arrival of someone named “Godot,” they meet a crabby master Pozzo and his servant Lucky, who has a rope around his neck like a dog. The four men exchange nonsensical banter, from beginning to end. After Pozzo and Lucky leave the stage, a boy suddenly comes out and says, “Mr. Godot told me to tell you he won't come this evening but surely tomorrow.”

This is a summary of Act One of Samuel Beckett's “Waiting for Godot,” a play that has made a significant imprint on Korean theatrical history. The play does not have a narrative arc. Instead it is full of absurd and pointless actions and dialogue. Act Two nearly replicates the story line of Act One, and as the play draws to an end, the boy reappears and says again, “Mr. Godot told me to tell you he won't come this evening but surely tomorrow.”

“Waiting for Godot” was first performed in Korea in December 1969. To commemorate the 45th anniversary of the premiere, it will be staged at the Sanwoolim Theater (in Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul) from March 12 to May 17.

The commemorative performance will also mark the 60th anniversary of director

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Lim Young-woong`s debut and the 30th anniversary of the theater. Over the last 45 years, Samuel Beckett's seminal play directed by Lim Young-woong was staged over 2,000 times, attracting 500,000-odd theatergoers. The play also had overseas tours in five cities in four countries including Japan and Ireland.

Why has this absurd story about endless waiting enthralled so many for nearly half a century? First, the power of the script invites interpretations wherever it is performed. “Waiting for professionally produced by Irish playwright Samuel Beckett in performed for the first time at the Babylon Theater in Paris in

fresh and diverse Godot” was first 1952. The play was 1953. Since then, it

has been translated into dozens of languages and with the help of subtitles has been performed in nearly every country.

In an interview at the Sanwoolim Theater on March 3, director Lim Young-woong said: “This is a pioneering work that successfully represents the condition of human beings in the modern world. Every time I put on the play, I can find different and more profound meanings from the characters.”

At the research recordings on the history of modern Korean arts, produced by the Arts Council Korea in 2009, the veteran director explained: “People are approaching their lives aimlessly, complaining about this godforsaken world.

However, they never give up on life and are perpetually waiting for the arrival of Godot even without knowing what Godot really means. Even while suffering deep despair, they still don`t give up hope. And yet they have nothing to do but ridiculous things so that they live their lives recklessly and frivolously. The audience, while watching the performance, wonders why such disheveled characters are living like that, with smiles on their faces; they connect with the characters as the play nears the end. At the same time, the audience wonders whether they`re just like the characters in the eyes of others and reflect on whether or not they`re living their lives properly now.”

After all, learning a lesson from the play is completely up to the audience. Beckett also suggested, “All the audience has to do is to enjoy the performance with laugher.” Therefore, it is the audience`s choice whether or not to give serious thought to their lives when they return home. As the world increasingly becomes an emotionally desolate place and the cravings people have for something more grows in desperation, the real value of the play increases. Theater critic Kim Mi-

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do, a professor at the Seoul National University of Science and Technology, said, “This play is more relevant to today`s audience than those in the 1980s. Younger students seem to enjoy the play more now.”

The second factor that can be attributed to the enduring success of “Waiting for Godot” lies in the outstanding performances of the actors. Over the last 45 years, more than 40 actors representative of the Korean theater scene, including Kim Mu-saeng and Chun Mu-song, have starred in this play. Among them 13 actors will appear in the commemorative performance. Actor Song Young-chang, who will reprise the role of Vladimir after 20 years, said, “For actors, ‘Waiting for Godot` is a difficult work because so many lines have to be spoken spontaneously. However, I don`t feel too much of a burden with that because the director gives us carefully thought-out and calculated directions, from your eye movements and moving lines to the intervals between lines. So I expect everything will go smoothly if I just follow his directions.”

Lim Young-woong`s unfailingly precise directing style has also been a factor in earning international recognition. The Sanwoolim Theater Company`s 1999 performance of “Waiting for Godot” in Tokyo topped the Asahi Shimbun`s list of Top Five Plays with the largest number of votes. Good fortune has played another important role in the play`s success in Korea. In December 1969, right before its Korean premiere, Samuel Beckett was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. As a result, the play suddenly became the talk of the town. Every performance was sold out and the play extended its run.

Lim recalls, “The success of the play led to the creation of the Sanwoolim Theater Company in 1970 and later the opening of Sanwoolim Theater, a small independent theater for plays, in 1985. The best thing that happened to me is the fact that I have been able to direct this great work for such a long time.”

The coincidence that the object of waiting, Godot, sounds like the Chinesederived word godo, meaning “high altitude,” has also been a factor in enhancing the image of the work. That`s because the title of the play seems to imply an ideal world.

[March 5, 2015]

www.koreafocus.or.kr

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Walking a Tightrope of Nostalgia and Survival for a Single-screen Cinema

Koh Jae-seo stands in front of his Donggwang Cinema, in Dongducheon, north of Seoul, which is the only single-screen movie theater still operating in Korea.

