Decamping the Partisans: US Hegemony and South Korea’s Divisive Discourse on North Korean Human Rights. Korean Studies (2023)

Abstract

The question of what to do about North Korean human rights (NKHR) has never been more divisive. Some have explained the division in terms of prioritizing certain rights or movement strategies over others. In this paper, I demonstrate that neither of these explanations is consistent with the last three decades of South Korean public discourse on NKHR. Applying a novel combination of semantic network and discourse analysis on 28,795 South Korean newspaper articles between 1990 and 2016, I arrive at the following argument. The division between NKHR partisans in South Korea is not based on particular stances towards human rights but rather support or opposition to US hegemony and intervention on the Korean peninsula.

Nomination patronage and party splitting: Comparing intraparty politics in South Korea and Taiwan. PhD Dissertation (2020)

Abstract

The political party is a central feature of representative democracy. In the post-War and Third Wave democracies of East Asia, durable political parties have contributed to national development and democratic consolidation. In this context, the transience of South Korean political parties is an anomaly. While no new, major parties have been created in Japan or Taiwan since the 1990s, more than ten major parties have been created or reorganized in South Korea during this thirty year period. Explaining this variation in party stability is critical for advancing democracy in South Korea and understanding democracy in East Asia.