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Table of Contents

- Korea Focus - August 2014

- TOC

- Politics 1. Voters Chose Economy over Ferry Tragedy as Election Issue 2. Words That the President Needs to Heed 3. Xi Jinping’s Four Directives on the Future of Korea-China Relations 4. Legal Resolution of Comfort Women Issue 5. The Devil Hides behind Anonymity

- Economy 1. Economic Recovery by Park’s Second Cabinet 2. Can Samsung be a Janus Looking to the Future? 3. 1914 and 2014 4. An Unstable Relationship between Growth and Income Distribution 5. What Separated GM and Toyota

- Society 1. Women’s Boycott of Childbirth and Lesson from Japan 2. Civil Society’s Worrisome Depletion 3. Misconceptions and Truth about Isabella Bird Bishop 4. [Debate] University Credits for Military Service

- Culture 1. Valuable Goryeo Sutra Box Returns Home from Japan 2. Why Can’t a Nun Head the Jogye Order? 3. General Hospital for Cultural Properties 4. Korea Needs to Raise One Million Cultural Warriors 5. Suggestions for Sustainable Cities

- Essays 1. Statistical Trends of Farm Household Economy 2. The Angel Coefficient of Korean Households

- Features 1. Namhan Mountain Fortress on the World Heritage List 2. International Students Fill Half of SNU Korean Language Education Department 3. Ethiopian Officials Study Saemaul Movement at Yeungnam University

- Book Reviews 1. A Former Collegian Soldier’s Painful Account of the Korean War 2. Invincible Yi Sun-sin Revered as a Hero by the Japanese

- Interview 1. Bishop You Heung-sik: “The Pope’s lunch menu? Charcoal grilled beef ribs are high on the list.” 2. Kim Atta: “The artwork is the artist’s scripture, with which he communicates with the world.”

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- Voters Chose Economy over Ferry Tragedy as Election Issue

- Words That the President Needs to Heed

- Xi Jinping’s Four Directives on the Future of Korea-China Relations

- Legal Resolution of Comfort Women Issue

- The Devil Hides behind Anonymity

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Voters Chose Economy over Ferry Tragedy as Election Issue

Editorial

The JoongAng Ilbo

The ruling Saenuri Party’s resounding 11-4 parliamentary by-election victories less than two months

after its 9 to 8 split in local elections suggests that voters placed economic concerns over the tragic

sinking of the ferry Sewol. The electorate rejected the opposition party’s effort to turn the more than

300 ferry fatalities, mostly high school students, into a political focal point without offering any rea-

sonable policy alternatives to enhance public safety.

The voters expressed their rejection of the opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD)

very clearly. In Daejeon city, South Chungcheong and North Chungcheong provinces, which are re-

garded as a neutral zone between the predominantly pro-government southeast and the pro-opposition

southwest, voters picked ruling party candidates. Seoul and the surrounding Gyeonggi Province

showed similar results. Opposition bigwigs Sohn Hak-kyu, Kim Doo-kwan and Chung Jang-seon

were decisively defeated.

The biggest surprise was the election of Saenuri candidate Lee Jung-hyun in the Suncheon-Gokseong

district, South Jeolla Province, a traditional stronghold of the old Democratic Party, which was reor-

ganized into the NPAD this year. Until the election, a ruling party candidate winning in the southwest

district seemed impossible. Lee’s improbable victory came by a significant margin

Voters made a difficult decision to change their party allegiance, particularly in Suncheon city (Lee

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is a native of Gokseong). Lee’s promise to secure central government help to improve the local infra-

structure might have had some effect, but his victory would not have been possible if voters had not

made a fundamental review of their political attitudes.

The ruling and opposition parties should now get down to the management of state affairs in a rea-

sonable manner. Both the June 4 local elections and the July 30 parliamentary by-elections served as

referendums on the government after the sinking of the Sewol in April. The July 30 elections should

be a watershed for both the ruling camp and the main opposition force toward change to gain public

trust. Their respective reform efforts, if made earnestly, will not have to be filtered through partisan

concerns with no major election scheduled until April 2016.

President Park has made preparations for what can be dubbed the second phase of her administration.

She reshuffled ministerial positions before the July 30 elections, naming Choi Kyung-hwan as deputy

prime minister responsible for improving the economy with a package of pump-priming measures.

Now, on a summer break, she must be reviewing the troubles she has had in major personnel appoint-

ments and what went wrong in her administration’s crisis management after the Sewol sinking.

Park has only 20 months or so to work free of partisan pressures. After the next parliamentary elec-

tions in April 2016, the political arena will quickly move into election mode for the 2017 presidential

poll.

The president faces heavy challenges in the areas of security, diplomacy, economy and social affairs.

Many are worried that the Kim Jong-un regime of North Korea, struggling under worsening isolation

in the international community, may attempt serious provocations against the South with its nuclear

and missile capabilities, causing grave consequences on the Korean peninsula. The president has the

difficult task of increasing cooperation with China on one hand and strengthening the triangular alli-

ance with the United States and Japan on the other while adroitly managing the ever-volatile Seoul-

Tokyo relations.

National reform prompted by the Sewol sinking is squarely on the president’s shoulders. To succeed,

she should first avoid repeating errors during the first phase of her administration, namely the lack of

public communication and inappropriate appointments. Above all, the second phase should feature

open-minded leadership with better communication and wiser recruitment of capable people.

The new executives of the Saenuri Party headed by Rep. Kim Moo-sung have passed their first test

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with a victory in the July 30 by-elections. But there is simmering tension between the party’s main-

stream and non-mainstream members. If their internal rifts are mishandled, the entire ruling camp

will stumble into a crisis.

If the president winds up with a poor scorecard from her tenure, the presidential election prospects of

the government party will be bleak. The ruling party should help the administration by obtaining

cooperation of the opposition party through earnest persuasion in legislative procedures.

In the aftermath of the Sewol tragedy, the opposition force performed its mission of overseeing state

administration and criticizing flaws in it. Concerned authorities have made substantial progress in

their probes into the incident, including the inquiry by the Board of Audit and Inspection and criminal

investigation by the prosecution. The New Politics Alliance for Democracy, however, sought to pro-

long the shock of the disaster and use it in political strife without recognizing the outcomes of the

authorities’ efforts. Its loss in the latest elections means that the party made a strategic miscalculation.

The opposition is now called upon to join in the settlement of the situation and cooperate with the

government and its party in taking fundamental steps to prevent recurrence of such mishaps. After

earnest debates, the opposition party must give its agreement to special legislation on the Sewol trag-

edy, including the reform measures to sever corruption between industries and their regulating au-

thorities through retired officials. This is the way for the opposition party to win public trust as a

viable alternative political force.

The opposition’s “strategic” nomination of candidates without justifiable reasons or convincing prin-

ciples contributed substantially to its by-election defeats. There was no trace of “new politics” in its

election campaign to the detriment of its image. A wave of leadership change will sweep the opposi-

tion party.

The second phase of the Park administration should aim for national reform and economic revival.

The absence of major elections will allow the ruling and opposition parties and their presidential

hopefuls to engage in constructive competition in studying policies and preparing for the future. When

the political quarters lead a national revival, the whole society will rise from the bottom with the

momentum created by the July 30 elections. This will be the only way to reward the sacrifice of lives

in the Sewol incident.

[July 31, 2014]

www.koreafocus.or.kr

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Words That the President Needs to Heed

Kim Byung-joon

Professor, Department of Public Administration and Public Policy

Kookmin University

One day during his tenure, President Roh Moo-hyun invited senior members of society to dinner at

Cheong Wa Dae. Around that time, he had been frequently accused of acting arbitrarily. Toward the

end of the dinner, the guests took turns giving advice to the president. One of them said, "Open your

ears." Another said, "Listen to bitter but sincere words of advice." Yet another said, "Dismiss any of

your staff who can't say what they should say."

Roh looked uncomfortable. He said, "The fact is that I'm listening to bitter and sincere advice ad

nauseam. I'm even reading derogative Internet postings against me. I've already heard what you've

said this evening over and over." The guests' faces contorted.

Roh went on to say, "What I need isn't bitter and sincere words, but wisdom with which I can manage

the state affairs well. I don't need anybody who would give me bitter and sincere advice, but a man

of wisdom. If you know such a man by any chance, please introduce him to me." The guests became

uncomfortable. Some said to a presidential staff member who was seeing them off, "I'm sorry I'm not

a wise person." As it turned out, the dinner ended up to be a regrettable episode.

Let's not argue who was to blame. It is not the point of this article. Instead, let's ask ourselves if all

the presidents dislike listening to bitter and sincere advice. Perhaps. They are human beings, after all.

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They would not like to hear others say that they are acting incorrectly or that they are wanting in

judgment. Is this the reason why, as many people suspect, the presidents close their ears to bitter and

sincere words of advice? No, it isn't. They don’t reject bitter advice without a reason. Realistically

and theoretically, they can’t.

Think of it. The president is constantly weighed down with many pending issues. None of them is

easy to resolve, and the president has to bear responsibility for any ramifications from the problems.

Naturally, the president should agonize over how to deal with the issues, sometimes wishing to sell a

part of his or her soul to resolve them.

Under such circumstances, President Roh proposed a grand coalition to the opposition parties. He

had no reason to discriminate bitter from sweet advice for the same reason that a patient with severe

disease would not distinguish between bitter and sweet medicines. If the president does not lend his

or her ears to advice, it is because the advice is just bitter but not wise.

Where can wisdom be found? The simplest way is to recruit a wise person like Zhuge Liang (181–

234), a chancellor of Shu Han during China's Three Kingdoms period. But there isn’t such a person

in our complicated world today. Knowledge of various areas and skills are uneven. The second best

choice is to form a "pool of wise advisers" as a "collective intellect." The idea is to let those who are

not profoundly wise individually put their heads together and offset each other’s shortcomings.

How about the current Cheong Wa Dae? Is it a "wise organization" that is supplying wisdom to the

president? I'm afraid not. After the April ferry disaster, President Park Geun-hye issued short-lived

pledges, including launching an agency for administrative innovations, which had to be revised a few

days later. This proves that her office is far from a "wise organization."

At a glance, there seems to be no "control tower" that is well-versed in policies and state affairs. Even

if there is one, it is failing to properly fulfill its function of gathering and fine-tuning opinions, isn’t

it? There may be insurmountable barriers between the presidential staff members. As a result, each

staff member’s unwise and biased views are delivered to the president, unfiltered. Everybody is say-

ing that Park is authoritarian and that none of her staff members can express their views candidly in

her presence. Under these circumstances, it is all the more important for the presidential staff to have

unfettered exchange of opinions, because they need to persuade the president with greater wisdom.

Let me ask once again. Is there a leadership, or a system, inside Cheong Wa Dae that can facilitate

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such dialogue? I hope that all my worries are unfounded. But it seems problems do exist. I just hope

the presidential staff will turn Cheong Wa Dae into a "wise organization" that can add wisdom to the

president's decision-making. This is also true with the people. I hope that everybody will think more

deeply about how to lend wisdom so the president will make wise decisions.

[Dong-A Ilbo, June 10, 2014]

www.koreafocus.or.kr

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Xi Jinping’s Four Directives on the Future of Korea-China Relations

Lee Hee-ok

Professor of Political Science, Sungkyunkwan University

Director, Sungkyun Institute of China Studies

Before his state visit to South Korea [on July 3-5], Chinese President Xi Jinping contributed articles

to major media outlets, through which one could read his view of the current relations between Seoul

and Beijing. In the main, he emphasized that the Korea-China ties should develop into a partnership

for regional cooperation. The articles also suggested that the present “community of interest” needs

to develop stronger links in the humanities and shared responsibility in dealing with regional and

international affairs.

As guidelines for the future of South Korean-Chinese relations, President Xi laid out four points.

First, he reiterated his position on “neighborhood,” echoing his remarks at a 2013 regional conference

in which he described Korea as a “nation sharing a common destiny.” President Xi noted that trust is

the bottom line of a good neighbor policy, seemingly acknowledging President Park Geun-hye’s

“trustpolitik,” a new framework of Seoul’s foreign policy. He stressed that the requisite to sustained

good neighborly relations is concerted cooperative efforts ― a departure from past practices ― in

dealing with core interests and mutual concerns.

Second, Mr. Xi presented a new economic cooperation formula based on reciprocal cooperation. His

proposal included an early conclusion of a free trade agreement to build an advanced framework of

cooperation in all fields, including finance, going beyond traditional cooperation based on mutual

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compatibility and relative advantages. Reminding that Korea and China are “crossing the river in the

same boat,” he suggested that the ultimate destination of their bilateral cooperation should be a united

East Asia.

His third point addressed peace and stability. Fully aware that Northeast Asia’s regional order is laden

with formidable uncertainties, Xi noted that China has been closely watching “conflicts” in the region,

big and small. What he means by “conflicts” refers to not only North Korea’s threat of provocation

but all acts detrimental to peace in the region, including Japan’s sustained tilt toward the right. This

may be seen as a discreet approach to the potential volatility on the Korean peninsula and in Northeast

Asia after the Korea-China summit.

Fourth, the Chinese president accented the importance of personnel exchanges in the humanities sec-

tor between Korea and China. The emphasis obviously pointed to the need for diverse programs for

mutual understanding and cooperation in the private sector in order to preclude possible misjudg-

ments stemming from any misunderstanding. This recalls an accord by the two presidents in their

first summit last year to step up bilateral public diplomacy and bond in the humanities. After all, the

future Korea-China relations will essentially rest in the minds and hearts of people of the two coun-

tries. Hence a new dimension of cultural cooperation is necessitated in sharing the inherent values of

East Asia.

President Xi’s directives boil down to a call for renewed dynamism on both sides to mobilize strategic

cooperation based on common perception. It is a step beyond their conventional passive cooperation

in averting common risks. In addition, the directives stressed the possibility of mustering cooperation

through engagement rather than exclusion. As such, his approach suggests Beijing’s preference to

resolve the Korean question by means of a “Chinese formula of virtuous circle” rather than through

isolation of North Korea.

The Chinese leader apparently seeks to independently promote Beijing’s cooperative relations with

Seoul without being swayed by the North Korea factor. His use of the idiom of “sail before the wind”

bodes well for future strategic ties between the two nations. South Korea seeks to maintain amicable

relations with both the United States and China, much as China does with both Koreas. Finding a

strategic nexus in the process will be a new task for South Korea in the wake of the upcoming Park-

Xi summit.

[Chosun Ilbo, July 4, 2014]

www.koreafocus.or.kr

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Legal Resolution of Comfort Women Issue

Cho Sei-young

Professor, Dongseo University; Former Director-General

Northeast Asian Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade

One stunning statement after another in Japan has left the Kono Statement in tatters, driving Seoul-

Tokyo relations into a deeper deadlock. In 1993, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono released

a statement admitting that the Japanese Imperial Army had forced women in neighboring countries

to work in military brothels as "comfort women" during World War II.

As an individual who once was on the diplomatic frontline dealing with Japan, I was flabbergasted

and frustrated by the Japanese government's latest "verification" of the Kono Statement. First, I was

surprised by the scale of the findings, which amounted to as many as 25 pages.

Originally, the review was rumored to deal only with whether Seoul and Tokyo had consultations

prior to the release of the statement. It, in fact, looks to be a detailed diplomatic document spanning

over 10 years from 1991, when the comfort women issue came into the spotlight, to 2002, when the

Asian Women's Fund activities came to an end. Indeed, the data looks like a kind of "white paper,"

far from a document of verification. It seems that the Abe administration decided to release all of its

pent-up emotions under the pretext of "verification."

Second, the latest statement is biased and unbalanced, given that its contents were filtered and edited

to Japan's taste. For example, before the Kono Statement was issued in 1993, Seoul opposed any

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formal consultations between the two governments. But Tokyo proposed that they "hold secret talks

for which we wouldn't shift responsibility to you later." The latest statement conveniently ignores this

fact.

Disagreements on past records and different interpretations of a single matter are not uncommon

because human beings tend to see only what they want to see. Therefore, the idea of attempting to

verify an old document on a pending diplomatic issue was wrong in the first place.

Third, the release of details of a classified diplomatic document, including exchanges of views be-

tween working-level officials, and details of foreign ministers’ meetings and even summit talks, will

have serious, far-reaching ramifications. I am deeply worried about the possibility of Seoul and Tokyo

conducting normal diplomatic interactions in the future, if privacy is in doubt.

As a matter of fact, in the wake of WikiLeaks revelations, diplomatic negotiators around the world

have increasingly found it difficult to have frank talks with their counterparts for fear of disclosures.

Now, the Japanese government has revealed a classified diplomatic document that a computer hacker

would have dreamed of, muddying already fragile diplomatic negotiations between Korea and Japan.

Through the latest disclosure, the Abe administration is trying to make it look as if Seoul has once

again made a fuss about the comfort women issue, which has been resolved "already" through diplo-

matic negotiations. In March 1993, President Kim Young-sam declared that Korea would not demand

monetary reparations from Japan for the former comfort women, but provide them with necessary

support on its own. This was not because Japan was not responsible. It was motivated by Korea’s

decision to display moral superiority.

Instead, Korea demanded that Japan admit facts and give its future generations a proper education on

the historical issue. The Kono Statement was issued five months later. In response, Seoul said that

the comfort women issue was resolved diplomatically, and has since maintained this principle.

In this context, calling anew for a "sincere response" from Japan to the comfort women issue could

give Japan a good excuse for prevarication. Therefore, we need once again to seriously consider im-

plementing measures in accordance with a 2011 ruling by the Constitutional Court. To review the

conflicting interpretations between the two countries as to whether the issue was resolved by the

bilateral “Claims Agreement” of 1965, it is necessary to hold diplomatic negotiations or refer the

matter to an international arbitration as provided by Article 3 of the agreement. This will quell any

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misunderstanding that Seoul is trying to reverse its previous stance, serving as a powerful bargaining

chip against Tokyo.

This is like asking a lawyer to handle a traffic accident, instead of drivers bickering about who is to

blame. This could prevent further emotional confrontation between Seoul and Tokyo, and give Seoul

an advantage in the international PR warfare, given the deep emotional chasm between the two coun-

tries over the comfort women issue. The result of Japan's latest "verification" of the Kono Statement

shows that conducting diplomatic "negotiations" to request a sincere gesture could lead to bad con-

sequences.

[The Hankyoreh, June 24, 2014]

www.koreafocus.or.kr

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The Devil Hides behind Anonymity

Lee Jung-jae

Editorial Writer

The JoongAng Ilbo

I have long been confused about the old saying, "Water that is too pure has no fish.” Why can’t fish

live in pure water? They can’t live in polluted, murky water, can they? Moreover, I have been all the

more confused about another old saying, "A man who is too clean-handed has few followers." What

nonsense! Then, should a man become appropriately corrupt and engage in backdoor deals? Do these

sayings mean that an opaque society is better than a transparent one?

Unfortunately, few of us in the Republic of Korea can definitely say, "No." A typical case is the Public

Service Ethics Act. It is like a sentry in the ongoing national campaign to root out the "bureaucratic

mafia" straddling the public and private sectors. Under this act, the Public Service Ethics Committee

approves or rejects "parachute appointments" of retired public servants for posts at public corpora-

tions. The committee consists of 11 members, including its chairman. In principle, except the chair-

man and the vice minister of security and public administration, an ex officio member, the identity of

the other nine committee members cannot be disclosed to the public.

The Ministry of Security and Public Administration contended, "If the list was made public, civil

petitions would flood in. Then it would be hard to ignore them. The committee members would have

difficulty reviewing cases independently. So we nipped any unsavory developments in the bud in the

first place. The list has never been, and never will be, disclosed."

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Is this right? After some difficulty we have succeeded in persuading a former member of the com-

mittee to reveal what really happens. Because the disclosure of his identity is against the law, he spoke

on condition of anonymity. He said, "Four ex officio members of the committee are incumbent vice

minister-level officials. Every public servant knows who they are. Only the general public is left in

the dark. The committee members are free from media surveillance, which means it's very easy for

them to be soft on some cases. Keeping the committee members anonymous is an excellent tactic

whereby they can exercise their rights but will bear no responsibility for anything they do."

Furthermore, in 2007, a new clause that says, "The minutes of the committee's meetings shall not be

disclosed" (Article 19, Clause 5), was added to the enforcement decree of the law. Nobody explained

why this new clause was needed.

