Volume 10 | Issue 7 | Number 3 | Article ID 3691 | Feb 11, 2012 The Asia-Pacific Journal | Focus

Transcending Boundaries, Embracing Others: Nationalism and in Modern and Contemporary 越 境、他者の抱擁−−近現代コリアの国民主義と超国民主義

Vladimir Tikhonov

the main discursive force behind the creation of an all-inclusive democratic vision of modern Transcending Boundaries,“Koreanness”. From the very beginning of the Embracing Others: Nationalism and modern age, defining all as first and Transnationalism in Modern and foremost Koreans became possible precisely in the nationalist context. Contemporary Korea1 Another aspect of nationalism’s pivotal role in Vladimir Tikhonov Korea’s modern age is its function as the guardian of Korea’s modern identity against Nationalist internationalism in modern Korea external challenges. ’s official ideology of chuch’e, so often discussed in the If we wish to define Korea’s twentieth century Western media, owes much of its legitimacy in in a word, “the century of nationalism” would the eyes of the North Korean population (and be the most plausible definition.2 From the its few isolated South Korean sympathisers) perspective of Korea’s internal socio-political exactly to its (not necessarily unfounded) claim situation, nationalism, as Andre Schmid aptly to protect an essentialized “Koreanness” from observed, from the very beginning provided the all foreign threats, notably those originating in legitimising framework for the modern concept the “imperialist” countries. But the spectrum of of equal, universal citizenship. Former slaves, a defensive, self-protective nationalism is much members of discriminated hereditary broader in modern and contemporary South professional groups (butchers etc.), women – all Korea than its contemporaneous North Korean were to be accepted as equal “nationals” since variety. As modernity’s onslaught, in the form national salvation, prosperity and eventual of imperialist invasions, the almost greatness required national cohesion and 3 uncontrolled influx of foreign goods, cultural everyone’s contribution to the national cause. forms and ideas, seemed to endanger the very is hardly a popular concept foundations of “Koreanness”, nationalism came now anywhere, including (which, to be seen as an essential condition for the at least in theory, switched from the early survival of any collective “Korean” identity – 2000s to multiculturalism, and strives now to one might say as an existential necessity, as integrate its ethnic minority populations), but, fate. as Henry Em argues, the concept of Korea’s ethnic nation (minjok) did possess democratic Every socio-political, cultural or religious trend meaning in the early twentieth-century context. that would enter Korea and develop there had The historiography which focused on the to “nationalise” in order to exert societal progressive development of the ethnic nation influence. In a way, both Communists and was able to do away with traditional patterns of right-wing cultural nationalists, who sometimes dynastic history.4 In a word, nationalism was collaborated but mostly sharply clashed in

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1920-30s colonial Korea, were to some degree construction projects, all-out war mobilization, nationalists. They just adhered to different modernized Confucian rituals and state- visions of nation, the Communist one closely promoted “physical culture” and sports linking national liberation with the prospects (“nationalization of the body”), was perhaps the for socio-economic liberation for the majority.5 most important prototype of Chong Hee’s In the same way, in the stormy late 1980s – own version of the developmental barrack early 1990s, when streets were filled state.10 Another main protagonist of with acrid tear gas and expert knowledge of the authoritarian industrialization drama, technology and use of Molotov cocktailSamsung’s (Samsŏng) founder Yi Pyŏngch’ŏl production was de rigeur for any self- (1910-1987), famed for his annual New Year respecting activist college student, twovisits to Tokyo, largely copied the way pre-war versions of the nationalist creed clashed – Mitsui organized itskeiretsu (networked establishmentarianism of a conservativecompanies) in a vertical order in his own developmentalist sort, and anti-business empire.11 establishmentarian underpinned by anti- imperialist zeal, passion for building a pan- While for 1960-80s South Korea it was mainly peninsular nation state (“Unification”) and Japan that played the roles both of a competitor social concern.6 The two versions shared to surpass and a model to follow, North Korea’s certain similarities – a militaristic view of relations with its foreign Others were more masculinity, for example, and a predominantly complex. In fact, by the late 1960s, both China ethnic, “bloodline”-based concept of nation.7 and the USSR, North Korea’s main foreign These were among the common denominators patrons, became simultaneously positive and for South and North Korean versions of negative models for the Pyongyang leadership. developmentalist nationalism which crystallized Both Cultural Revolution and de-Stalinization à by the early 1970s. Both were militantly anti- la Khrushchev were to be prevented at all individualistic and essentially culturallycosts, since they could threaten the stability of 12 conservative, and both were underpinned by the indigenous power hierarchy. In fact, the the modernized version of the Neo-Confucian foreign people mentioned in the most positive ethical codes.8 way in the official Explanations to Kim Il Sung’s (Kim Ilsŏng, 1912-1994) report to the Fifth Where they significantly differed – aside from Congress of the ruling Korean Workers’ Party more autarkic economic ideals in Pyongyang (1971), were the “struggling” Vietnamese, and Seoul’s firm intention to integrate itself Laotians and Kampucheans – the fellow victims into a US and Japan-centred international and of US aggression. regional capitalist order – was the international models adopted by each nationalism, that is, the pictures of foreign Others through which they tended to define themselves. South Korea’s President Park Chong Hee (Pak Chŏnghŭi, 1961-1979) tended to look to Meiji Japan, post-war West Germany and, interestingly, Israel, as sources for his developmentalist aspirations.9 Less acknowledged, but no less important was Park’s Manchurian connection from the early 1940s – Manchuguo, with its five-year development plans, state-controlled large-scale

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Indochina, although Palestine was also specially mentioned), Africa and Latin America helped Kim Il Sung give the impression of lesser reliance upon China and the USSR, with whom North Korea maintained close ties.

