Title: TOWARD OVERCOMING KOREA'S DIVISION SYSTEM THROUGH CIVIC PARTICIPATION
Abstract: Abstract In this essay—an earlier version of which was delivered as a lecture at a session cosponsored by Critical Asian Studies and the Alliance of Scholars Concerned about Korea (ASCK) at the annual conference of the Association for Asian Studies, San Diego, California, on 23 March 2013—the author argues the need to go beyond the current state of perilous confrontation and volatility on the Korean Peninsula and examine how and why the current division of the peninsula into North and South has evolved into a "division system." The author contends that "civic participation" (broadly defined to include business entrepreneurs, corporations, NGOs, and private citizens) is necessary to deal with the durable enormity of the division system. He calls this body of nonstate actors the "third party" (the first two parties being those of North and South Korea). Going beyond strictly Korean affairs, this third party, the author concludes, can play a crucial role in creating a larger framework of East Asian cooperation and solidary. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Kuang-Hsing Chen, Bruce Cumings, and Youngjoo Ryu were invited respondents to the author's lecture at the AAS conference in San Diego and provided valuable comments that the author found helpful in revising the text. He wishes to express gratitude to them as well as to the organizers and sponsors of the session.
Publication Year: 2013
Publication Date: 2013-05-07
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 8
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