[KS] KSR 2000-06: _Korea Briefing 1997-1999: Challenges and Change at

[Stephen Epstein]

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_Korea Briefing 1997-1999: Challenges and Change at the Turn of the
Century_, ed. by Kongdan Oh. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2000. ix + 243 pp.,
glossary, index. ISBN 0-7656-0610-0 (hardcover), 0-7656-0611-9 (softcover).

Reviewed by Keith Howard
SOAS, University of London


	Published in co-operation with the Asia Society, and now under the
series editor Mai Shaikhanuar-Cota, Korea Briefing has now appeared for a
decade, first in annual instalments published by Westview, and now in
occasional versions from M. E. Sharpe. In each volume, the contribution
that to my mind has proved most valuable has been a chronology; here, in
the latest volume, it runs for 44 pages and charts, from the Asia Society's
U.S.-Korea Review, developments in North Korea (the DPRK) and South Korea
(the ROK) from May 1996 - July 1999. In earlier volumes, contributions were
a mixture of the topical and cultural, some tied to the year(s) preceding
publication, and some of a more general nature. This approach was crowned
with Korea Briefing 1993, where under the editorship of Donald N. Clark and
celebrating the U.S. Festival of Korea, articles addressed literature,
dance, music, Korean-American communities and the perceptions held by
Koreans of America (plus the inverse: American attitudes toward Korea), in
addition to discussions of policy, politics, and economy. In the 1993
volume, and in the first M. E. Sharpe volume, edited by David McCann,
contributors were a mixture of Americans and Koreans or Korean-Americans.

	The current volume has been written entirely by Koreans and
Korean-Americans, and with one exception addresses just issues from a
social science perspective. The justification, although not spelt out as
such, appears in a brief preface, where Marshall M. Bouton notes that the
volume focuses on the impact of the Asian financial crisis of 1997 and the
subsequent election of Kim Dae-Jung to the presidency of South Korea. The
problem with taking such a topical approach is that events will rapidly
overtake the accounts; by the time of publication, moves in North-South
rapprochement were already evident, Kim Dae-jung was facing difficult
National Assembly elections, and the impact of the 'IMF Era' was lessening
or at least changing.

	There are seven authors for the six large articles, comprising
(with institutional affiliations): Doowon Lee, Yonsei University, 'South
Korea's Financial Crisis and Economic Restructuring'; Byung-Kook Kim, Korea
University, 'The Politics of Crisis and a Crisis of Politics: the
Presidency of Kim Dae-Jung'; Gi Wook Shin and Kyung-Sup Chang, UCLA and
Seoul National University respectively, 'Social Crisis in Korea'; Youngna
Kim, Seoul National University, 'Korean Arts and Culture at the End of the
Twentieth Century'; Young Whan Kihl, Iowa State University, 'The DPRK and
its Relations with the ROK'; Hong Nack Kim, West Virginia University,
'Foreign Relations under the Kim Dae-Jung Government'. The editor, Kongdan
Oh, is research staff member at the Institute for Defense Analyses, a
non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and adjunct
professor at George Washington University. She offers a six-page
introduction. Each writer is highly respected in their academic fields.
Four pages at the end of the volume offer suggestions for further readings;
most are in English, and a few websites are included, although the
suggestions for Youngna Kim's chapter are all Korean sources in Korean.

	Doowon Lee's chapter is clear and full of facts, with diagrams,
mostly sourced from the Bank of Korea, illustrating the text. He begins
with the lead up to the 1997 crisis, then concentrates on government
efforts to restructure the economy, and the problems that these efforts
generated. But he ends in the first quarter of 1999, rather early given the
need to add conclusions. Plenty of comparative information is garnered,
looking at other Southeast Asian states in addition to Latin America and
Europe. He predicts a recovery, because of the 'Asian values' of high
savings and investment ratios, prudent fiscal policy, high educational
levels, and so on. To avoid a repeat experience, he argues-along standard
lines-for closer management of fiscal policy and the establishment of a
proper supervisory mechanism over financial institutions.

	We shift gear to Byung-Kook Kim's deeply critical review of South
Korea's political scene. His basic approach is that Kim Dae-Jung was only
successful in the presidential election because of the spectre of economic
collapse (page 37), and was able to consolidate his position because Kim
Young Sam was effectively sidelined for his last three months in office
(page 36). The Kim Young Sam administration is seen as reformist,
"bequeathing to its state ministries a coherent package of policy
strategies and instruments", somehow publicly blamed even after Kim
Dae-Jung engaged in a major U-turn to endorse these same structural reform
mechanisms (pages 42-43). Kim Dae-Jung, the "political outsider" (this is
one of Kim's recurrent themes), joins an institutional vacuum in which
politics is practiced without policy. Although the chapter is inspiring, I
have a few minor quibbles about Kim's characterisations; his claims, for
example, that anti-American sentiment was transitory and basically ended in
1991, or that Kim Young Sam effectively "relieved Kwangju of its han
(anguish) when Chun Doo Hwan and Roh Tae Woo were arrested in 1995" (pages
52-53) seem questionable.

