Conflict In Korea Research Articles

Association between unpredictable work schedule and work-family conflict in Korea.

As unpredictable work schedule (UWS) has increased worldwide, various studies have been conducted on the resulting health effects on workers. However, research on the effect of UWS on workers' well-being in Korea is still insufficient. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between UWS and work-family conflict (WFC) using 6th Korean Working Conditions Survey (KWCS). Both UWS and WFC were measured using self-reported questionnaires, using data from the 6th KWCS conducted between 2020 and 2021, including 31,859 participants. UWS was measured by questions regarding the frequency of changes in work schedules and limited advanced notice. WFC was measured by questions regarding work to family and family to work conflicts. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to investigate the association between UWS and WFC. The prevalence of UWS was higher among men, those under 40 years old, service and sales workers and blue-collar workers, and those with higher salaries. Workplace size also influenced UWS prevalence, with smaller workplaces (less than 50 employees) showing a higher prevalence. The odds ratio (OR) for WFC was significantly higher in workers with UWS compared to workers without UWS after adjusting for gender, age, marital status, occupation, salary, education, weekly working hours, shift work, company size, and having a child under the age of 18 years, employment status (OR: 3.71; 95% confidence interval: 3.23-4.25). The analysis of nationwide data revealed that UWS interferes with workers' performance of family roles, which can lead to WFC. Our findings suggest that it is crucial to implement policies to address unfair work schedule management, promoting a healthier work-life balance and fostering a conducive environment for family responsibilities.

The 1954 Geneva Conference: Who Won?

The article analyzes the 1954 Geneva Conference dedicated to the settlement of conflicts in Korea and Indochina. Despite the division of the conference participants into two camps, the motives of the delegations in each of them differed. Soviet diplomacy, led by Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov, was concerned with obtaining a result that generally reinforced the peacekeeping policy of early détente. The Chinese diplomacy headed by Zhou Enlai sought to accomplish more specific tasks of creating buffers on the northern and southern flanks of the confrontation with the United States and its allies. As a result, Soviet diplomacy followed China's lead, and the option of partitioning Vietnam, first proposed by the PRC, was implemented, while the settlement of the Korean conflict was frozen. At the same time, the fate of Korea demonstrated to the participants that hopes for Vietnam's unification in the near future were illusory, yet the Vietnamese leadership nevertheless agreed to this option. Although, like their antagonists, the DRV and the DPRK played the role of junior partners, the representatives of the “great powers” took their position into account. Having weighed the disadvantages and advantages of partitioning Vietnam, the leadership of the DRV supported it. The PRC and the USSR also further improved relations with Britain and France, while the latter two went some way to isolating the more intransigent US diplomacy at the conference. As a result, the 1954 Geneva Conference was one of the major successes of the “early détente”, although it failed to create the conditions for long-term peace in Indochina.

Correlation of Interests of Russia, China and the United States on the Korean Peninsula and their Implementation under Possible Scenarios of Development of the Situation

In the article, the author addresses the problem of conflict settlement on the Korean peninsula through the prism of interaction between the leading regional powers. This conflict is considered as one of the rudiments of the bipolar system of international relations, which has the potential for nuclear escalation in the XXI century. The author analyzes the experience of interaction between the United States, Russia and China with the countries of the Korean peninsula, highlights the priorities of these countries in the region, and also provides an overview of the most likely scenarios for the development of events, taking into account the correlation of interests of the countries of the "Korean node". Particular attention is paid to the approach of regional Powers to the nuclear aspect of the conflict in Korea. The author comes to the conclusion that the deterioration of relations between external actors involved in the resolution of this conflict has a direct negative impact on the development of the situation in the region. The low degree of convergence of interests of the parties to the conflict and the lack of coordination of actions on nuclear issues hinders the search for a compromise in resolving the Korean issue. Given the current foreign policy situation, the most likely scenario for the further development of events in the region is the consolidation of two opposing blocs Washington-Seoul-Tokyo and Beijing-Moscow-Pyongyang, which will actually consolidate the existing distribution of influence in the Northeast Asia region.

