KJC Korea
Journal Central

This paper analyzes the changes in Koreans’ attitudes towards refugees and immigrants and in threat perceptions after the entrance of Yemeni asylum seekers in 2018 by using the 2015 and 2018 waves of Studies on Korea Multicultural Acceptability. A change in natives’ acceptability caused by an influx of asylum seekers can be attributed to increased economic and sociocultural threats perceived by the natives, which is related to ethnic competition hypothesis. On the other hand, decreased acceptability can also be attributed to increased socio-psychological threats perceived by the natives, known as sociotropic concerns. This study examines the changes in attitudes towards refugees and immigrants with respect to natives’ regions of residence, jobs, and income quintiles. Between 2015 and 2018, the attitudes towards refugees significantly decreased, and attitudes towards immigrants and job threat perceptions worsened among certain occupational groups. However, the changes were bigger in magnitude among natives with stable jobs, which implies that Koreans attitudes towards refugees and immigrants are influenced by sociotropic concerns.

Under China's permanent residency system, which began in 2004, only 9,000 green cards were issued by 2020, and disputes over related systems are also continuing to spread. In the debate, Chinese and related organizations are at odds with the general public in China, the former argues for the expansion of the system, and the latter argues that the green card is "super-national treatment" and reverse discrimination against the people. This study found that this controversy was related to the rigid family register problem in China, and analyzed the background and progress of the controversy, the interests of overseas-chinese residents and the problem. Since 1958, China has strictly controlled the freedom of residence and transfer of Chinese people based on the public purpose of managing population and distribution, maintaining social order, and controlling food supply and demand. However, according to the Chinese government's preferential policy, it was easy for overseas-chinese to acquire family registers in certain large cities, and in particular, foreign Chinese who were not "Chinese citizens" formed a "gray zone" where they could enjoy the rights of the people by expedient. Against this background, the expansion of green cards was understood as the legalization of gray areas, and the debate was bound to spread. The expansion of China's green card system presupposes the improvement of the Chinese family register system. Accordingly, the two systems are expected to operate as barometers to measure the intensity and level of each other's policies.

Exchange and cooperation between divided nation help maintain mutual peace, and in particular, exchange and cooperation in the human resource sector can have functional ripple effects while contributing to mutual economic and social development and stability. In this respect, China has achieved positive results through exchange and cooperation in the human resource field between the two sides, centering on Fujian Province, a local government. The results of such cross-strait cooperation can be seen as applicable or suggestive for Korea. The both sides of the Taiwan Strait have been working tirelessly toward reunification. As part of the efforts, exchange and cooperation in the field of human resources have been made. The starting point for cross-strait exchange was non-political fields, and today, it can be seen that great achievements have been achieved through strategic policies such as private-led and gradual approaches. In particular, there were support and cooperation at the central government level, but it is believed that the local government's approach to geographical, cultural, humanitarian, and historical levels and strategic approaches to pursuing mutual economic benefits were effective. This study concludes that the main success factors of the exchange and cooperation between the both side of the Strait are a gradual approach, a strategy to spread them from the private sector to the public sector, active support and cooperation from the central government, activism at the local government level, and policy strategy and scalability. These positive factors need to be actively used in exchange and cooperation in the human resource field between the two Koreas and refer to the activation of exchange and cooperation in the human resource field of our Korean people in the future.

This study was conducted for the purpose of evaluating the sustainability of North Korean agriculture, and for this purpose, a perception survey was conducted targeting North Korean agricultural and economic and social experts in Korea. The indicators related to North Korean agricultural sustainability were selected based on the OECD's “Innovation, Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability Analysis Framework” and previous study using it. As a result of the Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA), the importance of each factor influencing the sustainability of North Korean agriculture was high in indicators belonging to market and institution, and general economic conditions such as ‘real economic growth rate, policy implementation capacity, infrastructure (SOC), and total investment rate’. Next, North Korea's sustainability composite index was estimated to be 42.9 points, which was lower than the South Korean composite index estimation result (56.1 points) of previous studies analyzed based on the same index. These analysis results support the need to develop inter-Korean agricultural cooperation from the perspective of the Korean Peninsula, as well as aid from the international community to achieve sustainable agriculture in North Korea in the future. Therefore, this study proposed the direction of inter-Korean agricultural cooperation projects aimed at preserving the environment and increasing productivity of North Korea, and suggested a direction to promote agricultural cooperation on the Korean Peninsula from a long-term perspective.

The most important achievement of inter-Korean relations in the period of the Moon Jae In government was that the military tension on the Korean Peninsula was greatly lowered. It is also an important achievement for us that South Korean Government’s diplomatic power had a great influence on the great progress of North Korea-US relations beyond driving inter-Korean relations. It is also noteworthy that it has once again that intensive and close cooperation between leaders can quickly restore inter-Korean relations. However, in spite of these important achievements, inter-Korean relations under Moon Jae In resulted in quite different results than what he intended. The reason for this was structural limitations in the transition to a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula under excessive ROK-US Alliance. As an extension of this, it failed to overcome the tendency to subordinate inter-Korean relations to ROK-US relations. The Korean government should have approached the Korean Peninsula issue with a clearer distinction between the roles of mediators and parties concerned. Finally, we should have strengthened our influence on North Korea by developing new areas for cooperation between the South and North Korea that could circumvent sanctions.

This study comprehensively examines the main achievements and limitations of the Korea-Russia relationship since the 2010s. It also derives various risks posed by Russia at this time and presents countermeasures. Since the 2010s, Korea and Russia have been seeking the convergence of mutual strategic interests and orientations, providing a driving force for the development of relations. In the process, the summit between the two countries, regular and occasional exchanges at the government, public-private and private levels, and the conclusion of visa waiver agreements served as major factors that promoted the progress of bilateral relations. However, Korea-Russia relations had to face a moment of stagnation and regression due to external factors related to changes in the international and regional order. Above all, international and regional issues, such as the intensification of the US-China strategic competition and the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war, pose a number of risks to bilateral relations. To respond to this, Korea needs to consider the following points. First, Korea-Russia relations must be managed stably in order to realize the vision of a Korea's “global pivotal state.” Second, Russia's excessive inclination toward North Korea must be prevented. Third, a balanced policy should be prepared on the Russia-Ukraine war. Fourth, it is necessary to create an opportunity for the recovery and restoration of economic and trade cooperation between the two countries. Fifth, formal and informal communication between the two countries should be continued.

Numerous competing theories and approaches have been developed to measure demand and supply sides of populism. However, more studies should be conducted on assessing and interpreting populist attitudes in post-communist countries that have emerged in completely different political and economic settings. This study addresses this gap. We attempted to explore what effects preferences for strong autocratic leadership, direct democracy, and liberal democracy have on populist attitudes in the post-communist Mongolia. To achieve this objective, we developed and conducted survey on populist attitude. We run logistic regression to analyze and interpret data we collected from the survey. This study finds two interesting findings. Those findings suggest that voters who have high preference for strong leaders that can be observed in communist countries like Xi Jinping in China are more likely to vote for populist parties or leaders. Moreover, people who highly support direct democracy in association with failed representative democracy are more likely to vote for populist candidates.