The former committee member recalled, "There was no rule on how long each meeting should last or

how many cases it should handle. Each meeting reviewed about 10 to 60 cases. Government officials

prepared thick sets of data. Naturally, there wasn’t enough time to carefully review each of them. The

chairman simply asked the members if there was any problem, but in almost all cases, they answered,

'No problem.' The government officials were also lackluster. They disliked being asked for additional

data or being scolded for any omissions from the data. They appeared to have no intention of working

hard for the committee, because the committee's decisions would prevent their colleagues from get-

ting 'parachute appointments.' Any committee member who was meticulous about his duties was con-

sidered a fool."

As a result, 93 percent of parachute appointments at public corporations, or 1,263 cases out of a total

of 1,362 applications submitted for review by the committee, have been approved over the last five

years. The rate rises during the lame-duck period of any president. Hence the act is called not a law

that seeks restrictions but one that "grants immunity" to the seekers of parachute appointments. The

former committee member added, "After I found out how the committee worked, I hated to attend its

meetings. I didn't feel honored at all."

Then, has the list of the committee members been never disclosed so far? “Yes, it has,” he said. "The

Kim Young-sam administration revealed the names of all nine members, including chairman. The

Kim Dae-jung and the Roh Moo-hyun administrations occasionally disclosed it. But since the Lee

Myung-bak administration, it has never been disclosed. The non-disclosure clause isn't in the enforce-

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ment decree, but in the ministry's operational rules on information access. This means that the minis-

try can delete the clause anytime, if it has a mind to."

In conclusion, he added, quoting a Western proverb, "The devil hides behind two walls ― detail and

anonymity. The act's Article 17 stipulates that public servants should not seek jobs in private compa-

nies that are ‘closely’ related to the jobs they have carried out in the last five years before retirement.

The ministry, in fact, rendered the act toothless by inserting the word ‘closely.’ The committee has

been soft on tens of thousands of applications from retired public servants. It is anonymity that has

made all this possible."

Last month, President Park Geun-hye introduced several policy measures to eradicate the "bureau-

cratic mafia." She decided to extend the period of ban on public servants' reemployment from two to

three years; prohibit officials from finding jobs in private companies related to their ministries or

agencies, instead of their individual jobs; and disclose the results of the committee’s meetings. But

two crucial factors are still missing ― detail and anonymity. Without specifying these two factors, it

will be impossible to rescue the Public Service Ethics Act from the devil.

[June 5, 2014]

www.koreafocus.or.kr

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- Economic Recovery by Park’s Second Cabinet

- Can Samsung be a Janus Looking to the Future?

- 1914 and 2014

- An Unstable Relationship between Growth and Income Distribution

- What Separated GM and Toyota

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Economic Recovery by Park’s Second Cabinet

Kim Young-han

Professor of Economics

Sungkyunkwan University

In the 1960s, Koreans had high expectations that they eventually would be better off. Such hopes

carried them through the annual spring hunger until barley was harvested. Nowadays, however, hope

is largely absent. Tepid domestic demand and persistent youth unemployment are just two of many

serious problems that are fueling anxiety about the economy.

If excessive regulations could be blamed for the current sluggish domestic demand, contraction of

corporate investments and sharp drop in export competitiveness, the administration could simply

launch sweeping reforms. But the weakness of our economy is mainly due to the outsized loss of its

growth dynamics.

This is what happens when the majority of citizens are deprived of an opportunity to participate in

innovative economic activities. The rapid loss of Korea’s comparative technological advantage man-

ifests the deprivation, which is rooted in government failure to foster universal means for economic

well-being and advancement. Thus, the society is deeply polarized and its growth potential is funda-

mentally damaged.

The Korean economy has a worsening structural problem. As such, it is a mistake to merely boost the

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property market and encourage financial transactions to reinvigorate the economy. It is like not real-

izing that a painkiller only delivers short-term relief. There may be an illusion of growth when dereg-

ulation boosts property and financial markets. But they are nothing but bubbles.

The nation has repeatedly witnessed what happens when property and financial bubbles burst and

growth potential is missing. Recovery is elusive. Similarly, if the government’s promotion of a “cre-

ative economy,” widely touted as a cure-all, fails to become a systematic policy to encourage invest-

ments in technology, the risk of yet another information technology bubble will occur.

It is necessary to take a painkiller when the pain is unbearable. Yet, what is more important is unin-

terrupted medication. In other words, a basic solution to the structural economic problem lies in build-

ing a strong social safety net so that a large majority of citizens will be able to participate in innovative

economic activities. At the same time, the nation will have to craft an industrial policy to develop its

own technologies for economic competitiveness and upgrade its economic structure geared for value

creation.

With such a social safety net in place, being forced out of work will not mean a threat to survival.

When a minimum income is assured until reemployment, the labor market will be more flexible. Then

it will help business enterprises become more competitive, enabling them to boost the nation’s com-

petitiveness through the participation of more people in innovative activities.

A pain reliever cannot turn the economy around. The medicine that the nation needs is investment in

technological innovation and creation of a strong social safety net. Only then will the economy regain

momentum for growth and people recover dreams about their future.

[Digital Times, July 18, 2014]

www.koreafocus.or.kr

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Can Samsung be a Janus Looking to the Future?

Lee Joo-myung

Editorial Writer

The Asia Business Daily

Is the Samsung Group our society’s version of Janus, the two-faced Roman god? On one side, the

conglomerate embodies “transformation and achievement.” On the other, it recalls “an ancient régime

and a deep-rooted evil.”

A Korean traveling abroad may be delighted at seeing the global powerhouse’s logo. Still, Samsung

is not endearing itself to many Koreans who frown at its plutocracy and ban on labor unions.

Samsung plans to bring its de facto holding company, Samsung Everland, to the stock market. The

initial public offering is expected in the first half of 2015. The group’s board of directors approved

the IPO on June 3 ― 24 days after Chairman Lee Kun-hee suffered a severe heart attack. He is now

hospitalized indefinitely.

The reason given for the IPO is a desire to “secure investment resources that are needed to boost the

group’s global competitive power.” But few accept the explanation at face value. Many perceive the

move as an attempt to hasten the transfer of group control to Lee’s son and group vice chairman, Jae-

yong. Should Chairman Lee, more than 70 years old, recover, his age would have to be taken into

consideration.

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With the IPO, Lee Jae-yong would own 25 percent of Everland’s stock, making him the largest share-

holder with at least 1 trillion won in capital gain. When coupled with the capital gain from the Sam-

sung SDS IPO expected this year, he should have more than 3 trillion won for investments and other

purposes.

.

The money would definitely be useful to the junior Lee, who would have to pay inheritance taxes and

buy additional shares of Samsung companies for corporate control. It would also help him smoothly

split the group with his sisters ― Boo-jin, president of Hotel Shilla, and Seo-hyun, president of Sam-

sung Everland’s fashion division.

The succession at Samsung Group will most likely proceed without too much difficulty, given that

the junior Lee has had no notable dispute over corporate management with his sisters, unlike his

father who clashed with his siblings for control.

But is it all that needs to be done? The transfer of corporate control demands a social imprimatur as

well as a smooth legal process. A corporation takes diverse benefits from society such as policy and

financial support as well as supply of human resources and market formation.

Social approval is all the more demanded when a large corporation, such as Samsung, is involved. It

is not just because an ethical issue is at stake for Samsung. A corporation will frequently find its

action being checked when it fails to secure backing from society with regard to issues concerning its

business, ownership and other matters of public concern.

Public opinion, which is not very favorable to Samsung’s succession process, should be taken into

consideration from this perspective.

In 2009, the Supreme Court held that Samsung Everland’s directors were not guilty of unduly bene-

fiting Lee Jae-yong by allocating convertible bonds to shareholders at a price that was less than face

value. The ruling ended the legal dispute. But it does not necessarily mean an end to the social dispute.

There still are many who wonder if Lee Jae-yong legitimately acquired a controlling stake by using

his convertible bonds.

Moreover, society at large has reservations about his management skills. Though he has been training

since he joined Samsung Electronics as an executive in 2001, he has yet to demonstrate his manage-

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ment acumen. Foreign investors in particular are reportedly focused on this issue when they are as-

sessing Samsung’s future.

Samsung is tasked with settling all disputes and removing all suspicions about its transfer of corporate

control to take this occasion for another leap forward. This needs to go hand in hand with the group’s

pursuit of innovation.

If Samsung is aiming at global leadership, as it says it is, it should not hold on to its feudalistic past.

It needs to make its governance much more transparent and connect with society in a humble manner.

It also needs to be faithful to its social responsibility concerning all aspects of corporate management,

ranging from investment and employment to respect for the law.

What is required of Samsung are deeds, not words, when innovation is demanded along its process

of transferring corporate control. In Roman mythology, the two faces of Janus look to the past and

the future as it is the guardian of the gateway from the past to the future. As such, it symbolizes a new

beginning and a move forward. Will Samsung transform itself into a Janus looking to the future,

instead of being stuck in its not-so-proud past?

[June 9, 2014]

www.koreafocus.or.kr

24

1914 and 2014

Cho Yoon-je

Professor of Economics

Sogang University

There has been much talk about 1914 and 2014 at international forums this year. One hundred years

seems to be very short when compared with the long history of mankind. But compared to an indi-

vidual’s lifetime, it certainly is a long period of time. As such, it is quite easy to forget what happened

100 years ago.

The year 1914 was epoch-making in human history. World War I erupted in that year, transforming

the global order, state institutions and even the fate of individual nations. With the collapse of Euro-

pean dynasties, imperialism receded and the Bolshevik Revolution started in Russia. Then communist

and socialist states emerged and capitalism recalibrated drastically.

At this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe

compared the current relations between Japan and China to the rivalry between Britain and Germany

shortly before World War I. The emergence of a new superpower heightens regional tension. What

Abe failed to acknowledge, however, is that increased tensions led to war when the old powers ―

Britain and France ― attempted to check the ascendency of Germany. The war left all three countries

badly scarred.

25

The center of the postwar global economy crossed the Atlantic to the United States and the interna-

tional monetary system based on the gold standard began to crumble. John Maynard Keynes, who

attended the peace conference in Paris as a delegate of the British Treasury to discuss postwar repa-

rations, introduced what would be later called the Keynesian economics. The Great Depression fol-

lowed soon, prompting a far-reaching change in the role of the government in the market.

China is now emerging as a global superpower. The world order, which has been led by Britain and

then the United States, is being severely challenged as it is moving toward a multi-polar system.

Globalization is making territorial borders obsolete and individual countries are realizing their current

governance has serious limitations.

Though politics and government are confined within the borders of a sovereign state, many policy

issues have taken on a global dimension. Few countries can solve such issues without international

cooperation. Yet, domestic politics revolves around national issues alone.

Under these circumstances, multilateral systems, such as the World Trade Organization and the

United Nations, are being shunned in international economic and diplomatic relations while bilateral

arrangements, including free trade deals and diplomatic negotiations between two nations, are gaining

momentum. Amid such a trend, the United Kingdom has increased the number of its overseas mis-

sions by 18 during the past four years.

The trade sanctions Western European countries imposed against each other in the wake of World

War I gave rise to demands for products made by Japan, which had just embarked on industrialization.

Japan thus began to produce surpluses, ending chronic deficits in its balance of international pay-

ments. As a result, Japan began to increase its investment in Korea to kick off industrialization in the

colony in the 1930s.

In preparation for Japan’s war of aggression on mainland China, the Government-General of Korea

encouraged Japanese nouveau riche to invest in the Korean peninsula by offering them all types of

banking and tax incentives. Japan’s industrialization policy on the peninsula provided a model for

Korea’s economic development in the 1960s to the 70s.

Northeast Asia is now the center of a new world order being created. China, which ceded its Shandong

peninsula first to Germany a century ago and then to Japan, is determined to reconfigure the world

order according to its own formula. As part of this endeavor, China has unilaterally proclaimed its air

26

defense identification zones and launched a campaign to turn the yuan into an international reserve

currency.

History flows like water. It sometimes whispers like a small brook. It roars like a steep waterfall at

other times. Yet it keeps flowing in a linear direction. Although the speed of currents may vary over

obstacles, it does not permit natural disruption.

No country has been victimized as much as Korea when Northeast Asia is drawn into a vortex of

historical turmoil. Korea disappeared from the world atlas a century ago. Now, after regaining inde-

pendence and achieving eye-popping economic growth, the nation finds itself in the midst of chaos

again.

At this critical juncture, we need wisdom to correctly discern the tumultuous situation in Northeast

Asia and the world. Also needed more acutely than at any other time is the ability to develop a stra-

tegic posture for the nation, undertake wide-ranging institutional reforms, and cultivate political and

diplomatic capacities and human resources.

News headlines are focused on passing issues day after day. Regardless of the fleeting headlines,

however, world history continues its ceaseless transition amid twists and turns.

Under these circumstances, the government keeps mouthing big words that have yet to be defined,

such as a creative economy, normalization of abnormalities, a windfall from national unification and

economic innovation. Recently added to them is state restructuring. There has been little change de-

spite the fountain of catchwords, while the government is hopping from one national agenda to an-

other.

How can the Republic of Korea afford to permit itself to run adrift when it is hard pressed with a

myriad of daunting tasks at home and the air currents enveloping the peninsula are shifting so vio-

lently?

[JoongAng Ilbo, June 14, 2014]

www.koreafocus.or.kr

27

An Unstable Relationship between Growth and Income Distribution

Song E-young

Professor of Economics

Sogang University

Few economic tasks are as important as establishing a harmonious relationship between growth and

income distribution. The nation’s conservatives, who put growth before anything else, demand a pol-

icy be crafted to raise the growth rate. They are proponents of trickle-down economics, claiming that

income distribution will improve naturally when the growth rate rises. On the other hand, the pro-

gressives prioritize fair distribution of income. They argue that it leads to sustained high growth.

Does growth bring fair income distribution, or is it the other way round?

Economists with a long-term perspective on capitalism pay attention to what advanced nations expe-

rienced in the 1950s and the 1960s. During this period, they sustained the highest-ever levels of

growth. At the same time, income inequality dropped sharply.

Professor Robert Gordon argues that the high rates of growth were made possible by groundbreaking

technologies that had been developed in the late 19th century to the early 20th century and that such

high growth levels would be difficult to achieve again. The decline in income inequality was the result

of the exceptionally high growth.

28

Many progressive scholars claim the virtuous distribution-growth circle resulted from moderate lib-

eralism, which was characterized by marginal tax rates as high as 90 percent and a wide welfare net.

Their claim is supported by studies conducted by the conservative International Monetary Fund,

which says developing countries with lower levels of income inequality have attained higher rates of

growth during the past 50 years.

Professor Thomas Pikety, author of the best-seller “Capital in the Twenty-First Century,” presents a

different perspective. He argues that the decline in income inequality that advanced nations witnessed

in the 1950s and the 1960s resulted from the exceptionally high growth rates, stringently progressive

tax rates and the breakdown of capital in war. This experience, he says, was an exceptional episode.

He claims the capitalist economy inevitably exacerbates inequality in wealth and income and that

there is no solution to this problem other than income redistribution through taxation.

The post-World War II boom that advanced nations enjoyed was amplified decades later in Asian

countries, which wrote a new mythology of growth. Korea was among them. As was the case with

advanced nations, income inequality fell as growth accelerated in Korea. Since the late 1990s, how-

ever, slow growth and worsening income distribution have been going hand in hand in Korea.

If the economy grows faster, will income distribution improve? Economic research papers do not

inspire hope.

Since the 1980s, income inequality has deteriorated in the United States and Britain, regardless of the

growth rate. In China, income inequality continues to deepen despite the high rates of growth. On the

other hand, it is relatively stable in Germany and France. The differences are assumed to result from

different types of economic growth and social institutions that these countries have pursued.

Growth will improve income distribution where new epoch-making technologies free workers from

housework and a rapidly expanding manufacturing industry and universal education work together to

produce a huge middle class of both white-collar and blue-collar workers, as they did in post-World

War II advanced countries and in the earlier Korea.

On the other hand, growth will worsen income inequality if expanding credit creates an asset bubble

and banking and industrial elites conspire in their pursuit of astronomical levels of compensation.

In Korea, growth is slowing and income distribution is worsening. The high debt load of households

29

is encroaching on spending. Small- and medium-sized corporations are struggling with low produc-

tivity. And the labor market is segmented with many lower-paying temporary jobs.

Under these circumstances, the conservative forces in the nation will have to look for growth pro-

grams that are certain to have trickle-down effects, instead of demanding that the administration boost

the housing market and push hard for deregulation. For their part, the progressives will have to present

a policy on income redistribution that is designed to remove many of the ill effects of raising tax rates

and lower the barriers to growth.

Of course, neither is an easy task.

[Maeil Business Newspaper, June 13, 2014]

www.koreafocus.or.kr

30

What Separated GM and Toyota

Chung Sung-hee

Editorial Writer

The Dong-A Ilbo

About 4,000 people died of respiratory trouble or suffocation during three weeks of extraordinary

smog in London in 1952, and another 8,000 died of chronic lung disease afterwards. Coal was the

culprit. China finds itself in a similar condition now.

Britain has since replaced coal with petroleum and natural gas. The fuel change has not only reduced

air pollution but also transformed Britain’s industrial landscape.

Smog in Los Angeles was no less severe. Its cause was nitrogen oxides from vehicle exhaust, which

react in the atmosphere with sunlight to produce photochemical smog. The pollution prompted Cali-

fornia’s 1966 decision to impose regulations on vehicle emissions ― the earliest and strongest in the

world.

Now few are worried about nitrogen oxides, whose emissions are reduced by a catalytic converter.

Frenchman Eugene Houdry invented the honeycomb-shaped device. But it was Toyota, Nissan and

other Japanese auto companies that developed its prototypes for commercial use and installed them

in automobiles. When the U.S. federal government followed California’s example and strengthened

anti-air pollution regulations, it did not take long before Japanese automakers dominated the U.S.

31

market. It was a benefit given to companies that had embraced a new technology for market oppor-

tunities.

The U.S. government, which applied strict standards on air pollution, was not so stringent when it

came to greenhouse gas emissions. In 1967, Governor Ronald Regan created the California Air Re-

sources Board to regulate air quality. But when he was elected president, Regan pushed for deregula-

tion. President George W. Bush went one step further when he decided to pull the United States out

of the Kyoto Protocol.

When European companies were striving to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve fuel effi-

ciency, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, assuming that oil prices would remain stable and there

would be no change in their government’s policy, invested heavily in sports utility vehicles and com-

peted against each other for better design. But oil prices soared in the 2000s, forcing consumers to

shun the gas guzzling SUVs. Consequently, GM failed to weather the effects of the 2008 global fi-

nancial crisis and had to endure the humiliation of seeking bankruptcy protection in 2009.

With a debate proceeding over a proposal to impose a levy on gas guzzlers and subsidize fuel-efficient

cars in the nation, we need to dwell on what drove U.S. automakers and their Japanese and European

counterparts to go their separate ways.

This is not to say it is nonsensical to claim that subsidies to low-carbon vehicles are not effective in

reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Nor is it to say skeptics are misguided when they wonder if it is

necessary to provide such subsidies, given that France is the only auto-producing nation that does so.

When an issue in point is complicated and interests for the parties concerned are entangled, it is

necessary to cut through the clutter and delve into what really matters.

In Korea, midsize and large cars account for 72 percent of passenger vehicles, more than twice the

30 percent level in many other counties. Do drivers buy them to show off their wealth? Or is it because

of the influence of automakers’ effective marketing strategies?

The preponderance of midsize and large cars is certainly not desirable, considering that the nation,

the fourth largest energy importer in the world, relies on purchases from abroad for 97 percent of its

energy needs. Moreover, transportation accounts for 16 percent of the total greenhouse gas emissions

in the nation.

32

Consumers need to be encouraged to switch to small cars. Monetary incentives will undoubtedly help

change consumer behavior. Many of those who say they do want to buy small cars complain that

choices among the domestic models are limited and that imports are expensive.

Nonetheless, imported small cars are on the rise despite their high prices, an indication that there is a

substantial pent-up demand for small cars. Domestic automakers have competitive advantage when

it comes to small cars. But they are focused on marketing midsize and large cars because they are

more profitable.

