KJC Korea
Journal Central

This article compares three North Korean leaders (Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Un) by focusing on their growth, thoughts, political legitimacy and leadership characteristics. Since its founding in 1948, North Korea has been ruled by the Kim family. After Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Un is the third leader of the state. The leaders have been the crux of social unity and are described in terms of "the highest national dignity" in the media. In a totalitarian society without political checks and balances, they have almost monopolized decision-making. Under the highly centralized decision-making system, regardless of their relative triviality or importance, their decisions affect both domestic and international politics. If we define leadership as a leader's activity of influencing followers to achieve goals under certain circumstances, we need to know about his or her growth, thoughts, and political legitimacy in order to figure out his or her leadership. Comparing the North Korean leaders is not only helpful in clarifying the similarities and differences in their leadership, but also valuable in understanding policy implications of the incumbent Kim Jong Un regime.

The purpose of this essay is to review the reinterpretation of Ahn Jung-geun(안중근) and his killing of Ito Hirobumi(이등박문) in North Korean history. Until today he has been ranked as a famous Korean independence activist in both South and North Korea, however he has also been criticized on the basis of ‘terrorism’ in North Korea. This essay is to analyze the change of North Korea’s perception of Ahn Jung-geun by analysis of historical books, journal articles, and history textbooks. Attention is especially paid to the relation of the interpretation with the political environment. In the early stages, North Korea negatively understood An Jung-geun’s behavior by using the concept of ‘patriotic terrorist movement’(애국테러운동). But in the late 1950’s ~ early 1960’s North Korea’s attitude to An shifted to sympathy for the motive. Hereafter, Ahn Jung-geun‘s behavior was reinterpreted as a ’punishment of the chief instigator’(침략원흉 처단). Consequently, Ahn Jung-guen was reevaluated as a symbol of Korean’s resistance against the Japanese aggressors. In domestic politics the process of the reinterpretation has been proactive by Kim Il-Sung and the process of the reinterpretation was also intended to upgrade the political status of Kim Il-sung as leader.

This paper analyzes the US’s policy towards Central Asia from the perspective of the neo-realist system theory which states that the international system is likely to decide and hold influence over an individual state’s foreign policy. It can be said that a uni-polar system has been established since the collapse of the Cold War across the world; particularly in Central Asia where the multi-polar system was formed. Over the last two decades the US policy towards Central Asia have shown some clear changes towards the US’s gradual acceptance of the multi-polarity in the region even though it started from the uni-polarity and unilateralism. This change resulted from the US recognizing that her superiority is no more effective in protecting its security from terrorism and radicalism in the region, thus there’s no other way but approving Russia and China’s role in the region in order to seek cost sharing for maintaining stability. As US’s cost for cooperation with Central Asian states has been increasing under the multipolar system in the region, US’s Central Asian policy is paying more attention to cooperation with Russia and China rather than in competition with them. With the 2014 withdrawal of US troops in Afghanistan the US’s retreat could bring insecurity to Central Asia.

China has emerged as the second largest economy by Gross Domestic Product owing to dynamic growth for a generation. She now tries to change the regional order by increasing her political and military influence based on such growth. But such an attempt is creating new tension with other major regional powers who are seeking to contain China’s uncontrolled behavior. It accordingly increases uncertainty of the East Asian regional situation. In this regard, this paper analyzes the action taken by the U.S. and Japan in the alliance system to deter China’s aggressive actions and China’s response from the point of interaction, along with the implication which China’s rise provides to the East Asian regional order. After scrutinizing the issues, the writer concludes that any countries concerned would not make extreme choices to the extent that ongoing conflict would eventually drive the region into catastrophe, even though the conflict runs high because of the reinforcement of collaboration between the U.S. and Japan based on the alliance to confront China’s power projection with her rise and China's adherence to assertive stance on major issues.