Learning from Others, Solidarity with Others

While South Korea’s official nationalism operated with images of foreign Others as models, North Korea’s state discourse emphasized solidarity with fellow victims of imperialism – and fellow antagonists of imperialism. What is noteworthy here is the Kim Il Sung meeting Che Guevara in Pyongyang, fact that both ways of treating the images of December 1960. Support for the Cuban revolution, foreign Others is deeply ingrained in the together with a variety of other anti-imperialist modern Korean nationalistic tradition. Big movements in the Third World, was a major issue for powers (especially Japan, US or Germany) and North Korean diplomacy at that time. small but independent states (Switzerland or Their struggle was understood to be waged in Denmark) alike were treated as models from the name of world peace and for the protection the late nineteenth century by Korea’s of the whole socialist camp – thus, one of the modernist intelligentsia – and at the same time most important tasks of “South Koreanthe plight and struggle of Vietnam or the revolutionaries” was to stop the Park Chong Philippines were deeply sympathised. The Hee “puppet clique” from sending “cannon cases in which the independence struggle fodder” (South Korean troops) to Southseemed to have been long lost – typically Vietnam.13 When Park began in earnest to send Poland – were negative models. Korea, if it was South Korean military units to South Vietnam to survive, had to strugglenot to follow 16 in 1965, North Korea issued a lengthyPoland’s example. What has to be noted here memorandum (January 22, 1965) whichis that “benchmarking” Japan did not accused the “Park clique” of complicity with automatically indicate a pro-Japanese stance. the “insidious American plot to make Asians Bona fide anti-Japanese patriots too had good fight other Asians in the course of expanding reasons to turn to Japan in their search for the US aggressive wars in Asia.”14 While South secrets of proverbial “wealth and power”. Korea was participating in the American Enemies or not, the Japanese in Meiji and after invasion of Vietnam, in 1967 North Korea visibly succeeded in fending off foreign expressed solidarity with the embattled adversaries, something Korean patriots had Vietnamese by sending a number of pilots from reason to aspire to . A renowned patriot, who the Korean People’s Liberation Army (Northern later would voluntarily exile himself to China Korean army) to North Vietnam to provide and devote the rest of his life to the political training and to participate in combatstruggle for Korea’s liberation, Pak Ŭnsik operations alongside the pilots of the People’s (1859-1925), contrasted in his famed 1908 Army of Vietnam.15 Liberation of South Vietnam article, “Literary Weakness Destroys a and South Korea were understood to be the Country”, the Japanese bushido – which, he mutually interconnected tasks of the same assumed, had its roots as early as the order. More attention to diverse anti-Kamakura period – to Korea’s lamentable imperialist revolutionaries in Asia (especially “literary weakness” (munyak). Armed with their

3 10 | 7 | 3 APJ | JF bushido spirit, the Japanese managed to Hwang Yundŏk (1874-?), a minor central develop modern education, patriotic and bureaucrat (in 1906-1907, a sixth-seventh rank collectivist spirit in less than thirty years, and official at the Ministry of Court) published then gloriously defeated China and .17 Bismarck’s biography as a separate volume. That was the picture of Japan’s modern history Hwang’s biography, a bestseller in its day, with which many modernist intellectuals in made “Bismarck” a household name among Korea accepted in the early twentieth century, Korea’s modernists and popularized the regardless of political affiliation. Indeed, expression ch’ŏrhyŏl chŏngch’aek (Steel and bushido enjoyed high popularity in Korea – Blood Policy) – which Hwang defined as ironically, on the eve of full-blown Japanese “seeking peace and prosperity by expanding colonization. As Korea’s fledgling nationalists state’s might” and thoroughly distinguished searched for ways to formulate Korea’sfrom what he saw as the more “reckless” volkgeist, bushido presented an attractive imperialism of Alexander the Great and model of a “national spirit” fit to compete in the Napoleon.22 Neither Pak nor Hwang, however, modern world’s Darwinian jungles.18 Every had to read German or even English to nation was believed to possess a “spirit” of its compose a biography of Bismarck. Both most own, but Japan’s Yamato damashii and bushido, likely translated, in differently rearranged and which enabled it in less than 40 years to abridged form, Sasakawa Kiyoshi’s (1872-1946) become a world-class power, was “peerless”.19 influential 1899 biography of Bismarck.23 The Japan’s expansion was the major problem contexts in which Bismarck was represented in Korea’s patriotic intelligentsia would confront – Japan and Korea were patently different, the but at the same time, Japan’s modernforemost interest of Korean readers of experiences provided a solution as well.Bismarck’s biographies being to save their Imperial Japan’s ideologies continued to country from impending doom than to rebuild it inspire South Korea’s ruling elite until the early into a Germany-like military power. Certain 1990s in its attempts to build an anti-aspects of these representations, however, individualistic, militaristic ethos – in a way, a could not but overlap. For example, both modernized version of the Neo-Confucian Japanese and Koreans had reasons to admire ethical codes – for the post-colonialthe centralized system of popular education in developmental state.20 Bismarckian Germany, with its potential to instil statist patriotism in people’s minds. Being a model in itself, Japan also played the Bismarck, with his image of the modern-day role of a powerful cultural intermediary, able to “sage founder of a state”, became an icon of supply knowledge-hungry Korean intellectuals “model” statehood in early modern Korea. with global – in most cases Western – models of individual and national excellence. One good Another famed Japanese biography of a example is the channel through which Otto von “modern hero” that captured the imagination of Bismarck (1815-1898) – one of the most Korea’s educated youth in the early twentieth popular role models in early twentieth-century century, was Fukuyama Yoshiharu’s 1900 Korea – became known to Koreans. After a biography of George Washington (1732-1799).24 certain Pak Yonghŭi, probably a Korean student It appeared in Chinese translation in 190325 and in Japan, serialized his Biography of Bismarck was subsequently rendered by a famed “new (Pisamaek Chŏn) in the monthly T’aegŭk Hakpo novel” author, Yi Haejo (1869-1927), into (March 1907 – May 1907) published by Korean Korean.26 Both Chinese and Korean translators students in Japan, and emphasized Bismarck’s of the text – the Korean translator seemingly implementation of “state socialism” owed a good deal to his Chinese colleague’s (rudimentary forms of a welfare system),21 earlier rendering27 – are assumed to have been

