[KS] ROK-Israel

[Balazs Szalontai]

Dear Jiyul, 
thanks a lot for this valuable information! I may add that Park Chung Hee's "The Country, the Revolution, and I" adopted a sort of non-committal attitude toward the Arab-Israeli dispute in the sense that he did express admiration of Israel's well-organized efforts to create a developed country in the middle of the desert, but at the same time he listed Egyptian President Nasser as one of his role models (Kemal Ataturk of Turkey and Ayub Khan of Pakistan being two others). This was quite in accordance with his diplomacy in the early and mid-1960s, for as early as this period, he sought to establish contacts with as many Third World states as possible. In 1961, both South and North Korea asked Egypt for the establishment of ambassadorial relations, but at that stage, the Egyptians felt it sufficient to establish only consulates-general.  
Alon Levkowitz wrote that the Israeli embassy in Seoul was closed in 1978 (see Levkowitz, "The Republic of Korea and the Middle East: Economics, Diplomacy, and Security," KEI Academic Papers Series 5:6, August 2010). 
All the best,
Balazs Szalontai
Kwangwoon University, Dept of International Studies



>________________________________
> From: Jiyul Kim <jiyulkim at gmail.com>
>To: Korean Studies Discussion List <koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws> 
>Sent: Friday, 29 March 2013, 11:23
>Subject: [KS] ROK-Israel
>  
>
>On additional related comment to follow up on my last - the MOFAT archive also contains the rather sordid record of ROK-Israeli relations. I can't go into detail as it's been a while since I saw the documents but essentially ROK dragged its heels in establishing a proper diplomatic mission physically located in Israel for so long after Israel set up its embassy that Israel threatened to close it embassy. It finally did in 1972 (the last record in my research time period) and reopened only in 1992. 
>
>The records make it clear that the situation was a mathematical:
    there were many Arab countries whose UN vote were sought while
    Israel only had one. This despite the fact that Israel was the first
    nation to offer assistance when the Korean War started, helped in
    starting the ROK defense industry in the late 60s,its fortified
    kibbutz system served as a model for strategic villages set up in
    Kangwondo in the late 60s-early 70s, and served as an inspirational
    national model for Park Chung Hee - a small country surrounded by
    big enemies but survived, became strong and rich and determined its
    own fate. The exact result Park wanted for SK as he often invoked in
    his speeches. The oil situation in the 1970s with the heavy industry
    program Park began probably exacerbated the divide since SK needed
    Middle Eastern oil.
>
>JK
>
>
>
>On 3/28/2013 3:45 PM, Yoo Kwang-On wrote:
> 
>New Documents on the Two Koreas and the Third World 
>>  
>>The North Korea International Documentation Project has recently obtained and translated more than sixty documents from Romanian and Hungarian archives on the struggle between North Korea and South Korea to gain diplomatic recognition from countries across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America. The documents are being made available to students, researchers, and interested readers through a collection entitled The Two Koreas and the Third World on the Wilson Center Digital Archive as part of a broader project on the history of inter-Korean relations supported by the ROK Ministry of Unification. 
>>  
>>The inter-Korean struggle took on global dimensions in the late 1970s and early 1980s following the failure of the inter-Korean dialogue (see the collections on the Inter-Korean Dialogue, 1971-1972 and the Demise of Detente in Korea, 1973-1975 for further information). Both Koreas sought allies and supporters across the globe and particularly among countries active in the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). In exchange for diplomatic recognition, North Korea and South Korea often provided economic aid, technical assistance, and military support to countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America. 
>>  
>>To explore the documents, click here to be redirected to the collection The Two Koreas and the Third World on the Wilson Center Digital Archive. 
>>  
>>The translation of these documents and others has been generously supported by the ROK Ministry of Unification. 
>>  
>>For more information, please see: http://bit.ly/WZg849.  
> 
>
>   
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