Korea Europe Review: an interdisciplinary journal of politics, society, and economics
“People’s Diplomacy” and the Forging of Bilateral Relations
In November 1970, Allende’s Chile recognized North Korea. This move is presented in North Korean foreign policy literature and in Chilean historical scholarship as a predictable outcome of the two nations’ ideological convergence. These interpretations, however, overlook the preceding work of a Chilean group that had devoted considerable effort since the early 1960s to creating conditions favorable for establishing relations with North Korea. This group, the Chile-Korea Culture Institute, was a friendship organization between Chile and North Korea. This research examines non-state actors’ impact on Chile-DPRK relations and, more broadly, on North Korea’s Third World engagement during the Cold War.
Copyright (c) 2026 Camilo Aguirre-Torrini https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
North Korea is the only UN member state with which Japan does not have diplomatic relations. Japan-North Korea relations have furthermore been deadlocked for more than two decades over the issue of abducted Japanese citizens. The prevalence of the abduction issue makes it hard to imagine the possibility of good relations between the two countries. But in the 1970s, such a possibility did exist. This article reviews Japan-North Korea relations in the first half of the 1970s, a unique period when the conditions seemed ripe for the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. We investigate how this under-researched period in Japan-North Korea relations provided a realistic opportunity for diplomatic relations, why Japan nonetheless chose not to act on this opportunity, and what the period teaches us about the prospect of normalized relations between the two countries today.
Copyright (c) 2026 Ulv Hanssen, Eun Hee Woo https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
This article reconstructs the evolution of Austria’s relations with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK, or North Korea) from 1960 – the year when the first Chamber-level trade agreement was signed – until formal recognition in 1974. Moreover, it discusses the Austrian government’s deliberations regarding its approach towards North Korea, especially the question of recognition. Against the background of normalisation of relations with the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the German Democratic Republic in 1972, this article also examines possible reasons for Austria’s decision to postpone the recognition of North Korea. More generally speaking, this study contributes to the emerging scholarship on the history of the DPRK’s relations with Europe’s neutral states during the Cold War period. The findings show that the Austrian government took a passive stance towards the DPRK’s diplomatic advances during the 1960s to avoid any actions that would have been construed as an implied recognition and, consequently, created irritation in the U.S. and also the Republic of Korea. From the late 1960s on and in light of a more favourable international environment, the Austrian government became apparently less concerned about the possibility that certain actions could be interpreted as a de facto recognition. Political and economic interests, especially the Austrian government’s close coordination with Switzerland on the question of establishing diplomatic relations with North Korea and growing trade with South Korea, led to the DPRK being recognised (only) in 1974. This study is primarily based on documents from the Austrian Ministry for Foreign Affairs. In addition, selected North Korean sources and archival material of the Austrian Parliament and the Swiss Federal Department for Foreign Affairs were used for the analysis.
Copyright (c) 2026 Sabine Burghart https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
This article examines North Korea’s agricultural cooperation with African countries during the Cold War, focusing on the global circumstances that shaped both its expansion and its subsequent decline following the adoption of the Joint Venture Law in 1984. Since the 1950s, North Korea cultivated anti-imperialist solidarity with postcolonial African states as part of its broader pursuit of international recognition. During the 1970s and 1980s, Pyongyang promoted agricultural cooperation as a practical expression of collective self-reliance and food sovereignty. Departing from previous studies that attribute the collapse of such cooperation primarily to North Korea’s domestic economic difficulties, this article argues that its decline was driven by structural transformations within the Global South. As many postcolonial states adopted market-oriented reforms and reoriented their development strategies in the late Cold War period, the political and economic foundations of South-South cooperation eroded. This shift was further reinforced by the resolution of inter-Korean diplomatic competition, as African states reoriented their foreign policies and established relations with South Korea. While these developments did not result in a complete rupture of North Korea-Africa relations, the article contends that their shared attempt to construct an alternative world order ultimately proved unsustainable in the face of neoliberal globalization.
