Stanford University

Japan-Korea Relations 20 Years after the Kim-Obuchi Summit

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“…factually Japan has made many apologies; but many Koreans and Chinese at the same time feel that those apologies have not been sincere. So there’s a gap between facts and interpretations or public sentiments.”

Twenty years after the Kim-Obuchi summit raised hopes for “a new Japan-Korea partnership for the 21st century”, the Carnegie Endowment for Internatonal Peace gathered diplomats and scholars, including APARC Director Gi-Wook ShIn, for reflection on what polices and initiatives have succeeded or failed since 1998 and why.

A recording of the panel is available online

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Kim-Obchi Summit: 20 Years Later
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The Peace Train Leaves The Station

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In a flurry of developments that left experts stunned, the long-stalled Korean peace train has suddenly left the station. Sitting in the locomotive is the engineer of these events, North Korea’s young leader, Kim Jong Un.

Where is the peace train headed? No one really knows. It can easily be derailed. And it could lead not to peace, but to war, writes Sneider.

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The real test for Moon's leadership: After the Olympics

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"Although peace was the prevailing theme of the opening night at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, the air in the VIP box was charged with awkwardness and intimidation," said researchers at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center in a recently published article. "The real test for Moon's leadership begins now."

The full article in East Asia Forum is available here.

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2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games Opening Ceremony
flickr.com: Presidential Security Service(eng.pss.go.kr/) Hyoja-dong Studio(open.pss.go.kr/)
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Return Migrants as Skilled Labor: The Case of Transnational Korean New Zealander Returnees

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Transferring knowledge and skills through skilled labor has become a critical topic in contemporary migration studies. Countries that are traditionally non-immigrant destinations often turn to their diaspora communities to increase the chances of return flows and knowledge transfer. It has been almost twenty years since South Korea enacted the ‘Overseas Korean Act’ in 1999, which attracted a large number of overseas Koreans back to its shore. Yet there has been very little discussion over the policy implications and what particular ‘skills’ or contributions the returnees have brought to Korean society.

In this seminar, Jane Yeonjae Lee describes some of the research findings from her forthcoming book Quest for home: Transnational return migration of 1.5 generation Korean New Zealanders (Lexington Press, 2018). This book project, which has been based on a life-history and transnational ethnographic research with 49 Korean return migrants, partly investigates the implications for global knowledge transfer through skilled mobilities. Lee will discuss a number of different pathways of returnees’ particular influences on Korean society, and how their certain knowledge and skills can be transferred, hindered, or mutated.

yeonjae lee
Jane Yeonjae Lee is an interdisciplinary qualitative researcher and her research revolves around transnationalism, migrant communities, mobilities, health, and urban environmental politics. In particular, she is interested in understanding the migratory experiences of highly skilled immigrants and how their mobile lives connect and shape the places of migration they move through. Her work has been featured in academic journals such as Health and Place; New Zealand Geographer; and Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. She has also contributed to key texts in the field of geography including Elgar Handbook on Medical Tourism and Patient Mobility; Researching the Lifecourse: Critical reflections from the social sciences; and Contemporary Ethnic Geographies in America. Lee holds a PhD in Geography from the University of Auckland. Dr. Lee is currently a visiting scholar at Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University. 

Jane Yeonjae Lee

616 Serra StreetEncina Hall E301Stanford, CA94305-6055
(650) 723-6530
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yeonjae_lee.jpg Ph.D.

Jane Lee joins the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center as a Visiting Scholar during the 2017-18 academic year. Prior to joining Shorenstein APARC, she was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Northeastern University working in a global comparative project on exploring sustainable mobilities policies.

Jane is an interdisciplinary qualitative researcher and her research revolves around transnationalism and migration, skilled mobilities, and social policies. In particular, she is interested in understanding the mobile (and marginalized) experiences of migratory groups, and how the particular mobilities of people and ideas may affect the places that are involved. Her work has been featured in academic journals such as Health and Place, and New Zealand Geographer. She has also contributed to key texts in the field of Geography including Elgar Handbook on Medical Tourism and Patient Mobility, Researching the Lifecourse: Critical reflections from the social sciences, and Contemporary Ethnic Geographies in America. During her time at Shorenstein APARC, Jane will participate as a paper author in the Koret Workshop and other center activities.