Park Don-gyu Staff Reporter The Chosun Ilbo

It has been a long time since any blood traveled smoothly again through the analog projector. Analog projectors have become such nuisances gathering dust since they lost out to digital projectors in 2012, when the Korean blockbuster “The Thieves” was released. In one section of the projection booth, the comedy “Granny`s Got Talent” uploaded onto an external hard drive is being transmitted to a server.

“How can I sell this old projector for junk? Xenon lamps embedded on analog projectors are also in use for lighthouses and coast guard stations. Do you remember the scene where a projection booth was shown in the recent blockbuster hit ‘Ode to My Father,` which attracted 14 million viewers? The props that furnished the booth belong to us; we lent them.” Koh Jae-seo, 59, the owner of this small cinema, while listening to the whirling sound of the analog projector, was lost in reverie for a moment. “The films screened here in Dongducheon usually arrived in poor conditions. That`s because before coming here, they toured around all the theaters in the capital areas and Gangwon Province for a couple of months. It was quite common for an audience to moan and groan when important scenes were cut off or when white vertical lines appeared on the

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screen. Those days, films were like fish. When they were no longer fresh they had to be discarded,” he recalled.

On March 4, leaving Seoul, I drove through Uijeongbu and Yangju, where several signboards with welcoming or farewell greetings met visitors. When I finally reached the Donggwang Cinema in Dongducheon, Gyeonggi Province, my memory started groping back into the past. Then, familiar scenes that could be seen around movie theaters in the 1970s and 1980s started to unfold.

Donggwang Cinema is in effect the only remaining single-screen theater in the country. Inside, the cafeteria looks like an old-fashioned coffee shop that you could find in front of a railway station; the visitor guidelines posted near the entrance still remain unchanged. The guidelines read: “Under Article 23 of the Public Performance Act, any actions that are feared to pose a threat to public safety, customs, or public health will be prohibited….”

Below the theater sign are film reels stuck like faded old decorations. In 1993, the interior of the building was renovated, but its framework has remained intact since the building was first constructed in 1959. Koh took over the movie house in 1986. Its neighborhood was once considered one of the most flourishing commercial districts in Dongducheon, like Myeong-dong in Seoul. Before the creation of the Citizens` Hall, Donggwang Cinema was used as a venue for important civil events such as party conventions, reserve forces training and graduation ceremonies; it was also frequented by American soldiers stationed at the nearby base and their Korean partners. But the theater`s heyday soon came to an end, as did its neighborhood. Now it is a rundown section of the downtown.

The first film to be screened the day I visited was the sequel to the 2011 boxoffice hit “Detective K.” The 283-seat theater with a screen measuring 7x15 meters was empty for the noon showing; there was only one person inside. Kim Jongchul, 55, a regular for 15 years, said, “This cinema is close to my place and the ticket price is cheap and I feel at ease here because the theater and its owner haven`t changed for years.” The ticket price is 7,000 won; the cinema offers no discount for early morning admissions or for credit cards. Koh, the owner and president of the theater, said, “Some 20 to 30 during weekdays and 100 to 200 viewers on weekends visit this cinema. However, these numbers are not enough to cover the utility bills. Only 1,500 people visited to see the sequel to ‘Detective

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K` over the last three weeks and that even includes the Lunar New Year holidays.”

Most days, local residents and soldiers who are not allowed to leave the garrison town fill most of the seats. Koh runs the theater by himself, selling tickets and operating the projector. In his 40th year in the theater business, Koh said with a sigh, “Even people living in Dongducheon have long been going out of town taking the subway to see movies at multiplex cinemas in Seoul or Uijeongbu. It`s a tough battle keeping this dilapidated establishment.” Unlike multiplexes, Donggwang Cinema is not fastidious about admission: even visitors carrying instant cup noodles are allowed in and others who arrive after the movie has started can stay in their seat to watch what they have missed. In front of the screen six rows have been removed and replaced by three comfortable sofas.

Koh continued, “Although my favorites are movies like ‘Schindler`s List` and ‘Two Cops,` which movies are screened isn`t determined by my tastes. Last year, the success of ‘The Pirates,` a comedy adventure movie, did a big boost for this place.

I often think about giving up but I have no other options.”

It is not proper to talk about memories in a situation where one`s livelihood is threatened. Although the cold winter has already passed and spring flowers are in bloom in the southern parts of the country, Donggwang Cinema cannot hope for spring next year. Koh said, “I`m happy when my customers tell me things like: ‘My childhood cinema is still here after surviving so many years` or ‘President! Please, don`t give up.` But shortly thereafter, any pleasure I felt disappears and I start to lose my will to look after the place. I have devoted my entire life to this business but there is no more hope here. Sometimes filmmakers or drama producers visit me. My last wish is to preserve this cinema as an old-fashioned place decorated like a museum where movies are shown through an analog projector.” On my way back home, it seemed like I could still hear the whirling sound echoing of that old machine.

[March 9, 2015]

www.koreafocus.or.kr

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The Fate of a Tower of Learning Built on Plagiarism

Professor Nam Hyung-doo of Yonsei University shows his book, "A Theory of Plagiarism," which was recently published as a result of his eight-year endeavor.