한국사회의 갈등과 통합*

Conflict is a universal phenomenon that exists in all societies regardless of the times or places. However, excessive conflict beyond the critical point has been recognized as a serious threat to a society, and measures of social integration have been devised in order to resolve the social conflict. Korean society, which has experienced numerous conflicts due to sharp ideological confrontation under the Cold War, side effects of compressed industrialization, partisan governance, and closed cultural traditions, has recently shifted to a worrisome state referred to as a "conflict republic" due to rising social uncertainties and class disparity. This paper comprehensively analyzes this current condition in terms of social anxiety as a background factor, social inequality as a causal factor and social conflict as a consequential factor, and discusses social integration measures to resolve the conflict from various viewpoints. Until now, a punitive approach based on retribution justice, a welfare approach based on distributional justice, and an inclusive approach based on recognition justice have been widely known as effective solutions to social conflict. From this study, however, it is turned out that the recent social conflict in Korea, worsening to an extreme form like a state of a war, is able to enter a path of harmonious integration only when a reconciliation approach resting on restorative justice is combined.

A Study on the Precedents Changing Related to Using Medical Devices of Korean Medicine Doctors

Objectives: The aim of this study was to examine the debate on the use of medical devices between Western Medicine and Korean Medicine, as this is one of the greatest conflicts in Korea's medical profession. Judicial precedents and interpretations of authority serve as regulations because medical affairs law states that Korean Medicine practices are ambiguous.Method: We conducted a search in the Korean RISS, OASIS, and DBPIA databases using several keywords associated with medical devices, Korean Medicine, and Korean Medicine Doctors. The search period was until November 5 2021. The retrieved papers were classified according to the selection and exclusion criteria by checking the title, abstract, and text. For precedents, searches were done regarding comprehensive legal information, etc., and in the case of non-disclosure precedents, we requested access to the precedents by web-court requests.Results: A total of 80 documents were found as a result of the search, and 13 publications were included in the study. The selected publications were classified and analyzed by this research team into Korean medicine, Western medicine, and legal or state agency research. In the existing literature and judgments, the arguments that played a major role changed depending on the time the judgment was made. “Social conventions”, “curriculum”, “academic principles”, and “health and hygiene dangers” were the key arguments.Conclusions: Further studies will be needed that can comprehensively arrange the existing literature and clinical results, and continuous study will be needed to verify that the use of medical devices by Korean medicine doctors is helpful for prognosis and accurate treatment of their patients.

VR and AR Restoration of Urban Heritage: A Virtual Platform Mediating Disagreement from Spatial Conflicts in Korea

This study sought to uncover (1) the disagreement of spatial conflict between urban heritage and surrounding urban structure using two case studies from Korea—the main gate of the royal palace (Gwanghwamun) and the urban park containing celebrity graves (Hyoch’ang Park)—and (2) whether digital heritage restoration may mediate spatial conflict. A historical literature review and field surveys were conducted, with three main findings. First, the place identity of Gwanghwamun and Hyoch’ang Park, rooted in the Josŏn Dynasty, was seriously damaged during the Japanese colonial period. Although there were national attempts to recover the place identities of these sites during the modern period, limitations existed. Second, the restoration of Gwanghwamun’s Wŏltae (podium) and the relocation of Ŭiyŏlsa (the shrine of Hyoch’ang Park), which involved spatial transformation based on heritage, emerged in conflict with their surrounding urban structures—we identify a spatial conflict between local residents and stakeholders’ memories and the histories of these sites. Third, Donŭimun (the west gate of the city wall of the Josŏn Dynasty) digital restoration is a case mediating the conflict by restoring a sense of place in a virtual space and activating the cultural memory of the public by showcasing properties.

Religion and Public Conflict in the Post-COVID Era: The Case of Protestant Churches in South Korea

Governments have attempted to contain the COVID-19 outbreak with a variety of regulations, including social distancing, facemask mandates, or limits on gatherings. South Korea was concerned by the “supercluster” case of a sectarian religious organization in February 2020. Since then, some Protestant churches have periodically caused cluster infections showing antagonism against health authorities. First, we traced all 2020 cluster cases and identified their denominational characteristics. We then utilized the 2020 CISJD data and conducted a series of multivariate regressions to answer the research question, “What causes differences among denominations in attitudes toward public disease control and in-person service attendance?” Results indicated that Protestants affiliated with liberal churches were more likely to follow public disease control guidelines and less likely to attend in-person religious services during the COVID-19 pandemic as compared with individuals from other denominations. Protestants affiliated with moderate, conservative, and fundamentalist churches tended to share antagonism toward public disease control, while cherishing in-person community rituals. This research highlights social implications of public conflict in Korea, where many Protestant churches have emphasized the significance of traditional worship services, claiming the constitutional right of religious freedom, while the majority of citizens, religious and non-religious, disagree with such exclusive claims against public safety.