Jane holds a PhD and BA(Hons) in Geography from the University of Auckland. She also currently serves as an Honorary Research Associate at the University of Auckland. 

 

Recent Publications:

Lee, J.Y. (2017) ‘Being non-Christian in a Christian community: Experiences of Belonging and Identity among Korean Americans’, Institute of Asian American Studies Publications. 43.

Lee, J.Y., Friesen, W. and Kearns, R. (2015) ‘Return migration of 1.5 generation Korean New Zealanders: Long term and Short term reasons’, NZ Geographer, 71, 34-44.

Lee, J.Y., Kearns, R. and Friesen, W. (2015) ‘Diasporic medical return’, In Lunt, N., Hanefeld, J. and Horsfall, D. (Eds) Elgar Handbook on Medical Tourism and Patient Mobility. London: Elgar, (p.207-216).

Lee, J.Y. (2015) ‘Narratives of the Korean New Zealanders’ return migration: Taking a life history approach’, In Worth, N. and Hardill, I. (Eds) Researching the Lifecourse: Critical reflections from the social sciences. Bristol: Policy Press, (p.183-198). (Invited Contribution)

Lee, J.Y. (2015) ‘Korean Americans: Entrepreneurship and religion’, In Miyares, I. and Airriess, C. (Eds) Contemporary Ethnic Geographies in America (2nd Edition). Rowan & Littlefield Publishing Group, (p.285-302) (Invited Contribution)

Lee, J.Y. (2015) ‘Returning Diasporas: Korean New Zealander returnees’ journeys of searching ‘home’ and identity’ In Christou, A. and Mavroudi, E. (Eds) Dismantling diasporas: rethinking the geographies of diasporic identity, connection and development. London: Ashgate, (p.161-174).

Lee, J.Y. (2011) ‘A trajectory perspective towards return migration and development: The case of young Korean New Zealander returnees’, In Frank, R., Hoare, J., Kollner, P. and Pares, S. (Eds) Korea: Politics, Economy and Society. Danvers: Brill, (p.233-256).

Lee, J.Y., Kearns, R. and Friesen, W. (2010), ‘Seeking affective health care: Korean immigrants’ use of homeland medical services’, Health and Place, 16 (1), 108-115.

Visiting Scholar
<i>Visiting Scholar, APARC, Stanford University</i>
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Korean Studies Colloquium Series

Shorenstein APARC Scholars Discuss Contemporary South Korea for a "World Affairs" Panel

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“I don't think [young South Koreans] necessarily want reunification,” APARC director Gi-Wook Shin tells an audience during the World Affairs panel, “Responding to North Korea: South Korea’s Olympic Olive Branch and US Cyber Warfare Options." Joined by Ambassador Kathleen Stephens, the two spoke with World Affars CEO Jane Wales about many of the issues facing the Korean peninsula as it prepares for the start of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics

The conversation is also available as a downloadable podcast

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Wrold Affairs CEO Jane Wales, APARC Director Gi-Wook Shin, and Kathleen Stephens
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Peace on a Knife's Edge

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Book cover of "Peace on a Knife's Edge" showing South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun alongside George W. Bush and Kim Jong-il

Lee Jong-Seok served as vice-secretary of South Korea’s National Security Council and as its unification minister under the Roh Moo-Hyun administration (2003–08). After Roh’s tragic death in 2009, Lee resolved to present a record of the so-called participatory government’s achievements and failures in the realm of unification, foreign affairs, and national security.

Peace on a Knife’s Edge is the translation of Lee’s 2014 account of Roh’s efforts to bring peace to the Korean Peninsula in the face of opposition at home from conservative forces and abroad from the Bush administration’s hard stances of “tailored containment” and its declaration of the North as part of the “axis of evil.” Lee’s narrative will give American readers rare insights into critical moments of Roh’s incumbency, including the tumultuous Six-Party Talks; the delicate process of negotiating the relocation and reduction of United States Forces Korea; Roh’s pursuit of South Korea’s “autonomous defense”; conflicts with Japan over history issues; and the North’s first nuclear weapons test.

Desk, examination, or review copies can be requested through Stanford University Press.