Kim Seong-hyeon Staff Reporter The Chosun Ilbo

Right after Kim Byung-joon, a professor at Kookmin University and a candidate for minister of education, withdrew from his nomination amid accusations for plagiarism in 2006, government offices briskly moved to address the issue. For its part, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism entrusted Nam Hyung-doo, a professor of law at Yonsei University Law School, to study measures to prevent plagiarism. When he was given three months to draw up guidelines for preventing plagiarism, Nam replied, “If you can guarantee three years instead of three months, then I will accept this task.”

The reason he demanded more time was that he thought it would be better to conduct an in-depth study on academic discussions and domestic and overseas precedents regarding cases of plagiarism, instead of just adding more guidelines to the numerous ones already written by universities, research institutes and academic associations.

Professor Nam assumed that his request would not be accepted, but his assumption was wrong. Beginning in 2007, he spent the next three years for conducting case studies about the improvement of public awareness about copyrights and drawing up draft guidelines. His endeavor resulted in a three-

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volume research report. And then after expanding and refining the report, he wrote a book titled “A Theory of Plagiarism,” which was published recently.

Although there have been many research papers on the topic, Nam`s book is the first in Korea to contain systematic research about plagiarism. At the end of the book is an appendix of 100 questions that the author has received most frequently during his lectures at universities and research institutes. Among them are: “Is it still plagiarism to reuse one`s own work?” or “Can the provider of the idea for a book also be considered an author?”

Professor Nam is an expert in copyright and intellectual property laws who earned his Master`s and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Washington in Seattle. He had previously studied law at Seoul National University and practiced law after passing the bar.

Nam cited three major incidents that made plagiarism a hot issue in Korean society. The first case involved education minister nominee Kim Byung-joon. Kim withdrew from his nomination after he was embroiled in allegations of plagiarism during confirmation hearings in 2006. The second case involved Olympic gold medalist-turned-politician Moon Dae-sung. He was accused of plagiarizing his doctoral dissertation and the allegation became a political issue in the 2012 general elections. Thereafter, verification of plagiarism was extended to elected public officials. In 2013, controversies about plagiarism involving famous entertainers, public speakers and athletes continued to make headlines.

“It`s as if anyone who has ever authored and published an academic paper is carrying a live explosive and, self-mockingly speaking, it is like they`ve put their heads in a guillotine,” said Professor Nam. He is convinced that the controversies surrounding plagiarism have played a positive role. That`s because, he says, plagiarism becoming a public issue indicates the growth of individualism and civic awareness, as well as enhances academic ethical standards. British poets William Wordsworth and Lord Byron, and American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. were also embroiled in plagiarism allegations. In Germany, during the incumbent administration of Chancellor Angela Merkel, a defense minister and an education minister resigned after being accused of plagiarizing their doctoral dissertations.

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Nam continued, “Paradoxically, in underdeveloped countries or communist regimes where the rights of individuals are an issue of little importance, the concept of plagiarism and intellectual property rights is not fully developed.”

However, he pointed out the current practice of verifying plagiarism in Korea is far below the standards of so-called academically advanced countries. At U.S. universities, those who participate in the verification process are obliged to sign a confidentiality agreement and any accusations are thoroughly investigated, often taking up to two years before the delivery of a final ruling.

On the contrary, while plagiarism has become a hot issue in recent years, Korean society has yet to do away with the old habit of inadequately performing verification with little public interest in the final outcome. Professor Nam continued, “In advanced nations, verification procedures are exhaustive and anyone who is found guilty of plagiarism will be severely punished. In Korea, however, the issue usually sparks fierce public debate only to fizzle out quickly without any tangible result, which creates a vicious cycle of backwardness.”

Nam argues that while time limits can be applied to punishment of plagiarizers, they should not be applied to the verification process. He went on, “Whenever researchers or ordinary citizens are exposed to plagiarized academic papers or books, other problems can arise. The tower of learning built upon unethical academic practices is doomed to crumble.”

So, how strictly does Professor Nam apply these principles to his own work? “A Theory of Plagiarism,” with 720 pages, contains a total of 1,202 footnotes in addition to references and legal precedents.

[March 2, 2015]

www.koreafocus.or.kr

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- Life of a Marginal Woman Abandoned by Modern History

- Korean People are Inherently Carefree, Curious and Playful

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Life of a Marginal Woman Abandoned by Modern History

"Alice Hyun and Her Days" written by Jung Byung-joon and published

by Dolbegae.

Kwon Jae-hyun Staff Reporter The Kyunghyang Shinmun

“Alice Hyun and Her Days”

By Jung Byung-joon, Dolbegae, 484 pages, 20,000 won

A little known woman stood behind Pak Hon-yong, the leader of the Korean Communist Party who was purged after losing an internal fight against Kim Ilsung after Korea`s liberation from the Japanese colonial rule. Born in the U.S. state of Hawaii, this woman chose Pak Hon-yong`s North Korea as her country.

She supposedly was executed in 1956 on charges of being a “spy of the American imperialists.” The woman`s dream of building a socialist nation inspired by the revolutionary ideology and personal charms of Pak Hon-yong, whom she met in Shanghai during her younger years, was shattered in the Cold War.

