South Korea's Information Revolution 1997-2007 A
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
THE MAKING OF A CYBORG SOCIETY: SOUTH KOREA'S INFORMATION REVOLUTION 1997-2007 A THESIS SUBMITIED TO THE GRADUATE DMSION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI'I IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN mSTORY MAY 2008 By Jonathan Clemens Thesis Committee: Theodore Y00, Chairperson Mark McNally ShanaBrown We certify that we have read this thesis and that, in om opinion, it is satisfactory in scope and quality as a thesis for the degree of Master of Arts in History. THESIS COMMITTEE ~~)fI1O ii Table of Contents Timeline .........................................................................................................iv Entering into a digital age... ........................................................................ .1 Introduction .............................•..................................................................... .3 Methodology ............................................................................................ 6 Historiography ......................................................................................... 9 Source Base ............................................................................................. 11 Summary .................................................................................................. 12 Chapter One: The Information Revolution .................................................... 15 Conceptualizing the Information Age ...................................................... 15 Chapter Two: Crisis and Reformation ...........................................................30 A Brief History of the IMF Crisis ..............................................•.....•.......30 Collapse and Opportunity ..........................•.............................................38 Focusing on Becoming First in the Information Age ..............................43 The Creation of a Digital Society ........................................................... .48 Chapter Three: The Transformation of South Korean Society ......................56 •A Society as Online as it is OfIline ........................................................56 The Dark Side of South Korean Internet .................................................71 Citizen Cybetjournalism: A Micro-history •............................................•85 Chapter Four: The Impact of Digital Society on South Korean Politics .......98 President Roh Moo-Hyun and Politics in the Information Age ..............•98 Cyberactivism .......................................................................................... 106 The Growing South Korean e-Govemment ............................................. 114 Spaces oflntemational Contestation ....................................................... 121 Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 131 Bibliography .................................................................................................. 136 iii Timeline of Events 1910 - Korea is officially annexed by Japan and enters into a period of colonial rule. In the years to come many Koreans, particularly government officials, blame the country's failure to maintain independence on its "late" arrival to the Industrial Age. 1945 - Colonial rule by Japan ends. United States enters the country and establishes an American-run military government. 1948 - Formal establishment of the South Korean nation. The United States relinquishes government control and withdraws from the area. 1950 - The Korean War begins. 1953 - The Korean War ends with an armistice, leaving North and South Korea at war with each other but not actively pursuing hostilities in the decades to come. Mass destruction of manpower, resources, and infrastructure during the conflict leaves South Korea destitute. In the aftermath of the war the United States establishes a large military presence in the area that has continued to the present day. 1961 - A period of military dictatorship begins when Park Chung-Hee seizes control of the government. 1962 - South Korea embarks upon a series of plans aimed at turning the country into a major industrial nation. These plans are largely successful and South Korea undergoes a major economic rise. 1987 - Massive student demonstrations finally culminate in the beginning of the Democratic Era of South Korean politics. 1993 - End of military rule. 1994 - Ministry of Information and Communication founded. - Plan for Korea Information Infrastructure aimed at building a oational broadband infrastructure established. 1995 - Framework Act on Infonnativrtion Promotion. 1997 - Asian Financial Crisis hits South Korea. The won undergoes a major devaluation, many major businesses collapse, unemployment mtes skyrocket, and the government is forced to intervene to keep a number of banking institutions from going out of business. 1998 - South Korea accepts an economic bailout package from the Interoational Monetary Fund (lMF). As a condition of the loan, South Korea is forced to enact a series of economic reforms. Massive changes to the country's economic structure take place in the following years. - South Korean government and business increasingly look towards digital technologies as a means to create future prosperity. - Popularity of digital technologies in South Korea rises dramatically. A pronounced Information Age culture begins to form. A large number of online communities pop in South Korean cyberspace. iv 1999 - Cyber Korea 21 (The Second Master Plan of Infonnatization Promotion). - Digital technologies begin to become a focus of South Korean nationalism. - Major increase in entlepxeneurship involving digital technologies. - Cyworld created in cyberspace, attracting large numbers of South Korean netizens. - Nosamo forms in cyberspace and begins online efforts to support politician Roh Moo-Hyun. - The number of mobile phone subscribers in South Korea surpasses the number of fixed line subscribers. 2000 - Master Plan to Promote e-Commerce established. - e-Document standard applied to all government agencies. - OhmyNews is created in cyberspace and begins to cause a shift in knowledge production standards within the country. - Government begins major initiatives to increase the presence of South Korean businesses online. 2001 - South Korea pays off its debt to the IMP ahead of schedule. Much of its economic recovery is attributed to digital technologies. 2002 - e-Korea Vision 2006 (The Third Master Plan of Infonnatization Promotion). - Center for Internet Addiction Prevention and Counseling founded over growing concerns regarding the social problem of online addiction. - Roh Moo-Hyun's successful presidential election is attributed to his support among online communities. 2003 - Roh Moo-Hyun assumes South Korean presidency. - Road Map for e-Government established, marking the beginning of a major government commitlnent towards moving politics into digital space. - Broadband IT KOREA VISION 2007 (Revision of the Third Master Plan ofinfonnatization Promotion). - Foreign corporations increasingly use South Korea as a testing ground for digital technologies due to the country's high level of digital culture. 2004 - Number of South Korean internet users exceeds 30 million. - m89 Strategy established. - New anti-prostitution laws cause sex workers to begin widespread operation in digital space. 2005 - Several major instances of cyberviolence cause concern within the society. - South Korean government launches interactive digital ombudsman service 2006 - u-KOREA Master Plan for the promotion of ubiquitous digital technologies established. - e-Commerce transactions in South Korea exceed $430 million. v 2007 - Real-Name System goes into effect on major South Korean message boards. - The Starcraft Pro-League Finals in Busan draws a crowd of70,OOO. - Samsung exceeds $100 billion in sales worldwide. - Lee Myung-Bok elected president of South Korea. vi Entering into a Digital Age... At 3 p.m. of December 19 2002, South Korean presidential hopeful Roh Moo-Hyun was behind in the exit polls. It wasn't much of surprise, as Roh was not expected to win. His liberal politics had drawn huge amounts of criticism from the traditionally conservative South Korean news media and he had few financial backers among the country's business elite. His primary opponent Lee Hoi-Chang, the candidate of the Grand National Party, was a former Prime Minister and Supreme Court judge. Roh's credentials as a former National Assembly member and Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries were less impressive. Even worse, Roh's election partner Chung Mong-Joon, another presidential candidate with whom he had entered into a coalition in order to draw more conservative votes, suddenly withdrew his endorsement on the night before the election. Many onlookers saw this as the death knell for Roh's already dark horse campaign. They were wrong. Roh had one thing that Lee did not: widespread support amongst South Korea's internet communities. Roh had campaigned extensively online and had garnered major backing from internet users in their 20s and 30s. In a country increasingly active within and focused upon digital technologies this formed a significant percentage of the population. During the Roh campaign traffic to the website of his political fan club averaged roughly 300,000 visitors per day.l On Election Day that number more than doubled to 860,855.2 As word I I'm referring to Nosamo. which I discuss in detail in chapter four. z '16th Presidential Election'