The first stage of China's Western Region Development, which was mainly for secure logistics infrastructures from 2001 to 2010, has been completed recently. The objective of this research is to analyze logistics productivity changes in priority among the regions where the first plan was executed. This study indicates that the logistical productivity of China decreased by 2.3%, and technical efficiency perked up slightly to 0.8%. Also, technical change regressed by 3%. Meanwhile, the average of logistical productivity decreased by 0.4% throughout the western side of China. The technical efficiency increased by 2.2% and the technical change shrank by 2.5% in this area. This analysis states that the Chinese government needs a positive reaction to support the China's Western Region Development because a decrease in the productivity of logistics relatively affect the regressive feature of technical change. Also, the development plan is a bridge to the second step, which is accelerative level beyond the earlier step for logistics infrastructure. At this point, Korean logistics companies operating in China have to enter the market expansion of western area rapidly and secure the western base at the same time.

During the Korean War,1950-1953, Hollywood made about thirty-two feature films, most of which were co-produced with the Department of Defense. The image of American soldiers during the Korean War, as many historians claim, was both part of that of the American soldiers in the World War II and somewhat different. Agony, sorrow, discouragement, and fear formed their war experience in the distant country of Korea. These images were captured by war correspondents such as David Douglas Duncan and effected not only the ways in which the public were to see the war, but also how the Truman administration managed the war. The previous studies on Hollywood’s Korean war movies have focused particularly on these questions: why such different images appeared, how the U.S government responded to them, and how these images changed during the course of the war. But, little attention has been paid to from which these negative images came originally and how Hollywood’s Korean war movies tried to bring it back to the heroic image of the American soldier during World War II. By analyzing two Hollywood’s Korean War films, The Steel Helmet and Battle Circus, this paper will show how and why the image of the American G.I as victims was put into Hollywood’s Korean war movies that were made during the Korean war and how it was recovered to its original status in the history of American G.I., the comeback hero.

Resumption of Mt. Keumgang tourism can be a cornerstone for relaxation of inter-Korean relations and peace on the Korean peninsula. For a successful resumption of Mt. Keumgang tourism it is necessary to create an environment where tourists enjoy the tour with a sense of security. It is also necessary to minimize dangerous elements opposed to Mt. Keumgang tours that potential tourists could perceive and to encourage them to participate in the tour. The objective of this paper is threefold: 1) to identify perceived travel risk; 2) to investigate the influence of perceived risk types on travel intention; 3) to examine the differences in perceived travel risk types and travel intention based on general characteristics. The empirical result indicates that four perceived risk factors such as socio-security, functional, economic, physical risks were identified. The perception towards functional risk and physical risk has a significant negative effect on travel intentions. There were no difference between perceived risk dimensions and general characteristics, but there was a significant difference in travel intention based on general characteristics such as major. Theoretical and managerial implications were drawn from the study findings.

Above all, the view on North Korea and Korean unification for teenagers who will be the leaders of a unified Korea is very important. According to the ‘2013 Korean unification survey of teenagers’, lots of teenagers still have bad impressions of North Korea. The 2012 survey, from a unification and peace researcher at Seoul National University, also shows the younger generation have lower consciousness about unification. This research tells us unification education is significant and should be reinforced, especially in school, where the best access to teenagers is. Therefore, focusing on management of the unification model school, rather than extension and strengthening of unification education in regular schools, this study tried to find what different points of view about Korean unification students have between the unification model school and regular school. In terms of perception of unification education, the model school students receive lecture instruction, audio-visual education, discussion courses, field study and North Korean defector guest lectures about North Korea and unification many times, compared with the non-model school students. The survey suggests that these teaching methods are helpful to unification education. Therefore, there is a significant difference between the model school students and the non-model school students about awareness of unification, attitude towards North Korea and perception of unification education. That is, the model school students are more widely informed about North Korean unification than the non-model school students. Additionally, the model school students more often feel the need for unification than the non-model school students. Operation of the model school for unification education paid off by promoting proper unification perception.