Copyright (c) 2026 Seung Hwan Ryu https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
From Proletarian Internationalism to Non-Alignment
In the early-mid 1970s the DPRK leadership presented a new analysis of the international situation and the political tasks required of it. This new narrative was summarized by Kim Il Sung’s concept of the “era of chajusŏng,” a historical conjuncture in which the “primary tendency” was a universal yearning for national self-determination clashing with the declining forces of imperialism. The struggle implied in this conception was one in which nation-states, rather than subaltern classes, were the primary protagonists, and of which the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) was the most important political expression. This understanding of the historical moment rationalized a set of objectives, strategies, and partnerships quite different from those pursued by its socialist allies, but which made possible a level of international engagement previously foreclosed to Pyongyang. In the process, the DPRK leadership at times openly downplayed the contemporary relevance of Marxism-Leninism, particularly in the Global South.
Copyright (c) 2026 Moe Taylor https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
This special issue of Korea Europe Review examines North Korea's international connections beyond its traditionally studied relationships with major powers. While scholarship has extensively examined North Korea's relations with Russia, China, the United States, and South Korea, the wider arc of its international engagement— its diplomacy with smaller and middle-power states, its participation in international organizations, its cultural outreach, its developmental projects in the Third World—remains understudied. This gap is partly attributable to the scarcity of accessible archival sources and the nature of North Korean primary sources, which tend to focus on domestic political and economic achievements rather than foreign affairs. Yet the absence of easily accessible sources is not the same as the absence of history. This issue of Korea Europe Review takes up that challenge. Following the journal’s commitment to transcending the traditional boundaries of area studies through interdisciplinary inquiry, the contributions gathered here examine dimensions of North Korean foreign relations that have received insufficient scholarly attention. The articles cover a wide thematic range: diplomatic ties with smaller and mid-level states; North Korea’s institutions for cultural diplomacy such as friendship associations; North Korean-led developmental projects and joint ventures in Third World countries and exchanges between the Workers’ Party of Korea and other socialist parties. Taken together, these contributions demonstrate that North Korea’s international engagement was considerably more diverse, dynamic, and globally embedded than conventional narratives have suggested, opening new avenues for the study of the DPRK in global history.
Copyright (c) 2026 Seung Hwan Ryu, Eun Hee Woo https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The 7th Berlin Forum on Korea, held on November 11-12, 2023, celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Graduate School of East Asian Studies. Titled "Diversity in Unity – Cultural Diplomacy in East Asia," the conference brought together scholars to explore cultural diplomacy and heritage preservation. Discussions focused on how countries without significant political power can influence cultural discourses and the challenge of reconciling claims of cultural uniqueness with shared traditions. The forum emphasized the negotiation of tradition, the interplay between cultural and heritage diplomacy, and the reception of cultural narratives by international audiences
Copyright (c) 2024 Dalila Hadzic https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Down and Out in Eco-Dystopia: Class and Gender in Wonderful Days
The film Wonderful Days plays out in a science fiction setting the history of Korea’s struggle against dictatorial rule. The plot concerns an attempt to end the exploitation of the oppressed workers. However, the symbolism is muddled and confused because of the reactionary approach to gender. The symbol of the Korean middle class and only female character is a passive observer, which elides the crucial role of the middle class in the struggle against dictatorship. By succumbing to gender roles typical of Korean romantic dramas, the film fails at effectively dramatizing Korean class conflict in its futuristic post-apocalyptic setting. This article brings history into the analysis of this film and by extension to analysis of science fiction and film overall. It offers an example of the integration of historical analysis into scholarly work on popular film.
Copyright (c) 2022 Christopher Lovins https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
This essay elucidates the concept of the “affective interlude,” a moment in the K-drama that showcases emotion, typically of a character within the drama, while soliciting viewers to feel something, such as sympathy or outrage, in relation to it. This moment is emblematic of the poetics of the K-drama and exemplary of popular moving image narrative more generally. Part two of this essay considers the affective interlude in the context of its reproducibility. In doing so, we can begin to understand the K-drama as an aesthetic form that functions as an archive of Korean emotion.
