[KS] Re: Statement re. Prof. Choi Jang-jip / Choson Ilbosa

Thu Nov 19 11:22:56 EST 1998

Dear Frank,

I will sign the statement you sent us. Could you tell me Professor Em's
e-mail address?

With best wishes,

Sungjong Paik

Dr Sungjong Paik
Seminar fuer Sinologie und Koreanistik der Universitaet
Tuebingen/Germany
Tel. +49-7071-2972724, Fax: +49-7071-295734
E-mail: sungjong.paik at uni-tuebingen.de 

--------------------------------------------------
Frank Hoffmann wrote:
> 
> Hi all!
> 
> Henry Em (still in Seoul) asked me post the following statement regarding
> the controversity  surrounding Prof. Choi Jang-jip and the Choson Ilbosa to
> the list.
> Another joint statement in this respect, drafted and signed by Gi-Wook
> Shin, John Duncan, James Palais, Carter Eckert, and others has already
> received quite some attention in Korea.
> 
> Frank
> 
> ____________BEGIN__________________
> 
> Statement on the Controversy Surrounding
> Prof. Choi Jang-jip (to be released by Nov. 22)
> 
> We are deeply concerned about the continuing
> controversy surrounding Professor CHOI Jang-jip's
> academic writings on the Korean War, and the
> possibility that the resurgence of Cold War thinking
> will undermine the democratic gains that the Republic
> of Korea has made in the past decade.   The
> controversy sparked by the Novemer issue of Wolgan
> Choson, which painted Professor Choi as being
> pro-North Korea, has cast a pall over efforts to
> broaden the democratic discourse in South Korea.
> 
> We welcome the November 11th ruling by the Seoul
> District Court ordering Choson Ilbo to desist from
> further attacks against Professor Choi Jang Jip,
> Chairman of the Presidential Commission on Policy
> Planning.  This court ruling is a step in the right
> direction for several reasons.  On the one hand, the
> ruling clearly reaffirmed the importance of the
> freedom of the press, and the press's right to
> subject government officials to public scrutiny.  On
> the other hand, this ruling provides an important
> precedent for how that public scrutiny should be
> carried out.  Pointing to the fact that under South
> Korean law, any South Korean citizen who gives
> support to or praises enemy organizations (i.e.
> North Korea) can be prosecuted for violation of
> the National Security Law, the Seoul District
> Court has made it clear that the press, especially
> when raising ideological issues, must be fair and
> accurate, and that great care should be taken
> before describing any public or private figure as
> being sympathetic to North Korea, or having a
> leftist tendency, .
> 
> We welcome the recent ruling by the Seoul
> District Court which found that the November
> issue of Wolgan Choson distorted Professor
> Choi's writings on the Korean War.  Quotations
> were taken out of context to paint Professor Choi
> as a leftist intellectual who views North Korea in a
> positive light.  We feel that this kind of red-baiting
> hampers academic freedom and the strengthening
> of democratic institutions.  We hope that this
> ruling will provide the impetus for broadening the
> spectrum of academic and public discourse in the
> Republic of Korea, moving beyond the kind of
> Cold War logic which brought about so much
> suffering and pain to the Korean people.
> 
> _______________END_______________
> 
> Press Conference:  "Joint-Statement on
> Academic Freedom in Korea"
> 
> 243 Royce Hall, UCLA  1:00 PM.
> October 30,1998.
> 
> Read by:
> Professor John Duncan (EALC, UCLA)
> Professor Gi-Wook Shin (Sociology, UCLA)
> 
> Joint-Statement on Korean Academic Freedom
> 
> We, scholars of Korean studies outside Korea,
> are deeply concerned.... [rest of text deleted - see
> earlier message for the complete text]
> 
> Signed by:
> 
> Name           Position         University
> 
> 1)   Robert Buswell, Director, Center for
>      Korean Studies, Professor and Chairman,
>      Dept. of East Asian Languages and
>      Cultures, UCLA
> 2)   Chungmoo Choi, Professor of East Asian
>      Studies, Dept. of East Asian Languages
>      & Literature, University of California,
>      Irvine
> 3)   Kyeong-Hee Choi, Professor of Korean
>      Literature, Department of East Asian
>      Languages and Civilizations, University
>      of Chicago
> 4)   Donald N, Clark, Professor of History
>      Trinity University
> 5)   Alain Delissen, Professor, Ecole des
>      Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales,
>      Centre Coree
> 6)   John Duncan, Professor of Korean History,
>      Dept. of East Asian Languages and Cultures/
>      Dept. of History, UCLA
> 7)   Carter J, Eckert, Professor of Korean
>      History, Director, Korean Institute.
>      Harvard University.
> 8)   Ross King, Professor of Korean, University
>      of British Columbia
> 9)   B.C. Koh, Professor of Political Science
>      University of Illinois at Chicago.
> 10)  Hong Yung Lee, Professor of Political
>      Science Director, Center for Korean
>      Studies, University of California,
>      Berkeley.
> 11)  John Lie, Professor of Sociology,
>      Dept. of Sociology, University of Illinois
>      at Urbana-Champaign,
> 12)  David R. McCann, Professor of Korean
>      Literature, Harvard University.
> 13)  Dennis McNamara, Professor of Sociology
>      Georgetown University
> 14)  Hyung Il Pai, Professor of History and
>      East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies.
>      University of California, Santa Barbara
> 15)  James Palais, Professor of History
>      University of Washington.
> 
> _______________________
> Henry H. Em
> Assistant Professor,
> UCLA - Dept. of East Asian Lang. & Cultures
> 
> mailing address until Dec. 31, 1998:
> c/o Asiatic Research Center, Room 303
> Korea University,
> Anam-dong, Sungbuk-gu,
> Seoul 136-701,  Korea
> 
> Tel:  82(country code)-2-780-6185 (ho)
> Fax:  82-2-780-7014
> Tel:  82-2-923-8702,  Ext. #126  (of)

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