	Gi-Wook Shin and Kyung-Sup Chang rely primarily on local media and
government statistics in their consideration of the impacts of economic
hardship following the 1997 crisis. Their paper offers a consideration of
how people have coped, despite the lack of an adequate state social system,
and how the impact has affected the poor and middle classes differently.
The authors seek a balance, in which Korean policy-makers are urged to
recognise that economic restructuring needs to be coupled to social reform
(page 99). The decline in moral well-being is claimed to be greater in
Korea than elsewhere in Asia (the authors demonstrate this through what
they call the "misery index"). Workers who were laid off, they say, often
suffered psychological dejection, while opinion polls show a decline in
national pride amongst the populace. Labour, although still trying to
activate workers, has found itself lacking the sympathy of both the general
public and the media; it is, as an activist force, at a crossroads (page
93).

	Youngna Kim offers an overview of art, concentrating on fine art,
literature, and film. She starts by arguing that Korean artists are now
part of global culture, concluding her initial overview with a throw-off
line: "suddenly everybody was talking and thinking about culture" (page
102). She ends with a query as to whether the identity of Korean culture
can be protected. The problem of local v. global is, of course, common in
today's world; often but elsewhere seen in terms of Western hegemony, it
would have been useful to hear from Kim how the Korean experience compares
with that of other developing or newly developed nations. Instead, she ends
with the anodyne comment that "Korean culture will be enriched, promising
greater enjoyment to all Koreans Korean culture is experiencing and coping
with new challenges as it surges forward to embrace the new millennium"
(page 122). Kim does not give her sources for many statements: Who, for
example, judged the Kwangju 1997 Biennale as meeting world standards for
its main exhibitions, but lacking conceptual consistency or artistic
variety in the eight special exhibitions (page 104), and what proof is
there that this did, as claimed, confuse visitors (page 105)? Who says that
the very worthy and comprehensive catalogue for the new Korean Gallery at
the Metropolitan Museum of Art has "virtually" become "the leading textbook
in English that the academic field of Korean art had lacked" (page 108)?
Can we accept without a detailed consideration the characterisation that
among the individualistic contemporary Orange-jok generation, "young women
were lured away with oranges and expensive cars" (page 112)? And, a year
on, the claim that the government aims to give "full support to the film
industry" seems dubious (page 113).

	I read Young Wahn Kihl's chapter in Pyongyang in April;
fortunately, no customs officer had found Korea Briefing in my luggage at
the airport. I would like to be critical of the article and argue for a
more positive view of North Korea and its policy than Kihl offers, but find
myself in agreement with most of what he says. However, as I write, a
summit between Kim Dae-Jung and Kim Jong Il is taking place, and perhaps,
despite the understandable pessimism of most commentators-and Kihl
included-the North might be preparing to change. Kihl nicely documents
shifting domestic policy, from "agriculture first, light industry first,
trade first" to "heavy industry first", and similarly discusses the North's
policy on security issues and diplomacy, given meat in a tripartite
characterisation of "Deny, if caught", "Brinkmanship, if provoked", and
"Encirclement, if the enemy hesitates". I might quibble over a couple of
minor points, about the "continuous push towards building a nuclear
capability" (page 133), or the conclusion that the North is still "poised
to launch a preemptive surprise attack on the South to unify the country by
force" (page 137). And, the founding anniversary of the Korean People's
Army is April 25, not April 26 as given. Overall, though, Kihl strikes a
suitable balance, even if untrusting of the North. His guarded conclusion,
that the verdict on Korea's future may not yet be in, is very much how it
looks a year on.

	The last chapter, by Hong Nak Kim, takes us to a broader
consideration of South Korea's foreign policy. Kim Dae-Jung is shown to be
pursuing a number of themes simultaneously, strengthening ties with the
United States, repairing relations with Japan, revitalising relations with
former socialist states including Russia and China, and reassuring North
Korea, through the Sunshine Policy, that no invasion is being planned.

	One final point about the volume. This concerns consistency in
romanisation. While, as with many other recent publications, the
diacriticals asked for in the McCune-Reischauer system are understandably
missing, it is not encouraging to find Toknip (Tongnip) and Jekuk (Cheguk)
by page 5. Similar adjustments throughout the book would have helped its
usefulness. And, where properly-romanised Korean texts are cited as
suggested readings for Youngna Kim's chapter at the end of the book, they
appear in different forms within her text (eg, Issip il segi munhak iran
mu-ot-inga and Issipilsegi Munhak-iran Muossinga).


Citation:
Howard, Keith 2000
Review of _Korea Briefing 1997-1999: Challenges and Change at the Turn of
the Century_, ed. by Kongdan Oh.
_Korean Studies Review_ 2000, no. 6
Electronic file:
http://www.mailbase.ac.uk/lists/korean-studies/files/ksr00-06.htm


Rob