“Alice Hyun and Her Days” depicts the tragic fate of Alice Hyun (1903-1956?). The tragedy did not stop at destroying the life of one woman. Her son and other direct family members as well as the Korean progressive camp in the United States were affected, too. The book candidly covers colonization, division of the peninsula, the war and the ensuing pain, and manipulation and conspiracy in the modern history of Korea.

Alice Hyun was singled out as the “first lover of Pak Hon-yong” when Pak, then

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deputy prime minister and foreign minister of North Korea, was prosecuted on allegations of an “insurgency to overthrow the republic” in 1955. North Korea`s reasoning was that the special relationship between the two had made it easy for Pak to help Alice Hyun enter North Korea and work as a spy for the United States.

However, the author of the book, Professor Jung Byung-joon (Ewha Womans University, Department of History), explains that Alice Hyun was the eldest daughter of Pastor Hyun Soon, who let Shanghai and the world know about the Korean independence movement around March 1, 1919. It would be more valid to view her not as Pak Hon-yong`s lover but a close friend who was more like a sister to him. This is a conclusion made based on the historical sources and testimonies found at the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration and in Prague, Czech Republic.

■ An American Spy?

Alice Hyun first met Pak Hon-yong in 1920. Pak, who was deeply involved in the anti-Japanese movement and growing his nationalist sentiment during the March 1 Independence Movement, entered the Koryo Communist Party in Shanghai in November of that year. The next year, he entered the commerce department of Shanghai University in April and chaired the Korean Hwadong Students Association (1920-1921). It is highly likely that through this association he met Alice Hyun, who was attending a Chinese boarding school in Shanghai at that time.

Shanghai must have been a land of opportunity for the two of them, instilling passion into their hearts, as he was in his early 20s and she in her late teens. The Russian Revolution in 1917 and the collapse of the German Empire in 1918 were harbingers of the revolutionary age the world was about to face. Although Pak stayed in Shanghai for only one year and seven months, it was enough time to quickly move him toward socialism as the city teemed with movements for independence and revolution. Pak arrived in Moscow by traversing Manchuria and Siberia with his comrades. Encountering the world created by socialist leaders, he became an “iron-willed revolutionary.”

This book describes Alice Hyun as a woman of strong determination and passion.

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She married Chung Chun, then a teenager who had fought against the Japanese during the March 1 movement period, but she left him when he became an official at the South Gyeongsang Province under the Japanese GovernmentGeneral. Since she had been exposed to American, Chinese and Japanese culture thanks to having an independence fighter for a father, her values differed greatly from Chung`s. It was impossible for a modern elite woman like her to tolerate a man who followed “old Korean customs” and kept a second wife.

■ A North Korean Spy?

Alice Hyun, along with her brother Peter Hyun, was deeply influenced by the socialist movement that started in the United States after the Great Depression in the 1930s and the situation in post-liberation Korea in the 1940s. She actively participated in the most progressive Korean organization in America. Although it still remains unclear as to what her exact role might have been, the author assumes that she “played the role of a communicator for the Communist Party USA,” traveling Korea, Japan, Shanghai and Vladivostok. Their wish was to become true Koreans. They dreamed of a completely independent and unified Korea.

However, the reality was far from their dream. The strong magnetic forces from America and Russia tore the Koreans apart in opposite directions as if it was “iron powders on a plate” and realigned them along ideological lines. People were forced to take sides amid incessant fighting between the right and the left. Alice Hyun and her brother worked as interpreters in the civil censorship unit of the U.S. military forces stationed in South Korea. The unit`s task was to control and check the leftists. Still, their hearts leaned toward the North and aroused suspicion among the U.S. military authorities, their life racing toward a tragic end.

Alice Hyun was deported to the United States in 1946. Thereafter she worked for the Korean weekly newspaper “Doklip: Independence,” run by the progressive Koreans in the United States, writing articles critical of the rightists in Korea, including Syngman Rhee and Kim Sung-soo, until she went to Pyongyang via the Czech Republic toward the end of 1949. North Korea was her political and ideological utopia. She was able to enter North Korea despite being a former employee of the U.S. military thanks to Pak Hon-yong, then the second most powerful man in North Korea; Pak had crossed border from the South in

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September 1948. This turned out to be a grave mistake. It claimed the lives of both Pak Hon-yong and Alice Hyun. The trial on Pak in 1955 ended within a day with a death sentence.

The author assumes that Alice Hyun may have been executed shortly after Pak in 1956. Her “search for motherland based on her ideology and conviction ended in a tragic death.” (p. 393) Her job with the U.S. government, taken on the belief that armed resistance was the only way to regain Korea`s independence, was seen as espionage activity. The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union as well as the Korean War spawned fear and shock and self-censorship across ideological lines. In an era when everyone and everything looked suspicious and any criticism of the system was considered subversive, too many spies and disruptors were invented. It was impossible for an individual to stop the witch hunt.

■ The Question Still Lingers

Alice Hyun`s son, Wellington Chung, could not go to North Korea, where his mother was executed, or to the United States where his uncles were being questioned in hearings for being communists. He was a surgeon in Cheb, a small city in the Czech Republic, until poisoning himself to death on October 28, 1963 at the age of 36.

Due to limitations in the availability of records, the book falls short of fully covering the life of Alice Hyun. However, it is clear what this book is trying to say.