Copyright (c) 2022 Steve Choe https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Measures to utilize international reduction performance for achieving the Republic of Korea’s 2030 NDC
ROK submitted 37 percent of its 2030 emissions forecast as a reduction target in June 2015. Accordingly, RoK changed its existing goal based on highly variable and uncertain emission forecasts (BAU) according to changes in economic growth to an absolute amount method that is highly reliable in the international community, and confirmed a 24.4 percent reduction in 2017 to 2030 NDC in Dec. 2020. However, in the case of RoK, unlike the will to reduce greenhouse gases, it is not easy to achieve the reduction target due to the limitations of the current energy source and economic structure, and a cooperative approach under Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement must be considered. Therefore, it shall require institutional grounds and the means of securing financial resources for implementing and activating overseas reduction projects to efficiently achieve national GHG emissions reduction targets established in the “GHG reduction hub in ROK”. Thus, the international carbon market shall be listed to be revitalized in the future, considering diverse efforts to accomplish RoK’s global objectives and goals for tackling the climate crisis and the declaration on 2050 carbon neutrality.
Copyright (c) 2023 Eun-Jung Kim https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Taxes and subsidies in EU energy policy - Fit for 55?
In the “Fit for 55” package of July 2021, the European Commission proposed inter alia a revision of the energy taxation directive with the intent of increasing tax rates for fossil fuels that should contribute to achieving the EU’s emission reduction targets for 2030. Since then, climate policy challenges in the EU have been amplified by sharp increases in electricity and gas prices as a result of the war in Ukraine and unfavourable weather conditions. Energy price spikes have led to the implementation of numerous compensation measures for households and firms in EU Member States. In this article, we provide an overview of the discussion on energy taxation in the EU and analyse compensation measures implemented during the energy crisis. We find that energy-cost related compensation measures counter climate policy efforts. A stronger focus on vulnerable groups would have reduced the overall costs of measures and entailed stronger energy efficiency incentives.
Copyright (c) 2023 Claudia Kettner https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Upgrading for 30-60 Targets: China’s Policy Framework on Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutrality
As the largest developing economy and the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, China is contributing to global efforts to combat climate change by the commitment to peak carbon dioxide emission before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. Besides the considerations of fulfilling international obligations, China’s 30/60 targets are the result of continual evolution and upgrading of domestic decarbonization policies. To this end, China is constructing a “1+N” policy system and upgrading existing policies such as “dual control” over energy consumptions, production capacity management, emissions trading, and green finance. At the same time, China is facing challenges such as onerous workload, bottlenecks of energy transition, regional imbalances, technological innovation and accounting and statistics of the GHG emissions. It is expected that these challenges will highlight the importance of transforming development paradigms and accelerating research and development, and will further stimulate the upgrading of China’s policy system.
Copyright (c) 2023 Xiaoping Zhang https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Diplomatic Challenges for the EU and China in the Era of CORSIA
Civil aviation has expanded in recent years, and the sector’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have grown rapidly, which accounts for 2-3 percent of global CO2 emissions. The EU has taken the lead in addressing aviation emissions to cover aviation sectors in the EU ETS. Meanwhile, at the international level, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) adopted the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA). This article examines the diplomatic challenges that the EU and China will face because of their different responses to CORSIA. The EU has introduced CORSIA to its aviation ETS, while China has not participated in CORSIA and opposes its unified climate target, baseline, and mechanism. The main future challenge for the EU will arise if and when the EU decides to extend its ETS to non-EEA flights from 2027 onwards to countries that refuse to use CORSIA, as this would (1) be inconsistent with the “anti-duplication clause” of ICAO Assembly Resolution A40-19 and (2) constitute an extraterritorial application of EU rules to other jurisdictions, which risks being perceived as a violation of the sovereignty of a third country. In addition, the EU Aviation ETS Directive may also raise the issues of minimum harmonisation and regulatory differentiation within the EU itself. China, on the other hand, has tried to establish its own ETS with the major diplomatic challenge for China being its deviation from the MRV requirements of CORSIA.