Understanding Stock Price Movement on the COVID-19 Period Using Dynamic Time Warping Algorithm

Unlike the impact of MERS or SARS, the COVID-19 has had a huge impact on both social and economic environments. This study investigated the COVID-19 economic impact using the S&P 500 index by applying the DTW (Dynamic Time Warping) algorithm, an artificial intelligence technique. The DTW algorithm is designed for the identification of events the capital market impact resembles in the past. It is shown that the impact of the capital market on COVID-19 showed a completely different pattern from the patterns seen in MERS and SARS. Also, the results showed patterns similar to those of the 2015 China’s Stock Market Crash, the 2019 U.S.-China Trade Dispute, the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, which are specifically referred to as financial crises. However, it was unexpectedly similar to the shock of the U.S.-North Korea Conflict and the 2001 9·11 Terror. They were treated as political and diplomatic crises. These events are closely related to APEC countries, meaning that APEC countries’ economic and political activities are essential in the global economic crisis. The results imply that the policies implemented by APEC countries to overcome the economic crises are important to resolve the global economic crisis from COVID-19.

Impact of Job Insecurity on Hotel Workers' Workaholism and Work-Family Conflict in Korea.

This study explored the relationship between job insecurity of employees and workaholism or work–family conflict in the hotel industry in Korea. To do this, four hypotheses were proposed. First, that job insecurity will have positive effects on workaholism. Second, that workaholism will have positive effects on work–family conflict. Third, that job insecurity will have positive effects on work–family conflict. Fourth, that through the mediation of workaholism, job insecurity will have positive effects on work–family conflict. Further, eligible respondents (n = 331; 217 male and 112 female) were recruited from four-star hotels or above located in Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi Province and then evaluated for a self-administered questionnaire survey. Results showed that job insecurity had significant positive effects on workaholism, and workaholism had significant positive effects on work–family conflict and mediated the interaction between job insecurity and work–family conflict. Thus, it can be concluded that hotels should improve working conditions and propose solutions, such as the moderation of workload, for preventing their workers from workaholism. In particular, hotel business managers should minimize worker’s job-insecurity-induced compulsive drive to work by devising strategies for minimizing their worker’s workloads. They should also enable workers to perform their jobs autonomously.

Family-supportive workplace policies and South Korean mothers’ perceived work-family conflict: accessibility matters

ABSTRACT The present study examined the association of family policies on married working mothers in South Korea’s work-family conflict. The goal of the study was to compare the differential effects of policy availability and accessibility on reducing mothers’ work-family conflict. Given Korea’s work culture, which emphasises long working hours and work-oriented ethics, some employees may be unable to use family polices even if they are available at work. Using the 2007–2012 Korean Longitudinal Survey of Women and Families (N = 941 employed mothers), the study examined six policies. Random effects modelling was used. Results revealed that availability of family polices was insignificant in reducing mothers’ work-family conflict in Korea, and mothers’ work-family conflict decreased significantly only when they were actually accessible. Mothers’ work-family conflict decreased significantly as they had access to more family policies. The present study underscores in order for family policies to have a real impact, family policies should be made more readily accessible.

South Korea’s missile forces and the emergence of triangular strategic (in)stability

ABSTRACT South Korea’s sustained pursuit of conventional precision-strike capabilities and greater autonomy in military decision making is reshaping strategic-stability dynamics between its nuclear-armed ally, the United States, and its nuclear-armed adversary, North Korea. For the last decade, advances in conventional, precision-strike missiles in both Koreas have accompanied reciprocal threats of pre-emption and attacks on leaders, creating a new pathway for a crisis to escalate into a war. Given US security guarantees to South Korea, and North Korea’s development of a nuclear arsenal to deter the United States, any large-scale armed conflict in Korea is liable to involve the use of nuclear weapons. The traditional concern of the alliance with the quality of extended deterrence should be broadened to reflect an understanding of this triangular stability dynamic.