Domestic automakers are attempting to scuttle the government’s plan to provide subsidies for buyers

of small cars, claiming the financial incentive will benefit their foreign counterparts much more. They

grumble after wasting the past five years without preparing for a changing market. They may be

following the footsteps of GM.

[June 17, 2014]

www.koreafocus.or.kr

33

- Women’s Boycott of Childbirth and Lesson from Japan

- Civil Society’s Worrisome Depletion

- Misconceptions and Truth about Isabella Bird Bishop

- [Debate] University Credits for Military Service

34

Women’s Boycott of Childbirth and Lesson from Japan

You Jong-il

Professor of Economics

KDI School of Public Policy and Management

While in Japan recently, a Korean resident jokingly told me that when he bought a Samsung cell

phone, his Japanese friends scolded him, saying, “Why did you buy a Samsung phone, which already

sells well? You should have purchased a product of poor Sony.” From the joke, I could feel the hard-

ship of Japanese people, who have yet to recover from the extended stagnation following the real

estate bubble bursting nearly a quarter century ago. Kansai International Airport, which runs a huge

deficit every year, also reminded me of lingering aftereffects of the bubble.

On my way home, I had a moment to dwell on yet another lesson that Japan is teaching us. There are

many explanations for Japan’s chronic economic malaise. Blame is often assigned to the financial

problems caused by the collapse of the bubble and weakened competitiveness of the manufacturing

industry stemming from the strong yen, or the public anxiety about the future caused by accumulated

fiscal deficits. However, these problems have not been insurmountable hurdles.

The bubble burst decades ago, the yen’s exchange rate has had repeated ups and downs, and the yield

rate of Japanese government bonds has been extremely stable despite the nation’s huge budget defi-

cits. Quite a few people also argue that too many regulations are problematic. For the past 20 years,

there have been repeated calls for deregulation and the Abe administration has made it a primary tool

for economic recovery.

35

However, as in Korea, there is no chance that the Japanese economy will soar with concerted dereg-

ulation. In fact, unbridled regulatory breaks may backfire as they did when the Nakasone govern-

ment’s reckless relaxation of regulations fueled the property bubble.

So, what is the fundamental cause of Japan’s lethargy? The answer lies in the nation’s demographics.

Due to its stagnant and aging population, Japan’s potential growth rate has significantly dwindled.

Apart from the population issue, Japan’s economic performance has not been too bad. Between 1990

and 2007, the per capita income of the country’s economically active people aged 15 to 64 increased

by 1.2 percent annually, which is no less than that of any advanced country. The 2008 global financial

crisis slammed Japan’s economy, but it has snapped back sharply.

In short, the Japanese economy seems to be stuck in chronic trouble because of a decline in its eco-

nomically active population, not because of low productivity. Conversely, as long as the population

growth remains stagnant and the aging progresses, there is no chance that any stimulus or expansion

policy can succeed. As the Korean population grays at an even faster rate than the Japanese, I can’t

help but worry about our future. When I returned home with this concern in mind, the first news I

heard was “Korea’s Birthrate is the Lowest in the World.”

Actually, the headline was a slight exaggeration. According to the CIA World Factbook, released on

June 16, South Korea’s birthrate was 219th among the surveyed 224 countries, with each South Ko-

rean woman estimated to give birth to an average of 1.25 children for her entire life, the lowest among

OECD nations. It also found that a Japanese woman would give birth to an average of 1.40 children,

ranking 208th.

In general, the income level and birthrate of a country move in opposite directions. But among those

countries above a certain income level, glaring differences appear according to their culture and pol-

icies. It is very interesting that Singapore, Macau, Taiwan and Hong Kong, all rich economies in East

Asia, have lower birthrates than Korea. In these countries, women have difficulties raising children

and pursuing their careers at the same time due to poor social welfare systems and gender discrimi-

nation.

Young women are staging a strike against childbirth. Now, President Park Geun-hye’s new economic

team vows to revitalize the economy. There is no way to bring vitality to the economy without re-

solving women’s boycott of childbirth.

[The Hankyoreh, June 17, 2014]

www.koreafocus.or.kr

36

Civil Society’s Worrisome Depletion

Kang In-shik

Staff Reporter

The JoongAng Ilbo

In October 2011, when Park Won-soon won the by-election for Seoul mayor as an independent can-

didate, Cho Hee-yeon, a professor at Sungkonghoe University, declared, “Park’s election marks a

huge challenge and crisis to the civil society.” Cho also warned, “The one who has monitored the

government and market has now become a target of surveillance. All power corrupts. That’s why we

need the civil society. The People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD) will be the fiercest

watchdog for Mayor Park.”

Park and Cho both entered Seoul National University in 1975 and co-founded the PSPD in 1994.

They have been long-time friends and colleagues, but Cho couldn’t congratulate Park. And, three

years later, Cho ran for Seoul’s superintendent of education in the June 4 local elections and won. As

for the reason why he entered the race, he said, “Education is at the heart of the structural contradic-

tion of our society.”

Ahead of him, in 2012, Kim Ki-sik, another founding member and former secretary-general of the

PSPD, was elected to the National Assembly as a proportional representative from the opposition

Democratic Party (currently the New Politics Alliance for Democracy). Kim organized the Citizens’

Coalition for the General Elections along with Park Won-soon in 2000 to lead a successful campaign

against unqualified candidates. It is a Korean phenomenon, as Cho said, that leaders of civil society

37

movements become political elites. That cannot be all bad.

The novelty that Mayor Park displayed in the primary election campaign against a candidate from the

Democratic Party taught a valuable lesson to the political community. During the campaign to nomi-

nate a single candidate from the opposition camp, the Democratic Party candidate mobilized “party

buses” to show off his influence in transporting party members around to campaign sites, but Park

didn’t rely on such a tactic. Moreover, Ahn Cheol-soo, then dean of Seoul National University’s

Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology, and a leading candidate with 50 percent

approval ratings, dropped his bid to back Park, a civil activist only with 5 percent approval ratings. It

was indeed a history-making political event.

Finally, Park Won-soon became the mayor of Seoul as an independent candidate, not as a Democratic

Party member, without damaging his “depoliticized” image that he had cultivated as a civic activist.

Even after joining the Democratic Party later, Mayor Park has kept a clear distance from the party.

Also during last month’s elections, Park never promoted his party membership. He even refrained

from contacting Ahn Cheol-soo, now a lawmaker, to whom he is indebted politically. Park proved his

ability to survive and prosper on his own without mixing with other politicians.

Watching these elite members of the civil society making successful soft landings in politics, not a

few civil society leaders will dream of becoming politicians. After all, brilliant strategist and activist

Kim Ki-sik and outstanding intellectual Cho Hee-yeon have joined politics to realize their dreams.

Still, one thing weighs heavily on my mind: Who will take care of the civil society? Who will be a

fierce watchdog?

Four years ago, Cho Hee-yeon expressed his concern himself, saying, “Mayor Park has left but those

who remain in the civil society shouldn’t look elsewhere. At this rate, our capacity could be depleted

soon. When the reservoir dries up, civic activism will collapse.”

Park Won-soon, Cho Hee-yeon and Kim Ki-sik graduated from an elite university and became elite

members of the civil society. Now they are elite politicians. Does the civil society that they had stood

guard over (and then left) remain to be a realm where today’s talented young people will dream of

working? If you hesitate to say yes, the depletion of our civil society may already be in progress, as

Cho has warned.

[June 9, 2014]

www.koreafocus.or.kr

38

Misconceptions and Truth about Isabella Bird Bishop

Kim E-je

Cultural Geographer

Professor, Gyeongin National University of Education

In Britain of the 19th century during the reign of Queen Victoria, women had to live like an angel in

their homes. In those days, middle and upper class women couldn’t even go out alone without being

talked about. But Isabella Bird Bishop, born into a conservative Christian minister’s family, grew up

to explore remote areas of the world and became an idol for women in the Victorian era.

Her travel journals were hugely popular. “Korea and Her Neighbors,” which was published when she

was 67 years old after traveling around the Far East, became her best-selling book and finally won

her acceptance as the first female geographer. Inspired by Mrs. Bishop, many British women dis-

carded their “mental corset” and worked up the courage to venture into the bigger world. And many

women in the world, including myself, began to dream of becoming a geographer thanks to her.

Already famous enough in Korea to appear in its history textbooks, Mrs. Bishop is drawing more

attention after the prime minister nominee Moon Chang-keuk recently caused a controversy by claim-

ing to have quoted her remarks about Korea during a lecture. However, it’s a pity that the sincerity of

Mrs. Bishop, who had a special feeling for Korea, and the content of her book seem to be distorted.

As another geographer like Mrs. Bishop, who has traveled across the U.K. to search for every trace

she left and written a book about the life of British women, I’d like to clear up any misunderstanding

about Mrs. Bishop and let people know the truth about her.

39

First, Mrs. Bishop did not write that “Koreans are lazy by nature.” She briefly mentioned in the early

chapters of her book that her first impression of Korea was not very good. But after visiting Korea

four times and traveling throughout the country for about a year, she highly valued the merits of

Koreans and the beautiful nature of Korea. She was enthusiastic about explaining strong points of

Korea, emphasizing that, even though Korean people’s potential was not being sufficiently developed

due to corruption of the upper class, there was “hope in [Korea’s] land, sea, and people who never

give up amidst adversity.”

Second, Mrs. Bishop was an excellent regional expert who had a very accurate insight into Korea’s

problems. After traveling by boat and on horseback and meeting people of different classes and back-

grounds, from ordinary housewives in the countryside to Empress Myeongseong, she concluded that

Korea with its rich natural resources, favorable agricultural environment and diligent people had great

possibilities. However, she also noted that Korean people despaired because of the tyranny of the

greedy ruling class and the absence of justice. Her analysis smacks of the problematic situation of

Korea in the 21st century.

Third, until the last moment before she died in Edinburgh at the age of 73, this British woman missed

Korea and really loved Korean people. She packed her suitcase even in her sickbed, saying, “I felt

more at home in Seoul than I’ve ever had in any place in Britain.” On the occasion of the Seoul

Olympics in 1988, Queen Elizabeth II presented an original copy of “Korea and Her Neighbors” to

President Roh Tae-woo.

Lastly, there is one more thing I want to say. In the annotation written by the Korean translator of

“Korea and Her Neighbors,” an inaccurate story appears like a novel. It goes that “Isabella Bird mar-

ried a doctor named John Bishop, who was 10 years younger than her and had been originally the

lover of her sister Henrietta. … Even after marrying Isabella, John was tormented as he missed the

deceased Henrietta.” I have read extensively about Mrs. Bishop and made dozens of visits to the U.K.

to thoroughly explore all the places related to her, but I couldn’t find any evidence to prove this story.

The true story goes like this. Isabella Bird received marriage proposals from Scottish doctor John

Bishop several times, but she declined them. Then she was touched by his devoted efforts to take care

of her sick little sister and decided to marry him at a late age. As devout Christians, the couple shared

their ideal about a life of helping the sick and poor in remote areas of the world and fulfilling the will

of God. It was a short marriage, and after her husband died, Mrs. Bishop traveled to far corners of the

40

world and devoted her life to establishing a hospital in the name of her late husband to carry on his

intentions.

[The Hankyoreh, June 19, 2014]

www.koreafocus.or.kr

41

[Debate] University Credits for Military Service

[PRO] Song Young-keun

Member of the National Assembly

Saenuri Party

[CON] Jin Sung-joon

Member of the National Assembly

New Politics Alliance for Democracy

University students who interrupt their studies to fulfill their compulsory military service obligations

will receive nine credits under a compensation plan being pushed by the Ministry of National De-

fense. If they take nine more credits through online courses, they can graduate about one semester

earlier, according to the ministry.

The plan, which will go into effect in 2017 at the earliest, has triggered a debate on compensation and

equal treatment. Advocates feel the plan is an acceptable replacement of a previous system that

granted additional points on job entrance examinations for those who had completed military service.

The Constitutional Court abolished the system in 1999. Opponents assert the plan could result in

“relative disadvantage to those who have disabilities, non-collegian soldiers and women.” The dispute

is spurred by differing opinions on whether military service should even be recognized as university

education.

[PRO] Necessary Reward for Sacrifice of Soldiers

42

Sixty-four years after the last gunfire of the Korean War, the nation still remains divided. Our soldiers

on the frontline or in the rear spend each day undergoing tough training in all weather conditions to

protect the nation. But we regard mandatory military service as an obligation of our young men and

take their service for granted, remaining half-hearted about compensation.

Fifteen years have passed since the Constitutional Court abolished the 39-year-old system of granting

additional points to job seekers who had completed military service. Feminist circles led the chal-

lenge. Without a replacement for the system, many soldiers have a victim mentality rather than pride

in their sacred duty for national defense. They regard their service in the barracks as a waste of time

and sacrifice.

The Constitution of the Republic of Korea stipulates in Article 39, Clause 2 that “no citizen shall be

treated unfavorably on account of the fulfillment of his obligation of military service.” This should

be seen as the legal basis to properly reward those who have discontinued study, delayed career de-

velopment and interrupted work to fulfill their military service obligations. At last, the Defense Min-

istry has announced that it will lobby for university credits or work experience in recognition of mil-

itary service.

Currently, a total of some 452,500 young men are serving in the army, of whom 384,700, or about 85

percent, began their military service while attending college. As universities and colleges give aca-

demic credits to students who perform volunteer service, the Defense Ministry is considering whether

the military training and barrack life of soldiers can be recognized as part of lifelong education de-

serving academic credits. As for the rest of some 67,800 non-collegian soldiers, their service credits

can be deposited in a credit bank to be used later, when they go to college or participate in lifelong

learning programs.

The feminist community immediately expressed opposition. They insist the idea is unfair. However,

they do not need to worry so much about possible preferential favor. At least, the new system will do

no harm to anyone. Also, this is not an incentive that applies only to certain soldiers who take exam-

inations. It is regrettable that women’s circles react narrow-mindedly with their dichotomous think-

ing.

Our society is undergoing rapid changes. Social discrimination against women is being eliminated.

As of 2013, the proportion of women reaches as much as 68.5 percent of our teachers and seven out

of 10 new judges and prosecutors are women. I hope the feminist community will drop its gender-

43

based argument and join the debate with an open mind, seeing men as their sons, brothers and hus-

bands.

The state should compensate soldiers for setbacks due to military service, such as interrupted studies

and lost job opportunities, and provide them a smooth return to society after being discharged. Only

then can the soldiers feel it is worthwhile to serve in the army and the public have a fresh view of the

military.

I’ve been wishing for a long time to see our servicemen walk on the street in Myeong-dong proudly

and confidently amid warm applause from citizens. In the United States, the government awards three

academic credits or $600 for every five months of military service, considering the value of the time

spent for military service in an individual’s life. As of September 2011, some 2,300 undergraduate

and graduate schools across the United States were implementing the system.

It’s regrettable that the Defense Ministry has caused misunderstanding and controversy by abruptly

announcing the plan, which is still in its early phase of development. The ministry should now gather

different opinions from various sectors of our society and draw up rational standards for compensa-

tion in cooperation with related government offices at an early date, so as to garner broad public

support.

Having served in the military for 38 years, I have felt the need for proper compensation for discharged

servicepersons more acutely than anyone. Therefore, since joining the National Assembly, I have

introduced bills that would include military service time in the National Pension as well as work

experience in companies, and deduct 1.5 million won per soldier from their annual composite income.

I hope that the ongoing debate will provide momentum to discuss these measures as well so that we

can come up with a fair and reasonable compensation scheme.

[CON] Act of Favor without Fairness and Effectiveness

The Ministry of National Defense is obviously trying to create a package of social compensation for

those who have fulfilled their military service obligation amid the persistent call for revival of the

defunct system of offering additional points in recruitment examinations. I fully support the intention

to reward those who have completed their duties for national defense so that they don’t suffer a loss.

But I believe the proposed plan deserves thoughtful scrutiny.

44

First, the plan raises questions about fairness. It cannot benefit all discharged soldiers, let alone nu-

merous other people who cannot serve in the army, such as women and disabled persons.

The Defense Ministry says that 85 percent of enlisted personnel are college students. What about the

rest of the 15 percent? The proposed system cannot benefit those who don’t go to college before

enlisting, enlist after finishing college, or have no plan to attend college after being discharged. Over

68,000 soldiers cannot be compensated. Therefore, I can’t help but say that the academic credit sys-

tem is a discriminatory system that will favor only those young men who did their military service

while attending college.

Second, it raises questions as to whether military service can be recognized as university education.

The proposed plan would grant nine academic credits in liberal arts or selective general courses to

discharged service personnel returning to college. This is none other than military thinking that

equates military training with academic education.

Military training is not the same as university education; it cannot replace university education. Even

under the past military dictatorship, when all students were required to take military training classes

on campus, military service was never rewarded with university credits.

Third, the effectiveness is also questionable. The Defense Ministry said it would let universities de-

cide whether or not to adopt the proposed system, but many universities already are opposing it. They

insist that the system may undermine their authority as institutions for higher learning and the value

of academic credits, and further cause confusion in education courses. With many universities so

adamantly opposed to the system, it cannot be effective at all.

The government should also be careful about forcing universities to adopt the system. The Defense

Ministry said it would actively gather opinions of universities but, at the same time, it also revealed

its plans for institutionalization and enactment. This is the reason there are concerns about the auton-

omy of universities infringed by the government.

The Defense Ministry should prepare a stable compensation plan that will be supported and accepted

by the entire nation, rather than looking for an easy way to curry public favor. Since the Constitutional

Court’s ruling against the additional points system in 1999, the ministry has been very lukewarm

about seeking a new compensation system. It merely caused conflict by trying to reintroduce the old

system which had already been ruled as unconstitutional.

45

In order to prepare a proper reward program, it is necessary to find common ground on the range and

level of compensation and form social consensus. There can be reasonable methods of compensation

such as paying discharge support funds, including the time spent for military service in the duration

of entitlement to the National Pension, and reflecting the service period in salary class and retirement

age.

More important than anything else is the government’s determination to offer compensation. During

her election campaign, President Park Geun-hye promised to introduce “Hope Fund,” apart from sal-

ary, for soldiers looking forward to discharge. But, in December 2013, the Defense Ministry said it

would collect part of soldiers’ salary and pay a lump sum when they are discharged, citing insufficient

financial resources, only to face fierce criticism from the media.

Rewarding military service with university credits is nothing but a last resort the ministry has hastily

cooked up as a means to avoid additional governmental spending. National security is imperative.

The government should make all-out efforts to secure financial resources necessary to provide proper

compensation for mandatory military service.

[JoongAng Ilbo, June 20, 2014]

www.koreafocus.or.kr

46

- Valuable Goryeo Sutra Box Returns Home from Japan

- Why Can’t a Nun Head the Jogye Order?

- General Hospital for Cultural Properties

- Korea Needs to Raise One Million Cultural Warriors

- Suggestions for Sustainable Cities

47

Valuable Goryeo Sutra Box Returns Home from Japan

Editorial

The Munhwa Ilbo

The Friends of National Museum of Korea has set a marvelous example for repatriation of ancient

Korean artifacts. This private support group has recently donated a lacquered sutra box of the Goryeo

Dynasty to the National Museum of Korea. Recognized as “one of the finest craft objects from the

Goryeo period,” the 12th-century sutra box with exquisitely inlaid mother-of-pearl decoration was

revealed to the press on July 15.

The group said it purchased the box from an antique dealer in Kyoto, Japan. It is one of the nine

Buddhist sutra boxes of Goryeo that are known to still exist. None of these masterpieces of mother-

of-pearl lacquer art was in Korea before the recent purchase, which makes its recovery all the more

significant.

According to the Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation under the Cultural Heritage Admin-

istration, there are some 156,000 Korean cultural relics abroad that have been identified thus far. Of

these, 67,700 objects are in Japan. The rest are scattered in over 20 countries including the United

States, Germany, China and the United Kingdom. Only 26 percent of these objects have been sur-

veyed to determine whether they had been looted or illegally taken out of the country.

The government must engage in more active investigation and step up its diplomatic efforts to repat-

riate displaced cultural relics confirmed to have been carried away by unlawful means. But private

48

efforts are no less important. There have been not a few cases in which government-led activities to

bring back overseas cultural relics succeeded with the cooperation of the private sector.

Private efforts must continue on a long-term basis in cases where legitimate payments are needed to

claim displaced cultural artifacts. The latest return of a highly valuable Goryeo sutra box is a good

example.