Copyright (c) 2023 Ying Xie https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Legal Challenges of Tracing Carbon Emissions in Steel Trade
Recent initiatives on carbon restrictions on trade, such as the EU carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), the US proposal on a Global Arrangement on Sustainable Steel and Aluminium, and the G7 Climate Club, raise questions of both legal and practical nature. Specifically, how the carbon footprint of imports will be determined and what the role of sector-related decarbonization initiatives and emissions certification schemes will be in this process. Different production methods and energy sources of steel production across countries, coupled with the absence of common emission accounting methodologies and universally accepted certification schemes in the steel industry, present a significant challenge for measurement and verification of carbon emissions in global value chains. Drawing on the case study of South Korea’s steel exports to the EU and having analyzed the regulatory frameworks for emissions reductions in the steel sector of the EU and Korea and the role of carbon pricing instruments in stimulating the transition to low-carbon steel production, the article comes to the conclusion that EU’s use of its own MRV system for the verification of actual emissions of foreign producers will raise administrative costs of the EU CBAM and risks of trade tensions. The EU should therefore take the lead in creating a comprehensive international framework for tracing emissions in products, including steel. This can be achieved through leveraging the G7 Climate Club platform, garnering support from international organizations, fostering public-private steel decarbonization partnerships, and promoting cross-border collaboration among major steel manufacturers to facilitate data and best practice sharing.
Copyright (c) 2023 Kateryna Holzer, Ievgeniia Kopytsia https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Book Review: Lee, Namhee. 2022. Memory Construction and the Politics of Time in Neoliberal South Korea. Durham: Duke University Press.
Research on memory has gained much of importance over the years, particularly since the end of the Cold War and the establishment of a number of networks and institutions that eventually led to the foundation of the Memory Studies Association in 2016. The growing number of publications on a broad range of Korea-related topics bears witness to the popularity and relevance that this research gained within the Korean Studies over the past roughly twenty years. While few authors deal with aspects of collective memory construction in Korea’s past, most publications focus on developments of the long 20th century present, notably the period after the division of the peninsula in 1945. Lee Namhee’s latest book Memory Construction and the Politics of Time in Neoliberal South Korea connects to a range of different topics on this South Korea-related memory research. At the same time, it continues and deepens further her longstanding work on Korea’s democracy and minjung.
Copyright (c) 2023 Florian Poelking https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Book Review: Sungjoon Cho and Jürgen Kurtz: Investing the ASEAN Way: Theories and Practices of Economic Integration in Southeast Asia. Cambridge University Press, 2022.
The book explores the manner in which ASEAN's history and culture have fundamentally shaped its foreign investment policies, leading to outcomes that often depart fundamentally from the external structure and script of Global Investment Law.
Copyright (c) 2023 Ratih Indraswari https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The EU and Korea have established close collaboration across numerous domains, spanning from sustainable development and economic growth to cutting-edge technology projects. Both regions share fundamental values centered on freedom and open markets. Moreover, at national level they are joining forces to realize the shared objective of carbon neutralization through a range of strategic initiatives. We are delighted to present this issue focusing on the cooperation between the European Union (EU) and the Republic of Korea in the realms of carbon neutralization and economic diplomacy.
Copyright (c) 2023 Sunkung Choi, S.E. (Stefan) Weishaar https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Guest Editorial: Framing Sustainable Security on the Korean Peninsula
In this issue entitled “Framing Sustainable Security on the Korean Peninsula”, we seek to broaden this focus and bring non-traditional security considerations into the conversation regarding traditional ones, which remain salient to the region. The issue brings together an exciting selection of scholars and practitioners who have generated timely and critical insights into the complex security environment of not just the peninsula itself but East Asia more broadly.
