Wed, 27 May 2015
South Korea remains a strongly homogeneous country, yet in recent years there has been an increasing inflow of migrants. Workers from developing countries in Asia hope to find employment in Korea’s labor-intensive industries while highly skilled workers from OECD nations are attracted to Korea’s booming financial centers and corporate headquarters. Foreigners now amount to 3.5% of the total population. One particular element of immigration in Korea however is the strong influx of migrant women. Faced with declining fertility rates and the rural exodus of young women looking for better prospects in urban areas, the Korean countryside as well as cities have been bringing foreign brides, raising concerns about their inclusion into Korean society, the discriminations they may face, and how Korea intends to manage its newfound “multiculturalism”. Our guest for this episode, Sohoon Lee, is a PhD candidate at the University of Sydney, focusing on the experience of migrant women in South Korea. We talk about Korea’s immigration policies and their underlying ideology, the particular situation of migrant women, and what recent migration trends mean for Korean nation building. Sohoon Lee has written policy papers for UN Women, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, and worked at the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) in areas of ASEAN human rights mechanisms, indigenous people in Southeast Asia, and documentation of human rights violation. She completed her BA (Hons.) with high distinction in Asia-Pacific Studies at the University of Toronto and earned a Master of Human Rights and Democratization (Asia-Pacific) at the University of Sydney. |
Wed, 20 May 2015
While South Korea has become a major economic power, it is surrounded by far larger players in Asia. It may never be able to play a leading role in shaping both regional and international affairs, but is currently looking for ways to assert itself on the global stage. These aspirations are typical of what scholars define as a Middle Power - an international actor that is neither small nor large. Our guest for this episode is Scott Snyder, who has written extensively on Korea, its middle power diplomacy and its efforts to find a voice in international politics. We talked about Korea’s role in the G20, its summit diplomacy of the past years and its efforts to cooperate with other middle powers. Scott Snyder is senior fellow for Korea studies and director of the program on U.S.-Korea policy at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), based in Washington D.C. He has edited and co-authored several publications, the most recent of which being The Japan-South Korea Identity Clash: East Asian Security and the United States (Columbia University Press, 2015). Prior to joining CFR, he was a senior associate in the international relations program of The Asia Foundation, where he founded and directed the Center for U.S.-Korea Policy. He was also a senior associate at Pacific Forum CSIS and a Pantech visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center. Scott Snyder received a BA from Rice University and earned his MA from the regional studies East Asia program at Harvard University. He was also a Thomas G. Watson fellow at Yonsei University in Seoul. He currently writes for the CFR blog Asia Unbound. |
Wed, 13 May 2015
In South Korea, military service is a mandatory rite of passage for each and every able-bodied, male citizen. Conscription is strictly enforced and public opinion has very little tolerance for draft dodgers. Our guest for this episode, Young Chun, learned this the hard way. Born the son of Korean immigrants in Champaign, Illinois, and raised in Chicago and Seattle, he traveled to Korea at the end of 2002. He soon discovered that he was listed as a Korean citizen, despite his parents acquiring U.S. citizenship. The Korean Army wasted no time to draft him, and with his little command of Korean, Young had to start his service in January 2004. He served both in Korea and Afghanistan. Young wrote about his tough experience in his first book, The Accidental Citizen-Soldier, which sheds a unique light, from an outsider’s perspective, on life in the Korean military, its hardships, and sometimes its absurdity. Young Chun holds a BA in Interdisciplinary Visual Art from the University of Washington and an MA in International Studies from Seoul National University (SNU). He currently resides in South Korea and teaches English at SNU. |
Mon, 4 May 2015
In 2012, the Obama administration announced it would "Pivot" to Asia. Yet, as President Obama's second term is coming to an end, many important issues in East Asia and especially concerning North Korea remain unchanged -- or may have even worsened since the Bush era. During the last six years, North Korea sank the South Korean navy vessel Cheonan, shelled Yeonpyeong Island, conducted two nuclear tests and is probably closer than ever to becoming a full-fledged nuclear power. What has been the attitude of the White House towards North Korea since Obama came to power? What were the President’s expectations towards Pyongyang at the start of his presidency? And can we expect further developments or has the Obama administration reached its “lame duck” phase? To answer these questions, we had a short talk with David Sanger, Chief Washington Correspondent for the New York Times. David Sanger has covered a wide variety of issues for the Times, with a focus on foreign policy, nuclear proliferation and Asian affairs. He has reported from New York and Washington and was the Time’s bureau chief in Tokyo for several years. Mr. Sanger was twice a member of Times reporting teams that won the Pulitzer Prize, and belonged to a team nominated for the Prize in 2011 for their coverage of the tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan. David Sanger wrote two books on the Obama Presidency: The Inheritance (2009) and Confront and Conceal (2012). He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Aspen Strategy Group. David Sanger graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College in 1982. |