[July 16, 2014]

www.koreafocus.or.kr

49

Why Can’t a Nun Head the Jogye Order?

Baek Seong-ho

Assistant Editor of Culture and Sports

The JoongAng Ilbo

Scene 1: About 2,600 years ago when Sakyamuni lived, the word bhikkhuni did not exist. There was

no temple either. Hence, monastics had to stay outside and practice asceticism, begging for food. That

was very dangerous for women. One day, Sakyamuni’s mother’s sister went to see him. She was his

foster mother who breastfed him on behalf of his mother, who died while giving birth to him, and

took care of him for 29 years. She implored the Buddha many times that she would become an ascetic,

but he turned down her call every time. Ananda, one of the principal disciples of the Buddha, asked,

“Lord Buddha, can women attain enlightenment, if they are ordained and practice asceticism?” The

Buddha replied, “Yes, of course. They can.” Then, the Buddha permitted women to take ordination.

Mahaprajapati Gotami, his foster mother, became the first bhikkhuni, a fully ordained female monk,

in the history of Buddhism. During the time of the Buddha, there were many bhikkhunis who prac-

ticed and attained enlightenment.

Scene 2: Huineng said that he wanted to become a monk. Patriarch Hongren told him, “You’re a

native of Lingnan, a barbarian. How can you expect to be a Buddha?” Huineng replied, “Although

there are northern men and southern men, north and south make no difference to their Buddha nature.”

He was accepted as a disciple of Hongren and eventually attained enlightenment. The name of the

brook and mountain near the temple where Huineng, the sixth and last patriarch of Chan Buddhism,

50

stayed was “Caoxi,” pronounced “Jogye” in Korean. The name of the Jogye Order of Korean Bud-

dhism is derived from this holy place.

Every four years the Jogye Order, the nation’s largest Buddhist denomination, has been embroiled in

disputes over the election of a new executive administrative director. Dubious documents are circu-

lated, and all kinds of conspiracies and wild allegations are rampant, instantly throwing the denomi-

nation into chaos. The only reason behind this turmoil is a struggle for power. The executive admin-

istrative director is chosen by 321 senior monks of the central council (comparable to members of

parliament). There are several factions within the legislative body, which constantly merge and split

according to their vested interests.

For most rank-and-file monks, the election of a new executive administrative director is practically

“none of our business.” In the meantime, the stature of female clergy members has been further

dwarfed. The Jogye Order commands some 12,000 monks and nuns in Korea, with the number of the

monks and nuns evenly divided. However, there are only 10 nuns in the 321-member central council.

They fill a fixed quota that was adopted in 2004 as one of the campaign promises of Ven. Beopjang

for the election of an executive administrative director. Before then, there was none.

As for gender equality, Korean Buddhism lags far behind international trends. Even the Won Bud-

dhism, another Buddhist denomination in Korea, produced a top female leader (corresponding to the

executive administrative director of the Jogye Order) in 2003. Korea even has a female president now.

The Jogye Order now stands at a crossroads. Next week, an ad-hoc meeting of the central council is

expected to receive a proposal to revise regulations pertaining to the election of the top leader of the

denomination. It calls for expanding suffrage to include everyone who has been a monk or a nun for

20 years or more. That would increase the number of voters to 6,150, with the number of nuns ex-

ceeding that of monks by about 80. Thus, a gender-driven vote would produce the first female head

of the order. The chances for tiny power groups to sway the election also would be forestalled.

I wonder how the current members of the central council will react to the proposed regulatory revi-

sion. If it is passed, they will have to give up much of their vested rights in the election of their top

leader. Religions of the world advocate “equality,” but there actually is severe inequality between

men and women within religious groups. The Jogye Order now stands on the doorstep to a watershed

decision on whether to open the way for a woman to take the helm. Will it go with the times or against

the times?

51

Up to the 1990s, there were twice as many novice nuns as monk trainees in Korean Buddhism. But

the number has fallen to less than half of new monks. The Jogye Order should painfully reflect upon

the reason why the Buddha accepted female monastics. That will be tantamount to questioning

whether the order deserves its name “Jogye.” Is an individual’s Buddha nature affected by his/her

place of birth and gender? How will the members of the central council respond?

[June 21, 2014]

www.koreafocus.or.kr

52

General Hospital for Cultural Properties

Huh Du-yeong

Executive Editor

Dong-A Science

Only 4,000 out of 30,000 annual patients receive proper treatment. More than 3 million patients are

still waiting for care. They are lucky to get an appointment let alone treatment, as the average waiting

time is five years. Even critical patients find themselves secluded in the basement without any emer-

gency treatment. They are neglected and end up on the brink of death due to inadequate medical

human resources and high medical bills.

The patients are our cultural assets. Over 30,000 relics are excavated every year, of which only 13

percent get necessary restoration treatment. A mere 0.3 percent of the 4 million articles worthy of

preservation undergo the needed conservation procedures. Moreover, the number of “patients” is rap-

idly rising as land development leads to an increase in excavated relics and environmental degradation

accelerates the rate of damage. The increased number of termites due to global warming threatens

wooden relics, and metal relics are rusting because of stronger acid rain.

Heightened awareness of cultural assets has also increased the number of items that needs to be man-

aged. For example, the Seoul Metropolitan Government has begun designating relics of the Japanese

colonial era from the early 20th century as modern cultural heritage, raising the number of cultural

assets requiring urgent care. There are 137 organizations specializing in the excavation of buried

cultural assets, but only 42 organizations have adequate expertise in conservation treatment. Human

53

resources and equipment for cultural heritage preservation also are wholly insufficient.

Why is the advocacy for protection of cultural assets more manifest than for land development but

there is silence when it comes to the preservation of excavated cultural assets? Why are the results of

excavations and surveys extensively publicized but restoration obligations ignored?

Just as the Sewol ferry incident has intensified demand for better public safety, the conflagration of

the Sungnyemun gate and its restoration process has granted us an opportunity to raise our awareness

of the safety and protection of cultural assets, but little has changed about our perception of their

conservation. The Sungnyemun fire has only made the Cultural Heritage Administration as busy as a

119 rescue center. In other words, they are busy running to and fro providing emergency care, lacking

the time to properly take care of patients.

Preservation is always pushed to the back room when the two shadows of cultural heritage manage-

ment and research and development come together. We need a general hospital for cultural assets.

Relics that have seen the sun for the first time in several hundred years need to be X-rayed and given

a comprehensive checkup. This should be followed by restoration treatment at the internal medicine,

surgical or dermatology departments, depending on whether they are composed of wood, stone, metal,

paper, or fabric. Clinical data from restoration procedures should be utilized for research and devel-

opment of conservation science and restoration technology.

The reality is that we only begrudgingly engage in collecting and researching our ancestors’ bones,

but earmark a substantial amount of taxpayer money to managing the corpses of Chinese soldiers

who invaded our country during the Korean War. We need to shed our vague and dreary sense of

obligation and take advantage of conservation science to look into the life history of our ancestors

and study our history. Ancient human remains provide valuable clues for the genetic characteristics

of our forebears, their dietary life, nutritive conditions, ecological economics, disease, and other fea-

tures of the history of mankind.

Cultural heritage conservation science highly deserves to be considered a future industry since it not

only contributes to the protection of cultural assets but allows for the development of technology and

materials, nurtures a professional workforce, and entails not just cultural value but also economic

value added. We need to revise our strategy for cultural heritage conservation science in the frame-

work of a creative economy.

[June 18, 2014]

www.koreafocus.or.kr

54

Korea Needs to Raise One Million Cultural Warriors

Ye Jin-su

Editorial Writer

The Munhwa Ilbo

A Chinese college student who was jealous of hallyu once told me that “although the Korean Wave

may have changed the appearance and fashion of Asians, it has not been able to change their mental-

ity.” Indeed, the Chinese upper class are willing to pay twice to three times the amount it would cost

Chinese hospitals for “Korean-style beauty clinics.” Thanks to some recent popular drama series,

Korean cosmetics and clothes are flourishing in Chinese and Southeast Asian markets, changing the

looks and styles of young Asian people.

It is high time we created humanities contents that can impact not only the looks of other Asians but

their ways of thinking. The advent of the Asian era was an unexpected event. With a rising middle

class, the Asian market has the most growth potential as a vast space in dire need of bonding and

cooperation. We should reevaluate the Asian market and devise a multi-dimensional national strategy

to cope with the world economy, which is juggling rising uncertainties and entering a period of pro-

longed low growth.

The problem lies in the difficulty of providing employment for the youth by merely relying on export-

oriented manufacturing, which has been the driving force for the Korean economy. We are trapped in

a vicious cycle in which growth without employment weakens the middle class, which in turn under-

mines domestic demand. The cultural industry is our only viable option. The cultural and service

industries can offer vitality to the sluggish economy. According to the Bank of Korea (2012), the

55

employment coefficient of the cultural industry is 12.0 persons per 1 billion won investment, which

is markedly higher than 7.2 persons in the automobile industry and 4.9 persons in the semiconductor

industry.

The Korea-U.S. FTA will completely open up the broadcasting service market by March 2015. Time

Warner, News Corporation, 21st Century Fox and other massive U.S. media corporations are looking

forward to using Korea as a bridgehead into the Asian market. Chinese cultural corporations have

already started their advancement towards “Chollywood” (a term combining “China” and “Holly-

wood”). The Dalian Wanda Group of China recently acquired AMC ― the world’s second largest

theater operator ― to become the world’s biggest cinema chain. It is vigorously promoting globali-

zation through a flawless vertical system of film production, investment, distribution, and screening

at home.

The Dalian Wanda Group is seeking to utilize the profit from its cinema and real estate industries to

invest in film and contents production, thereby enhancing the quality of Chinese cultural contents and

using their screening power for worldwide distribution. China’s ultimate goal is for Chollywood to

beat Hollywood and take over the global market. Unless Korea manages to significantly enhance the

competitiveness of its cultural industry, it could be absorbed into the Chinese system and end up

becoming a mere rear base.

We need to concentrate on fostering a “large comprehensive media corporation” in the cultural indus-

try, which has a substantial effect on job creation, a high global growth potential and a large-scale

market. The strength to vie with massive overseas media groups comes from manpower. We need to

raise “an industrial army of one million cultural warriors,” enlisting young people with fertile ideas.

“Regulatory controls” on culture-related companies need to be scaled down drastically in order to

transform our one million unemployed youths into one million soldiers for the cultural industry. Pri-

ority should be placed on creating a healthy cultural ecosystem in which companies can flourish and

realize their potential. By hesitating, we risk missing the “golden time” for nurturing our cultural

industry.

[June 3, 2014]

www.koreafocus.or.kr

56

Suggestions for Sustainable Cities

Kim Jeong-hoo

Research Fellow, University College London

Adjunct Professor, Dongguk University

The Sewol ferry disaster of April 16 clearly revealed that the development strategy we have pursued

so far is no longer sustainable in most fields. Cities are no exception. A city constantly changes but

the alterations do not necessarily mean healthy development. Therefore, I hope that those elected in

the June 4 local elections think seriously about ways to lead the sustainable development of our cities.

To that end, I would like to make three specific suggestions.

First, let a mature democracy take root as urban development is pursued. At home and abroad, the

21st century is an era of urban renewal. Urban renewal which started in earnest all over the world

during the 20th century is a comprehensive issue combining the economic, social and environmental

needs. The important virtues required to successfully realize urban renewal are participation, sharing

and consensus, which are also the essential elements of a mature democracy.

In other words, urban renewal cannot be properly achieved through a top-down approach, with a

mayor or a governor expecting everyone to agree to and follow their decisions. From start to finish,

experts and citizens should put their heads together to unravel complicated problems one by one. It

is a difficult and time-consuming process. However, the approach would effectively help lay a solid

foundation for democracy, going beyond city growth.

57

Second, let’s put people in the center. The doors of a museum, which cost a fortune, are firmly locked;

few people visit a splendidly refurbished park; colorful murals of unclear national identity decorate

the streets; hotels crop up around schools; and cars occupy any empty space. All these situations,

though ostensibly different, are due to failures in developing and implementing a people-oriented

policy.

This clearly explains why the quality of life and happiness index in Korean cities fall far short of the

levels of their dramatic growth over the past half century. Without a shift in the paradigm of urban

development to people-oriented approaches, citizens will likely degenerate into urban nomads wan-

dering about gorgeous cities.

Third, let’s shed the illusion of “hitting the jackpot.” There are countless international events of di-

verse scales that may be hosted to promote urban development, such as the World Cup, Olympic

Games, Asian Games and numerous expositions. In principle this approach can yield sufficiently

positive results, depending on how to take advantage of the events. But the foolish idea of “hosting

equals success” should be abandoned and the act of deceiving people by citing an “astronomical

amount of economic effect” should not be tolerated.

During the 20th century, not a few cities got into difficulties by clumsily hosting international events.

It’s just that their predicaments are covered up to avoid embarrassment. A city can be driven into an

irrevocable state after hosting an international event without thorough preparations, a feasibility study

based on experts’ opinions and concrete plans for post-event utilization of facilities.

During their campaigns for the latest local elections, some candidates boasted they had made exten-

sive contributions to the development of their cities while others promised to work hard in the future.

That’s fortunate. But fundamental changes are needed in their way of thinking and approaches. In-

stead of simply doing a lot of work, it’s important to seek sustainable methods in whatever they do.

Otherwise, their cities cannot become healthy.

I hope that the winners in the local elections will throw away their vain greed and think level-headedly

about how to make their cities sustainable and make steady efforts to implement their plans. That’s

the shortcut to creating a city in which honest, hard-working citizens can live happily and safely

[Seoul Shinmun, June 6, 2014]

www.koreafocus.or.kr

58

- Statistical Trends of Farm Household Economy

- The Angel Coefficient of Korean Households

59

Statistical Trends of Farm Household Economy

Hong Song-hyun

Senior Researcher

Nonghyup Economic Research Institute

I. Introduction

This report examines the changes in economic indicators of farm households over the past 33 years

(1980-2013). It is based on the “Farm Household Economic Survey” compiled by Statistics Korea,

and on times series data from the “National Statistical Portal Service for Farm Household Economic

Survey,” provided by Korean Statistical Information Service (http://kosis.kr/).

The Statistics Korea survey is released every May. Its objective is to assess the situation of farm

families through survey findings on economic indicators such as income and spending, and to provide

the results for drafting agricultural policies and conducting agricultural research.

The survey suffers from breaks in statistical continuity. It is reorganized every five years to reflect

changes in farm household population; hence faults can occur between time series. Therefore, extra

care is required when comparing the data of the years when the survey was revised ― 1983, 1988,

1993, 1998, 2003, 2008, 2013 ― with those of their respective preceding years. Accordingly, this

report presents the increase rates from the previous year as well as major factors behind such changes.

II. Trends of Farm Household Income and Income Structure Farm household income jumped about 12.8 times, from 2.69 million won in 1980 to 34.52 million

won in 2013, or an average of 8.3 percent annually. (Farm household income refers to income earned

from agricultural and other economic activities.) In 2013, farming households’ income increased 11.3

percent from the previous year.

60

The proportion of farming households’ income against that of urban households (two-persons or

larger) dropped from 95.9 percent in 1980 to 62.5 percent in 2013, reflecting the widening and deep-

ening income gap between urban and rural households. Whereas the average income of urban house-

holds (two-person or larger) rose about 19.7 times, from 2.80 million won in 1980 to 55.27 million

won in 2013, that of the same-size rural households grew only 12.8 times, from 2.69 million won to

34.52 million won, over the 33-year period.

The share of rural households’ income against that of urban households (two-person or larger) fell

from 95.9 percent in 1980 to 57.6 percent in 2012, but rebounded somewhat to 62.5 percent in 2013.

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The comparable ratio peaked at 119.0 percent in 1983, but since then has gradually declined amid the

widening socioeconomic gulf between urban and rural communities.

The share of farm households’ income from agricultural activity dropped from 65.2 percent in 1980

to 29.1 percent in 2013, while that of “non-agricultural income” accreted from 34.8 percent to 45.5

percent in the same period. Agricultural income (total agricultural income minus agricultural operat-

ing costs) multiplied about 5.7 times from 1.75 million won in 1980 to 10.03 million won in 2013,

rising 5.6 percent on average annually.

Agricultural income climbed 9.9 percent in 2013 from the previous year. Although agricultural oper-

ating expenses increased 11.7 percent over 2012, total agricultural income jumped 11.1 percent, aided

by 5.5 percent growth in the income from crop production and 45.1 percent gain in the income from

animal husbandry.

Non-agricultural income, or the income of farming households earned from economic activities other

than farming, grew about 16.7 percent in the same period, from 938,000 won to 15.70 million won,

recording an annual average expansion rate of 9.2 percent.

Non-agricultural income jumped 15.6 percent in 2013 from the previous year thanks to increases in

sideline income and non-business income. Sideline income, which refers to income from crop pro-

cessing and agricultural services, increased 5.4 percent from 2012. Non-business income, or wage

income and income from farm labor, jumped 19.8 percent from 2012.

62

Transfer income, or farm households’ income from non-economic activities such as public subsidies,

including pension, and private subsidies, multiplied about 6.6 times from 885,000 won in 1983 to

5.84 million won in 2013, growing 6.7 percent on the annual average. In 2013, transfer income rose

4.1 percent from the previous year, thanks to the increase in public subsidies which accounted for 89

percent of transfer income. Public subsidies grew 7.1 percent from 2012, while private subsidies tum-

bled 15.1 percent.

Non-recurring income, or income made by non-regular and accidental activities, fell from 4.87 mil-

lion won in 2003 to 2.94 million won in 2013, an annual average drop of 5.5 percent. Non-recurring

income grew 8.7 percent in 2013 from the previous year, an exceptional gain in an otherwise contin-

uous slide.

From 1980 to 2013, total agricultural income increased from 2.34 million won to 30.64 million won,

an 8.4 percent average annual gain, while farm operating costs grew 11.8 percent on the annual aver-

age from 587,000 won to 20.61 million won.

In 2013, total agricultural income increased 11.1 percent from the previous year. Income from crop

production rose 5.5 percent as favorable weather conditions boosted harvests. Income from livestock

production surged 45.1 percent owing to increased sales of beef, pork, eggs and milk.

63

Agricultural operating costs grew 11.7 percent in 2013 compared with the previous year. Costs in-

creased in most items, such as material (seeds, seedlings and feed), labor and overhead. The outlay

for feed had the steepest rise, costing 893,000 won, followed by 406,000 won in labor cost, 194,000

won in animal management cost, and 160,000 won in seedling cost.

On a year-on-year comparison, animal management cost had the biggest increase with 85.6 percent,

followed by 49.2 percent in agricultural insurance premiums, 43.2 percent in labor cost, 34.2 percent

in purchasing and repairing farming equipment, and 33.4 percent in taxes and surcharges.

Depreciation cost, which took the lion’s share of 26.3 percent of the total agricultural operation costs,

fell 3.1 percent, or 174,000 won, and the cost for farm chemicals also edged down 1.1 percent, or

10,000 won.

Accordingly, agricultural income rate, which refers to “agricultural income (total agricultural income

– agricultural operating cost) / total agricultural income x 100,” plunged from 74.9 percent in 1980

to 32.7 percent in 2013.

64

III. Trends in Farm Household Spending The total expenditures of farm households increased by an annual average of about 8.6 percent, from

2.13 million won in 1980 to 30.26 million won in 2013. The expenditures increased 10.1 percent in

2013 from the previous year. Consumption expenditure grew 8.4 percent, and non-living expenditure

(pension and social insurance premiums) jumped 17.5 percent, respectively, year-on-year.

65

The economic surplus of farm households (disposable income minus consumption expenditure) grew

at an annual average of about 7.6 percent, from 405,000 won in 1980 to 4.26 million won in 2013.

Year-on-year, surplus soared 20.3 percent in 2013.

Farm household assets increased at an annual average of about 8.6 percent from 13.38 million won

in 1980 to 400.58 million won in 2013. Farm household assets in 2013 shrank 1.8 percent from the

previous year. Fixed assets (land, buildings, large animals and plants) grew 6.5 percent year-on-year

from 2012, while current assets plummeted 28.0 percent.