4 10 | 7 | 3 APJ | JF interested in the more revolutionary version of Vietnam-French relations etc. Liang Qichao political modernity that George Washington’s was perhaps the most popular contemporary “righteous uprising against British king’s greed foreign writer in early twentieth-century Korea, and oppression” was understood to represent. and his involvement with the book undoubtedly Another important reason, however, why this increased its popularity and readership. The biography is worth reading, is the appearance – book was partly serialized in daily Hwangsŏng if in passing – of a new, heterogeneous element Sinmun (August 28 – September 5, 1906) and which most biographies of “great” Europeans then translated, as Wŏllam Mangguk Sa, into popular in early twentieth-century Korea did mixed Sino-Korean script by Hyŏn Ch’ae not display – namely, the “aborigines” t’oin( ), (1856-1925), a professional Chinese interpreter against whom George Washington waged a who did not forget to add to the translated brutal campaign in 1755-1758, and whose land volume Liang Qichao’s 1904 essay, "Japan’s he, as an official surveyor earlier, worked to Korea", in which Korea under Japanese appropriate. In Yi’s rendering of Fukuyama’s protectorate was aptly compared to Japan’s book, the “aborigines” were “savage people first formal colony, Taiwan.31 It was fully whose main business was murder”.28 Battles evident that both for Hyŏn Ch’ae and his against them seemed an essential part of the readers the plight of colonial Vietnam was proverbial mission civilisatrice. However, could both analogy and allegory for the sad fate not Koreans, facing the impending threat of awaiting their own country. One of the ways to Japanese colonization, find touching similarities prevent Korea from becoming a “second in the plight of other colonized peoples across Vietnam” was to spread patriotic awareness the globe? American Indians, seen by most through popularizing the narrative of Vietnam’s modern Korean intellectuals who bothered to enslavement. This task was to be performed by write on them as simply “savage” casualities of two translations of the book into pure evolution, did not elicit much sympathy in the vernacular, by Chu Sigyŏng (1876-1914) and Yi Korean modernist elite. Some other,Sang’ik (both were published in 1907, by presumably more “civilized” peoples of Asia, Seoul’s Pangmun Sŏgwan and Hyŏn Kongnyŏm however, were seen through a different prism. respectively). Vietnam’s destruction through the weakness and corruption of its rulers Vietnam was typical of a foreign Other easy to became a part of Korea’s nationalist canon; it sympathise with. It was part and parcel of what also prominently figured in religious polemics. is often referred to as the Chinese cultural While some Protestant missionaries used the sphere and its plight, described in elegant book to encourage their audiences’ patriotic classic Chinese, made it worthy lamenting for spirit and implicitly warn of the dangers educated Koreans. In early twentieth-century Catholic expansion could present for an Asian Korea, the main source of information on the country (the connection between Catholic enslavement of Vietnam by the French was missionary enterprise and French colonization Phan Bội Châu’s (1867-1940) masterpiece of being one of the main themes in the book), a nationalist polemic, Việt Nam Vong Quốc Sử vernacular Catholic newspaper,Kyŏnghyang (History of the Loss of Vietnam, 1905).29 One Sinmun, serialized in April-May 1908 a long chapter of the book (“The Future of Vietnam”)30 article refuting Phan's main points.32 The was a record of the dialogues between Phan radical anti-imperialist criticism deployed by and his enthusiastic sponsor Liang Qichao Phan, with its Social Darwinist and racialist (1873-1929), who actually recommended that undertones, was an important contribution to Phan write and publish the book and helped the formation of Korea’s nationalist meta- him prepare the additional chapters containing narrative. However, it was understandably general information on Vietnam, the history of disliked by such institutions as the Catholic

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Church, which did not stand to gain from the scene. Vietnamese – all their names being given development of radical nationalism. in Chinese characters – are presented as Korea's closest comrades in struggle, their In colonial Korea – where sales of “subversive” fight against the French seen as running 33 Wŏllam Mangguk Sa were strictly prohibited – parallel to North Korea’s own battles against solidarity with the Vietnamese independence American imperialism.37 struggle mainly developed in the context of the Communist movement. When in 1916 the While North Korean descriptions of “struggling pioneering revolutionary socialists of colonial Vietnam” did not explicitly exhibit exoticizing Korea – then Waseda students Kim Ch’ŏlsu or patronizing tendencies, South Korean (1893-1986), Kim Myŏngsik (1890-1943) and descriptions of the Vietnamese started to others – together with their Chinese and display “Orientalist” attitudes after 1965 when Taiwanese comrades decided to build the New South Korea began dispatching troops to South Asia League Party (Sina Tongmaengdang) as an Vietnam. South Vietnam, as a recipient of internationalist anti-imperialist organization, South Korea’s large-scale “military aid”, was they searched for Vietnamese students or understood as standing below industrializing intellectuals in Tokyo (where their “Party” was South Korea in the international pecking order. based) to participate.34 Later, Vietnamese and Thus, it could be safely described as an Korean as well as Chinese and Mongolian eroticized exotic place more remote from Communists studied together at the Comintern- “modern civilization” than Korea. Song Kŏnho run Communist University of the Toilers of the (1927-2001), a well-known South Korean East (KUTV: 1921-1938) and, to a lesser journalist who later became an anti- degree, the International Lenin School (MLSH: government dissident and one of the founders 1925-1938). It is known that the legendary of the country’s premier left-liberal daily, leader of Korea’s underground Communists, Hangyoreh (1988), in 1965 described Pak Hŏnyŏng (1900-1956), for example, met Ho Vietnamese women as completely lacking Chi Minh (1890-1969) when living in the USSR intellect, having facial features saliently as a student and political indifferent from those of Koreans (“high 1927-1933.35 In South Korea, media coverage of cheekbones, deep sunken eyes, thick lips”), and the First Indochina War (1946-1954) after “exotically” dressed in the national female 1948-49 was rather inimical towards Ho, seen costume, the ao dai. “Exotic” Vietnamese as a Communist Chinese and Soviet “puppet”; women were often viewed by Korean soldiers by contrast, the Democratic Republic ofas legitimate booty – “barbarians” who were Vietnam proclaimed in 1945 was from the not ashamed of providing commercial sex for beginning seen as a close ally by North Korean money.38 The “enemy”, the Viet Cong, were leaders.36 Aside from intimate political ties, typically shown in the news as dwarfish people, significant intellectual and cultural exchanges who were supposedly easily “caught” by the had been taking place. One good example is the better-built South Korean soldiers. The 1957 Vietnam Diary (Wŏllam Ilgi) by a veteran “superiority” of South Koreans was further proletarian writer, Song Yŏng (1903-1977), the buttressed by the graphic depictions of the leader of the North Korean Union of Drama enemy either as helpless prisoners or dead Writers (Pukchosŏn Yŏn’gŭk Tongmaeng). The bodies strewn around the roads and fields.39 In diary, based on Song’s lengthy 1956 Vietnam Vietnam, South Korea, itself still a relatively tour, features detailed descriptions of the poor military protectorate of the US, found its battles and tribulations of the First Indochina own “Orient” – a country which could be War, and interviews with the main actors on regarded as permanently inferior vis-à-vis the North Vietnamese literary and artistic Korea, a country to which the Orientalist

6 10 | 7 | 3 APJ | JF stereotypes conventionally applied by Japanese O, how glorious! or Euro-, could be re-applied by the Koreans themselves. Are you rising up at last?

In a word, from being a fellow victim of Clenching two fists colonialism in early twentieth-century perceptions, Vietnam eventually became South Prepared to play the part of iron Korea’s own “sub-colony” of sorts in the hammers in the bloody struggle. post-1965 South Korean mainstream view. The chains on your feet – Vietnam’s proud record of the victories over Thousands, tens of thousands of the French and American imperialists them. fascinated a tiny minority of 1970-80s’ activists, 40 but it was a minority indeed. The case is by no But who can change your mind means unique. India, seen by modernist authors of the early twentieth century as the Directed towards your lover, very symbol of colonial enslavement, came by [independence]? the 1920s-1930s to be perceived as the epitome of the anti-colonial struggle. As such, it was a March forward, beacon of hope for Koreans – to be celebrated in poems like this one by Kim Tongmyŏng The brave fighter of the East (1900-1968): Won’t the Red Sea divide

Everywhere you put your gallant steps?

