Dear Members and Friends of RAS Korea,

Here’s your quick overview of what is happening around RAS Korea this week.

1) RAS Korea Lectures in the New Year

January 12, (7:30PM) Michael Seth, ‘North Korea-A failed revolution if not a failed state’

** Zoom Link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83208474484?pwd=UzcyVlFLK2IyeHFWSUxzVkdkWlV1Zz09
Meeting ID: 832 0847 4484
Passcode: 999813
January 26, George Kallander, ‘The Years of Living Dangerously: The Diary of 1636 and the Manchu Invasions of Korea’

February 9, Amb. John Everard, retired British Ambassador to Pyongyang

February 23, Dr. David Tizzard

March 9, Martin Limón, Novelist

2) RAS Korea’s YouTube channel – Online Lecture Video Archive
If you missed any online lectures, you can find and watch them here.
Please click ‘Subscribe’ and ‘Like’ buttons at the RAS Korea’s Youtube channel.

3) RAS Korea Book Note:
‘Five Rings over Korea: The Secret Negotiations Behind the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul’
by Richard W. Pound, 1994, Little Brown & Co.

Dick Pound is a competitive swimmer who became president of the Canadian Olympic committee and then vice president of the IOC Executive commttee during the time when Korea was selected for the 1988 Olympics.  As the title suggests the road to the Olympics was not as smooth as one imagines it to be.  Although the IOC was nominally apolitical, the IOC conducted four years’ worth of negotiations with to Soviet Union to prevent a repeat of the previous two Olympics where western nations boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics and the Soviet Union returned the favor by boycotting the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Add to this the IOC’s attempts to North Korea’s demands to participate in the Olympics, and you will understand how difficult it was to negotiate with enough parties to make the 1988 Seoul Olympics a successful Olympic Games.

Very best wishes.
Stay safe and healthy.