We all say that we want unification, but are we really ready for it? Aren`t we lacking in dialogue and discussion, still caught in ideological disputes? It seems as if Alice Hyun, who never belonged to and was never welcomed by either side, is asking us this question: “How much has changed since then?”

[March 21, 2015]

www.koreafocus.or.kr

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Korean People are Inherently Carefree, Curious and Playful

"Koreans, Children at Heart" written by Ku Bon-jin and published by Gimmyoung Publishers

Yu Min-hwan Staff Reporter The Munhwa Ilbo

“Koreans, Children at Heart”

By Ku Bon-jin, Gimmyoung Publishers, 436 pages, 18,000 won

The author of this book believes that a person may be judged by his handwriting.

Just a month ago, the practicing lawyer was a chief public prosecutor working as a researcher for the Institute of Justice. Over the past 21 years, he served mostly in the violent crime investigation department of the Supreme Prosecutors` Office, as the chief high-tech crime investigator for the Seoul Central District Prosecutors` Office, among other obligations. Dealing with felons who committed organized crime, drug trafficking and murder, he arrived at the conclusion that handwriting does not lie. The criminals he encountered all tended to write slowly, their letters were pointed with the ends blurred, and they pressed down hard when they wrote.

For 15 years, Ku Bon-jin, 50, collected numerous handwriting samples, through which he has affirmed his conviction that handwriting is the key to understanding precisely what a person is like inside. In 2009, he published his first book, “Handwriting Speaks,” in which he claimed that he could distinguish between independence fighters and pro-Japanese figures from samples of their writings ― some 600 pieces from the former group of about 400 individuals and some 400

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pieces from the latter group of about 150 individuals. He also maintained that there was a relationship between a person`s handwriting and his success in society. His theory of handwriting reflecting personality and character touched off considerable debate.

Now, six years later, he travels back in time with his new book, “Koreans, Children at Heart.” As the subtitle of the book “Korean DNA Discovered in Handwriting” suggests, he attempts to analyze the Korean people`s identity, true nature, mindset and cultural prototype, simply through their handwriting. To that end, he traveled extensively in search for inscriptions on ancient monuments and relics, and studied various disciplines including graphology, history, archaeology, graphonomy, anthropology, and evolutionary biology. He calls his field of study “grapho-archaeology.”

His work began with searching for unique handwriting styles of Koreans.

Handwriting samples of the Gojoseon era are no longer extant. Some claim that petroglyphs of Bangudae and Cheonjeon-ri are from this period, but some scholars do not agree. Instead, he regarded the early years of Silla before the sixth century as having maintained the traits of Gojoseon relatively intact since the people of Gojoseon came down to found the Silla Kingdom and they still remained free from Chinese influence. The adoption of the Chinese title wang, meaning “king” (503), the Chinese-style reign titles (541) and Buddhism as official religion (528) all occurred during the sixth century.

Inscriptions dating back to early Silla can be found on King Isaji`s long sword with a ring pommel (mid-5th century to early 6th century) and the steles in Jungseong-ri, Pohang (dated 501, Treasure No. 1758), Naengsu-ri, Yeongil (443 or 503, National Treasure No. 264) and Bongpyeong, Uljin (524, National Treasure No. 242). The letters in these inscriptions are neither straight in form nor symmetrical. They are carefree, spontaneous and unpredictable in their stroke and form. They are round-shaped and look as if written by a child.

The author states that these traits represent the typical handwriting of ancient Koreans. And he explains that the Koreans are innately cheerful, gentle, openminded, down-to-earth, flexible, carefree, simple and adventurous. This type of handwriting is found in someone who is warm-hearted, impulsive, active and creative, but the person may also lack concentration, a sense of balance or

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direction, and tend to be fickle and weak-willed. The Koreans are often said to have a lot of han (roughly translated to “deep sorrow”), but the author says it was probably because the carefree Koreans came to live in a rigid cultural environment under Chinese influence.

He believes the word “neoteny” best describes the characteristics of Koreans. It means humans retaining and exhibiting juvenile features in their body, mind, feelings and behavior as they grow up into adults. Common traits would include love, optimism, laughter, singing and dancing, curiosity, and mischievousness. In contrast, the Chinese people who have well-structured and refined handwriting styles are stubborn, strong-willed, patient, and most of the time square because they are rigid and unwilling to compromise.

The author observes the evolution of handwriting styles from the Three Kingdom period to the Goryeo and Joseon dynasties and the Japanese colonial rule. The handwriting styles attained some kind of order thanks to the Chinese influence and the most idiosyncratic style appeared under the Japanese occupation, but the author asserts that the nonstructural characteristics continue to remain vivid to this day. He hints at a possible connection between ancient Koreans and the creators of Hongshan culture in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, who lived between 4700 and 2900 B.C. He says that the inscriptions on Hongshan relics are different from those of China and are rather similar to handwriting of Koreans.

[March 20, 2015]

www.koreafocus.or.kr

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- Prosecutor Talks about the Burden of Being the ‘First Woman’

- The Reason She Wears Hanbok and Draws Women Dressed in Hanbok

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Prosecutor Talks about the Burden of Being the ‘First Woman’

Cho Hee-jin speaks in a press conference after her inauguration ceremony as director of the Jeju District Prosecutors' Office on February 11.

