[KS] [ASCK] Re: DPRKorea as seen from the socialist bloc in the 1950

Wed Apr 8 10:46:03 EDT 2009

Dear Henry,

Fair question. I had in mind Eric Sirotkin's post,  below.
Wondering who he was, I googled - and marvelled
that such dinosaurs still roam the earth in the  C21.
(His post here is merely one-sided, but the NLG  report
I cited is frankly beyond belief in my judgment.)

Cans of worms lie in wait here, and honorable  persons
may and do disagree. But I hope all of us concerned 
about Korea would ponder CWIHP's materials; and
also muse on the whole history of  fellow-travelling in
Western peace movements, going back to Stalin and Mao.

You will know far better than I, but my sense is that  this
wider history is not especially familiar in Korea -  where
I find many people don't even know that the author  of
1984 and Animal Farm was a socialist. One  could also
cite The Who: "Won't get fooled again."

I think you know what I mean.

Sincerely,
Aidan

____________________

In a message dated 4/5/2009 18:32:40 GMT Standard Time, sirotkin at igc.org  
writes:

Dear  Friends of Peace in Korea:

Please circulate this press release to any  outlets that you may be aware of
and send your own and letters to the  editor now!!! Thanks John Feffer and
ASCK for the great language from  Paragraph 2!  Now is the time for peace
must be the message! I am  doing some international news talk shows today.
Please try and get out now  to counter the weight of those calling for more
militarism. 

Eric  
Korean Peace Project - NLG

> 
> PRESS  RELEASE
>  
> Re: DPRK Satellite launch symptomatic of a need  for a peace treaty
> 
> Contact: Eric Sirotkin   eric at ubuntuworks.com and 541-778-4897 or 
541-210-5669.
>  
>  The Korean Peace Project of the National Lawyers Guild says that the 
launch  by
> North Korea should be responded to, not by threats and sanctions,  but by 
a
> renewed call for normalized relations and an end to the  Korean War. In 
1953
> the daily warfare was put on hold with an  Armistice Agreement that 
called for
> a peace treaty. None has ever been  signed and the US is forced to deal 
with
> issues like the launch or the  captured journalists through third party
> patchwork diplomacy and a  high level of mistrust on all sides.
>  
> North Korea has  signed the appropriate international protocols governing
> satellites  and given the proper notification. The UN resolution 
sanctioning
> North  Korea after its 2006 nuclear test does not explicitly forbid 
satellite
>  launches. That North Korea is attempting to abide by this resolution  
suggests
> that Pyongyang still wants to engage with the international  community. 
More
> than 158 countries have normalized relations with the  DPRK, including 
most
> countries, other than the US and South Korea,  that fought in the Korean 
War.
>  
> Chair of the Peace  Project, Eric Sirotkin, who has traveled several 
times to
> the DPRK and  the ROK, says ³It is time that the Korean conflict be 
restored to
> an  issue between the divided two nation states to be worked out without
>  outside interference. By normalizing relations and ending the Korean 
War,  we
> cannot only save substantial money in difficult times, but America  can 
model
> dialogue and building bridges, rather than diplomacy through  the barrel 
of a
> gun. By not cultivating an on-going, diplomatic  relationship, the U.S. 
and
> DPRK has only a dysfunctional relationship  based on misunderstanding and
> mistrust.² 
>  
> The  United States, despite the most difficult economic crisis in 75 
years,
>  annually spends billions of dollars maintaining the military defense of  
South
> Korea and this quasi-state of war in Korea. Despite the desire  for
> reunification between North and South Korea and extensive  formal
> reunifications efforts between the two governments, peace  remains 
elusive,
> according to Sirotkin, in large part due the  maintenance of a hostile
> relationship between the U.S. and the  DPRK.  He says, ³The failure to
> recognize the DPRK as a nation  and refusal to engage in the powerful 
tool of
> diplomacy, even with  nations with which we may have profound 
differences, lies
> at the core  of the instability in the region. You can¹t talk about 
nuclear
>  weapons, missiles and even human rights without relationship and with  an
> existing state of war.² 

______________

In a message dated 4/8/2009 15:21:15 GMT Standard Time, henryem at gmail.com  
writes:

Aidan, 

Could you be more specific about the one or two people on the ASCK list who 
 would benefit / be discomfitted by the CWIHP's  archives, and what you 
mean by that?   Thanks in advance.   

Henry Em 

On Wed, Apr 8, 2009 at 9:30 AM, <_Afostercarter at aol.com_ 
(mailto:Afostercarter at aol.com) >  wrote:

Dear Jakub,

Thanks for posting. What an interesting  topic!

You probably know already, or everyone will  reply
to your query and tell you, about  CWIHP:the
Cold War International History Project:
_http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=topics.home&topic_id=1409_

(http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=topics.home&topic_id=1409) 
(See the post below to this list from 2004, 
although NB the eddress has changed  since then.)

CWIHP has compiled at least two fascinating 
collections on North Korea  in the early years,
drawing mainly on reports from various east
European embassies in Pyongyang at the time:

_http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?topic_id=1409&fuseaction=va2.browse&s
ort=Collection&item=North%20Korea%20in%20the%20Cold%20War_ 
(http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?topic_id=1409&fuseaction=va2.browse&sort=Collection&it
em=North%20Korea%20in%20the%20Cold%20War) 

and

_http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?topic_id=1409&fuseaction=va2.browse&s
ort=Collection&item=The%20Korean%20War_ 
(http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?topic_id=1409&fuseaction=va2.browse&sort=Collection&item=The%20Korean%20W
ar)     

See also

_http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?topic_id=230972&fuseaction=topics.ite
m&news_id=474672_ 
(http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?topic_id=230972&fuseaction=topics.item&news_id=474672) 

I am copying this also to a few scholars with  similar
research interests, who may be able to help  further.

