Several experts visited the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies on Wednesday to inform students of current conditions surrounding the Korean peninsula and its foreign relationships.
The Korea Seminar hosted by the Kennedy Center featured L. Gordon Flake, Jongjoo Lee, Karin J. Lee and Nicholas Hamisevicz. Each speaker discussed various aspects of Korea’s relationships with other countries and how those connections have been defined by history. The speakers conveyed their expertise to students as they speculated about the future of North Korea and South Korea.
Flake, executive director of the Mansfield Foundation, identified key historical events between Korea and Japan that are branded in the minds of Koreans today. For example, Japan and Korea have disputed over the ownership of Tsushima, a chain of islands. These kinds of conflicts lead to heightened tensions and influence foreign relations.
“During the Russo-Japanese war of 1905, the Japanese occupied Korea,” Flake said. “The Koreans view that as the first stepping stone in the occupation of Korea. These are laid with a lot of history so they pop up with great emotion and begin to have real impact on foreign policy, alliance relationships, etc.”
Jongjoo Lee from the Korean Embassy also examined Korea’s history and pinpointed lasting effects of the Cold War as great hindrances to reuniting the peninsula. Lee said the Cold War has had lasting effects on the Korean peninsula and the embassy aspires to unify North and South Korea in order to usher in peace and prosperity.
“The Korean people are still living in the shadow of war and Korean relations are getting worse with the instability of our economy and the daily lives of the Korean people . . . unification is the ultimate solution,” she said.
Karin J. Lee, executive director of the National Committee on North Korea, explained the historical legacies between Korea and the U.S. from a more progressive, South Korean viewpoint. She emphasized the tentative relationship between the two countries dating back to the General Sherman incident in 1866 and subsequent gunboat diplomacy treaties.
“I see a couple of historical events as a search for mutuality and repetitive U.S. betrayal of agreements made with South Korea,” she said. “The ultimate influence on this is a constraint on U.S. policy options toward the Korean peninsula today.”