Kim Se-dong Staff Reporter The Munhwa Ilbo

Cho Hee-jin, 53, who made news when she was appointed the first female deputy director of the Seoul High Prosecutors` Office in December 2013, wrote another new page in the history of Korea`s prosecution service this past February.

Appointed the first female director of a regional office, Cho is now in charge of operations at the Jeju District Prosecutors` Office. When we met Cho at her office in Jeju on February 26, she surprised us by being unexpectedly “soft.” The “first woman” in many positions, Cho has continued to surpass herself, giving rise to the preconception that she would be rather masculine.

Cho did away with that idea completely, however. With a mild and pleasant manner, she explained various pending issues and gave her opinion openly and frankly when asked sensitive questions regarding women and prosecuting offenders. As for her views on balancing work and family, she could be mistaken for an official of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. This is reflection of her own concerns over the past 25 years as she raised her son and lived as a weekend wife while being the “big sister” in the prosecution.

Q. How does it feel to be the first woman director of a district prosecutors`

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office?

A. It is an honorable position for any prosecutor, regardless of gender. But people say I have given confidence to the women who make up 25 percent of the prosecution and all the young women in Korea who are dreaming of entering the legal profession by showing that a woman can also reach a high position in the law. Naturally, I feel unspeakably proud and grateful.

Q. It seems you have high aspirations for your new position.

A. Jeju Island has a population of 600,000 and an area about three times the size of Seoul. Since its designation as a special self-governing province in 2006 and the establishment of an international free trade zone, tourism and investment by foreigners, especially the Chinese, has been increasing rapidly, and more Koreans have been traveling back and forth for tourism, business and education purposes, or settling down on the island. Hence the number of cases related to growth in population, tourism, investment and development is on the rise. The influx of Chinese capital in real estate, investment and development, casinos and other tourism-related businesses has helped to revitalize the economy on the one hand, but on the other hand the locals are worried about environmental problems arising from reckless development and increased crime because of the greater number of casinos. Also, the Jeju civilian-military complex port project remains a point of conflict. Historically, the Jeju people have endured many hardships such as the April 3 massacre of 1948, but they have managed to retain their traditions and distinctive local culture. As such, through strict execution of the law the prosecution has the heavy responsibility of laying the foundation for the citizens of Jeju to engage in free and fair economic activity and live in safety, while protecting the environment and traditions of the island, which is loved by all Koreans. It is a heavy responsibility but should be very rewarding.

When Cho was first appointed to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors` Office in February 1990, there was not a single woman prosecutor working there. Her only female predecessor was Cho Bae-suk (three-term lawmaker), who had worked at the Incheon district office until 1986, when she left to become a judge at the Suwon District Court. But over the past 25 years the number of female prosecutors has grown rapidly. Of the total 1,998 public prosecutors, women account for 544 (27.2 percent). But of the 601 high-ranking positions of deputy

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senior prosecutor or higher, women account for only 28 (4.66 percent). That is, the proportion of women shrinks dramatically at each rung up the ladder.

Q. You`ve gained the “first woman” title many times.

A. When I first became a prosecutor, I didn`t realize I would attract attention for being a woman. The “first woman” title was attached every time I was promoted, which, to be honest, made me uncomfortable. Regardless of gender, I wanted to be recognized for my achievements, but each time the fact that I was a woman was emphasized. At some point I started to see things differently. I began to think about my role. “To work hard and do a good job” applies to all public officials. “What is my own special mission?” I wondered. People around me had always advised that I should be a role model for women prosecutors, and I began to think about what that really means.

Q. Do you have a goal that you really want to achieve?

A. The proportion of women in the prosecution has grown greatly. In the Jeju district office, for example, the numbers are roughly even with 10 male and seven female prosecutors. If women are not able to demonstrate their full potential at such a time, this signifies stagnation in the prosecution. Many women enter the prosecution with higher scores than men but I sometimes feel they are not being properly appreciated. I wonder if this is related to childbirth, childcare and housework, and differences in men and women`s approach and attitude to work. I have always been regarded as a role model for women prosecutors, but rather than being satisfied with that title, I want to ensure that the conditions and systems will enable women to fully demonstrate their abilities and contribute to the development of the prosecution service. Because of my “woman director” title, many people have high expectations for progress in women related fields. I intend to make every effort to ensure that our office fulfills its role in matters of public concern such as sexual violence, family violence, violence against children, food and environment-related crimes, and corruption.

Q. Have you ever felt you have been unfairly treated because you are a woman?

A. I have not felt that way often. However, in the 10 years following my

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appointment as a public prosecutor in 1990 only 10 more women came after me.

Then the number started to rise gradually and now women make up almost half of all junior prosecutors. But since the number of women in the higher positions is still very low, it is hard for women to take the lead, and due to social differences arising from cultural differences, housework and child rearing, the system makes it difficult for women to be properly evaluated. When I failed twice to be promoted to the position of director, I reproached myself for letting my female colleagues down and failing to give them hope.

