KJC Korea
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This research aims to analyze the relationships between political institutions and the pervasion of COVID-19. To proceed with empirical research, we set democracy, decentralization of local government, proportional representation, federalism, and bicameralism as independent variables. We employed OLS multiple linear regression based on the cumulative COVID-positive cases of 178 countries from 2020 to early 2021. The results shows that democracy, proportional representation, federalism, and bicameralism do not have statistical significance. We found strong evidence that the more a country is decentralized, the more cases of COVID-19 are expected. Regardless of many institutional advantages decentralization has, our research argues that more coordinated anti-pandemic policy process and measures between central and local governments will be encouraged.

One of the common problems of developing countries that have not yet started industrialization is the dual economy. In many developing countries, rural societies have a intensive socio-economic backwardness. Therefore, the economic development of these countries has the task of overcoming the backwardness of rural society and the task of connecting the potential of the agricultural sector to industrialization. The role of the rural and agricultural sectors in the industrialization of developing countries lies here. This role of the agricultural sector is evident in the experiences of developing countries that have succeeded in industrialization, such as Korea and Taiwan. It is very important that the policy makers were independent from the demands and pressures of landlords for the successful implementation of Taiwan's agricultural policy. Agricultural policies for economic development often conflict with the interests of the landlord class. In the case of Taiwan, policy makers promoted agricultural policy that reflected the needs of farmers more actively than those of landlords. As a result, it was possible not only to improve agricultural productivity, but also to increase farmers' income and gain political support from farmers for the government.

This study provides a literature analysis centering 『Korean Diplomatic Historical Records Removal Collection』 and 『DPRK Yearbook』, paying attention on the circumstances of Democratic People's Republic of Korea(DPRK) made an effort to recover the solidarity with the collapsing socialist camp at the situation of the breakup of cold war in 1980s. This study, firstly finds that DPRK recognized international situation and the limitation of competition between North and South Korea disadvantageous to DPRK focused on non-alignment movement and made an effort to recover the solidarity with socialist camp. Secondly, this study investigates that DPRK completed ‘Own Style of Socialism’ as a domestic political discourse by the change of diplomatic relations and redefinition for the people. Lastly, this study suggests that DPRK moved the focus of foreign policy by the change of foreign relationship of DPRK in 1980s from confrontation between North and South Korea to system protection and internal unity centering Il-sung Kim and Jung-il Kim.

This paper examines the anti-Soviet and anti-communist activities within the Korean(Chosun) Democratic Party and the Chondoist Chongu Party, which were created as nationalist parties after the liberation of Korea. These two parties cooperated with the North Korean Communist Party (Labor Party) on the political arena of North Korea, and sometimes did not avoid the conflict for their own interests. The full-fledged anti-Soviet and anti-communism movement of the Democratic Party was expressed as an anti-trust movement immediately after Cho Man-sik was ousted due to the trusteeship issue. Since then, through major events such as the Land Reform and the Election of the People's Committee, resistances from sub-party organizations ranging from simple protests to terrorist activities have developed in various parts of North Korea. While the Democratic Party leadership was artificially reorganized and transformed into a “pro-communist” party, the Chongu Party took a more cooperative stance with the communists immediately after Soviet troops had been stationed in the northern portion of Korea. However, some members of the party leadership adhered to an anti-communist stance, and anti-communist activities in the local party put a heavy burden on the communist authorities. During that time, the two party sub-organizations continued to fight against the policies of communists in connection with the right wing forces from the southern Korea. It can be seen as an expression of the sentiment that a political party based on private ownership refuses to be incorporated into a structure that abstains from it, and a result of the influence of the anti-communist forces of the northern and southern Koreas.

The results of examining the characteristics of Kim Jong Un’s image by analyzing Korean documentary films of field guidance of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un are as follows. First, the documentary films deal with ‘improving people’s living,’ but the method of reproducing ‘people’s firstism’ is changing depending on the time. In the early days of the regime, the leader was portrayed as a parent who showed love to the people, but through the 7th Party Congress, he is recreated as a leader who leads the people to self-reliance. Second, Kim Jong Un was embodied as a leader who practiced the legacy of Kim Jong Il by visiting the fields for guidance against the background of the traces of his predecessors in the early days of the regime. However, around the 7th Party Congress, Kim Jong Un takes off the “portrait badge” with the faces of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il and is pictured as building an independent leadership that goes beyond the achievements of his predecessors. Third, it is a change to the image of a leader that reproduces emotional politics in line with the trend of the video age. With a human aspect that escapes from the infallibility of the leader, he approaches the people emotionally and differentiates himself with a leader’s tendency to pursue practical matters. As a result, it is expected that documentary films will also use various editor methods and continue to reproduce humane images.

Over the past 40 years, the dominant view on the May 18 has changed in South Korea. The view of the military authorities on the May 18 as a ‘riot’ had been dominant in the beginning. The socialist view and the liberalist view competed against it, and the liberalist view became dominant when the May 18 was officially recognized as a ‘democratic movement’ after democratization of South Korea. Recently, the pacifist interpretations of the May 18 are presented strongly, all of which show a certain anti-militarist bias. However, based on the idea of the republican ‘citizen-soldier’, de-militarizing the May 18 is ultimately de-politicizing the May 18, which is not an objective interpretation of the May 18 as actually an event in which the idea of ‘citizen-soldier’ came in reality, but a very dangerous interpretation that could lead to military and political alienation of citizens. The political meaning of the May 18 could be fully revealed when it abandons anti-militarist prejudice, and accepts the military and extends the meaning of ‘the military’ adjustable to the contemporary Korean society.