66

The total debt of farm households increased about 14.7 percent on average, from 338,000 won per

household in 1980 to 27.36 million won in 2013. Year-on-year, the debt ticked up 0.4 percent in

2013. The breakdown was agricultural debt, 42.8 percent; family debt, 28.2 percent; and other debt

(for sideline business and other reasons), 28.9 percent. Year-on-year, agricultural debt fell 10.7 per-

cent, while family debt and other arrears swelled 10.0 percent and 11.4 percent, respectively.

The farm household debt-to-assets ratio rose from 2.5 percent in 1980 to 13.0 percent in 2003, but

has since declined to 6.8 percent in 2013. Year-on-year, the ratio inched up 0.1 percentage point in

2013.

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IV. Trends of Indicators by Sector

1. Income Trends of Full-time and Part-time Farm Households

The type-2 part-time farm households, which earn a relatively high 42.97 million won from non-

agricultural activities, had the highest income among the farming families. Type-1 part-time farm

households, which mainly rely on agricultural income, earned 39.05 million won, and full-time

farm households collected 26.86 million won.

◦ Full-time farm households: Their income crept up at an annual average of 1.4 percent from 23.79

million won in 1980 to 26.86 million won in 2013, when it leapt 11.6 percent from 24.06 million

won in the previous year.

◦ Type-1 part-time farm households: Their income grew at an annual average of 3.2 percent from

29.45 million won in 1980 to 39.05 million won in 2013, when it jumped 13.4 percent from 34.44

million won in the previous year.

◦ Type-2 part-time farm households: Their income expanded by an annual average of 3.1 percent

from 32.57 million won to 42.97 million won in 2013, when it rose 8.7 percent from 39.54 million

won in the previous year.

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2. Income Trends by Farming Scale

Full-time specialized farm households (farmland of 30,000 square meters or more and 20 million won

or more in income) had the highest income with 43.12 million won in 2013. Part-time farm house-

holds (farmland of less than 3,000 square meters and 20 million won or more in total agricultural

income but earning more from non-agricultural activities) came next with 42.43 million won in an-

nual income. Self-sufficient farm households (no farmland or less than 3,000 square meters of farm-

land and less than 2 million won in total agricultural income) followed with 35.31 million won. Full-

time, ordinary farm households (less than 30,000 square meters of farmland and less than 20 million

won in total agricultural income) collected the least amount of 17.43 million won.

◦ Full-time specialized farm households: Their income grew at an annual average of 2.6 percent from

69

34.19 million won in 2003 to 43.12 million won in 2013, when it rose 4.0 percent year-on-year from

41.46 million won in 2012.

◦ Full-time ordinary farm households: Their income fell at an annual average of 0.5 percent from

18.16 million won in 2003 to 17.43 million won in 2013, when it jumped 15.9 percent year-on-year

from 15.03 million won in 2012.

◦ Part-time farm households: Their income grew at an annual average of 3.9 percent from 29.98 mil-

lion won in 2003 to 42.43 million won in 2013, when it soared 11.6 percent year-on-year from 38.04

million won in 2012.

◦ Self-sufficient farm households: Their income increased at an annual average of 5.1 percent from

22.51 million won in 2003 to 35.31 million won in 2013, when it leapt 15.7 percent year-on-year

from 30.51 million won in 2012.

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3. Income Trends by the Type of Products

By the type of products, income growth between 2003 and 2013 was most conspicuous among un-

categorized farmers with an annual average increase rate of 14 percent. They were followed by live-

stock farmers with 4.1 percent, vegetable farmers with 2.5 percent, fruit farmers with 2.0 percent,

field crop farmers with 0.9 percent, and rice farmers with 0.7 percent, while specialty crops and

flower growers saw their annual average income fall 5.1 percent and 0.2 percent, respectively.

◦ Rice farmers: Income grew at an annual average of 0.7 percent from 21.86 million won in 2003 to

23.32 million won in 2013. The ratio of rice farmers’ income to the average farm household income

fell from 81.4 percent in 2003 to 76.4 percent in 2008 and to 67.6 percent in 2013. Their income

jumped 19.0 percent in 2013 year-on-year from 19.60 million won in 2012.

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◦ Fruit farmers: Income grew at an annual average of 2.0 percent from 28.80 million won in 2003 to

34.35 million won in 2013. The ratio of fruit farmers’ income to the average farm household income

fell from 107.2 percent in 2003 to 99.7 percent in 2008 and to 99.5 percent in 2013. Their income

rose 6.5 percent in 2013 year-on-year from 32.26 million won in 2012.

◦ Vegetable farmers: Income grew at an annual average of 2.5 percent from 23.35 million won in

2003 to 29.12 million won in 2013. The ratio of vegetable farmers’ income to the average farm

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household income fell from 86.9 percent in 2003 to 79.2 percent in 2008 but rebounded to 84.4 per-

cent in 2013. Their income grew 8.2 percent in 2013, compared with 26.92 million won in 2012.

◦ Specialty crop farmers: Income dropped at an annual average of 5.1 percent from 33.89 million

won in 2003 to 21.08 million won in 2013. The ratio of specialty crop farmers’ income to the aver-

age farm household income rose from 126.1 percent in 2003 to 136.4 percent in 2008, but plunged

to 61.1 percent in 2013. Their income dropped 12.4 percent in 2013 year-on-year from 24.06 mil-

lion won in 2012.

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◦ Flower growers: Income dropped at an annual average of 0.2 percent from 22.21 million won in

2003 to 21.87 million won in 2013. The ratio of flower growers’ income to the average farm house-

hold income soared from 82.7 percent in 2003 to 117.5 percent in 2008, but sharply reversed to 63.4

percent in 2013. Their income dived 31.2 percent in 2013, compared with 32.23 million won in

2012.

◦ Field crop farmers: Income grew at an annual average of 0.9 percent from 18.64 million won in

2003 to 20.12 million won in 2013. The ratio of field crop farmers’ income to the average farm

household income fell from 69.4 percent in 2003 to 65.6 percent in 2008 and to 58.3 percent in

2013. But their income jumped 22.9 percent in 2013, compared with 16.37 million won in 2012.

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◦ Livestock farmers: Income grew at an annual average of 4.1 percent from 36.60 million won in

2003 to 52.72 million won in 2013. The ratio of livestock farmers’ income to the average farm

household income rose from 136.2 percent in 2003 to 152.0 percent in 2008 and to 152.7 percent in

2013. Their income rose 13.0 percent in 2013 year-on-year from 46.66 million won in 2012.

◦ Other (uncategorized) farmers: Income grew at an annual average of 13.98 percent from 16.03

million won in 2003 to 46.11 million won in 2013. The ratio of these farmers’ income to the average

farm household income soared from 59.7 percent in 2003 to 94.3 percent in 2008 and to 133.6 per-

cent in 2013. But their income dropped 11.4 percent in 2013 year-on-year from 52.04 million won

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in 2012.

4. Income Trends by Cultivated Land Area

In terms of the land area under cultivation, income growth was most noticeable among households

cultivating an area of 5 to 7 hectares, or 50,000 to 70,000 square meters. They had an annual aver-

age income increase of 5.6 percent during 2003-2013. They were followed by those having an area

less than 0.5 hectare (5,000 square meters) with 4.1 percent, those having an area of 1 to 1.5 hec-

tares (10,000 to 15,000 square meters) with 4.0 percent, those having an area of 1.5 to 2 hectares

(15,000 to 20,000 square meters) with 3.4 percent, those having an area of 3 to 5 hectares (30,000 to

50,000 square meters) with 3.4 percent, those having an area of 0.5 to 1 hectare (5,000 to 10,000

square meters) with 3.3 percent, and those having an area of 2 to 3 hectares (20,000 to 30,000

square meters) with 1.9 percent. Those cultivating 7 to 10 hectares (70,000 to 100,000 square me-

ters) and 10 hectares or more saw their income drop 1.4 percent and 0.1 percent, respectively, on the

annual average.

◦ Less than 0.5 ha: The income of farm households in this category rose at an annual average of 4.1

percent from 22.42 million won in 2003 to 32.22 million won in 2013. Their income increased 14.6

percent in 2013 year-on-year from 28.10 million won in 2012.

◦ 0.5 to 1 ha: Income increased at an annual average of 3.3 percent from 20.94 million won in 2003

to 27.99 million won in 2013. It rose 7.1 percent in 2013 year-on-year from 26.14 million won in

2012.

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◦ 1 to 1.5 ha: Income grew at an annual average of 4.0 percent from 24.50 million won in 2003 to

34.83 million won in 2013. It climbed 20.8 percent in 2013 year-on-year from 28.83 million won in

2012.

◦ 1.5 to 2 ha: Income rose at an annual average of 3.4 percent from 27.81 million won in 2003 to

37.56 million won in 2013. It jumped 23.9 percent year-on-year from 30.32 million won in 2012.

◦ 2 to 3 ha: Income limped ahead at an annual average of 1.9 percent from 31.33 million won in

2003 to 36.98 million won in 2013. It rose 15.5 percent in 2013 year-on-year from 32.01 million

won in 2012.

◦ 3 to 5 ha: Income grew at an annual average of 3.4 percent from 30.83 million won in 2003 to

41.62 million won in 2013. It slowed considerably to 1.3 percent in 2013 year-on-year from 41.08

million won in 2012.

◦ 5 to 7 ha: Income expanded by an annual average of 5.6 percent from 34.73 million won in 2003

to 56.57 million won in 2013. It jumped 27.5 percent in 2013 year-on-year from 44.37 million won

in 2012.

◦ 7 to 10 ha: Income fell at an annual average of 1.4 percent from 50.87 million won in 2003 to

45.01 million won in 2013. It dropped 25.6 percent in 2013 year-on-year from 60.51 million won in

2012.

◦ More than 10 ha: Income dwindled at an annual average of 0.1 percent from 53.37 million won in

2003 to 53.12 million won in 2013. The income of farm households in this category fell 2.4 percent

in 2013 year-on-year from 54.43 million won in 2012.

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5. Income Trends by the Age of Farm Proprietors

Income growth between 2003 and 2013 was led by farm proprietors in their 30s and 50s: they had

an annual average gain of 5.7 percent. They were followed by those in their 60s (3.4 percent), 40s

(3.2 percent) and 70s (2.6 percent).

◦ Age 30-39 proprietors: The income of farm households in this category grew at an annual average

of 5.7 percent from 27.33 million won in 2003 to 44.87 million won in 2013. It rose 20.7 percent in

2013 year-on-year from 37.17 million won in 2012.

◦ 40-49: Income grew at an annual average of 3.2 percent from 32.45 million won in 2003 to 43.13

million won in 2013. It fell 10.0 percent in 2013 year-on-year from 47.93 million won in 2012.

78

◦ 50-59: Income grew at an annual average of 5.7 percent from 33.27 million won in 2003 to 54.74

million won in 2013. It increased 17.7 percent in 2013 year-on-year from 46.52 million won in

2012.

◦ 60-69: Income grew at an annual average of 3.4 percent from 25.43 million won in 2003 to 34.22

million won in 2013. It rose 1.8 percent in 2013 year-on-year from 33.60 million won in 2012.

◦ 70 and up: Income grew at an annual average of 2.6 percent from 17.60 million won in 2003 to

22.08 million won in 2013. It edged up 0.5 percent in 2013 year-on-year from 21.98 million won in

2012.

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6. Income Trends by Region

By region, North Gyeongsang Province led farm household income between 2003 and 2013 with

annual average increase of 4.9 percent. It was followed by South Jeolla and Jeju provinces in the 3

percent range; South Gyeongsang, North Chungcheong, Gyeonggi and Gangwon provinces in the 2

percent range; and North Jeolla and South Chungcheong provinces at less than 2 percent.

The annual average growth rates of farm households’ income in the provinces were as follows.

◦ Gyeonggi: 2.3 percent, from 32.45 million won in 2003 to 39.74 million won in 2013. The 2013

income showed 4.2 percent increase over 38.13 million won in 2012.

◦ Gangwon: 2.3 percent, from 28.38 million won in 2003 to 34.92 million won in 2013. The 2013

income jumped 13.8 percent over 30.69 million won in 2012.

◦ North Chungcheong: 2.4 percent, from 28.59 million won in 2003 to 35.41 million won in 2013.

The 2013 income spiked upward by 18.1 percent over 29.99 million won in 2012.

◦ South Chungcheong: 1.1 percent, from 28.97 million won in 2003 to 32.03 million won in 2013.

The 2013 income fell 3.5 percent from 33.21 million won in 2012.

◦ North Jeolla: 1.3 percent, from 27.54 million won in 2003 to 30.86 million won in 2013. The 2013

income climbed 17.7 percent over 26.22 million won in 2012.

◦ South Jeolla: 3.5 percent, from 24.84 million won in 2003 to 33.85 million won in 2013. The 2013

income soared by 29.1 percent from 26.22 million won in 2012.

◦ North Gyeongsang: 4.9 percent, from 22.62 million won in 2003 to 34.89 million won in 2013.

The 2013 income increased 9.9 percent over 31.73 million won in 2012.

◦ South Gyeongsang: 2.7 percent, from 23.54 million won in 2003 to 29.94 million won in 2013.

The 2013 income rose by 7.9 percent over 27.74 million won in 2012.

◦ Jeju: 3.4 percent, from 30.84 million won in 2003 to 41.64 million won in 2013. The 2013 income

increased 6.3 percent over 39.16 million won in 2012.

80

<Appendix> Outlines and Samples of Farm Household Economic Survey

1. Outlines

The Farm Household Economic Survey gathers data on the income, assets and debts of farming

households of various sizes every month. The results are announced once a year.

The survey grasps the farming households’ economic trends and agricultural management, and

serves as the basis of data used for making agricultural policies and improving agricultural manage-

ment. It also aims to produce various economic indicators related with farming households, includ-

ing their income, expenditure and labor input, and provide empirical material for the research of ag-

ricultural problems.

The survey was designated official statistics in 1962, and the government has reorganized samples

10 times, the latest being the 2013 survey. The origin of the household survey is the “Fact-finding

Survey of Farming Villages” conducted jointly by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the

Bank of Korea in 1953.

81

In 1954, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry divided the survey into “Farming Village Eco-

nomic Survey” and “Farm Production Cost Survey.” In 1962, it was appointed as Designated Statis-

tics No. 8 according to the Statistics Act, and Statistics Korea took over the survey when the gov-

ernment was reorganized on July 1, 1998.

Samples were reorganized seven times between 1961 and 1998. In 2013, they were reorganized a

10th time, following the eighth revision in 2003 and ninth in 2008.

To become a subject of the survey, a farming household has to meet one of the following condi-

tions, as stipulated in the “2010 Agricultural, Forestry and Fishery Census.”

- Directly cultivates rice paddy or field of 10 ares (1,000 square meters) or more.

- Earns 1.2 million won or more a year by selling directly produced farm crops or livestock prod-

ucts, and continues to engage in farming.

- Earns less than 1.2 million won by selling farm produce but raise livestock whose appraised value

totals 1.2 million won or more at the time of the survey.

Farm households excluded from the survey are as follows.

- Foreign households

- Households composed of unrelated members

- Large corporate farmers constantly hiring five or more workers

- Quasi-farm households, such as agricultural experiment stations, schools, religious organizations,

and corporate bodies.

The Farm Household Economic Survey is based on interviews, and is conducted from January 1 to

December 31 of the target year. Pollsters visit farm households to gather data on their agricultural

operation, income and expenditure, agricultural labor input, and financial conditions.

Questionnaires also are employed on a monthly basis, from the first to the final day of each month.

The questionnaire consists of the state of crop cultivation, livestock breeding and their purchase and

sale, income (total agricultural income, non-agricultural income, transfer income, non-recurring in-

come), expenditure (agricultural expenditure, non-agricultural expenditure, consumption expendi-

ture), agricultural labor input, crop production cost input, etc.

82

Polls based on farm household ledgers are conducted at the beginning and end of the year. A farm

household ledger (asset inquiry sheet) asks about household members, assets, debts, etc.

2. Samples

In 2013, a total of 2,600 households (including 100 one-person households) were chosen for the

survey. They were chosen through a stratified allocation method based on region and type of farm-

ing, from 73,815 farm households identified in the “2010 Agricultural, Forestry and Fishery Cen-

sus” in the first stage, and the “2011 Agricultural Census” in the second stage.

* The sample size takes into account the sample replacement rate (about 6-7 percent annually),

newly-developed sample extraction methods, probable sampling errors, budget, and manpower.

The final distribution of samples is based on region (nine provinces), stratification of farming type

and degree of specialization (nine strata), one-member households, and two-member or larger

households.

Sample extraction is made by the bellwether extraction method after aligning the population by in-

herent and stratified classification standards in two stages.

83

The survey is reorganized every five years to enhance its credibility and representativeness as well

as better reflect the changes in recent economic indicators of farming households.

The survey covers multiple items related with the rural economy as an annual panel survey of the

same households for five years. The same samples are also used for surveys on crop production cost

and grain consumption.

Major revisions for the 2013 survey are as follows.

◦ Sample change: The new samples have replaced the old ones of 2008.

◦ Target population: Data of the 2010 Agricultural Census has replaced that of the 2005 Agricultural

84

Census.

◦ Sample size: The new samples include 2,500 households of two members or more and 100 one-

member households (3,371 enumeration districts), whereas the previous samples consisted of 2,800

households of two persons or more (560 enumeration districts).

◦ Criteria for stratification: Nine strata each in the type and scale of farming (or the degree of spe-

cialization whether they are full-time or part-time farmers), whereas the previous surveys had 10

strata.

Changes in population groups between the previous surveys and the 2013 survey are as follows.

Previously, the share of farm households residing in counties outnumbered those residing in cities.

Because of changes in administrative districts and living environment of farm families, however,

those shares reversed, according to the 2010 Agricultural Census.

- The share farm households living in areas administratively classified as cities increased from 44.4

percent in 2000 to 49.2 percent in 2005 and to 52.3 percent in 2010.

- The share of farm households living in counties decreased from 55.6 percent in 2000 to 50.8 per-

cent in 2005 and to 47.7 percent in 2010.

The share of low-income, full-time farm households decreased, while that of high-income, part-time

farm households increased.

- Full-time farm households (households whose members were not engaged in jobs other than farm-

ing for more than 30 days a year): The share dropped 9.3 percentage points from 62.6 percent to

53.3 percent.

- Type-1 part-time farm households (part-time farm households whose agricultural income is larger

than non-agricultural income): The share rose 3.4 percentage points from 13.0 percent to 16.4 per-

cent.

- Type-2 part-time farm households (part-time farm households whose agricultural income is

smaller than non-agricultural income): Their share climbed 5.8 percentage points from 24.5 percent

to 30.3 percent.

In the composition of sample households in terms of the type of products, the share of low-income

rice farmers sharply fell while that of high-income fruit and livestock growers and other farmers in-

creased.

85

- Rice farmers’ share dropped 6.5 percentage points from 50.9 percent to 44.4 percent.

- Food crop farmers’ share remained unchanged at 9.9 percent.

- Vegetable and herb farmers’ share rose 0.9 percentage point from 18.1 percent to 19.0 percent.

- Specialty crop farmers’ share rose 0.2 percentage point from 2.2 percent to 2.4 percent.

- Fruit farmers’ share rose 3.1 percentage points from 11.4 percent to 14.5 percent.

- Flower and ornamental crop growers’ share rose 0.8 percentage point from 0.8 percent to 1.6 per-

cent.

- Growers of other crops saw their share increase 0.5 percentage point from 0.3 percent to 0.8 per-

cent.

- Livestock farmers’ share increased 0.4 percentage point from 6.5 percent to 6.9 percent.

Because of changes in the characteristics of sample households, extra care is needed in comparing

the results of the 2013 survey with those of previous surveys.

<References>

Statistics Korea: “2013 Economic Survey on Farming and Fishing Households,” Press release, April

24, 2014

_______: “2012 Farm Household Economic Statistics,” May 2013

_______: “Report on Sample Design in the Agricultural Sector,” December 2012

_______: KOSIS National Statistical Portal Service (http://kosis.kr), Farm Household Economic

Survey

[CEO Focus No. 332, May 30, 2014, published by

Nonghyup Economic Research Institute]

www.koreafocus.or.kr

86

The Angel Coefficient of Korean Households

Choi Seong-keun

Senior Researcher

Hyundai Research Institute

I. Background and Purpose

The cost of education is placing an increasing burden on Korean households, many of whom already

are overstretched, and reflecting the widening gap between the rich and the poor.