Q. Have you been treated badly or with disdain by suspects or investigators because you are a woman?

A. No, not really. But in 1992 when I was working at the Suwon district office, I was dealing with a scam involving a local community funding association (gye) when some of the women victims would stare at me with suspicion, as if to ask “Are you really a prosecutor?” Also, when we have staff dinners, I`m the host but often the waitresses ask me to help set the table.

Q. Is there anything you want to say to your younger women colleagues?

A. If we look at the continued rise in the number of women prosecutors, it`s time for women to take the lead and show what we can do. We need a sense of responsibility and to think like the boss. In the future the prosecution system will become more segmented and specialized and it is assumed those in the top positions will be able to work until retirement age even after expiration of their terms. As such, I believe the way to lead a long and happy life as a prosecutor is to find pride and self-satisfaction in one`s work rather than the position held. It is the prosecutor`s job to deal with crimes relating to other people`s lives, bodies, assets and honor, among other things, so it is important for each prosecutor to establish an individual sense of justice and mission in life, as well as proper values. It is my wish to see women prosecutors cultivate their professionalism and abilities and improve their skills in solving problems in criminal investigations, and devote all their efforts to solving and handling even the smallest cases out of a sense of justice and duty. The problem is that, in the process, women`s level of concentration may decline due to childbirth, childcare duties and housework. On that front, some radical measures need to be instituted at the state level and consensus is needed within the prosecution regarding the importance of

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sacrificing neither work nor family.

Q. There are many women prosecutors but none have risen higher than midlevel official in special investigations or public security. Why do you think this is so?

A. First, a very small number of women are mid-level officials in the prosecution service. There may be less than 20 nationwide. The number is so small, and few women gain experience in special investigation cases or public security as junior prosecutors, which means few women are later assigned to these fields. As junior prosecutors, women generally look after criminal cases and trials mostly related to sexual violence, family violence, youth affairs, and intellectual property rights.

At the Seoul Central District Prosecutors` Office, for example, about half of all male prosecutors are assigned to the special investigation, public security and organized crime departments, but only five of the 35 female prosecutors are assigned to these departments, which is proportionately very low. There is a reluctance to assign women to the special prosecution departments because of the great emphasis on teamwork.

Q. Some say women are less suited to be prosecutors than judges and lawyers. Would you agree?

A. If that were the case, it would be hard to explain the growing number of women seeking to become prosecutors. Rather, you could say it`s a job particularly suited to women because prosecutors must examine and check everything in minute detail. When I was deputy director of the Seoul High Prosecutors` Office there were many opportunities to evaluate the performance of all prosecutors in the capital. On such occasions, the achievements of women prosecutors were marked, and many times I nominated women for various awards. In the final count women often outnumbered men. While people have raised concerns regarding the rising number of women prosecutors, it shows that more women have demonstrated their abilities. However, women may find it hard to devote themselves to cases when their attention and energy is divided for a certain period of time because of children and housekeeping.

At this point the focus of the interview shifted from Cho Hee-jin as female prosecutor to Cho Hee-jin as wife and the mother of one son.

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Q. When you were assigned to Jeju Island, you and your husband inevitably became a weekend couple. How are your arrangements with your family?

A. My husband is a government official serving at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Sports, so he travels back and forth between Seoul and Sejong. My son is attending university in the United States and I`m here in Jeju, so the whole family is scattered. As my posting in Jeju is for a set period, I want to devote myself fully to my work while I`m here. We have discussed it and my husband will try to come down here on weekends as often as possible. And if my mother`s health allows, I would like her to come and stay here with me.

Cho`s husband, Song Su-geun, is head of the Office of Planning and Coordination at the Culture Ministry. He entered Korea University in 1978 to study English literature, three years ahead of Cho, who studied law at the same university. They did not know each other as university students but were introduced to each other by a senior colleague sometime after Cho entered the prosecution service.

Q. It is still hard for women to balance work and childcare. How did you manage?

A. My mother devoted herself to childcare and housekeeping on my behalf. As far as childcare goes, my husband invested much more time and interest in raising our son than I did. These days my husband enjoys doing the cooking, shopping and housework, so I don`t have much to say around the house. Also being a public official, he is the person I go to for advice and the friend I rely on the most.

[March 4, 2015]

www.koreafocus.or.kr

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The Reason She Wears Hanbok and Draws Women Dressed in Hanbok

Kim Hyun-jung smiles before one of her series of paintings titled "Feign" at an exhibition held at Ganainsa Art Center in Insa-dong, Seoul, on June 22, 2014.

Lee Gil-woo Senior Reporter The Hankyoreh

“Why do they wear hanbok (traditional Korean clothing) only on special occasions like weddings? It`s so glamorous and beautiful.” Artist Kim Hyun-jung, 27, had a particular liking for hanbok from a young age. She developed an exceptional love of the traditional attire in junior high when most people were reluctant to wear it because it was unfashionable, uncomfortable and attracted too much attention.

To Kim, the voluminous chima, or skirt of hanbok, was like the universe — it was the most spacious, expansive space that could embrace all things in the world.

Perhaps this is why the skirts in most of her paintings are black. She uses Indian ink (meok) to express the fathomless mystery of the color.