Copyright (c) 2023 Francesca Frassineti https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Securitization during Crises: the Korean Peninsula and the East Asian regional order
This article analyses how North and South Korea have responded to the two global crises of the coronavirus pandemic and Russia’s war in Ukraine, and the implications of such responses on the East Asian regional order. Through adopting the framework of securitization theory, this article argues that these two global crises have expanded how North and South Korea conceptualise security, but also highlighted continuities in how the two states frame their external geopolitical environments. In so doing, these outlooks have influenced resultant behaviour – from both states – which, in turn, have led to consequences within the region. Such consequences, however, have not always been beneficial to regional and global security. This article argues how whilst it remains too early to tell if a new trilateral relationship is forming between Russia, China, and North Korea, Pyongyang’s heightened securitization of coronavirus and the United States “hostile policy” have instigated gradual shifts in the regional order. At the same time, South Korea has placed particular attention on strengthening its existing bilateral alliances and widening its self-conceptualisation as a provider and stabiliser of regional and global security. Ultimately, Seoul seeks to pursue an increasingly independent foreign policy in line with its status as a ‘global pivotal state’.
Copyright (c) 2023 Edward Howell https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
South Korea’s “3-D” Problem: De-risking and Diversifying in Response to China’s Economic Coercion
China has used coercive economic measures against South Korea since 2017 to retaliate for the installation of the THAAD anti-ballistic missile system, but little is known about the Korean strategy for responding to these measures. Informed by interviews with foreign policymakers, business leaders, and scholars of international relations in Korea, this essay reinterprets the politics of international trade in an age of great-power rivalry from the perspective of middle powers. It does so by using Albert Hirschman’s insight that great powers tend to abuse the influence that stems from holding a dominant economic position against their smaller international counterparts, but in so doing create incentives for middle (and small) powers to reduce their exposure to such asymmetric trading relations. We use three cases to illustrate how South Korean firms and policymakers have responded with a strategy that seeks to manage the risks of co-existing with China (“de-risking” and “diversification”) rather than completly escaping from the Chinese economic orbit (“decoupling”). In doing so, we illustrate the impact of and limits to coercive statecraft and the strategy that Korea has pursued in response to its “3-D” problem.
Copyright (c) 2023 David Hundt, Baogang He, Dominic Simonelli https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Cyber Security – pilot project for security cooperation between the EU and South Korea
The Republic of Korea, one of the five strategic partners of the EU in the Indo-Pacific, entertains not only a closely-knit framework of agreements with the EU but is also the only country which has concluded three comprehensive agreements (Framework Agreement/Free Trade Agreement/Crisis Management Framework Participation Agreement) with the EU.
Copyright (c) 2023 Michael Reiterer https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Editorial: Compressed Modernity - Book Symposium
I am delighted to introduce this book symposium which provides an opportunity to revisit and recontextualize Chang Kyung-Sup’s most influential theoretical contribution, but also to (re)frame the future conversation by discussing its global implications for current socio-economic scholarship. It features essays by a group of distinguished scholars, to all of whom I would like to extend my sincere thanks for their commitment to this endeavour.
Copyright (c) 2023 Christoph Michael https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Compressed Modernity and Its Life World Predicaments: Replies and Elaborations
The five review essays offered on my book, The Logic of Compressed Modernity, in the current book symposium commonly yet complementarily suggest that the thesis of compressed modernity has wide potential – for that matter, diverse necessities – to be applied and assessed beyond the mainly discussed realities of South Korean history, society, and politics as follows.
Copyright (c) 2023 Kyung-Sup Chang https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Parallel Problematics? Chang Kyung-Sup’s Logic of Compressed Modernity and Critical Human Geography
The Logic of Compressed Modernity provides a panoramic overview of Chang Kyung-Sup’s work as a pioneering, critical sociologist, and a subtle reframing of his contribution to the broader social sciences to draw out its global significance. In my contribution to this book symposium, I want to focus on how Chang’s ideas concerning compressed modernity have developed in parallel to cognate ideas and complementary approaches within human geography. And yet, surprisingly, engagement between these two critical traditions has not been as extensive as their affinities might suggest.