Korea leads the 34-nation Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in

terms of the weight of education cost on household budgets. For families that have one or more chil-

dren attending elementary to high schools, the average cost of education accounts for 21.5 percent of

their household income, compared to the OECD average of 8.5 percent.

In a survey on their perception of the spending on education, 73 percent of respondents said it is

“burdensome” while only 6 percent said “not particularly burdensome.” The survey only looked into

the cost of public education. If the cost of private lessons, a norm in Korea, is added, the proportion

of education cost against household income would jump to the highest level in the world.

The disproportionate spending is increasingly aggravating household finances and widening the ed-

ucation gap. Expenditures for education are inelastic; they cannot be scaled down substantially. That

places greater stress on households with modest incomes and on households in the Seoul metropolitan

area.

In 2013, the average cost of sending one student to primary, middle or high school in the Seoul area

roughly amounted to 328,000 won per month. This figure is compared to the average cost of 147,000

won in rural counties. The cost in the Seoul area in 2013 was 2.23 times greater than the cost in rural

areas. The cost difference between the Seoul metropolitan area and rural counties had increased from

2.01 times in 2010.

This study attempts to identify the disparity between the capital and rural communities in the cost of

schooling and opportunities of education and to suggest policy initiatives to alleviate the widening

gaps.

87

II. Definition and Outstanding Features of Angel Coefficient

1. Definition and Significant Trends

1) Definition

The angel coefficient measures the percentage of a household’s spending on childcare and education

88

against its total consumption expenditures. Originally, “angel” referred to children who were about

to enter elementary school. In this study, the angel coefficient is applied to the entire under-18 age

group.

For this study, expenditures on children were divided into two categories: childcare and education.

Childcare costs cover kindergarten tuitions, daycare center fees, the cost of clothes, shoes, toys and

teaching materials, and the charges for accommodation at postnatal care facilities. Education costs

include tuition for elementary, middle and high schools, fees for private tutoring institutes, supple-

mentary lessons at school, study aid materials, reference books, school uniforms and library fees.

2) Method of Research

By analyzing trends and characteristics of the angel coefficient figures resulting from differences in

childcare and education costs, the causal effects of disparity in household income on educational

opportunities will be examined.

3) Overall Trends: Engel Coefficient Surpasses Angel Coefficient

Since 2009, the proportion of childcare and education costs in total household consumption expend-

itures has fallen continuously, sinking below food budgets, whereas the angel coefficient had steadily

grown from 2000 to 2009.

The angel coefficient was 10.2 percent in 2000, rose to 12.8 percent in 2009 and fell back to 10.7

percent in 2013. The average monthly cost of education (for under-18 children) was 114,000 won per

household in 2000, 218,000 won in 2010 and 222,000 won in 2013. Childcare costs per household

increased from 37,000 won in 2000 to 70,000 won in 2010 and then decreased to 47,000 won in 2013.

Meanwhile, the Engel coefficient, which measures the proportion of family income spent on food,

was 14.0 percent in 2013, down from 16.8 percent in 2000. The average monthly expenditures on

food by Korean households amounted to 351,000 won, which exceeded the combined childcare and

up-to-secondary level education costs of 269,000 won.

The Engel coefficient is based on all households of the nation. The angel coefficient only concerns

families having children in the age group requiring education up to high school.

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4) Statistics on Angel Coefficient: Applicable Households

Spending on childcare and education was needed among 5,610,000 households in Korea, or about

half of the nation’s total households, in 2013. The average age of the heads of all households (num-

bering 11,400,000) was 49.8 years, but 41.8 years among “angel households.”

A typical household in Korea has an average of 3.2 members with 0.8 children; an angel household

has 3.8 members with 1.7 children. Among the angel households, 64.9 percent have college-graduate

90

heads, while 46.9 percent of all Korean household heads are college graduates. Both parents are

working in only 21.0 percent of the angel households, substantially less than 37.0 percent of all house-

holds. Angel households earn 4,570,000 won and spend 2,930,000 won a month on average, a little

higher than the national average income of 4,070,000 won and expenditures of 2,510,000 won per

month.

5) Angel Households: Angel Coefficient Exceeds Engel Coefficient

The angel coefficient of the angel households increased steadily between 2000 (14.4%) and 2009

(20.5%), but dropped gradually to 17.7 percent by 2013. Education expenses of angel households

increased from 170,000 won a month in 2000 to 406,000 won in 2010 and then to 430,000 won in

2013. Childcare cost of an average angel household rose from 55,000 won in 2000 to 13,000 won in

2010, but decreased to 88,000 won in 2013.

In angel households, the angel coefficient figures in general were higher than the Engel coefficient.

In 2000, the Engel coefficient of these households (16.6%) was a little higher than its angel coefficient

(14.4%), but the angel coefficient overtook the Engel coefficient in 2002 and by 2013 the angel co-

efficient (17.7%) was noticeably higher than the Engel coefficient (13.0%). Angel households spent

an average of 380,000 won a month for food, higher than the overall national average, and 519,000

won for education and childcare.

91

2. Outstanding Features

1) Household Heads

Statistics show that angel households headed by highly-educated men or women in the 30-40 age

bracket spend most for childcare and education. The angel coefficient is highest in this age group

with 17.8 percent; it is 17.2 percent in households headed by people in their 50s and 7.5 percent in

households with heads in their 20s. Most household heads in their 50s have children attending high

school, so they have much higher education fees to pay, though they spend far less on childcare.

Households headed by people with master’s degrees had the highest angel coefficient at 20.0 percent.

The angel coefficient of households headed by college, high school and middle school graduates was

18.3 percent, 15.9 percent and 11.4 percent, respectively. This suggests that parents with higher edu-

cation have more income, which gives them the means to more actively spend on their children’s

education.

In households led by women, the angel coefficient tends to be generally higher than in male-headed

homes ― 18.3 percent versus 17.7 percent. Women’s households usually pay less for childcare and

education but register relatively higher angel coefficients because their income level is generally

lower than their male counterparts.

92

2) Types of Households

Two-income households spend more on education and childcare than those with a single income

earner. But the difference is only half a percentage point ― 18.0 percent versus 17.5 percent. The

slight gap means that families with a sole income earner still spend a lot on education despite their

limited earnings.

Among regularly and irregularly employed householders, the latter pay more (18.2%) than the former

(17.5%). This also means a relatively higher proportion of expenditures on childcare and education

by breadwinners who earn less income. Regularly-employed household heads spend 101,000 won

per month on childcare, compared to 67,000 won paid by non-regular employees. This naturally could

cause an educational divide due to income disparity.

Two-parent households spend more on childcare and education than single-parent households, with

the angel coefficients of 17.8 percent and 13.8 percent, respectively. The average amount of childcare

and education expenditures by single-parent households is less than half the amount spent by two-

parent families.

93

3) Income Levels

The middle-income class is the biggest spenders on childcare and education of young children. Of

the household income quintiles, the fourth quintile shows the highest angel coefficient at 18.6 percent,

followed by the third quintile with 18.2 percent, which are compared with 17.5 percent of the highest

fifth.

On the other hand, the Engel coefficient is highest in the lowest income class and less at higher income

levels, ranging between 15.5 percent in the bottom bracket and 11.2 percent in the top stratum. The

fact that the angel coefficient is highest in the middle and upper-middle classes means that they are

forced to spend a larger share of their income on childcare and education.

The net amount of expenditures on childcare and education, meanwhile, are highest in the top income

class. They spend 708,000 won a month on average, or 2.4 times the amount paid by the lowest

income class (301,000 won). Higher income earners can afford to provide better educational oppor-

tunities for their children, maintaining an educational divide based on income disparity.

94

4) Trends of Angel Coefficient in Different Income Classes

The angel coefficient was highest in the fourth quintile in 2000-2013. In 2013, the third quintile over-

took the fifth quintile in angel coefficient. In 2000, the fourth quintile marked the highest at 15.1

percent, followed by the fifth quintile with 14.6 percent and the third quintile with 14.3 percent. In

2010, the angel coefficient reached 20.8 percent in the fourth, 19.9 percent in the fifth and 19.8 percent

95

in the third quintiles. As of 2013, the order changed to 18.6 percent in the fourth, 18.2 percent in the

third and 17.5 percent in the fifth quintiles

The highest income group has continued to spend the most on childcare and education and lower

income earners have paid less. The fifth quintile spent 350,000 won per month on average in 2000,

764,000 won in 2010 and 708,000 won in 2013. However, the difference in the net amounts paid for

childcare and education by the highest and lowest income groups has slightly narrowed ― from 2.7

times in 2000 to 2.4 times in 2010 and again 2.4 times in 2013. This suggested a rise of education

costs for lower income groups with the expansion of private after-school institutes in recent years.

96

5) Cost for Private Tutoring

The cost for private teaching was heavier than the expenditures for regular school education with the

fees for after-school institutes specializing in college entrance and supplementing school classes tak-

ing the lion’s share. The proportion of school tuition and other regular education expenses fell from

20.8 percent in 2000 to 15.5 percent in 2010 and to 14.9 percent in 2013, while the cost of irregular,

private tutoring increased from 54.7 percent in 2000 to 60.3 percent in 2010 and to 68.1 percent in

2013.

Among the private tutoring expenses, payments to cram schools specializing in college entrance and

supplemental classes increased from 48.7 percent in 2000 to 57.3 percent in 2010 and steadied at 56.6

percent in 2013. The share of payments for tutoring on music, arts and sports rose slightly in 2010

but fell again and hovered slightly above 20 percent in 2013.

Greater spending on private tutoring appears to lead better results on college entrance examinations,

fueling social concerns about an educational divide created by the power of money. Surveys have

revealed that the top 10 percent of students in college entrance examinations spent an average of

316,000 won a month on private tutoring, compared with 162,000 won spent by the lowest 20 percent.

97

6) Effects of Government Policies

The government policy of directly providing subsidies for childcare and education of underage chil-

dren may help reduce the gap in educational opportunities, but falls far short of curbing huge expend-

itures on private tutoring.

In fact, childcare expenditures of households declined rapidly as the government expanded support

for families raising infants (-18.1 percent in 2012 and -23.5 percent in 2013). The increase rate of

overall educational costs also slowed down as the government released subsidies for low-income

families. The new support measures included coupons for after-school lessons, tuition subsidies, ex-

emption from school excursion fees, and “one-click” comprehensive welfare service for financially

challenged students. Apart from the cost for private tutoring, the overall expenditures for regular

school education decreased by 7.3 percent year-on-year in 2011, increased by 1.7 percent in 2012 and

again decreased by 1.6 percent in 2013.

The Private Institutes Act has been revised to control collection of fees by various out-of-school ed-

ucation facilities but the changes have not led to a sharp reduction in expenditures on private tutoring.

In 2013, the average monthly household spending on private lessons amounted to 354,000 won, an

increase of 5.4 percent from the previous year. The law’s insignificant effect was also felt as the

98

average fees of private institutes rose by 3.7 percent while consumer prices increased by 1.3 percent

in 2013.

99

III. Policy Suggestions

The government needs to strengthen support policies for households in the lower income classes to

help reduce their financial burden for childcare and education. Continued efforts should be made to

reduce the cost of private tutoring.

First, the primary policy objective should be to lower the angel coefficient, which remains at 17-18

percent of total household consumption expenditures. The high ratio of expenses on childcare and

education aggravates household balance sheets, posing deep concerns about the impact on the nation’s

economy. The quality of public education should be improved by securing highly capable teachers

and providing advanced education programs. Public childcare facilities should be further expanded

to reduce household spending in this category.

Second, concrete support measures are called for to help financially vulnerable households, including

those headed by single parents, have easier access to education and childcare services. Households

headed by women and those with both parents working also need special care to reduce the difficulties

faced by these families in childcare and education. Free supplementary lessons after school hours,

subsidies for purchase of school uniforms and textbooks and other benefits should be offered.

Third, policymakers need to devise comprehensive measures to reduce the cost of private tutoring for

college entrance examinations. Regular school curriculums should include vocational training and

career guidance to help students widen their vision for the future.

Desires for costly private education can be discouraged when high-quality “e-learning” programs are

offered through the Internet and mobile devices free of charge or at low prices. Local autonomous

governments may operate study rooms and libraries to reduce demand for attending private tutoring

institutes. More facilities for sports and cultural activities for young people are also needed.

Fourth, government authorities should secure financial resources with mid- and long-term planning

to ensure sustained provision of free school meals, household subsidies for childcare and other youth

education support programs. Control of private institutes, especially regulation of their fees, requires

prudent approaches to induce transparent operations and avoid unwanted side effects. Effective

measures should be taken to remove exceptionally expensive institutes and unauthorized ones from

the education market.

[Weekly Economic Review 14-24, Vol. 595, June 13, 2014,

Hyundai Research Institute]

www.koreafocus.or.kr

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- Namhan Mountain Fortress on the World Heritage List

- International Students Fill Half of SNU Korean Language Education Department

- Ethiopian Officials Study Saemaul Movement at Yeungnam University

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Namhan Mountain Fortress on the World Heritage List

Shin Jun-bong

Staff Reporter

The JoongAng Ilbo

Namhan Mountain Fortress (Namhan Sanseong) was inscribed on the World Heritage List at the 38th

session of UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee held in Doha, Qatar on June 22. It is Korea’s 11th

World Heritage listing and first since the inscription of the historic villages of Yangdong in Gyeongju

and Hahoe in Andong in 2010.

In its statement for inscription, the World Heritage Committee explained that Namhan Mountain For-

tress “embodies a synthesis of the defensive military engineering concepts of the period in East Asia,

reflecting Chinese and Japanese influences, and changes in the art of fortification from the 7th to the

19th century.” The committee saluted the integrity and authenticity of the site, and recognized its

universal value for the humanity that is worthy of being preserved and passed down to future gener-

ations.

While such international recognition is laudable, Koreans should not forget the history of the fortress

for it was the site of humiliating defeat 378 years ago, when the Korean kingdom of Joseon was

ravaged by the invading forces of the Qing Dynasty. Historians say that the two Manchu invasions

were the consequence of tumultuous international relations in Northeast Asia during the 17th century.

China was transitioning from the Ming to Qing dynasty. Before the Manchu invasions, Japan invaded

Korea twice during the Imjin War of 1592-1598, and kept a close watch on the fate of the peninsula.

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Joseon, a Confucian dynasty which revered the letters, was wedged between the two strong powers.

Novelist and Professor Recall Decisive Invasion

We visited Namhan Mountain Fortress on June 16, ahead of its World Heritage designation, together

with novelist Kim Hoon, 66, and Han Myeong-gi, 52, history professor at Myongji University. Both

have special ties to and an encyclopedic knowledge of the fortress. Each has written a book about it.

Kim Hoon’s novel “Namhan Mountain Fortress” (Hakgojae, 2007), which sheds light on the 46 days

King Injo and his royal court spent inside the fortress during the second Manchu invasion, sparked

renewed interest about Korea’s painful past. In his book “Historical Critique: Manchu Invasions”

(Blue History, 2013), Professor Han says that Korea in the 21st century is in an awkward position

geopolitically, having to deal with the rise of China as one of the world’s greatest superpowers along-

side the United States, and the U.S.-Japan alliance to counter China’s looming threat. He warns that

we should not forget the lesson of the second Manchu invasion of 1636.

On a quiet weekday afternoon at the fortress with few other visitors, the novelist and the professor

had an animated discussion about the historical significance of the place.

The Northeast Asian Situation in the 17th Century

Kim: I have been always curious, particularly so while writing my novel. The Joseon court couldn’t

have been so helplessly in the dark about Qing’s impending attack. But why were they so ill-prepared?

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Han: If you think about what gave rise to the two Manchu invasions (the first invasion in 1627 and

the second in 1636), you could trace it to the Japanese invasions in the previous century. The Imjin

War ended with the intervention of Ming China, and Joseon, as a “vassal stage,” felt deeply indebted.

While still struggling with the painful repercussions of the devastating war against Japan, Joseon was

forced to go up against Qing when conflict escalated between Ming and Qing (previously known as

the Later Jin). King Gwanghaegun tried to make military preparations against the threat of Later Jin.

However, the various ostentatious projects he had initiated depleted state finances, and he lost the

support of the people. Taking advantage of this situation, Gwanghaegun’s nephew (half-brother’s son)

Injo plotted to depose him. Injo succeeded in seizing the throne, but had no time to prepare for war.

Kim: Even so, Joseon forces were too weak. Qing forces advanced south and came close to Namhan

Mountain Fortress less than a week after crossing the Amnok (Yalu) River.

Han: Qing forces amounted to as many as 140,000 soldiers, while Joseon’s elite troops numbered

only 20,000. Joseon also failed in terms of military tactics. Joseon employed a strategy of clearing

out everything in the path of Qing’s invasion and congregating in mountain fortresses some 10 to 15

kilometers from the infiltration route to thwart further advances of the enemy, but Qing troops by-

passed the fortresses and quickly advanced southward. The warning system was a mess, too. Even

though Kim Ja-jeom, a civil minister who was guarding Hwangju in Hwanghae Province, was in-

formed of the beacon fire that was raised in Uiju to warn that Qing troops were crossing the Amnok

River, he failed to notify the royal court in the capital.

Han: Qing forces drove King Injo and his court to take refuge in Namhan Mountain Fortress, occu-

pied the plains in the area that is today’s Jamsil, and were determined to seize as many captives as

they could. It is estimated that as many as 500,000 Koreans were taken as prisoners of war. They were

put in concentration camps without food or heating in the dead of winter and the atrocious conditions

led to countless deaths. It is painful to think of the suffering they had to endure. After seizing power,

Injo should have done all in his capacity to act as a responsible ruler, but he failed miserably in that

regard.

Joseon Court Divided Between Pro-War and Pro-Peace Factions

Kim: As they began to realize that war was inevitable, I think Injo and his court started to lose touch

with reality. When driven into a corner, people tend to become more obstinate and use strong lan-

guage. According to records, that was the situation inside Namhan Mountain Fortress. In the end, it

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reached the point where what they said was far removed from reality. Some declared that they should

go out and fight when clearly they were no match against Qing troops. They were intoxicated by their

own words. It was a war of words, but with both sides uttering mostly futile, pointless words.

Han: Both the pro-war (or anti-Manchu) and peace factions were of the same view that the Qing

Dynasty, founded by the Manchurians, was a nation of uncivilized barbarians. But the pro-war faction

wanted to maintain the subservient alliance with the Ming Dynasty, whereas people like Choe

Myeong-gil of the peace faction said that things were not that simple. He stated that they should try

to buy time by asking why Qing was demanding tributary relations with Joseon when during the first

Manchu invasion in 1627, they ended the war by establishing “brotherly relations.” But in some as-

pects, Choe was even more hawkish than the pro-war faction. When, following the advice of the pro-

war faction, Injo decided they should maintain defense at Ganghwa Island, Choe insisted that if they

were going to mount resistance, they should do so at the Amnok River.

Han: That has been the most controversial issue among scholars. I personally believe that if Choe’s

opinion was followed, we could have at least prevented hundreds of thousands of Koreans being taken

captive. Compare it to a one-on-one fight with a stronger opponent: we could have been knocked out

with a single, early blow, but instead we dragged it out and eventually surrendered after being beaten

to a pulp. But who can confidently say “what if” when it comes to history. For instance, it is very

difficult to say what policy actions Korea should take amid the rise of China as one of the G2, and

the cozy relations between the United States and Japan to counter China’s growing power.

Kim: Neo-Confucian scholars during the time of the second Manchu invasion acted as though a short

leash was strapped to their necks. They were bound by the belief that they had to serve Ming. They

were ready to stake their lives in the battle against Qing. I believe that humans should do whatever it

takes to protect themselves no matter what, even if it means having to bargain and compromise. That’s

what you have to resort to if living by your principles and pride won’t guarantee you your life. An

individual’s moral beliefs and a country’s cannot be the same. What could be more pointless than

saying, after your country has fallen, that it was morally proper, ethical and justifiable when your

country is no more?

