Seoul Colloquium in Korean Studies
(Organized by the Seoul Center of the ÉFEO and RAS Korea)

South Korea’s Revolutionary Underground During Military Dictatorship

SPEAKER: B.R. Myers

The October 2023 session of the “Seoul Colloquium in Korean Studies” will be held as an in-person event on Wednesday October 25 in the Grand Conference Room (Room number 310), of the Asiatic Research Institute, Korea University, beginning at 6:00 pm

All who wish to participate must register in advance by sending an email to efeoseoul@hotmail.com

DATE: Wednesday, October 25, 2023. 6:00PM
VENUE:  Grand Conference Room (#310), the Asiatic Research Institute, Korea University

[Take Exit 1 from Korea University subway station, turn right onto the footpath leading up onto the campus. Walk straight up the road past LG Posco Hall, the Business School and Main Library (all on the right hand side). The Asiatic Research Institute is the building next after the Library (Building 39 on the Campus Map http://oia.korea.ac.kr/listener.do?layout=itd_4_1 )

After 6 pm the front door of the Institute may be locked. If the door is locked, phone to the EFEO Seoul Center (02-921-4526) so that we can let you into the building.

SUMMARY:

If it were not a taboo topic, South Korea’s revolutionary underground would be the stuff of Netflix thrillers. In his presentation about the main groups operating during the Park and Chun dictatorships (1961-1987), B.R. Myers will focus on the nature of their ties to North Korea and discuss their place in the collective memory of South Korea’s nationalist left. Comparing them to West Germany’s Baader-Meinhof Gang, Japan’s Red Army and America’s Weatherman Underground, which were far more violent, he argues that for tactical reasons, the regime in Pyongyang exerted a moderating influence. Myers will also talk about the difficulties of researching modern history in a country where memory laws curtail free discussion of key events and movements.

BIO:

B.R. Myers is a professor in the Department of International Studies at Dongseo University in Busan. He received his Ph.D. in Korean Studies at the University of Tübingen in 1994. He has written three books on North Korea’s political culture. His first Korean-language book, which deals with the process of state-building in South Korea, will appear in November 2023.

We hope that as many as possible of you can join us for this event.

Élisabeth Chabanol, Head of the Seoul Center, French School of Asian Studies/École française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO)

Brother Anthony, President Emeritus, Royal Asiatic Society Korea