How can you hesitate at the sight of high mountains

Or deep waters?

On that hill, under colourful clouds.

The lover, [independence], is waiting.

Go quickly to meet him!41

“[They] Never Run Away: International Marriage” – advertisements like this The Indian struggle was also Korea’s. And, just may be seen in many places in South Korea. “International” brides, mostly as French behaviour in Vietnam was used in women from China, Vietnam and other the early twentieth century polemics in Korea, Southeast Asian countries, are often issues of the Indian independence movement treated as sexualized commodities; one were easily later extrapolated to the Korean of the underlying factors in their abuse situation. As more moderate “cultural” is the denigrating view of Southeast Asia in mainstream opinion in South nationalists that coalesced around the Korea. influential daily Tong’a Ilbo were increasingly

7 10 | 7 | 3 APJ | JF interested in achieving a form of home rule world-level manufacturing centre with per (local autonomy) from Japan rather than capita GNP on the level of the peripheral EU “unrealistic” full independence, Tong’a Ilbo ran countries, regards itself as standing above still a lengthy article on the Imperial Legislative predominantly (72%) rural43 and much poorer Council and the elective Provincial Councils in India in the international hierarchy. India’s India, summarizing ambitions of moreimage is defined by what presumably moderate Indian politicians as a “wish to be a differentiates it from Korea rather than by any self-governing dominion, like Canada” (July 21, perceived similarities in the two countries’ 1925). More radical Chosŏn Ilbo, by contrast, historical trajectories. In the India travelogues explicitly characterized India’s fight as the that appeared in the South Korean printed struggle for full independence and – justly – media since the early 1990s, India emerges as emphasized that dispatch of the Simona representative oji (hinterland) – mystically Commission and all the other British attempts religious, exotically charming but also to placate the Indians by “improving” their incomprehensible and dangerous. For example, governance in India were nothing more than in Prof. Yŏn Hot’aek’s travel diary published in concessions obtained through Indian sacrifices Tong’a Ilbo (April 24, 1997), Southern India in the independence fight (Editorial, February that he travelled through is described as 7, 1928). While the moderately nationalist “backward and remote” with “strange and monthly Tonggwang printed in volumes 18-26 outlandish customs”. The most “outlandish was an abridged translation of the autobiography of a Murugan festival in Tamil Nadu which “sacred hero (sŏngung) Gandhi”, a leftist featured vel kavadi - a portable altar attached intellectual, Chosŏn Ilbo’s Shanghai to the devotee’s body with metal skewers correspondent Hong Yangmyŏng (1896-1950), piercing the devotee’s skin. The South Korean saw Gandhi as just a “representative of the professor found this feat of self-sacrificing Indian national bourgeoisie, who is afraid of religious devotion “worth respect”, but violating the interests of his landlord allies and concluded that Tamil villages were living “far is criticized not only by workers and peasants from civilization”. The professor’s but also by petty bourgeois circles” (“Class Eurocentricism sometimes bordered on racism: Confrontation in Indian Movement”, Samch’ŏlli for his cultivated ear, “Tamil” sounded as ttae Vol3, No. 9, September 1931).42 “The Indian mil (“to scratch the dirt”), while Tamils had 44 movement” – thought to be the archetypical “especially blackish skins”. While colonial-era anti-imperialist liberation struggle in the world- periodicals tended to criticise the colonialist historical sense – was, in a way, a “mirror” racism of the British in India, the later South through which all the possible collisions and Korean mainstream seems to have clashes inside a nationalist movement could be appropriated it. Exoticised and “downgraded”, studied in detail. By using the Indian analogy, India is described as a (supposedly grateful) left-wing/right-wing and radical/moderate receiver of “advanced” Korea’s largesse: a conflicts in Korea were “globalized” – India, 1994 article in Tong’a Ilbo featured, for after all, figured much more prominently at example, Korea’s Won Buddhist parish in that point on the world scene. southern Seoul’s richest ward, Sŏch’o, sending warm clothes to a Himalayan village in India, Anti-imperialism and sub-imperialism whose inhabitants supposedly spend eight months of the year “without any tolerably The centrality of India in colonial intellectuals’ useful clothing”.45 In contrast to colonial-era weltanschauung is, however, scarcely visible in intellectuals who sought lessons from India’s contemporary South Korean media. Asindependence movement, today’s middle-class nowadays, South Korea, a heavily industrialized South Koreans seem more interested in

8 10 | 7 | 3 APJ | JF showing their ability to clothe “poor and in collective writing. While visibly uncivilized” Indians who are presumably essentializing and vituperatively inimical unable to solve this task themselves! portraits of the “imperialists” do pose a problem for contemporary readers of this text, Did the political culture of anti-imperialist the discursive equality of the subjects and solidarity which inspired pre-colonial and objects of the description in the face of colonial-period Korean intellectuals to look at “imperialist threat” is noteworthy.46 the trials, tribulations and desperate struggles of faraway Indians, Poles, Vietnamese or While North Korea of the 1950s is often Filipinos as continuation of or parallel to described as an assiduous “pupil” eager to Korea’s own distressed attempts to stay afloat learn the Stalinist modernity from the USSR and sail further in the troubled seas of the and its more “advanced” Eastern European modern world, die with the end of the colonial satellites, it is “solidarity” rather than a vertical period? It does not appear to be the case to the master-pupil relationship that emerges as the degree that the anti-imperialist struggleexplicit keyword in most descriptions of the remained a pressing task for divided Korea, USSR and Eastern Europeans by North Korean encircled by mightier and often troublesome authors and travellers in the 1950s. While powers. As mentioned above, some North almost all of these descriptions appear Korea-produced descriptions of “comradely” unambiguously propagandistic and were visibly Third World states seemed to be refreshingly written by people who had no illusions about free from both Eurocentric, uniform visions of the real nature of the relationship between the “civilization” and ethnocentric stereotypes. USSR and its junior ally on the Korean Han Sŏrya’s (1900-1976) 1958 account of Peninsula, it is also obvious that one of their travel to Nasser’s Egypt, On the Shores of the tasks was exactly to represent the relations Nile (Nail kangban esŏ) features, for example, a between the Soviets and Koreans as horizontal stereotypical description of “camel-riding solidarity-based rather than hierarchically Egyptians”, but otherwise treats anti-British unequal and patronizing. Typically, a volume of struggles of Egyptian revolutionary nationalists short stories on the Soviet “friends of Korea”, and North Korea’s confrontation with the US as Unforgettable People (Ijŭl su ōmnŭn saram tŭl, two parts of the same worldwide process – Pyongyang, 1955), by Im Sundŭk (a well-known “Asian and African people moving from being left-nationalist female writer from Wŏnsan, who slaves to being the owners of their countries”. chose to remain in North Korea after 1945), Egypt, the country with long pre-colonial represents Soviet Russian liberators as plain, history and proud traditions, mirrors Korea simple and kind-hearted people “just like us”, while both oppose the US where “existentialist with the same set of good human impulses – philosophy denies the validity of traditions, defined, in fact, rather in Confucian ways. A absolutises the present day and absolves the Siberian native, Andrei, for example, is a warm- imperialists from any responsibility for their hearted lad popular with the womenfolk in crimes”. While Americans, “the harmful Kangwŏn Province village where his platoon is insects” who “can benefit humanity only by stationed after the liberation of Northern Korea dying and disappearing from this planet”, are by the Soviet Army in August-September 1945. depicted as egoistic individualists, theNo superhuman, he is and remembered for “natural” collectivism of both Egyptians and more quotidian exploits – saving a child from Koreans is seen as almost anticipating the drowning, or catching two trouble-making modern socialist spirit. The anonymity of soldiers of the former Japanese Imperial Army ancient Egyptian art, according to Han, would (“Andori ho”). Army doctor Smirnov from be further developed by socialist experiments Wŏnsan military hospital, remembered for