Injo Endured Humiliation to Save His People

Kim: Civil officials like Kim Sang-heon of the pro-war faction, who left their public posts and retired

to the countryside when Injo decided to surrender to Qing, were among the greatest classical scholars

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of Neo-Confucianism in the Joseon Dynasty. They were the most righteous and pure Neo-Confucian

scholars. But they were blind to the harsh realities unfolding before them. On the other hand, the

peace faction sought a realistically viable means of survival. They were determined to live, even as

slaves of the enemy. If it meant protecting their lives, they were willing to resort to such self-degra-

dation, which was inconceivable in light of the moral values and principles of the times. I don’t think

Injo sided with either of the two extremes. As I have said before, the history of mankind is not all

about pride and glory. Shame and disgrace are also inevitable. Talking just about pride and glory is

historical ignorance. Injo appears to have chosen the pro-peace path, but in fact, he chose the only

option available to him — enduring humiliation. I think that he made the right decision as king con-

sidering the circumstances. Would it have been a better choice if he decided to fight to the last ditch

until all his people were annihilated?

Han: You could say Injo had a good reason for dethroning Gwanghaegun and seizing power. Injo

attacked Gwanghaegun because he killed his half-brother Prince Yeongchang and had Queen Dowa-

ger Inmok imprisoned. But after ascending the throne, Injo was too busy trying to defend his power.

He was indecisive in his relations with Ming, and his unfairness in conferment of honors to the cour-

tiers who took part in the coup to overthrow Gwanghaegun led to the rebellion by Yi Gwal. This

greatly undermined Injo’s political power. I can’t really give Injo high points as a ruler.

The Beginning of the Diaspora of the Joseon People

Han: After losing the war, Joseon had no choice but to forge close relations with Japan. It couldn’t

afford another conflict with Japan. I think that as a result of the war, Joseon became more aware of

international affairs, and that the war served to broaden its world view. For example, when Injo’s first

son, Crown Prince Sohyeon, was taken hostage by Qing, he was introduced to modern Western cul-

ture in Beijing. You could also say that the second Manchu invasion marked the beginning of the

diaspora of the Joseon people. Of the hundreds of thousands who were taken captive to Qing China,

many never returned. In this regard, the history of Namhan Mountain Fortress is complex, and such

historical meaning should not be lost amid the celebrations of its World Heritage designation.

Kim: The war inflicted severe trauma on Joseon. Injo pursued a pro-Qing policy after the war, but

his second son Hyojong, who succeeded him, planned a revenge attack on Qing. Then in the 18th

century, the School of Northern Learning emerged, which advocated the study of Qing’s advanced

culture. Joseon after the second Manchu invasion was a dynasty built on self-contradiction and dis-

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sension. It was divided between self-pride and subservience, orthodoxy and heresy, and between pur-

suing the right cause and accepting reality. Namhan Mountain Fortress was at the epicenter.

Lesson from the Manchu Invasions

Han: I think we should work on inter-Korean relations. When we find a way to break the deadlock

in relations with North Korea, we will be able to gain more autonomy in our dealings with our strong

neighbors. When relations between the two Koreas turn sour, it is likely to invite foreign intervention.

Kim: I visited Namhan Mountain Fortress on a school trip in my third year of junior high. It was in

ruins as restoration work had not been carried out yet. Our Korean history teacher told us about its

history. Listening to the stories of the war’s atrocities, I was horrified at the barbarity of humans. I

think those memories stayed with me and spurred me to write the novel. It just goes to show how

important the role of a teacher is. They can change a person’s life.

◆World Heritage List: It includes places recognized as having outstanding universal value and im-

portance to the common heritage of humanity as provided by the Convention Concerning the Protec-

tion of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, which was adopted by UNESCO in 1972. It is clas-

sified into natural heritage, cultural heritage and mixed heritage.

[June 23, 2014]

www.koreafocus.or.kr

107

International Students Fill Half of SNU Korean Language Education

Department

Shim Gyu-seon

Staff Reporter

The Dong-A Ilbo

My dream has come true. While interviewing international graduate students in the Department of

Korean Language Education at Seoul National University College of Education, my long-cherished

dream to interview foreigners in Korean finally came true. The students had an almost perfect com-

mand of Korean, which saved me considerable trouble.

Some people might say that I could have simply used a translator. But in journalism, accuracy is the

top priority. If misleading news articles are reported as a result of reporters’ misunderstanding or

mistranslation, serious repercussions can ensue.

When interviewees happen to be foreigners, reporters’ psychological burden is intensified. What is

worse, some words or expressions from other languages are hard to translate into Korean. As this is

often the case, I have wished that my interviewees could speak in Korean. While working as a foreign

correspondent in Japan, my wish became even stronger.

I finally had the opportunity to fulfill my dream while interviewing foreign graduate students major-

ing in Korean language education. I became interested in these foreign students by chance. At the

funeral of one of my SNU teachers, I met an older alumnus, Professor Yoon Yeo-tak of the SNU

108

Korean Language Education Department. He told me, “When I travel abroad, my students often come

to meet me at the airport.” It sounded to be a normal matter, but the rest of the story strayed from my

expectations.

Professor Yoon said the students are foreigners, not Koreans. When I was at SNU, foreign students

were never seen in the Korean Language Education Department, but according to Professor Yoon,

they now account for half of its students.

I was so intrigued that I decided to check the accuracy of what he said. He was correct. There are

about 200 graduate students in the department now, among whom about 100 are international stu-

dents. I wanted to visit one of the courses in which foreign students have enrolled. On May 16, I sat

in a “Korean Representation” course taught by Professor Min Byeong-gon, a compulsory course for

Korean language education majors.

In this department, there is a distinction between “national language” and “Korean.” In general, na-

tional language refers to the native Korean language majored in by students with Korean nationality,

whereas Korean refers to the Korean language being majored in by international students. There were

22 graduate students in Professor Min’s class. Among them were 14 foreigners: they came from

China, Taiwan, Russia, Hong Kong, and Canada. Among the 22 students, 14 are in the graduate pro-

gram, and eight are PhD candidates, among whom there are only three male students.

Of course, it is quite common to see people with more diverse nationalities talking to each other in a

certain foreign language, the leading example being English. Yet, it was interesting to be in a class

where such a large number of multinational students were studying Korean. According to Professor

Min, his class started out on the premise that cultural differences have an impact on communication.

The aim of this course is to help enhance students’ understanding of the Korean language by having

them express their experiences of cultural differences during their presentations or discussions in

Korean. One of the indispensable factors in this course is for students to have fun. The professor

mentioned “Chatting Beauties,” once a popular television talk show. As far as I understood from what

he said, it sounded that he wanted to help his foreign students understand the Korean language and

culture naturally by combining the learning of Korean with having fun, like taking sugar-coated pills

designed to mask bitterness.

I totally agree with the professor. I had a similar experience while I was learning Japanese at Keio

109

University. I had the most fun when my classmates from different countries talked about the cultural

differences between Japan and their native countries.

During the class, a Korean student, as a main presenter, gave an outline of the book that the class was

reading, “The Dance of Life” written by Edward Hall. Then other students discussed their experiences

in comparison with the book. The way Professor Min’s class was conducted that day provided as

many opportunities as possible for students to participate.

The main idea of the book is that the passage of time creates a “rhythm” and the rhythm varies among

cultures, which can lead to clashes. In the class students related their own conflicts caused by different

rhythms and explained how they overcame them.

A Chinese student described his embarrassment when he heard “wo ai ni (I love you)” from his stu-

dents on his first day as a native Chinese teacher at a Korean school. That’s because the phrase is

reserved only for lovers in China. A Chinese female student said that when in a shop a Korean clerk

told her “I love you, customer!” she responded by saying “I love you, too!” That triggered a burst of

laughter from the whole class.

One student described his surprise when he saw students from Russia and Mongolia filling out an

answer sheet while looking through the class textbook, which is considered cheating in other cultures.

Another student said she felt uncomfortable when students from the Middle East brought up personal

stories during a class.

The course evaluation comprises attendance (10 percent), assignments (60 percent) and attitude (30

percent). The evaluation is largely based on students’ participation in class activities such as discus-

sions and presentations rather than written examinations. This type of evaluation is a more reasonable

method for international students who need to cultivate practical language skills rather than theoreti-

cal knowledge of Korean.

As of March this year, 24 foreigners have received a PhD in this department, starting with a Chinese

in 2002. They include 17 Chinese, two Mongolians, a Russian, an Uzbekistan, an Indian, a Thai, and

a Turk. One of the two PhD holders from Mongolia, Otgontsetseg Damdinsuren was the first foreigner

to become the head of a department at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (Department of Mon-

golian Language established in 2009). Foreign students who have completed or are enrolled in doc-

toral programs total 43, including 14 who are currently undertaking their course work. Most foreign

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PhD holders are now serving as faculty members for Korean language departments at universities in

their home countries.

As of today, a total of 104 international students have received their master’s degree. Another 60 have

completed their course work or are still doing it. Among the 104 master’s degree holders, 33 went on

to do doctoral programs and the rest have returned to their countries and found jobs.

In countries where those who have a master’s degree can become a university professor, most gradu-

ates are now working as college faculty members. Little wonder, therefore, that a SNU professor

traveling abroad has a high chance of being met at airports by graduates of his school.

International graduate students are selected for special admission regardless of the fixed enrollment

quota. The selection rate is usually one out of three, which is quite high. Since Chinese applicants

constitute an overwhelming majority, applicants from countries that have never sent students to the

department are sometimes favored. This preferential treatment is aimed at promoting the Korean lan-

guage in as many countries as possible. Professor Min told me that most international students con-

duct themselves very well in class because they had to surmount rigorous competition to enter the

school.

The reason for the increase in the number of foreign students in the SNU Korean Language Education

Department lies in Korea’s rise in global status. The situation is the same for other universities. How-

ever, for international students at SNU, the purpose of learning Korean is often different from that of

foreign students at other universities. An analysis of international students found that those who chose

SNU often wanted to become a professor or a teacher, whereas many students studying at other Ko-

rean universities pursue a job in other sectors. I talked with two students during the class break.

Rita, 26, from Russia, majored in the Korean language and culture at Moscow State University. She

was admitted to the SNU College of Education in August last year after completing an English lan-

guage program at Korea University. When I asked what made her want to study in Korea, an unex-

pected answer returned: “It’s because I’m somewhat of a romantic.” She told me that even though

she came to Korea to make use of her major, she did not have any idea of what she wanted to be.

However, she later clarified herself, saying that bilateral relations between Russia and Korea are likely

to grow closer and that she hopes she can contribute to the development of the two countries.

Pan Tingshan, 25, from China, came to Korea right after graduating from high school. He began

111

studying at the Korean Language Education Department of the SNU College of Education after com-

pleting his master’s course in the Department of Mass Communication at Yonsei University. Although

he wants to teach after returning home, he said he would like to have an opportunity to work in Korea.

He added that because he majored in mass communication, he has a lot of interest in the Korean

media and there seems to be no stylistic difference in news articles from China and Korea. He looks

just like a Korean student. Unless told so, it is unlikely that anyone would know he is Chinese.

These two students have something in common on top of their almost perfect command of Korean:

the power of youth. They both told me that they have not encountered any difficulties during their

life in Korea. They seemed full of curiosity about Korea and ready to meet any challenge. They also

looked forward to a future in which their association with Korea would be used for good.

Korean is a relatively young language in the international community. Therefore, the number of in-

ternational students that want to be admitted for graduate programs in the Korean Language Educa-

tion Department continues to rise. It won’t matter whether these students go back to their native

countries or remain in Korea after they graduate. I look forward to seeing a lot of young people

equipped with Korean language ability meeting challenges in every corner of the world. And I hope

their decision to study Korean will pay off.

To be honest, the real reason I was so excited about these interviews was not because I could speak

to my interviewees in Korean. I could assure myself that the stature of Korean has grown.

[June 5, 2014]

www.koreafocus.or.kr

112

Ethiopian Officials Study Saemaul Movement at Yeungnam University

Park Won-su

Staff Reporter

The Chosun Ilbo

The grape farm of Kim Jin-su, 65, in Namsan-myeon, Gyeongsan, North Gyeongsang Province, re-

ceived foreign visitors in the early morning of June 24. Inside the vinyl greenhouse of over 10,000

square meters, bunches of green grapes and kyoho grapes were emerging.

“The greenhouse cultivation is more labor-intensive, is it not?” “What are the advantages of growing

grapes in this method?” To these questions by curious foreign visitors, the farm owner replies with a

smile, “The conventional field cultivation method often resulted in fruit cracking and splitting, and

in order to avoid these problems, I alone started to grow grapes in vinyl greenhouses in the 1990s. It

was more costly and required more attentive care, but the hard work was rewarded with a good harvest

a year later. Having seen my success, people began to apply the same method to their own farms.”

The foreign visitors were a “Saemaul delegation” from Ethiopia, who came to learn the lessons of

South Korea’s rural development campaign, Saemaul [New Community] Movement, from the Park

Chung Hee School of Policy and Saemaul at Yeungnam University in Daegu. The delegation con-

sisted of 10 local leaders from the regional state of Amhara, including its governor, Gedu Andarega-

chew Alene. The visit was a field exercise of their 10-day hands-on educational program.

During the Korean War, Ethiopia sent 657 troops to support South Korea, and 121 of them lost their

113

lives. The country’s economy remains one of the poorest in the world, ranking 187th in per capita

GDP. As part of their efforts to eradicate poverty, the state government of Amhara allocated funds to

study the Saemaul Movement and has sent two groups of local government leaders, each consisting

of 10 senior officials.

The first group started its education on June 8, and the second group arrived on June 10. From the

first day of their stay in Korea, the delegates were taught the history and achievements of the Saemaul

Movement, its impact on economic growth and rural development, and development of agricultural

technologies and resources for non-agricultural income.

The program included visits to various research organizations and industrial complexes, including

North Gyeongsang Agricultural Research & Extension Services, Yeongcheon Agricultural Technol-

ogy Center, Samsung Electronics, and POSCO. Adjunct professor Lee Hee-wook of the Park Chung

Hee School of Policy and Saemaul said, “These high-ranking Ethiopian officials earnestly desire to

learn about our development experience. They are model students reviewing lectures and field trips

every night.”

The Park Chung Hee School of Policy and Saemaul was established in November 2011. Its objective

is to tell the world about the Saemaul Movement as part of the nation’s efforts to for economic devel-

opment and modernization. The school offers degree courses on Saemaul-related subjects as well as

short-term training programs. So far it has trained 138 people from 41 countries.

In June 2013 the school was selected as a “leading educational institution for international coopera-

tion” by the Ministry of Education. In March 2014 the Korea International Cooperation Agency

named its master’s degree program the best course to “foster leaders and academics specializing in

local development in developing countries.” The school has signed strategic agreements with inter-

national organizations and NGOs as well as nine national universities in seven countries to spread the

lessons of the Saemaul Movement.

“Upon our return home, we are going to ensure that the lessons from the Saemaul training program

are applied to Ethiopia, taking root as the Ethiopian Samaul Movement,” Governor Alene said.

[June 25, 2014]

www.koreafocus.or.kr

114

- A Former Collegian Soldier’s Painful Account of the Korean War

- Invincible Yi Sun-sin Revered as a Hero by the Japanese

115

A Former Collegian Soldier’s Painful Account of the Korean War

Jeong Yang-hwan

Staff Reporter

The Dong-A Ilbo

“The Korean War of a Seoul National University Engineering Student”

By Kim Hyeong-gap, Youkrack Publishing Co., 132 pages, 8,000 won

Next week marks the 64th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War. It is customary for books

related to the war to pour out each year about this time. Many of them this year are memoirs of

soldiers who were in the war. They include “In the Name of ROKAF” (Planet Media), which contains

photographs taken by General Lee Gang-hwa (retired brigadier general) when he was a pilot during

the war, and “The Last Stand of Fox Company” (Jinhan M&B), a non-fiction depicting the U.S. Ma-

rine Corps in the Battle of Chosin Reservoir (Changjin Lake) during November and December 1950.

“The Korean War of a Seoul National University Engineering Student” is a story with an unusual

background. The late Kim Hyeong-gap, former professor at the University of Manitoba in Canada,

was born in 1930 in Jeongeup, North Jeolla Province and attended Seoul National University. He was

forcibly recruited by invading North Korean soldiers and had to move around with them, from the

Nakdong River in the south to the Tuman River in the North, but eventually escaped in April 1952.

After the armistice, he went to study in the United States in 1958 and spent the rest of his life overseas.

It appears as though Kim had no intention of publishing this book. His family members came across

116

his writings upon his death and compiled them for publication. This explains the somewhat coarse

sentences and short length. However, these flaws do not compromise the massive power that can be

felt through his words. Although he could very well have expressed great fury or pessimism, he is

composed and honest in his account of the war.

Despite his tremendous physical pain, the author appears to have been more distressed mentally than

physically. Having to endure North Korean ideological education sessions every day after an entire

day of marching was pure agony. The slightest doubt or mistake would directly result in self-criticism.

Ironically, he risked his life to escape to South Korea in search of freedom only to be accused of being

a communist. His dream of going back to school was frustrated due to his time of service in the North

Korean People’s Army.

The author died at a relatively young age in 1993 and received a belated honorary diploma from Seoul

National University in 2012. One could possibly consider the author to have been somewhat fortunate

given the circumstances during the war. Although he was taken by force, he only served behind the

front lines, avoiding taking the lives of others. He experienced countless bombardments from the U.S.

navy ships and warplanes but was never injured severely. He himself describes it as a “mystery.”

However, at the age of 20 and full of dreams, his life was treated ephemerally and his experience of

suffering under the coercion of the world lingered on for the rest of his life. The Korean War is still

under an armistice. Despite whatever grand pretext one may come up with, it was the ordinary people

who were affected the most.

[June 21, 2014]

www.koreafocus.or.kr

117

Invincible Yi Sun-sin Revered as a Hero by the Japanese

Jeong Yang-hwan

Staff Reporter

The Dong-A Ilbo

“The Japanese Invasions of Korea in Pictures”

By Kim Si-deok, Hakgojae, 360 pages, 17,000 won

“One day, he was encouraging the soldiers in combat when he got hit in the left shoulder by a stray

bullet and blood started flowing down all the way to his elbow. However, the admiral did not mention

it and cut open the wound with a knife and removed the bullet only when the fighting ended. People

turned pale when they saw how deeply the bullet had penetrated. However, he was stoic, even con-

versing with those around him.”

Could Guan Yu of Shu Han who was literally praised as a god have resurrected? It reminds us of how

he had played go while letting Hua Tuo operate on his arm. This incredible commander, depicted in

“A Record of the Expedition against Korea” published in Japan in the mid-19th century, is none other

than the Great Admiral Yi Sun-sin (1545-1598).

Professor Kim Si-deok at the Kyujanggak Institute for Korean Studies of Seoul National University

recently published his research report, “The Japanese Invasions of Korea in Pictures,” in which he

explores past literature to understand Japan’s stance on the war in the 17th to 19th centuries.

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Although the mainstream opinion justifies the Japanese aggression, there is tremendous respect paid

to those who deserved praise. The most representative is Yi Sun-sin. The writings lauding him for his

dignity and the illustration in “A Record of the Expedition against Korea” clearly demonstrate this

view. The illustration of Admiral Yi, noticeably drawn in a Japanese style, is striking: he stands at the

bow of the ship with big bright eyes. Although blood is spewing from his left shoulder, he is unflinch-

ing as he maintains a strong grip on his sword in his right hand.

Other works of writing also pay tribute to Admiral Yi Sun-sin. The Buddhist monk Seiki’s “Complete

Collection of Records about Korean Armed Forces,” published in 1705, and “Peace Records of Ko-

rea,” written by Baba Shini in the same year, explicitly address the admiral as a “hero.” Yi Sun-sin is

the only person among the Korean and Chinese commanders who fought against Japan in the war to

be called a hero by the Japanese. Professor Kim explains, “Admiral Yi was an exception in that Japan

took one step back, addressing him as a hero or the invincible general.”

In “Illustrated Records of Korean Armed Forces,” written in 1800, popular author Akisato Rito intri-

cately described the intrepidity of the Joseon naval force led by Admiral Yi Sun-sin. “The Illustrated

Chronicles of the Regent,” a popular 19th century puppet play, also depicts a scene in which the

Japanese naval force is completely defeated. Although both books are apt to contain exaggerations

and misrepresentations, being “light historical biographies” enjoyed by the common people of those

times, they were fairly accurate.