But there is actually another reason why hanbok has become a central focus of her artworks. It`s people`s tendency toward naesung, or “feign.” She wanted to portray through her paintings how conscious Koreans are about what others think and how easily they are swayed by other people`s opinions. To Kim, “feign” is the first step toward self-awareness.

Kim began studying art in earnest in third grade. She went on to study at Sunhwa Arts School and majored in Oriental painting at Seoul National University.

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“I was also very conscious of other people`s opinions when I was choosing which university to apply,” she said. “There were a lot of times when I wasn`t able to pursue what I truly wanted because of what others might think. The reason I decided to major in Korean painting while most of my friends chose Western painting was to overcome that. I believed that, rather than following the style and technique of the West, Korean painting was in fact moving ahead of the times.

After all, what is the most distinctively Korean is the most cosmopolitan.”

Her choice proved to be an excellent one. Her solo exhibition “Feign Olympic,” held last year at Ganainsa Art Center in Insa-dong, Seoul, set the record for the largest number of viewers per day, surpassing that of Park Soo-keun`s special retrospective. Her first solo exhibition held in 2013 at Seoul Arts Center was sold out. A budding artist in her mid-twenties caused quite a stir in the art world.

Kim Hyun-jung`s paintings have a unique quality. A woman wearing a beautiful hanbok sits on the floor with one leg bent up eating jajangmyeon (noodles with black soybean sauce) with a delivery box as a table. She is holding the bowl of noodles in one hand while chewing on a deep-fried dumpling. In another painting, a young lady in a hanbok drives a motorcycle delivering hamburgers, while in another, a young woman, yet again in a hanbok, stands at a billiard table, expertly holding a cue stick and taking aim at a ball. There are also paintings of a young woman dressed in a hanbok lifting heavy weights; holding a bowling ball; umpiring a tennis match; snowboarding; indoor rock climbing; and riding a bicycle wearing large headphones. The young women in all these paintings are the same person. She is the artist herself.

So why are all the women dressed in hanbok that is not exactly comfortable? The black skirts they are wearing are often light-colored so that you can see right through them. Is it intended to pique the voyeuristic interest of the viewer?

“The women in the paintings are all doing mundane everyday activities while dressed up in fancy, elaborate hanbok fit for a festive occasion. I thought hanbok would be an effective means of conveying the concept of ‘feign` through such a contrast between the costume and actions,” Kim explained. “The figures are drawn in nude, while the jeogori (upper garment of hanbok) is made with a collage and the skirt painted with pale-colored ink. I used these techniques to

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express the see-through clothing that reveals what`s underneath, and prompt viewers to ponder the meaning of ‘feign` and the fact that others can ‘see right through` the person`s intentions.”

Kim spends most of her time in a hanbok. She tends to wear contemporary-style hanbok when she`s working, but for everyday wear, she likes to put on a jeogori with vibrant colors. She finds the recent movement among young people to promote wearing hanbok most encouraging. A lot of young people came to her exhibition last year wearing the traditional attire. But it is not easy getting it right when it comes to putting it on.

“In the past gisaeng (courtesans) wore hanbok with the skirt wrapped around the left side, while young ladies from respectable families wrapped the skirt around the right,” said Kim. “A person once came up to me at an exhibition and told me that I had styled my hanbok like a gisaeng. It made me realize that I need to be well acquainted with hanbok in order to draw it. So I decided to wear it all the time and make it a part of my life.”

Kim thinks that hanbok is more glamorous than any other outfit in the world.

“The colors are vibrant and vivid, and the accessories that go with it are also beautiful. There`s nothing quite like hanbok that turns heads at parties,” she said.

Her work process is quite unique. She takes a photograph of herself posing as the figure in the painting she has conceptualized and then makes a drawing based on the photograph. She takes two pictures of the same scene: one in leggings that reveal the contours of her body and another wearing a hanbok.

“I want my artworks to hit the spot for the public,” Kim said. “An artist should be perceptive and be able to identify the issues that people are vaguely aware of. An artist must possess the faculty and expertise to identify and express such issues, which is what essentially defines their existence. So I try to become an artist that interacts with the world and takes a keen interest in what`s going on rather than being locked up in my own little world and just focusing on my thoughts.”

Her upcoming exhibition titled “Story of Feign” will be held from April 5 to 12 at the Seoul Metropolitan Council Hall. She is planning another exhibition this summer under the title “Feign: Amusement Park” in Insa-dong. “I remember

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having so much fun at amusement parks when I was young. I`ve noticed that grown-ups today seem to enjoy themselves at places like large discount stores or self-service gas stations. I wanted to portray this ‘feigning` aspect of people today,” Kim said.

Her painting “Swag or Die: All Set Ready!” shows a young woman leaning over the billiard table about to take a break shot. “I want to break free from the expectations people naturally have of me, and people`s prejudices and opinions that influence my decisions and thoughts,” said Kim. “The moment I hit the white ball, the existing order is broken.”

[March 20, 2015]

www.koreafocus.or.kr

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COPYRIGHT Korea Focus is a monthly webzine (www.koreafocus.or.kr), 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.

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