9 10 | 7 | 3 APJ | JF successfully treating a limping girl from a poor rural family, is no superhuman either – he is represented rather as a people’s enlightener, an amateur author who was eager to popularize Russian and Soviet classics among the Koreans he encountered. His brother Konstantin, a soldier stationed in Pyongyang, was able to contact locals quite easily since he managed to pick up usable Korean and always used polite and respectful forms of speech (“Kiu”). Another young Soviet soldier, Ivan Semenovich Suslov, a “plain-hearted lad” stationed in a Kangwŏn Province village, did not demonstrate any Kim Namju (1946-1994) was a renowned poet and special linguistic talents, but was good at prominent activist in the underground National repairing the village water mill and teaching Liberation Front of South Korea (Namchoson Minjok local children to play popular Soviet melodies, Haebang Chonson, or Namminjon, 1976-1979), which like Katyusha, with his accordion. He was also sought to liberate South Korea on the model of the remembered for convincing a local elder that Vietnamese revolution. Interest in anti-imperialist movements in the Third World was widespread “in the new epoch of democracy”, shaking among radical activists in South Korea in the 1970s hands with the younger villagers was more and after, but was not shared by mainstream opinion suitable than requiring the latter to present which was more accustomed to comfortably ranking ritual deep bows on important occasions countries by their economic performance and 47 perceived degree of Westernization. Within this (“Sonp’unggŭm”). While the images offramework, industrialized and formally democratic “benevolent”, easy-going, enlightened and South Korea eventually took a place qualitatively compassionate Soviet “brethren” aredifferent from that of most Asian and African undeniably heavily idealized (although not countries. completely unrealistic), they do not appear The horizontal “bonds of solidarity” implied alien in the North Korean settings of the that the “socialist countries” of Eastern Europe mid-1950s. And they are not made to look and East Asia, together with their sympathizers overwhelming or awe-inspiring. A elsewhere, would take serious interest in what compassionate doctor could well be a Korean was seen in North Korea as the main plight of Communist instead of a Soviet one – the ways the Korean people – the forcible division of the of portrayal would be similar. The Soviets were peninsula, with American troops being depicted as “elder brothers” – but not as permanently stationed in South Korea after the overpowering “parents” or “masters”, to be . Expressions of solidarity from blindly followed or worshipped.48 abroad with the North Korean demands concerning the withdrawal of the American troops from South Korea were often published in North Korea in the 1950s – in newspapers and journals, but also in the book form. One such book-length expression of “worldwide” solidarity with the Korean people was a 1959 poetry collection suitably entitled The Anger of the World (Segye ŭi Punno) – aimed at putting together the “solidarity poems” written by Soviet, Eastern European, Chinese, Mongolian,

10 10 | 7 | 3 APJ | JF and also “progressive” Japanese, Turkish and the Asian and African peoples, especially those even Indonesian writers for the sake of Korea who benefited from North Korea’s then in the 1950s. Some of the poems areconsiderable foreign aid, being often portrayed interesting, as they seemingly were intended to as “led” by the “light ofchuch’e ideas”.51 A give the impression that their authors – in most comparable process, albeit on a different scale cases, citizens of countries much stronger and and in different form – “export of revolution” of richer than both states on the war-torn Korean sorts, but not on the state level – could be Peninsula – were eager to admire Koreans and observed in post-1990s South Korea too, where learn from them, rather than to showleft-wing labour activists has been busy trying condescending empathy with Korea’sto teach the (mostly South and South East predicament . The poem “To the fighters of Asian) migrant workers the history of South Korea” (Russian: Boitsam Korei, Kor.: Chosŏn Korea’s labour and democratization movement Chŏnsa tŭl ege) by a very popular Soviet poet, as a “standard shortcut” to socio-political Lev Oshanin (1912-1996), emphasized, for liberation in the Asian context.52 However, all example, that what he – and, presumably other the patronizing or self-centric treatments in the Soviet citizens he claimed to represent – felt at relationship between post-1960s North Korean the sight of bombed and ruined Pyongayng and authorities or post-1990s South Korean leftists the North Korean fighters, “the people who and their non-Western interlocutors never would give up the freedom they have notwithstanding, neither of them could outrival won”, was “admiration rather thanor even approach the South Korean compassion”. The “unsubduable” North Korea mainstream in its incessant attempts to was also an example to follow for a certain contrast South Korea’s developmental Sakai Masao, presumably a Japanesesplendour with the “backwardness” of all the Communist or Communist sympathiser, whose places South Korean capital and its middle poem, with its telling title “Like the Koreans classes happened to use as suppliers of mineral under Japanese Colonial Rule” (Kor.or recreational resources or labour. As the translation: Ilche ha e ittŏn Chosŏn saram tŭl examples with the portrayals of Vietnam and ch’ŏrŏm) described Koreans, “massacred” India mentioned above amply show, South during the colonial rule but “as red and strong Korea’s mainstream media exhibit a distinctive as pepper” and never subdued, as the vanguard sub-imperialist consciousness in relation to the of the worldwide revolutionary struggle.49 non- Euro-American world. Not really even Solidarity as understood in Pyongyang – where being an independent imperialist actor itself, all these poems were carefully selected for South Korea uses its semi-privileged position in inclusion in the collection – meant Koreans the world economy and (a sub- establishing their revolutionary dignity in the imperialist US ally, middle-level military power eyes of the admiring world, rather than the and a major manufacturing centre) to project “progressive world” simply helping Korea. It itself as a part of the global “core” and contrast did not imply that the outside help was not its “advancement”, richness and power with the needed – but nationalist self-assertion was squalor of most parts of the continent it is a needed as well. part of. The contrast with the palpable feeling of solidarity in the pre-colonial description of In the 1960s-1980s, however, with theVietnam or colonial portrayals of India is strengthening and dogmatisation of noticeably conspicuous. Korea-centric chuch’e (self-reliance) ideology,50 the discursive position of the non-European Or is it really a contrast? Structurally speaking, Others in the North Korean political and the vision of the world as a lineal hierarchy, or literary rhetoric suffered a downturn of sorts, a hierarchy of concentric circles, with the

