[KS] New Documents on the Two Koreas and the Third World, The North Korea International Documentation Project, Wilson Center
Jiyul Kim
jiyulkim at gmail.com
Thu Mar 28 21:49:50 EDT 2013
This is a wonderful development. It is amazing how much stuff we are
able to get from East European archives and now easily accessible
through the admirable endeavors of CWIHP or NKIDP. This posting also
prompted me to raise another archival source on many of these "goodwill
missions."
A short aside: I first explored the ROK Foreign Ministry archive in
2003. At that time there were only two microfilm copies available in the
world for public access: IFANS archival room (Institute for Foreign
Affairs and National Security, part of ROK MOFAT) and the ROK National
Assembly library. Harvard's Yenching Library was able to purchase a set
in early 2004. At that time the set only covered up to 1972 as MOFAT
annually reviewed documents reaching the 30 year review point for
declassification and would release them at the beginning of the year
(1972 released in 2003 and so forth). I have not worked this archive
since 2005 (when 1974 material was released) and assume that the
collection now goes up to 1982. I wrote a description of this source in
Choong Nam Yoon, ed. /Studies on the Korean Materials in the
Harvard-Yenching Library /(Kyongin, 2004).
I mention this source because I came across MOFA records of these
goodwill missions. They actually started in mid/late 1960s rather than
late 1970s. I do not have references to trips after 1972 as that was the
end point of my own research. The MOFA records also had folders for NK
missions though I can't be sure how comprehensive they are. A comparison
with the now available Romanian and Hungarian sources should clarify.
Below is an excerpt describing these trips and the MOFAT archival
reference from a book by Sheila Miyoshi Jager that will come out in July
(/Brothers at War: The Unending Conflict in Korea/, Norton in the U.S.;
Profile Books in the UK). It comes from a chapter titled "Legitimacy
Wars." She used my collection of these documents. The text here is not
the final and is NOT released for use beyond the Korean Studies
Discussion List community nor can they be referenced or reproduced
without permission until the book is published
Jiyul Kim
Oberlin, Ohio
As the Park regime's political stars rose rapidly by the end of 1966 due
to the Vietnam War and the normalization treaty with Japan, the battle
for legitimacy also took on an international dimension as Park began to
directly challenge Kim in the forum of world opinion.Both leaders
engaged in diplomatic wars to secure support for their regime in the
form of special goodwill missions which crisscrossed the continents and
oceans."The Korean Question" of establishing a unified and democratic
Korea through peaceful means had been an agenda item since 1947, but it
took on far more significance by the mid-1960s due to the wave of
decolonization and new member states after World War II.[i] <#_edn1>From
51 member states at its founding in 1945, the UN had expanded to 122 by
1966.[ii] <#_edn2>South Korea saw the UN as the most important venue for
settling the Korea question and gaining its legitimacy by becoming a
full member of the world organization.[iii] <#_edn3>Thus, starting in
1966, South Korea made extraordinary efforts to garner the maximum
number of votes for the UN resolution by dispatching good will missions
worldwide, but in particular to young nations in Asia, Africa, the
Middle East, and Latin America.North Korea countered with missions of
its own starting in 1968 albeit at a smaller scale.Sometimes a keystone
cops like scene took place when a South Korean mission would arrive just
as a North Korean mission was departing or vice versa.[iv] <#_edn4>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[i] <#_ednref1>Republic of Korea Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade
Archives (MOFAT): C21/F6/134, Oct 1967.The format for referencing MOFAT
archival material, available only in microfilm format is: microfilm roll
#/File #/Frame#, date.
[ii] <#_ednref2>Each year the UN General Assembly reaffirmed through
overwhelming majority its support through "The Korean Question"
resolution "Growth in United Nations membership, 1945-present,"
http://www.un.org/en/members/growth.shtml, accessed 15 Mar 2011.
[iii] <#_ednref3>See resolutions passed in 1965 and 1966: UN General
Assembly, 20th Session (Sep-Dec 1965), Resolution 2132 (XX) "The Korean
Question," 21 Dec 1965; and UN General Assembly, 21^st Session (Sep-Dec
1966), Resolution 2224 (XXI) "The Korean Question," 19 Dec 1966,
http://www.un.org/documents/resga.htm, accessed 15 Mar 2011.
[iv] <#_ednref4>MOFAT: the following selected archival references to
ROK/DPRK goodwill missions in 1967, 1968, 1970, and 1972 provide a good
overview of the scale and variety of these missions especially those
from South Korea.
/1967 ROK Goodwill missions:/C21/F6/1-146 (Middle East), 17 Oct-7 Nov
67; C21/F7/1-372 and C21/F8/1-135 (East Africa) 24 Aug-5 Oct 67;
C21/F9/1-382 (West Africa) 23 Aug-29 Sep 67; C22/F1/1-132 (Southeast
Asia) 13 Aug-9 Sep 67; C22/F2/1-39 (Central America) 16-26 Oct 67.
/1968 ROK Goodwill missions:/C27/F4/1-111 (North Africa) 22 Jan-1 Feb
68; C27/F5/1-236 (South/Southeast Asia) 19 Aug-11 Sep 68; C27/F6/1-417
(Middle East) 1-31 Aug 68; C27/F7/1-184 (Central America) 1-24 Aug 68;
C27/F8/1-258 (East Africa) 1 Aug-8 Sep 68; C27/F9/1-284 (West Africa) 1
Aug-1 Sep 68.
/1968 DPRK Goodwill missions:/D6/F18/1-15 (Africa) 7 Nov-19 Dec 68;
D6/F19/1-216 (Southeast/Southwest Asia) 15 Jun-1 Aug 68.
/1970 ROK Goodwill missions:/C41/F5/1-66 (Middle East, Cyprus) 19 Jul-6
Aug 70;C41/F6/1-155 (Latin America) 23 Jul-15 Aug 70; C41/F7/1-23 (East
Africa) 25 Jul-19 Aug 70; C41/F8/1-62 (West Africa)_23 Jul-17 Aug 70.
/1970 DPRK Goodwill mission:/D8/F31/1-142 (Africa) 22 Jan-24 Feb, 27
Jun-5 Aug 70.
/1972 ROK Goodwill missions:/C56/F9/1-221 and C56/F10/1-219 (Asia) 8-23
Jul 72; C56/F10/1-189 (Middle East) 5-21 Dec 72; C57/F11/1-66 (West
Africa) 5-18 Dec 72; C57/F5/1-209 (North Europe, Ethiopia) 4-18 Aug 72.
/1972 DPRK Goodwill missions:/C56/F10/1-219 (ROK discussion of NK
missions to East Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia).
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
> <http://digitalarchive.org/collection/146/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
> <http://www.digitalarchive.org/collection/124/inter-korean-dialogue-1971-1972> and
> the Demise of Detente in Korea, 1973-1975
> <http://www.digitalarchive.org/collection/126/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
> <http://digitalarchive.org/collection/146/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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