Copyright (c) 2023 Jamie Doucette https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
A Tale of two Cities: Revisiting compressed modernity(ies) and their logic(s)
Chang Kyung-Sup’s The Logic of Compressed Modernity opens with the book cover seemingly coming alive, right from the first science fiction attempts from the beginning of the twentieth century to describe the city and people of the future. At once anonymous but familiar, phantasmagorical but realistic, dark but illuminated by thousands of electric lights, and lonely but densely populated, such a dystopian portrayal of a (post)modern metropolis and a (half)man peeking out of the soon-to-be-museum slums can exist anywhere–a non-place.
Copyright (c) 2023 Irina Lyan https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Compressed Modernity or Elusive Modernity?
The publication of professor Chang’s book The Logic of Compressed Modernity is reassuring for those researchers who are interested in studies of modern societies and modernization. These researchers may often feel discouraged for the concepts of modernization and modernity fell out of fashion in mainstream sociology and especially political science. However, both concepts are still in demand in many regions with so called “catching-up development” including post-communist Central and Eastern Europe and China.
Copyright (c) 2023 Yuriy Savelyev https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Chang Kyung-sup and The Logic of Compressed Modernity: A Review Article
Chang Kyung-sup’s concept of “compressed modernity” is a useful and often insightful way of understanding contemporary South Korea. While a vast literature has been devoted to explaining the country’s extraordinary economic, social, and political transformation in the past few decades most of it fails to explain the anomalies that characterize South Korea. The author attempts to come up with a conceptualization of South Korea and its perpetual state of transformation that persuasively addresses the very anomalies of the country’s development and the issues that have been expressed by writers, artists, and filmmakers.
Copyright (c) 2023 Michael J. Seth https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Is it compressed modernity or colonial modernity? South Korea today
There are three queries that organise the book, The Logic of Compressed Modernity: first it traces the particular attributes of South Korean modernity; second, it suggests theories/perspectives that can be used to comprehend this modernity; third, it suggests that South Korea’s transition process is comparable to other regions of the world and particularly generalisable to countries in East Asia. The canvas of the book is extremely wide and it covers almost all attributes of modernity that organise the discussions on this theme - be it the economic, the political and the cultural. It also brings together discussions made by every scholar of note on modernity in the last two to three decades.
Copyright (c) 2023 Sujata Patel https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
This article examines the shift in diplomatic strategies following the onset of the second Cold War, where military power has re-emerged as the primary means of ensuring security. It challenges the prevailing view that conflicts are primarily caused by malevolent actors and argues against the reliance on military might for conflict resolution. Instead, the article advocates for focusing on preventing bargaining failures and overconfidence in negotiation positions. Utilizing game theory, the article highlights the deficiencies in oversimplified conflict paradigms and suggests that allies of hegemonic powers should engage in independent dialogue with perceived threats. Through simplified game models and empirical evidence, the article challenges the logic of hegemonic enforcement and power-based norm negotiation, proposing alternative frameworks for achieving peace and security.
Copyright (c) 2024 Timo Kivimäki https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
This issue of Korea Europe Review examines the complex interplay between Japanese colonialism, the Vienna School of Ethnology, and the development of East Asian ethnology. The guest editors present a series of original articles exploring how Japanese scholars, influenced by the Vienna School’s methodologies, navigated the political landscape to shape discourse on Japanese-Korean ethnic relations. Through the works of figures like Wilhelm Schmidt, Oka Masao, and Alexander Slawik, the issue highlights how academic frameworks were adapted, sometimes to justify colonial ideologies and at other times to foster new understandings of cultural origins and ethnic identity.
Copyright (c) 2024 Juljan Biontino, Bernhard Scheid, David Weiss https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0