Professor Kim interprets that “The Book of Corrections” (Jingbirok), written by Yu Seong-ryong

(1542-1607), is a large contributing factor as to how the Japanese came to embrace this stance. The

Japanese tended to beautify their invasions of Korea as a victory immediately after the war. However,

once the translated version of the book was published in Kyoto in 1695, the achievements and leaders

of Korea slowly gained recognition.

General Kim Si-min (1554-1592), who led the battle in Jinju, or the Hamgyong provincial army com-

mander Han Geuk-ham (?-1593), who fought against Kato Kiyomasa, are also favorably portrayed.

Professor Kim claims that “although underneath there is a sense of superiority that they won in battles

against such remarkable opponents, their culture of worshipping the military comes into play in their

expression of respect to brave commanders, even if they may be adversaries.”

Through his book, Professor Kim also introduces for the first time in Korea some 300 illustrations on

the 16th century war that he found in ancient Japanese literature.

[June 16, 2014]

www.koreafocus.or.kr

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- Bishop You Heung-sik: “The Pope’s lunch menu? Charcoal grilled beef ribs are high on the list.”

- Kim Atta: “The artwork is the artist’s scripture, with which he communicates with the world.”

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Bishop You Heung-sik: “The Pope’s lunch menu? Charcoal grilled

beef ribs are high on the list.”

Kim Gap-sik

Staff Reporter

The Dong-A Ilbo

“The Pope’s lunch menu? Charcoal grilled beef ribs are high on the list,” said Bishop Lazzaro You

Heung-sik, 63, head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Daejeon. You was instrumental in getting

Daejeon to host the 6th Asian Youth Day, a large gathering of young Asian Catholics, and arranging

the visit of Pope Francis to Korea in August.

We met with Bishop You at the headquarters of the Deajeon Diocese on June 2. His fondness for the

Pope was such that he remembered even minute details. “Exactly 73 days are left till the Pope’s visit

to Korea,” he said. “He was elected as the 266th pope on March 13, 2013, which makes it one year,

two months and 19 days to this day.”

Q. How are you preparing for Pope Francis’ visit in August?

A. Pope Francis has quickly become an icon. He is loved by people all around the world because he

practices what he preaches about the love for others. Awaiting his visit, I am trying to become more

like him.

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Q. His predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, drew considerable attention last year when he resigned.

A. They say that on the plane to Rome from his visit to the Middle East, Pope Francis was asked

whether, like his predecessor, he would resign during his lifetime. He is said to have answered that

Benedict XVI set the example of a pope stepping down. I think that suffices as an answer.

Q. It seems unusual that the Pope would attend an event in Asia that is not a global event.

A. Martyrs from the Daejeon Diocese account for one third of the Catholic martyrs from Korea. Pope

Francis’ deep interest in Korea and our youths, coupled with our sincere efforts, are what made his

visit possible.

Together with the Archdiocese of Seoul where the beatification ceremony will be held, the Daejeon

Diocese is where Pope Francis will spend the most time during his visit. Bishop You showed us the

letter he wrote to the Pope and let us in on the behind story. “Martyrs practiced their faith in their

everyday lives. … Leave one line blank. It would be a great honor if you (came to Korea and) attended

the Asian Youth Day, and allowed our struggling youths the opportunity to experience the faith and

lives of the martyrs and the peace they offered. Leave another line blank.…” (laughs)

Q. You had a one-on-one meeting with the Pope in April.

A. I said I really couldn’t believe that he was coming to Korea. He said, laughing, “Bishop, you wrote

a letter to me. When I was reading your letter, I heard a voice coming from deep inside my heart

telling me that I should go to Korea.”

Q. Your trip to the Holy See was right after the Sewol ferry disaster.

A. I departed right after the tragedy broke out. When I returned 10 days later, Korea seemed like a

different place. I told the Pope that he is coming to Korea to meet with Korean youths but that some

300 precious young lives were sacrificed in a tragic accident. I said I wanted to ask God how some-

thing like this could happen. He expressed deep sorrow. Later he posted a condolence message for

the victims of the Sewol disaster on the Internet together with a call for prayers on Twitter.

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Q. What do you think is the internal cause of the Sewol disaster?

A. Materialism, selfishness, complete lack of responsibility. … I was shocked to find that such prob-

lems were so deep-rooted in our society. Many people were shocked. Money may be important and

necessary, but it must not be placed above human lives. A shroud has no pockets. You can’t take

anything with you.

Q. I heard that the Pope will be staying at the Embassy of the Holy See at Jahamun-ro in

Jongno-gu, Seoul, and that he will be mostly eating simple meals at the embassy.

A. In Daejeon, there will be a lunch with delegates to the Asian Youth Day on August 15, and another

lunch with bishops from Asian countries on August 17.

Q. What will be the lunch menu?

A. Well, the Pope is a man of frugality and simple ways. Dr. Alberto Gasbarri, who is in charge of

organizing the Pope’s overseas trips, visited in February for pre-arrangements. He said charcoal

grilled beef ribs seemed like a good choice, and also short rib soup with glass noodles and rice.

a

Q. Is there a Bible verse you particularly like?

A. “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” (Acts 20:35) The Lord came to this world to show us

in person how we should care for others. There’s a saying in Latin, “Nemo dat quod non habet,”

which means “no one gives what he does not have.” A person who is miserable can only give unhap-

piness and irritation to others. You need to first appreciate and be happy with what you have to be

able to give to others.

[June 6, 2014]

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Kim Atta: “The artwork is the artist’s scripture, with which he com-

municates with the world.”

Gwak Aram

Staff Reporter

The Chosun Ilbo

A man and woman inside a glass box (3m x 2m x 2.2m) are nude. They are not actors or professional

models, just ordinary people. Instructed to “act as instinct dictates,” only an old video camera is on

the outside, recording their behavior. At dawn on the second day, the man gets up and leaves, and the

woman, left alone inside the glass box, weeps for an hour. “I burnt everything that I had,” she explains

when the tears stop.

◊ A Photographer of Revolt and Provocation

This video, titled “The Box,” was featured in an exhibition of 27 Asian artists held in Berlin in March

2001. The scenes unfolded sometimes in rapid motion, sometimes in slow motion, against the back-

ground sounds of a Buddhist monk’s wooden gong and chanting of the “Heart Sutra.” Visitors caused

a bottleneck as they crowded to catch the sight of the two in copulation, an act that blurs the line

between humans and animals. The exhibition moved on to Queens Gallery in New York in October

that year and received rave reviews.

In 2002, the artist responsible for “The Box” was chosen as one of the world’s top 100 photographers

by the London-based Phaidon Press, which specializes in books on the visual arts, and in 2004 a book

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of his work was published by the Aperture Foundation in New York, a world-renowned photography

publisher. In 2006 the photographer became the first Asian artist to hold a solo exhibition at the In-

ternational Center of Photography in New York, joining the ranks of world-famous photographers.

We met Kim Atta, 58, at his studio in Paju on June 10. With his trademark shaved head, he was

dressed in a black jacket and playing with his nine-month-old granddaughter. The walls of his studio,

located in one of the publishing buildings in Paju, are covered with his works, while the bookshelves

are crammed with tomes on philosophy and art. Kim has published many photo books and essays,

and recently released another book of essays titled “Nirvana of the Rose” (Jangmi-ui yeolban).

To this Kim says, “The book is for my granddaughter. When she grows up and reaches the age when

she can mentally understand this book, that’s when I’m going to come back to life. I really think that’s

going to happen.” His eyes, behind his glasses, were serious enough.

◊ The Cruel Gaze of the Photographer

The man and the woman inside the glass box married three months after the project. In 1998, when

the filming took place at Kim’s studio near Haeundae Beach in Busan, the woman had been a univer-

sity lecturer in art and the man had changed his career path from being an artist. The work was part

of “The Museum Project” series that Kim had been working on since 1995. In glass boxes Kim also

placed cats and dogs, a condom filled with his sperm, small rocks and earth, and then photographed

all of them.

Q. You squeeze living people’s bodies into a glass box and photograph them. You’d have to call

that bizarre.

A. Think about a museum. Insignificant relics become important when they are placed inside a glass

display cabinet. My “Museum Project” is founded on the perception that all things in existence are

precious. I wanted to make a private museum and enable things existing in my time to live on forever.

Q. You use ordinary people, not professional models. It must be difficult to persuade them to

disrobe.

A. A week before the shooting they worry about it and have trouble sleeping, but once they’re on site

their defenses fall within 10 seconds. In the end, clothes are nothing but a mass of ideas and can be

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thrown off in an instant. Of course, there are times when it takes a year to persuade someone. When

I wanted to place Vietnam War veterans inside a glass box to show the irony of war memorials, I went

to the Veterans’ Hospital every day for three months and gave the patients massages as I tried to

persuade them to take part. In the end, even their wives came and worked on site as staff members.

Q. For your “Nirvana” series featuring a person in a glass box sitting in lotus position, you

placed your 80-year-old mother naked on the lotus pedestal.

A. The “Nirvana” series is based on the idea that all human beings are Buddha. The naked model in

the temple hall becomes Sakyamuni, Amitabha, or Vairocana. My old mother, to portray the idea of

tolerance of all things, has a subtle, knowing smile on her face. But the night I made those photos,

my older brother, who had heard the news, wept as he said, “Did you really have to do it?”

Winter 1994 in a small coastal village of Pohang in North Gyeongsang Province: Kim Atta has posi-

tioned naked models on icy fields as “seeds” to represent nature.

Just before shooting began, the four-year-old son of one of the models, who had been lying face down

in a rice paddy levee, suddenly grabbed his mother’s head and burst into tears. “Mom, let’s go home!”

he said. The child was naked, too. A sliver of regret flashed through Kim’s mind at the moment, but

he still pressed the shutter. The models, unable to move, just lay in the fields face down and wept.

This photo, where the young boy’s back can be seen, remains in his photo books under the title “De-

construction Series 047.”

Q. Don’t you think it’s cruel to take a naked child, crying with cold and fear, as a subject for

your work? It seems even people are only “things” in your eyes.

A. That’s right. I’m downright cruel. I’m a really bad person. I worried about that incident and

watched the boy, Seok-jun, as he grew up. Thankfully, he’s grown into a healthy young man. I wrote

about that episode in my latest book. I told Seok-jun’s mother about the book and a few days ago she

sent me a text message: “When I opened the book the first thing I saw was Jun. My eyes were filled

with tears — the emotions came back to me so vividly after 20 years.” It’s like a drama.

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◊ A Self-taught Photographer

Kim Atta is credited with expanding the horizons of Korean photography. “The concept of Kim Atta’s

work is in line with modern art. His work is not so much about ‘what’ is being photographed but

rather what philosophy, what concepts he uses to draw empathy with others,” said photo-psychologist

Sin Su-jin. Indeed, Kim’s work is far removed from the acts of reproduction or recording. For his

pictures, he creates a stage, devises a story or idea, and then arranges models on the stage. The camera

is no more than a tool for capturing the idea.

In the series “Drawing of Nature,” which he has been working on since 2010, he has done away with

the camera altogether. He has set up giant canvases around the world, such as the Santa Fe desert,

Bodh Gaya where Sakyamuni attained Buddhahood, and the forests of Inje in Gangwon Province,

and collects them two years later, presenting the traces of weathering left on the canvases as his work

of art.

It’s one act of revolt and provocation after another. Kim never studied photography formally. He

majored in mechanical engineering at Changwon National University. Photography he taught himself.

In the Korean art circle, a group bound by school ties, and the photography circle, which is full of

those who studied overseas, Kim is an outsider.

His pseudonym “Atta” (a combination of the characters for “I” and “him”) is meant to signify that

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“you and I are no different from each other.” His real name is Kim Seok-jung. I was as curious about

the man Kim Atta as I was about his works. But Kim said, “The thing I hate most is the ‘human story.’

Can we focus on my philosophy and my work?” He was reluctant to talk about his personal life.

Q. When did you start to take photos?

A. This kind of talk is no fun. Do you really have to ask that question? It was about second year of

junior high. Photos were not common in my neighborhood (He was born in Geoje, South Gyeongsang

Province). I borrowed an Olympus automatic camera and took pictures of my nephew’s balls as he

dangled from a tree. I took the film to the photo shop but when I went back the next day to pick up

the pictures, I saw the film in the waste basket. It was discarded, I guess, because the pictures were

all out of focus. But to me those out-of-focus pictures were fascinating.

Q. In the 1980s you took photos of some of the darker aspects of society such as psychiatric

hospitals. Why do you find photography so fascinating?

A. You can hide behind the camera. If you approach people with a camera first, it’s easier to talk to

them. It was my complex, my inability to easily mix with other people. Such as I was, the camera

was my “weapon.”

Q. Your father was a teacher. Your provocativeness doesn’t match the image of a teacher’s son.

A. My father had the temperament of an artist. He had an extensive knowledge of literary Chinese,

and whenever there was a funeral in the village he would stay up all night to compose the funeral ode

in mourning for the deceased. As I sleepily ground the ink stick on the ink stone, the black ink strokes

on the red cloth looked as if they were dancing. My father would also joke with everyone he met on

the road. Looking back his jokes were similar to the questions that I ruminate over in my photos.

In 1992 Kim published a photo book titled “Father.” It was like a piece of homework submitted to his

father, who had objected to Kim becoming a photographer. Kim presented the book carefully wrapped

in a wrapping cloth to his father. When his father opened the book in front of his friends, he quietly

closed the cover right away. And he never looked at the book again. The book contained the photos

of Kim’s mother naked, wrinkled bosom revealed. “That book is a scar that I’ll carry all my life. My

father died before I had a chance for apology, heart to heart communication, and reconciliation,” Kim

said.

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Q. It’s a bit much to expect your father to understand naked photos of your mother, even if it is

art.

A. I wasn’t asking him to understand. I just wanted to show him what I was doing. But looking back,

they were photos that were too stiff and arrogant. So I failed to reach out to my father with them.

Time passed and Kim’s first grandchild was born last year. Her name is Soul, the name for a child

with a spirit. “Do you know how clear a child’s tears are? They’re like crystal. Their saliva is so clear

as well, like diamonds,” Kim said. This photographer with eyes as cold as the camera lens was having

illusions when looking at his grandchild.

◊ “Saying it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t sell is a pathetic lie.”

Following his solo exhibition at the International Center of Photography in New York in 2006, the

price of Kim’s work began to skyrocket. The most popular works were the “Eight Hours” series in

his “ON-AIR Project.” Setting up his camera in busy downtown areas in major cities all over the

world such as New York, Berlin, Paris and Beijing, he took just one photo over eight hours of expo-

sure starting at nine in the morning. The people and the traffic passing before the camera all disappear,

leaving only the empty city. “All things in existence disappear. Things that move quickly disappear

quickly, and things that move slowly disappear slowly.” Collectors raved over these landscapes as

desolate as if all human life had become extinct.

The photo of Madison Avenue in Manhattan was bought by Bill Gates for 88 million won (approxi-

mately $86,500). Gates, who had called the gallery after seeing an exhibition review in the New York

Times, originally wanted to buy six photos but when the gallery raised the prices he settled for just

one. “However, not a single one of my ‘Deconstruction’ series, filled with naked bodies scattered

across fields, has been sold,” Kim remarked.

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Q. Almost 100 million won for one photo sounds a bit extreme.

A. It’s not expensive. The works of some Chinese artists who took part in the same group exhibition

fetch many more times that amount. In a capitalist society, art wholly follows the capitalist logic.

Q. There are artists who say it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t sell, and that art should not be en-

slaved to capitalist logic.

A. Saying it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t sell is a pathetic lie, an empty figure of speech. An artist dies

if his work doesn’t sell. It’s all squalid if your work doesn’t sell. You have to sell. The question is

how to make works that sell.

Back in 2012 the foreign press reported that a Korean photographer called “Ahae” had purchased a

country village in the south of France for 520,000 euros. Because of the similarity of the name, many

thought “Ahae” might actually be “Atta.” To confirm, I had also called Kim Atta. Kim, who at the

time said he had never heard of the name, said, “I totally envied him back then when I didn’t know

who Ahae really was. It’s every artist’s dream to have his own ‘sacred ground.’ At the time, I won-

dered, ‘who on earth is he?’”

Q. As it has turned out, Ahae is Yoo Byung-eun, former chairman of the Semo Group [prede-

cessor of Chonghaejin Marine, operator of the ill-fated ferry Sewol that sank in April this year,

killing more than 300 people]. Would you call his photos “art”?

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A. They’re not worth talking about. Although there is no formula for art, there is a path toward its

achievement. It should be creative, it should be the subject of criticism, and it should be collectible.

For artists, the process of getting their work exhibited in galleries and selling their works at art fairs

is like waging war. But it’s the only way for the artist to survive, and for art to become history. But

Yoo has waged no such war. That’s why his works can’t become “history,” though he has held an

exhibition at Versailles and sold his works.

Q. Do you think your current project “Drawing of Nature” will sell well? I mean, who’s going

to buy a piece of cloth that’s been torn by shells or eroded by the rain and wind?

A. This is really frustrating. How long are you going to cling to the old definition of photography

from the 19th century, when photography was first invented? What is more fitting to be called a

photograph than a picture painted by light? I believe an artist should continually evolve through art

and be able to look inside himself.

Q. So are you evolving and engaged in introspection?

A. I did think so, but this morning I suddenly realized that I’ve failed to “manage” myself. At this age

I’ve never owned a house (Kim lives in a rented apartment in Sangam-dong, Seoul). I could have

bought a house if I had wanted to but I poured all my money into my work. I’ve put 2 billion won

(roughly $200,000) into the “Drawing of Nature” project. My only asset was the land I had bought in

Gapyeong (1,000 pyeong, roughly 3,300 square meters), where I intended to build a studio. But I sold

the whole lot for this project.

Q. Did your wife object?

A. My wife has never stopped me from doing my work. She’s a wonderful person. I can cast the

whole world aside but not this woman. When I was working in Busan, I also ran art classes to make

a living. When we came to Seoul in 2001 and lived in Dobong-dong, there were many days when we

ran out of rice. But I hate this kind of “human drama” talk. That’s all people tend to remember, while

glossing over the essentials. If you intend to make this kind of story the focus of the article, we can

stop the interview right now.

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Q. By emphasizing philosophy and leaving out personal history is it your goal to come across as

more intelligent?

A. It doesn’t matter what anyone thinks. The way I see it, no individual’s life can be discussed so

easily.

◊ Who is Kim Atta?

Q. They say you’re arrogant and very particular. It seems the people from the galleries and art

museums where your work is exhibited have found it difficult to deal with you.

A. I do give people a hard time. I tend to be a fiend for self-control. There’s a reason for being fussy

when I hold an exhibition. My works are very big and cost a lot of money to produce. If they are

damaged in any way I have to fix them out of my own pocket. There are things that I can’t say in this

interview. I’m going to write everything down later in my autobiography.

Q. What place does photography have in your life?

A. No place. (Pointing to a photo on the studio wall) That work, “ON-AIR: New York,” is pretty

expensive. It’s the last edition so it’s worth around 250 million won. If you were to buy that photo —

of course, I know you won’t — what would you be buying? A photo? A piece of paper? The process?

An image? No. You would be buying something that I have — in lofty terms we’ll call it “philosophy”

and in plain terms we’ll call it “art.” In the end, it’s not a photo that you’re buying. But exhibition

visitors, critics, and even photographers still don’t realize this. The artwork is the artist’s scripture,

and with that scripture the artist communicates with the world. Using the photo as a tool, the photog-

rapher writes his or her own story. But if the tool is seen first, then it’s like putting everything in

reverse.

Q. Are you sure you’re not just doing things differently to look special?

A. Ah, really! Why is your attitude so skewed? Do you have something against artists? It’s only

natural to want “something of my own.”

During the three hours that I sat with him for the interview, Kim Atta kept grumbling, asking “Do

you have something against artists?” or saying “You don’t understand what I’m all about.” I was on

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the verge of exhaustion, thinking, “Artists really are eccentric,” when my eyes came to rest on the

photo of New York, the one that he had said was worth 250 million won, and that “of course you

won’t [buy it].” On the emptiness of the streets, traces of the rear lights of the cars erased by the

camera remained like red dust. Strangely enough, that condensation of the scene was beautiful. So

when Kim said, “You don’t see artists as human beings, do you?” unconsciously I answered, “I see

them as gods.” He thought I was mocking him, but I was serious.

[June 14, 2014]

www.koreafocus.or.kr

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