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The Inside Story of Roh Moo-hyun's North Korea Policy

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Intimate Brushes: Manuscript Exchange between Korean and Chinese Intellectual Communities in the late 18th and Early 19th Centuries

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Free and open to the public. For details of this event, please visit the event website, https://events.stanford.edu/events/752/75249/

This event is sponsored by:
Stanford University Libraries, East Asia Library, History Department, Center for East Asian Studies, Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures

East Asia Library, Room 224

518 Memorial Way

Stanford University

Lectures

ASEAN @ 50, Southeast Asia @ Risk: What Should Be Done?

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In October 2017, twenty-two scholars from eight countries attended a workshop titled “ASEAN @ 50, Southeast Asia @ Risk: What should be done?” The workshop was designed to facilitate a frank and creative discussion of policy recommendations, with the intention of providing the resulting proposals to ASEAN member states and other regional powers. Following two days of discussion and debate, the attendees produced a series of specific policy recommendations (SPRs).

 

Four sets of Southeast Asia-related topics were covered during the workshop: regional security, regional infrastructure, regional economy, and improving ASEAN. The attending scholars—which included Director of the U.S.-Asia Security Initiative Karl Eikenberry and Director of the Southeast Asia Program Donald Emmerson—submitted 24 SPRs for discussion.

 

Over two-and-a-half days, the group evaluated each SPR for its effectiveness, significance, specificity, and feasibility. The intention was to produce specific proposals addressing some of the main challenges facing Southeast Asia. So as to encourage openness in the dialogue, the workshop was held under the Chatham House Rule.

 

The Southeast Asia Program and the U.S.-Asia Security Initiative in the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center prepared this program and final publication in cooperation with multiple partners. Their final recommendations have been included in the 20-page report which is now available online.

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Donald K. Emmerson

Innovation and Knowledge Industrialization in Catch-up/Post Catch-up Korea: The Current Situation and the Challenges for the Future

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keunlee 2012
Keun Lee, winner of the 2014 Schumpeter Prize and a professor of economics at Seoul National University, will explore the Schumpeterian hypothesis that the effectiveness of the national innovation system (NIS) of a country determines its long term economic performance, using the case of South Korea as an example. Professor Lee will present an overview of South Korea’s NIS during the “catch-up” and “post-catch-up” stages; and will compare the Korean case with the NIS of European economies to derive comparative lessons. He will also address specific innovation issues in Korea, such as commercializing knowledge in the public sector.

Professor Lee authored Economic Catch-up and Technological Leapfrogging: Path to Development & Macroeconomic Stability in Korea (2016, E Elgar); and Schumpeterian analysis of Economic catch-up (Cambridge University Press, 2013: awarded Schumpeter Prize). He is currently president of the International Schumpeter Society, a member of the Committee for Development Policy of the UN, an editor of Research Policy, an associate editor of Industrial and Corporate Change, and a council member of the World Economic Forum. He obtained a PhD in economics from the University of California, Berkeley, and worked at the World Bank, University of Aberdeen, and the East West Center, Hawaii. One of his most cited articles is a paper on Korea’s Technological Catch-up published in Research Policy, with 1,000 citations (Google Scholar). His H-index is now 35, with 85 papers with more than 10 citations.

Keun Lee <i>Professor of Economics, Seoul National University</i>
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Korean Studies Colloquium Series

North Korea and South Korea Break Silence

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Former U.S. ambassador to South Korea Kathleen Stephens spoke on the "PBS News Hour" about the first high-level talks between North Korea and South Korea in more than two years. The two nations agreed to hold future military talks aimed at easing border tensions and the North pledged to send a delegation to the Olympic Games next month.

Stephens called it a good first step and an “all-too-rare positive development” on the peninsula. The decrease in potential for disruptions to next month’s games could—according to Stephens-be seen as the first deliverable by South Korea’s new president, Moon Jae-In, on a promise to reengage with the North.

Ambassador Stephens said it was not surprising that denuclearization did not come up during Tuesday’s talks, noting North Korea’s position that the issue is one to be dealt with the United States. Ambassador Stephens speculated that once the Olympics closed, the peninsula might experience a period of reduced tensions along with confidence building. However, she believes that come the spring there would still remain important questions about military exercises as well as nuclear weapons.

Asked about news reports of discussions within the Trump administration on the possibility of targeted strikes against North Korean military sites, Ambassador Stephens described it as a very risky strategy, adding that the discussions alone could prove unnerving in South Korea as well as North Korea.

The full interview is available on PBS.

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Former Ambassador Stephens discusses talks between North and South Korea on PBS News Hour
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