London Korean Links

Covering things Korean in London and beyond since 2006

Death of the worlds oldest company

A Japanese company which, according to the Chosun Ilbo, has its roots in Korea, is to go into liquidation in January 2007. The company, temple builder Kongo Gumi, was founded in 578. Links: Family Business list of the world’s oldest companies Time Magazine article (Feb 2004) Kongo Gumi website [Read More]

Susie Younger: Never ending flower

Susie Younger: Never ending flower Collins Harvill, 1967 To describe this book as a memoir of a Catholic missionary in South Korea in the early 1960s, while factually correct, undersells it. Yes, the author is a person of deep Christian faith, but her work in Korea is more that of a social worker than evangelist. … [Read More]

The passing of a Korean war veteran

From a recent obituary in the Telegraph: Vice-admiral Sir Charles Mills, who has died (on July 27) aged 91, was a talented staff officer whose one chance of independent command came in the destroyer Concord during the Korean War. In the course of six patrols over 95,000 miles with Dutch and New Zealand ships of … [Read More]

Alternative takes on Independence Day

The Chosun Ilbo provides some interesting alternative takes on Independence Day. It’s not just the day that Koizumi visited the Yasukuni shrine again, or when Koreans held anti-American demonstrations. First, the event was marked in Japan, as it has for the past 16 years, by a “Concert for Peace” given by the Tokyo Phil, this … [Read More]

Mark Clifford: Troubled Tiger

(M.E. Sharpe / Routledge 1998) Chronicles the modern history of Korea from the 1960s to the mid-90s, focusing on the drive for economic growth and the control exerted by the Blue House over the direction of the economy. Clifford gives us a politically balanced view, emphasising the successes of Park Chung-hee, but not shrinking from … [Read More]

Saemaeul Movement Goes International

I’m in the middle of reading Mark Clifford’s book Troubled Tiger, a history of the Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan era focusing on the connectedness between businessmen, generals and politicians. A brief review will be coming soon (here). While much of the growth-driven development was geared towards heavy industry and the export market, there was … [Read More]

Book Review: Admiral Yi Sun-sin

Admiral Yi Sun-sin: A brief overview of his life and achievements Korean Spirit and Culture Promotion Project, 2006 A quick and easy read setting out the achievements of Admiral Yi in the Imjin war against Japan. As well as telling Yi’s story (sometimes using Yi’s own war diary and memorials to the throne), the book … [Read More]

Chae Man-sik: Peace Under Heaven

English Translation by Chun Kyung-ja: ME Sharpe, 1993. Originally published as 태평천하 in 1938 An entertaining comedy chronicling a day or so in the life of a lecherous, foul-mouthed nouveau riche landlord. It captures a snapshot of Seoul under Japanese colonial occupation, but the Japanese impinge very little on the narrative. The book has larger … [Read More]

Admiral Yi enters cyberspace in history book fightback

The Admiral who gave the Japanese a bloody nose in the Imjin War has no fewer than three websites to his name: www.koreanischerheld.com exclusively for German readership, www.koreanpatriot.net for a multilingual audience (including English), and www.koreanhero.net which is an html version of a glossy book on his achievements. He himself can be contacted, through some timewarp … [Read More]

War & Democracy: A Comparative Study of the Korean War and the Peloponnesian War.

David McCann & Barry Strauss (eds) (ME Sharpe, 2001) Crazy title, seemingly of limited readership: ancient historians also interested in modern East Asian history (or vice versa). But it’s a fascinating collection of articles. “How like Alcibiades was General MacArthur?” asks one article… Read a grown-up review of this book over at the Korean Studies … [Read More]

Paul French: North Korea – the paranoid peninsula

(Zed, 2005) Highly readable and wide-ranging book on North Korea. Describes clearly some of the eccentricities of the regime, such as the Sinuiju economic zone, and describes clearly for the benefit of non-economists how it is that a rigid centrally-planned economy is doomed to fail. Links: Buy North Korea: The Paranoid Peninsula at Amazon [Read More]