Drawing on the objects and photographs of the main donors to the Korean collection at the Oriental Museum, Knitted Together details Richard and Joan Rutt’s 20 years living in South Korea in the immediate aftermath of the Korean War (1950 – 1953). Coinciding with the 70th anniversary of when Richard first arrived in Korea as … [Read More]
Category: Historical
An Event to Meet and Honour Korean War Veterans
The British Korean Society, in collaboration with the National Army Museum, will hold an event on Thursday 5 May to show our appreciation of and to honour British veterans of the Korean War – and to hear something of their experiences. The doors will open at 18.00 for a 18.30 start at the National Army … [Read More]
Some interesting home-bound online reading for you
Before I get into the article proper, can I ask of you who are reading this: are you a member of the Royal Asiatic Society, Korea Branch? If not, why not? If you read LKL, you should should definitely join the RASKB, whether you happen to live in Korea or not. Why? For starters, you’ll … [Read More]
SOAS seminar: Socialist competition and class formation in DPRK, 1953-56
A seminar at SOAS tomorrow, just announced. Looks interesting. Socialist competition and class formation in North Korea’s post-Korean War recovery, 1953-1956 Dr Owen Miller (SOAS) Friday 6 December 2019, 5:15 – 7:00 pm Venue: Paul Webley Wing (Senate House) Room: Alumni Lecture Theatre Register on SOAS website Abstract How did North Korea manage to recover … [Read More]
Samuel Hawley’s Imjin War comes to YouTube
One of my most enjoyable reads so far this year has been Samuel Hawley’s Imjin War, originally published in 2005. At 664 pages long it might seem a bit intimidating, but in my view it could probably be twice as long and still be as gripping. But for those who like their history in nibble-sized … [Read More]
Former UK Home Secretary to unveil statue commemorating Vietnamese victims
In an article on Politics Home, former UK Home Secretary Jack Straw writes about South Korea’s need to investigate rape and other atrocities inflicted by South Korean soldiers upon women during the Vietnam War. Despite Korea’s history of Japanese military sexual slavery, successive South Korean governments have refused to investigate their own military’s crimes against … [Read More]
SOAS conference: Colonialism and its Reverberations
A good half-day conference coming at the beginning of February. Check the event’s Facebook page or the SOAS website for updates. Colonialism and its Reverberations: ‘Comfort Women’ and Historical Revisionism in Korea and Japan Professor Yonson Ahn (University of Frankfurt), Professor Vladimir Tikhonov (University of Oslo), Professor Chong Yeonghwan (Meiji Gakuin University) 3 February 2018, … [Read More]
Korea – The Antifragile Kingdom
Editor’s note: every now and then Matthew Jackson submits a cracking article from out of nowhere. Here’s one such article which, if I may paraphrase, wonders whether maybe han is healthy. I hope it’s not too long before the next one! The author and philosopher Nicholas Nassim Taleb (of ‘Black Swan’ fame) developed a concept … [Read More]
The world’s first newspaper?
“Why did no one inform me that this was being made?” said King Seonjo (r. 1567–1608) on 28 November 1577. Concerned “that information about the court could potentially be circulated to wider circles in the elite” the king exiled the people responsible for the news-sheet. Jieun Choi of Korea Exposé has the fascinating story. Kim … [Read More]
Historical feature: Sejong of Korea – The Philosopher King
“There will be no end to the troubles of the state or indeed of humanity until philosophers become kings or until those we now call kings really and truly become philosophers.” This is one of the most famous quotations from Plato. It is taken from his work The Republic, which in attempting to set out … [Read More]
New Paju footbridge honours Glorious Glosters
I am grateful to the Association for the Study of Songun Politics UK for alerting me to the recent opening of a new bridge – the “Gloucester Heroes Bridge” – commemorating the role of British forces (and it was not just the Glosters, though they are the regiment who feature most prominently in the accounts) … [Read More]
The World’s First Referendum – and its aftermath
Korea is a country of hidden wonders. These wonders, which have remained hidden in some cases for centuries, are continually being unearthed. Many have something to teach us about the world we live in today. The Sillok – royal annals that documented every day of the Joseon dynasty for the five centuries it governed Korea … [Read More]
A surviving victim’s view on the Korea-Japan Comfort Women “deal”
In September this year 90 year old survivor of WW2 Japanese military sexual slavery Kim Bok-dong gave two public talks in London, at the Korean Cultural Centre and at Goldsmiths University. She said she had come, ‘not as a victim but as a human rights activist’, and explained that the surviving ladies were not just … [Read More]
Statements on the Comfort Women issue
Statements published jointly today by the Japanese and South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs aim to bring closure to the issue of wartime sexual slavery. The Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan also published a statement on the inter-governmental announcements, which says that the issue is by no means … [Read More]
In Korea, historical grievances last down the generations
Today’s Korea Times article, Man fined for obstructing ancestral rite, is nicely timed to ensure good behaviour over the Chuseok period. But the ancestral rite Mr Kim disrupted was not any old rite. This is a family grievance that goes back to 1453 and the reign of King Sejo: The court said Kim got into … [Read More]
Korea Post honours the Glosters
Lt Col James Power Carne of the Gloucestershire Regiment appears on a new Korean postage stamp, part of a set of ten issued to mark the 65th anniversary of the start of the war. The BBC regional website for Gloucestershire has the full story. [Read More]