The formation of the Korean press was closely related to the process of the rebirth of the Korean language, which widened its range of use, created and differentiated new functional styles, and as a language of communication took over most areas of society, all in a short span of three decades. This emancipation of the language of the Korean press was inextricably intertwined with the Korean modernization movement following the forced opening of the country in 1876. During the modernizing of Korea in the final decades of the 19th century, both the pro-Western court circles and the reform-minded intellectual elite of Korea realized the necessity of creating a modern press. From this time on, a modern Korean press was also to provide an exchange of information between a Korea opening itself to the world. In the years 1881 and 1910 there were about 140 various newspapers published in Korea. From the time of the Japanese-initiated war in 1941 until their surrender in 1945, even the provincial Korean newspapers did not have a chance to publish any article without censorial oversight by the occupying forces. Only Korea's recovery of independence enabled the rebirth of an independent press at least in the southern part of the peninsula, and three years later in the newly proclaimed Republic of Korea.
Broadly historical in its approach, this article explores the extent to which Jack London obtained material for his writing from the experiences he had while serving as a correspondent covering the Russo-Japanese War in Korea. It argues that from this material London wrote such literary works as the short story “A Nose for the King” (1906), the historical essay “The Yellow Peril” (1904), and some portion of his memorable fantasy novel, The Star Rover (1915). This article claims further that in these works London not only revealed his racist prejudices towards Korea and its people, but also that information on Korea is sometimes inaccurate and unreliable.
The paper presents characteristic of international marriages in the South Korea based on the Vital Statistics data from Statistics Korea. According to data since the mid-1990s to 2005 international marriages between immigrant women and Korean men had increased from 1.6% to 13.6% of all marriages in the South Korea and cause particular attention as such phenomenon involves many social, economic and anthropological questions. From 2005 the number of international marriages have decreased, but still many men have problems to find a woman to get married because more and more women want to be well-educated and achieve successes in job. That situation led to international marriages where Korean men marry foreign women, especially from China, the Philippines, Vietnam and other countries. Many research results indicate that international marriages is a phenomenon among men who live in rural areas and poor foreign women who want to have better economic situation and decide to find a groom in the South Korea. The paper focus also on factors affecting international marriages and support for multicultural families in the South Korea.
This article analyses the dynamics and tactics of the communists in Asia in the immediate aftermath of the Korean War, linking the issue of armistice supervisit on the Korean Peninsula through the Neutral Nations' Supervisory Commission (NNSC – of which Poland and Czechoslovakia were members alongside Sweden and Switzerland) to the genesis of the International Control and Supervisory Commission in Southeast Asia (ICC – of which Poland became a member alongside Canada and India). The article argues that Poland, by acting for its own interests and as both an agent for Moscow and Beijing, which called for easing East-West tensions, moderated the Cold War in Asia to some degree while cautiously pursuing the communist cause. The article shows that North Korea contributed to the Cold War's intensification by adopting hard-line approaches in dealing with the West. The article further suggests that although neither Beijing nor Prague may have wanted to exacerbate the Cold War, problems of insubordination (and misunderstandings) contributed to Czechoslovak and Chinese military officials on the Korean Peninsula to cause tensions that went against the goals of the communist camp of relaxing East-West relations. The article concludes that both the Soviets and the Chinese needed an Eastern European country in Southeast Asia that could do both: advance the communist cause and be appealing to the West. The Poles, unlike thein Czechoslovak counterparts in the NNSC, seemed to be the match, especially since they were able to exhibit these two tendencies while serving on the Korean Peninsula. These flexible approaches most likely landed Poland a job as a member of the ICC. Finally, the article shows that the communist world was not always a united and monolithic entity as disputes and disagreements abounded, and that smaller nations like Czechoslovakia, North Korea, and Poland were active players with their own agendas and interests.
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