11 10 | 7 | 3 APJ | JF distinctive centre and the peripheries around it, future. seems to have endured for the last one hundred years. Another enduring feature is the central Vladimir Tikhonov was Born in Leningrad (St- placement of the Euro-American world – the Petersburg) in the former USSR (1973) and world which gave Korea Bismarck andeducated at St-Petersburg State University Washington, the “heroes” on which modern (MA:1994) and (Ph.D. Koreans were supposed to model themselves. in ancient Korean history, 1996). Vladimir The place of Japan as the all-important cultural Tikhonov ( – Pak Noja). He taught intermediary seems, however, to have changed at Russian State University of Humanities in the affluent 1990s – with the boom in (1996), KyungHee University (1997-2000) and, learning English and study in the US – much of since 2000 at Oslo University where he is a full the centrifugal cultural flow from the world’s professor. His book,Usǔng yǒlp’ae ǔi Euro-American core to its Korean periphery sinhwa(The Myth of the Survival of the Fittest, now goes directly, without the “double2005) is one of the first studies of Social 53 translation” via Japanese. With South Korea Darwinism in modern Korea and its after the 1997-1998 financial crisis being an relationship with Korean nationalism. The topic overzealous adept of neoliberal globalization, is addressed in English in his Social Darwinism the significance of Japan’s erstwhile statist, and Nationalism in Korea: The Beginnings collectivist models of “modernization with (1880s-1910s) (Brill, 2010). He regularly Asian characteristics” and its older neo- contributes to South Korea’s liberal and traditional ideologies seems to be greatly progressive media, including daily Hangyoreh diminished.54 What changed even more is South and weekly Hangyoreh21. Korea’s place in this elaborate hierarchy. It is no longer part of the exploited and oppressed colonial world – and inside the constellation of Recommended citation: Vladimir Tikhonov, the “liberated colonies” it enjoys a status 'Transcending Boundaries, Embracing Others: which, from its own viewpoint, is incomparable Nationalism and Transnationalism in Modern 55 with that of the likes of Vietnam or India. and Contemporary Korea,' The Asia-Pacific Korean nationalism of the early twentieth Journal Vol 10, Issue 7 No 3, February 13, century was discursively developed through 2012. analogies between Korea’s plight and Vietnam’s suffering, and colonial era Korean Notes nationalism, oppressed by Japanese censorship, found a way to euphemistically express itself through lengthy reports on India’s heroic anti- 1 An earlier draft of this paper was presented at British struggle. Today’s mainstream South Cambridge University as a part of the Ra Jong- Korean nationalism, however, affirms itself by Yil Lectures Series on October 28, 2011. (link) denigrating the non-Western Others, partly in attempt to represent South Korea as a more influential state than it really is. Whether this 2 See: Gi-Wook Shin, Ethnic Nationalism in “discursive colonialism” will be offset by a Korea: Geneology, Politics and Legacy more egalitarian worldview and colonial-period (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006). traditions of anti-imperialist solidarity, and whether South Korea will see the emergence of 3 truly internationalist movement able to Andre Schmid,Korea between Empires, redefine its relations with its non-Euro-1895-1919 (NY: Columbia University Press, American Others, is the question for the 2002), 38-42.

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4 Henry Em, "Minjok as a Modern and 11 Kim Yŏng’uk, “Yi Pyŏngch’ŏl ŭi Ilbon Mobang Democratic Construct: Sin Ch'aeho'skwa Ch’uwŏl e kwanhan siron” [An Attempt to Historiography," Gi-Wook Shin and Michael Inquire into Yi Pyŏngch’ŏl’s Imitation of and Robinson eds, Colonial Modernity in Korea Overtaking of Japan]. Ilbon P’yŏngnon 3 (2010): (Harvard: Harvard University Press, 1999), 192-216. 335-362.

12 Balazs Szalontai. Kim Il Sung in the 5 Chŏn Myŏnghyŏk, 1920 nyŏndae Han’guk Khrushchev Era: Soviet-DPRK Relations and Sahoejuŭi ŭi Undong Yŏn’gu [The Research on the Roots of North Korean Despotism, the 1920s Korean Socialist Movement] (Seoul: 1953-1964 (Stanford: Stanford University Sŏn’in, 2006), 21-83. Press, 2006).

13 6 Lee Namhee,The Making of Minjung: Hyŏngmyŏng ŭi widaehan suryŏng Kim Il Democracy and the Politics of Representation Sŏng tongji kkesŏ Chosŏn Rodongdang che 5 in South Korea (Ithaca: Cornell University ch’a taehoe esŏ hasin Chung’ang Wiwŏnhoe Press, 2007), 21-145. Saŏp ch’onghwa pogo e taehan haesŏl [Explanations of the Great Revolutionary Leader Kim Il Sŏng’s report to the 5th Congress 7 Kwŏn Insuk, Taehan Min’guk ŭn Kundae da of the Korean Workers’ Party on the activities [Republic of Korea is an Army] (Seoul:of its Central Committee] (Pyongyang: Inmin Ch’ŏngnyŏnsa, 2005). Ch’ulp’ansa, 1971), 205-240.

