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While it may not be the location that immediately comes to mind, Panmunjeom is an important location when considering the visions of the Korean peninsula. Panmunjeom is the name given both to the village and the Joint Security Area, which is the gathering of buildings specifically designed for meetings between North and South Korean meetings. Panmunjeom was the village in which the 1953 Korean Armistice Agreement was signed; while that village no longer exists, the Joint Security Area that was built for diplomatic meetings is often referred to as Panmunjoem.
There are several key events that happened in this area, but when contemplating visions of the Korean Peninsula, one of the most important is also one of the most recent: the April 2018 inter-Korean summit. The leaders of North and South Korea, Kim Jongun and Moon Jaein respectively, met at the border that runs through the area and shook hands, before each stepped into the other country and then moved to a building to commence talks.
The decision to hold this summit at Panmunjeom, as opposed to either country’s capital, is significant as it represents the willingness of both leaders to reach out to the other. It also represents a commitment to peace, as though talks held there can be volatile, they have historically resulted in some form of agreement. The meeting in April, 2018, reinforced that both leaders and their respective governments were willing to establish a dialogue regarding peace measures.
Understandably, the two countries have different ideas for what the Korean Peninsula would look like. While it may seem like a shared goal of reunification would unite them, the reality of what that would look like continues to create conflict. The two countries have very different ideas of reunification (Kim Ilsung, 2011, ROK Ministry for Reunification, 2014), but the summit in May of focussed on the shared, practical steps to demilitarising the peninsula rather than the conflicting ideas of what the end result might look like. If the summit had been held in Seoul or Pyongyang, it could have been viewed as one country trying to reinforce it’s superiority; by holding it in Panmunjeom, there was an agreement to focus on practical, current steps.

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Soundcloud link to podcast:

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The more you look into the economic and class struggles of the South Korean people, the more Gangnam Style makes sense.

In a country where cosmetic surgery is given as a graduation gift, and looks are considered a business asset, the hyper-competitiveness of the economy is clear. But how does that measure up against the image projected by Korea in hallyu, the Korean pop culture wave that is taking over the world?

Gangnam Style, the viral song by Korean pop artist Psy, has become the perfect metaphor. In the music video, Psy is seen in several supposed “luxury” settings, imitating the ultra-modern, expensive Seoul suburb of Gangnam. Each setting, however, is offset by something that ruins the façade: what looks like a beach is in fact a playground; rubbish blowing in models’ faces; a sauna shared by tattooed ‘gangsters’. As you progress through the video, you become disillusioned that the character of “oppa” is not as rich as he seems.

So why is this a good metaphor for South Korea? Well, the country faces wealth inequality driven by class differences, a result of the incredibly fast development that happened after the Korean War (Shin, 2012). This development came at the cost of hard labour and low wages, which is still affecting the working class in Korea today. In contrast, the image Korea hopes to project can be seen in pop culture – stunning pop stars, successful actors, and TV shows about young people who can afford to live in Seoul on one income.

However, these conflicting images are not as separate as they once were. With the early hallyu wave, in the 1990s and 2000s, these images were a major player in people’s impression of South Korea. Now, however, with a global internet and instant communication, it’s easier than ever for people to access information on the reality of life for people living in Korea. While hallyu still influences the international image of Korea, people are starting to see beyond that – the beach is starting to look more like a playground.

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Vimeo link to video:

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POP CULTURE ARTEFACT ANALYSIS: TOPIC 3.2

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POP CULTURE ARTEFACT ANALYSIS: TOPIC 3.2

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Into The New World – Girls Generation (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k2Zzkw_-0I)

SNSD, or Girls Generation, are considered one of South Korea’s representative girl groups with several extremely well-known songs. Into The New World, however, is perhaps one of the most iconic as it’s significance has stretched far beyond the pop group to become a soundtrack to social change.

Released in 2007, Into The New World is a love song – not to another person, but instead to society. Its lyrics speak of a “rough road…with obstacles and a future that can’t be known” but go on to say “I follow a dim light; it’s something we’ll do together til the end, into the new world.” The song came out only months before the 2007 presidential election, and spoke to the hopes of the Korean people – that despite their history of turmoil, they would keep progressing into a new, better society.

It wasn’t until almost 10 years later, however, that the song took on a real cultural significance. In the summer of 2016, students at Ewha Womans University began protesting the introduction of state-funded degrees from the Park Geunhye government. At the end of July, students staged a sit-in protest, demanding meetings with the principal and higher staff. After several days of protesting, videos were posted of students, arms linked, singing Into The New World as they faced down 1600 police officers who were called in to disperse the protest. The videos also show the moment the protest was broken up, with students shouting and screaming as they were dragged out by police. It was this protest that really changed the meaning of the song. It was no longer about hopefully moving into a better future, but about protesting authorities who limited progress and having the people drive social change.

Since then, the song has been sung by crowds to celebrate social progress such as the impeachment of Park Geunhye and events like the Seoul LGBTQ+ Festival. It has become a soundtrack of sorts to people’s movements, which have been the driving force behind democratisation and social movement in South Korea (Cummings, Korea’s Place in the Sun). While the song may not have had this significance when it was released, it has become representative of modern movements within Korean civil society (Kim, Democratization and Social Movements in South Korea: A Civil Society Perspective).

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Media: https://time.com/4583033/south-korea-protest-demonstration-seoul-park-geun-hye-choi-soon-sil/

While the headline focuses on the numbers attending the protests against Park Geunhye, the article itself contains more on the opinions of those protesting. It takes an angle that few Western news outlets used at the time, putting emphasis on the thoughts of the Korean people rather than sticking to statistics and scandals related to the impeachment. For countries like the US, the impeachment was an example of what effective democracy could look like, and where many articles focused on the logistics of that, this Time piece concentrates on the motivation behind it.

Logistically, the piece makes the most of a delayed lead, only elaborating on the headline in the second paragraph and using the first paragraph to give sensational anecdotes about the protests. The main photos used in the article are of Park Geunhye and Choi Soonsil surrounded by security and police; while the impeachment investigation was in progress at this point, the article uses these photos to reinforce their lack of power even then. Many of the interviewees are people at the protests, which is necessary in order to validate the claims made about the demands of the protests, but there is several statements by academics that lend it some further weight.

The article does include the accusations against Park that led to her impeachment, going into further detail when presenting their relevance to Korean people and in particular, those protesting. Where many news articles at the time focused on seemingly simple issues like bribes taken by government officials, this Time piece looks into what the people were actually protesting about. The protests around impeachment weren’t solely about Park Geunhye’s behaviour; rather, the Korean people were taking the opportunity to have their voices heard about major, long-term problem (Pak & Park, Liberal Democracy in South Korea). This article covers those, include concerns about the economy and the US’s involvement on the Korean peninsula. It also links these problems to South Korea’s modern political history, exploring the impact that post-democratisation has had on the people’s attitude towards their government (Doucette & Koo, Pursuing Post-democratisation: The Resilience of Politics by Public Security in Contemporary South Korea).