Finally, I take the liberty of copying in the  Association
of Scholars Concerned about Korea (_asck.org_ (http://asck.org/) ).  
Judging from recent posts, there are one or two people 
on that list who could benefit from reading and  pondering
CWIHP's archives, though it may discomfit them  somewhat.

For your part, I wonder what you would make of  this:
_http://www.nlg.org/korea/2003delegation_report.html_ 
(http://www.nlg.org/korea/2003delegation_report.html) 
Your broader research area is not yet history, it  appears!

I hope this is helpful. Good luck!

Easter greetings from England,

Aidan FC

Aidan  Foster-Carter 
Honorary  Senior Research Fellow in Sociology & Modern Korea, Leeds 
University   
Flat 1,  40 Magdalen Road, Exeter, EX2 4TE, UK 
T: (+44,  no 0)    07970 741307 (mobile);  01392 257753    (home) 
E: _afostercarter at aol.com_ (mailto:afostercarter at aol.com)    W: 
_www.aidanfc.net_ (http://www.aidanfc.net/)   Skype: Aidan.Foster.Carter  

Recent op-eds, etc: 
New! “Keep our powder dry for now – but prepare for a bumpy  landing”  
Scotsman, 6 April 2009. 
_http://news.scotsman.com/world/North-Korea-Analysis-Keep-our.5143520.jp_ 
(http://news.scotsman.com/world/North-Korea-Analysis-Keep-our.5143520.jp)    
New! “Fortress Korea remains off limits”.  Letter, Financial Times, 1 
April 2009 
_http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/296522aa-1e56-11de-830b-00144feabdc0.html_ 
(http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/296522aa-1e56-11de-830b-00144feabdc0.html)   
“Kim’s last chance to reform – and save his country”. Comment,  Financial 
Times, 11 February 2009  
_http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6c6d6fde-f77e-11dd-81f7-000077b07658.html_ 
(http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6c6d6fde-f77e-11dd-81f7-000077b07658.html)    

______________________

KS] "Inside North Korea": CWIHP Publishes Internal  Documents on North Korea
COLDWAR Project _COLDWAR1 at WWIC.SI.EDU _ 
(mailto:Koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws?Subject=[KS]%20"Inside%20North%20Korea":%20CWIHP%20Publishes%20Internal%20D
ocuments%20on
    North%20Korea&In-Reply-To=) 
Thu Jul 15 11:07:05 EDT  2004 

____________________________________

The Woodrow Wilson Center's Cold War International History Project 
(Christian F. Ostermann, director) has published dozens of formerly 
secret internal documents from the archives of North Korea's 
former Communist allies for the 1950-1988 period.
The documents are the result of a special effort by the Project to 
mine the archives of North Korea's former allies. The CWIHP Korea 
Initiative has been systematically exploring East European, Russian 
and (to a lesser extent) Chinese archives for insights into 
perceptions and policymaking in Pyongyang. The Korea Initiative 
presented its first findings at a workshop hosted in conjunction with
 George Washington University in March 2003 ("North Korea's Crisis 
Behavior, Past and Present: New Light from the Archives of its Former
 Allies"), at which leading Korea specialists from academia, research
 centers, and government agencies in the United States, the Republic 
of Korea and Eastern Europe provided a first analysis of the 
significance of the new documents on North Korea.  
The newly accessible documentation bears on such questions as North 
Korea's reaction to aid and external pressures, the internal workings 
of the Kim regime and the ideological prism of the North Korean 
leadership.
Included in the sensational collection are transcripts between 
Kim Il-Sung and Communist leaders, as well as dozens of embassy 
reports from European embassies in Pyongyang. 
The documents can be downloaded at no charge at 
_http://cwihp.si.edu,_ (http://cwihp.si.edu,/)  or a copy of the most 
recent CWIHP Bulletin 
can be obtained by emailing your full mail address to 
_coldwar1 at si.edu._ 
(http://koreaweb.ws/mailman/listinfo/koreanstudies_koreaweb.ws)  Please feel free to distribute this message.
Christian F. Ostermann,

Director, Cold War International History Project

Woodrow Wilson Center

_http://cwihp.si.edu_ (http://cwihp.si.edu/) 

_______________________
In a message dated 4/8/2009 13:26:32 GMT Standard Time, 
_postdali at gmail.com_ (mailto:postdali at gmail.com)  writes:

Dear  All  

It is my first time to write on this list. Please forgive me any  
misunderstandings or mistakes.

I am a Polish student in the Sociology Faculty of the Academy of  Korean 
Studies, Bundang in South Korea. I am writing an M.D. thesis about  the social 
influence and reception of the DPRKorea and Kimilsungism in  Poland in the 
1950s. It seems to be a very narrow topic yet it is still  interesting to 
track the materials in the stalinist Poland, and those  after the 1956, which 
show Pyongyang's communist government.

I have searched quite a bit and found materials and historical  sources, as 
well as the classic texts (books about North Korea in statu  nascendi), yet 
still I wonder maybe somebody knows any sources and/or  articles treating 
about the DPRKorea in the socialist countries, its  policy or propaganda, the 
way the DPRK was trying to achieve the goal of  reconstruction of the 
country and become independent of foreign  influences, and presenting itself 
abroad. 

I shall be very thankful for any suggestions concerning my thesis  topic.
Best regards
Jakub Paprocki

-- 

Henry Em
Associate Professor 
Dept of East  Asian Studies 
New York University 
715 Broadway, 3rd floor
New York,  NY.  10003

Cell:  734-846-2500
Office:  212-998-3826

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