BR Myers: Korea's Ethnonationalism and the Unloved Republic

May 31, 2024

01:57:17

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Episode notes

사랑받지 못하는 공화국 (2024) was written by Professor Bryan Myers, a professor of international studies at Dongseo University in Busan. Anyone familiar with North Korean studies will be keenly aware of Myers and his work as he has written some excellent books on that subject, including The Cleanest Race and North Korea's Juche Myth. His latest book reveals two firsts: It’s his first written in Korean and it's his first that deals with South Korean politics. Myers has said that "the book's original thrust is the argument that the right neglected / still neglects the work of state-building, but most young people, being centrist or progressive, are just not interested in that issue." We’ll try and see if he achieved that or not.

The book: https://product.kyobobook.co.kr/detail/S000212218893

Myers' Blog: https://sthelepress.com/

In this conversation we are joined by Jacco Zwetsloot, host of the NK News Podcast, Park Kyunghoon (Charlie) for the third time, and Ko Eunbi from Seoul Women's University.

NK News podcast: https://www.nknews.org/category/north-korea-news-podcast/latest

Jacco's Twitter: https://twitter.com/JaccoZed

Discussion Outline

0:00 Introductions

3:10 Do Koreans know when their republic began?

12:15 Is South Korea a republic or a nation?

29:30 The sinking of the ROKS Cheonan

35:15 Who are North Korea?

44:45 Korea as Anti-Japanese

1:05:35 Park Chung-hee as a benevolent dictator?

1:18:10 The American hegemony of Korean Studies

1:21:23 Reading Korean history written by a foreigner