8 Sheila Miyoshi Jager, Narratives of Nation 14 The memorandum may be found in the Building in Korea. Archive of Russian Federation’s Foreign Policy (АВПРФ: Фонд 102 Опись 25, Папка 50, Дело 2, Листы 1-59). See it cited in: Pak Chonghyo, 9 On the positive image of Israel in Park Chong Rŏsiya Yŏnbang Oemusŏng Taehan Hee’s South Korea, see: Ch’oe Ch’angmo, Chŏngch’aek Charyo [Materials on Russia’s “Han’guk Sahoe ŭi Yudaein Imiji ŭiKorea Policy from the Archives of the Russian Pyŏnch’ŏnsa Sogo” [Jewish Images in Korean Federation’s Foreign Ministry] (Seoul: Sŏn’in, Mind: Past to Present].Han’guk Isŭllam 2010), Vol. 2, 289. Hakhoe Nonch’ong 18/1 (2008): 113-139. On Park’s developmentalist ideology and its use of 15 foreign antecedents see: Han’guk Chŏngch’I See: “Signing of a Protocol Agreement for Yŏn’guhoe ed., Pak Chŏnghŭi rŭl nŏmŏsŏ North Korea to Send a Number of Pilots to [Beyond Park Chong Hee] (Seoul: P’urŭn Sup, Fight the American Imperialists during the War 1998). of Destruction against North Vietnam”. Vietnam Ministry of Defense Central Archives, Central Military Party Committee Collection, 10 Han Sŏkchŏng, “Pak Chŏnghŭi, Hogŭn File No. 433. 30 September 1966. Obtained and Manjuguk p’an Hai Modŏnijŭm ŭi Hwaksan” translated for NKIDP (North Korea [Pak Chong Hee, or the Spread of Manchuguo- International Documentation Project) by Merle Style High Modernism]. Ilbon P’yŏngnon 3 Pribbenow and included in NKIDP e-Dossier (2010): 120-138. No. 2.

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16 Yi Minhŭi,P’aran, P’ollandŭ, Ppolsŭkka! 25 Ding Jin, trans., Huashengdun [Washington] [P’aran, Poland, Polska!] (Seoul: Somyŏng, (Shanghai: Wenming Shuju, 1903). 2005).

26 Yi Haejo, Hwasŏngdon Chŏn [Biography of 17 Pak Ŭnsik, “Munyak chi p’ye nŭn p’ilsang Washington] (Seoul: Hoedong Sŏgwan, 1908). kiguk” [Literary Weakness Destroys a Country].

Sŏu 10 (1908): 1-6. 27 Ch’oe Wŏnsik, “’Hwasŏngdon chŏn’ yŏn’gu: Aeguk Kyemonggi ŭi Choji Wŏsington suyong” 18 “Chŏngsin kwa kamgak” [Spirit and Senses]. [The Reception of George Washington in Korean Enlightenment Period – on ‘Biography Hwangsŏng Sinmun, February 6, 1907: 2 of Washington’]. Minjok Munhaksa Yŏn’u 18 (Hwangsŏng Sinmun. Seoul: Han’guk Munhwa (2001): 273-299. Kaebalsa, 1971, Vol. 14, 310).

28 Yi Haejo, Hwasŏngdon Chŏn, 5. 19 “Kuksŏng paeyangnon” [On Cultivation of Nationality]. Hwangsŏng Sinmun, August 22, 1909: 2 (Hwangsŏng Sinmun. Seoul: Han’guk 29 Liang Qichao. Yingbingshi Heji [Collected Munhwa Kaebalsa, 1971, Vol. 19, 386). Works from an Ice-Drinker’s Studio] (Shanghai: Zhonghua shuju, 1936), Vol. 6, fasc. 19, 15-28.

20 Andrew Eungi Kim and Gil-sung Park, 30 “Nationalism, Confucianism, Work Ethics and Liang Qichao. Yingbingshi Heji, 23-28. Industrialization in South Korea”Journal of Contemporary Asia 33/1 (2003): 37-49; Hong 31 Hyŏn Ch’ae trans.W ŏllam Mangguksa Sŏngt’ae, Kaebalchuŭi rŭl Pip’anhanda [History of the Loss of Vietnam] (Seoul, 1906). [Criticizing the Developmentalism] (Seoul: Tangdae, 2007), 236-290. 32 Ch’oe Kiyŏng, Han’guk Kŭndae Kyemong Sasang Yŏn’gu [Research on the Modern 21 Pak Yonghŭi, “Pisamaek Chŏn” [Bismarck’s Korean Enlightenment Ideology] (Seoul: Biography] T’aegŭk Hakpo 8 (March 1907): Ilchogak, 2003), 294-326. 21-26; T’aegŭk Hakpo 9 (April 1907): 28-30; T’aegŭk Hakpo 10 (May 1907): 33-37. 33 Ch’oe Kiyŏng, “Kugyŏk ‘Wŏllam Mangguksa’ e kwanhan koch’al” [A Research on the Korean 22 Hwang Yundŏk. Pisamaek chŏn [Bismarck’s Translation of the ‘History of the Loss of Biography] (Seoul: Posŏnggwan, 1907). Vietnam’]. Tong’a Yŏn’gu 6 (1985): 487-506.

23 Sasakawa Kiyoshi,Bisumāku [Bismarck] 34 Pak Chongnin, “1910 nyŏndae Chaeil (Tōkyō: Hakubunkan, 1899). Yuhaksaeng ŭi Sahoejuŭi Sasang Suyong kwa ‘Kim Ch’ŏlsu kŭrup’” [The Acceptance of Socialist Ideas by the Korean Students in Japan 24 Fukuyama Yoshiharu,Washōton in the 1910s and the “Kim Ch’ŏlsu Group’], In [Washington] (Tōkyō: Hakubunkan, 1900). Panjŏn ŭro pon Tong’asia [East Asia Viewed

14 10 | 7 | 3 APJ | JF through Anti-war Ideas]. ed. Pak Chinsu and Lines: Asian Perspectives 2 (2011): 81-107. Chŏng Munsang (Seoul: Hyean, 2008), 119-145. 39 Kim Mi-ran, “The Vietnam War and Sexuality,” 100-101. 35 An Chaesŏng, Pak Hŏnyŏng P’yŏngjŏn [The Critical Biography of Pak Hŏnyŏng] (Seoul: 40 Silch’ŏn Munhaksa, 2009). It is well-known, for example, that the name of the National Liberation Front of South Korea (Namchosŏn Minjok Haebang Chŏnsŏn, or 36 Pak Sŏnggwan, “Pukhan ŭi Tae Tongnam’a Namminjŏn, 1976-1979), an underground oegyo pyŏnhwa” [The Changes in North group which aimed at liberating South Koreans Korea’s Southeast Asia Policy].Kukche from Park Chong Hee’s regime through en Chŏngch’i Nonch’ong 43/3 (2003): 235-253. eventual workers’ armed uprising, was modelled on the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam, which the South Korean 37 Some of the stories recorded by Song in activists enthusiastically admired. “Munhak ŭro Vietnam mix human sympathy and boundless mannanŭn yŏksa 33. Kim Namju ssi ‘Chŏnsa 2’” admiration for the Vietnamese comrades. Such (The History met through Literature: 33. Mr. is the story of a former female guerrilla leader – Kim Namju: “Militant 2”) Han’gyŏre October later to become a professional soldier – from the 15, 1996: 15. rural district of Kiến Xương in Thai Binh Province, Red River delta. She is described as a young woman with a kind and welcoming face, 41 Kim Tongmyŏng, “Tongbang ŭi yongsa: Indo who was, however, tempered by a tribulations – ege” [To India, Orient’s Valiant Warrior], hungry childhood in the service of a greedy and Sinsaeng 4/4 (April 1931). Cited in: Yi Oksun, cruel landowner, the efforts to overcome theSingminji Chosŏn ŭi Hŭimang kwa Chŏlmang, patriarchal prejudices of male partisan leaders Indo [Colonial Korea’s Hope and Despair, India] who initially did not want to allow a women to (Seoul: P’urŭn Yŏksa, 2006), 41-43. fight the French together on an equal footing, inhuman tortures by French military 42 Cited in: Yi Oksun,Singminji Chosŏn ŭi intelligence, loss of beloved elder brother Hŭimang kwa Chŏlmang, Indo, 30-125. tortured to death by the French etc. She was, however, anything but a passive victim of abuse and prejudice – Song describes her as a self- 43 Karl Haub and O.P.Sharma,India’s “ confident initiative-taker trying to influencePopulation Reality: Reconciling Change and wider society through her work at the village Tradition”. Population Bulletin 61/3 (September Women’s Federation. Song Yŏng, Wŏllam Ilgi 2006). [Vietnam Diary] (Pyongyang: Chosŏn Chakka Tongmaeng Ch’ulp’ansa, 1957), 217-227. 44 Yŏn Hot’aek, “Munmyŏng ŭi twian, oji ŭi saram tŭl” [Beyond the Civilization, the 38 Song Kŏnho, “Tongnam’a Yŏsŏng ŭi imo Hinterland Peoples]. Tong’a Ilbo, April 24, chŏmo” [Various Traits of Southeast Asian 1997: 21. Women]. Yŏwŏn 3 (1966): 201-203. Cited in: Kim Mi-ran, “The Vietnam War and Sexuality: An Analysis of the Images ofAo Dai and 45 “Himallaya Ch’uwi Nogil Han’gukmin ŭi Vietcong as Represented in the Meida”.The Chagŭn Onjŏng” [Small warm-heartedness of

15 10 | 7 | 3 APJ | JF the Korean People Melted down the Cold of the Confucian belief in aesthetic harmony as an Himalayas]. Tong’a Ilbo, April 21, 1994: 31. outward expression of inner moral perfection. On the aesthetic sides of Confucian moral ideals, see: Nicholas Gier, “DancingRu : a 46 Chonghap Kihaengmunjip: Nail Kangban esŏ Confucian Aesthetics of Virtue”.Philosophy [Collected Travelogues: On the Shores of Nile] East and West 51/2 (2001): 280-302. (Pyongyang: Chosŏn Chakka Tongmaeng Ch’ulp’ansa, 1958), 5-41. 49 Segye ŭi Punno [Anger of the World] (Pyongyang: Kungnip Munhak Yesul Sŏjŏk 47 Im Sundŭk, Ijŭl su ōmnŭn saram tŭl Ch’ulp’ansa, 1959), 42-44, 153-158. [Unforgettable People] (Pyongyang: Chosŏn Nyŏsŏngsa, 1955), 5-15, 101-123127-145. 50 See, for example, a contemporary North Korean poster, in which a picture of the globe 48 One of the very few Anglophone researchers half-wrapped in the North Korean flag, is to study North Korean 1940-50s’ “friendship accompanied by the inscription: “The globe stories” featuring Soviet characters, Brian revolves around Korea as its axis”. David Myers, alleges that the attitude towards the Heather and Koen De Ceuster eds.North USSR in these stories was “obsequious” and Korean Posters (Munich: Prestel, 2008), 275. that the Soviet personages were seen as “parents” (rather than “teachers” or “elder brothers/sisters”) supposed to “care for the 51 On North Korea’s “chuch’e” foreign policy of emasculated Korean men”. See: Brian Myers, the 1960s-early 80s, see: Byung Chul Koh, The “Mother Russia: Soviet Characters in North Foreign Policy Systems of North and South Korean Fiction”. Korean Studies 16 (1992): Korea (Berkeley: University of California Press, 82-93. Analysis of Im Sundŭk’s book (which 1984). On the diplomatic competition between Myers did not deal with in his article), however, two , and North Korea’s Third World does not support these conclusions. Gratitude diplomacy of the 1960s-80s, see also: Barry toward the Soviet Army – which, aside from its Gills, Korea Versus Korea: A Case of Contested role in defeating imperial Japan, was also seen Legitimacy (NY: Routledge, 1996), 50-130. as the ultimate guarantee of DPRK’s security – should not be confused with “obsequiousness” 52 Lee Jin-Kyung,Service Economies: or self-deprecation. It did not imply self- Militarism, Sex Work, and Migrant Labor in deprecation, since it did not diminish Korea South Korea (Minneapolis: University of people’s potential for anti-imperialist resistance Minnesota Press, 2010), 185-213. or “socialist construction”. Most Soviet people in Im’s book appear as “teachers” – that is, in connection with certain valuable skills (from 53 Recently (for years 2009-2010), annual medicine to harmonica playing) Koreans had spending on English education in South Korea good reasons to learn. The “parental” features was approximately three times higher than in in their descriptions (“parent-like care” of Japan: Park Jin-kyu, “’English Fever’ in South Soviet doctors for Korean patients) are part Korea: its History and Symptoms”,English and parcel of the stereotypical Confucian image Today 25 (2009): 50-57. of a model “gentleman” – perfectly applicable to Koreans as well. The images of Soviet soldiers as skilled harmonica players and 54 For example, the discourse of self-contained, singers also seem to have been influenced by self-centred “national history” (Jap.kokushi ,

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Kor. kuksa), previously central to South Korean China and Japan. See: Pak Myŏngnim, “No nationalist narratives, became by the late Myhyŏn ŭi ‘Tongbug’a kusang’ yŏn’gu” 1990s a target of criticism. Im Chihyŏn and Yi [Research on Roh Moo-hyun’s ‘Northeast Asian Sŏngsi, eds. Kuksa ŭi sinhwa rŭl nŏmŏsŏ Project’]. Yŏksa Pip’yŏng 76 (2006): 148-179. [Beyond the Myth of National History] (Seoul: Envisioning South Korea in the centre of “new” Humanist, 2004). Northeast Asia, as its “hub” (a popular expression in the official discourse in Roh Moo- hyun’s days), implies a high degree of self- 55 It is interesting that in the speeches and confidence vis-à-vis South Korea’s still much writings on the issue of a possible “East Asian stronger neighbours. The root of this self- community” by former South Korean president confidence is South Korea’s recent self- Roh Moo-hyun (No Muhyŏn, 2003-2008), it is perception as a hugely successful new South Korea that emerges as the central industrial power, in combination with the sense driving force of the project, a bridge between of Japan’s relative decline.

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