Trade effects of political conflicts

ABSTRACTWe review China–Korea conflict that broke out in July 2016 and examine the effects on China’s imports from Korea. We find that the trade deterioration effects vary over the stages of the conflicts China’s imports from Korea were not significantly affected in the first few months after July 2016. Trade deterioration effects manifested themselves after February 2017 and the estimates show that China’s imports from Korea reduced by 15%. Our results support the viewpoint that, in order to influence the political position of trading partners, the government may take advantage of trade ties.

The Role of the USSR in the Korean War as Estimated by US Intelligence

This article considers the role of the USSR in the Korean War of 1950–1953. Although Russian and foreign historians have published several works based on a comparison of Soviet, Korean, Chinese, and American documents describing the involvement of the USSR and Stalin personally in the preparation of the DPRK army’s invasion of the south, several issues require further clarification. This article is devoted to the perception of the American intelligence agencies of the USSR’s role in the war and to determining the degree of effectiveness of the information support in the conflict provided by the analysts of the US intelligence community. Special attention is paid to cases when analysts made correct conclusions and forecasts based on open sources which were not adequately assessed at the higher levels of intelligence and political hierarchy. The authors employ comparative analysis, historical imagology, and the new history of the Cold War. The war in Korea is seen as an internationalised internal conflict involving additional actors on both sides, usually with goals other than those officially declared. The analysis refers to FBIS electronic archive collections, documents of the State Department, the CIA, the US National Security Council, various narrative materials, and the Soviet press. The article considers the causes of the war, the circumstances behind the failures of US intelligence in 1950, and the conditions in which the negotiations for a truce on the Korean peninsula were conducted. The authors conclude that Stalin considered the conflict in Korea to be a local one. US intelligence recorded this detail, but the political leaders of the US regarded the war in Korea as the beginning of a global communist offensive initiated by Moscow.

From Collaborative to Hegemonic Water Resource Governance through Dualism and Jeong: Lessons Learned from the Daegu-Gumi Water Intake Source Conflict in Korea

Recently, water supplies have been insufficient in some areas. In South Korea, using dualism and Jeongish citizenship, we will demonstrate why collaborative governance of the Daegu–Gumi Water Commission has not worked and how it has been mismanaged by its stakeholders. We discuss the conflict between the Daegu Metropolitan City (hereafter referred to as City of Daegu) and the City of Gumi regarding the relocation of the water intake source. In response to many water pollution accidents, the City of Daegu decided to move the water intake source to near the City of Gumi. Due to a conflict between the cities on this issue, the city established a collaborative governance entity, the Daegu–Gumi Water Commission. However, this form of governance was not successful, and eventually, the Daegu–Gumi Water Commission moved from collaborative governance to hegemonic governance. This was due to dualism and Jeongish citizenship with weak membership, participation, experience, and social capital on the local level as South Korean civil societies tend to have insufficient power and experience to fulfill their intentions or negotiate successfully. The Daegu–Gumi Water Commission failed to reach a consensus and to realize a truly collaborative governance process.

A Study on Christian Understanding and Solutions for Social Conflicts in Korea

As a social being, human beings live with many people in society. Conflicts always have existed in human society, and groups and societies have grown or divided according to how they resolve the conflict. Conflicts exist not only among individuals, but also among groups and among countries. There are many conflicts in Korean society. Especially after independence from Japan in 1945, since the time of modernization, conflicts within the family, political conflicts, and labor conflicts and ideological conflicts have been continuing. There are also a generational conflict between elderly and young people, and environmental conflict due to limited resources. These kinds of conflicts can be easily found even in the Bible records. However, the Bible does not only show the existence of such conflicts, but shows how conflicts have been resolved. Christians must understand the ways of conflict resolution shown through the Bible and must lead our society and individuals to taste the happiness of Christian solutions.

ДОПОМОГА США БІЖЕНЦЯМ В ПЕРІОД КОРЕЙСЬКОЇ ВІЙНИ (1950 – 1953 рр.)

The article reveals a set of measures taken by the United States of America to assist “the refugees of war” in the context of local conflict in the Korean Peninsula. It is underlined that securing assistance to hundreds of thousands of Korean refugees has become a unique experience for the United States and the international community in providing financial support, assistance programs, combat operations, and organized troop deployment. Particular attention was paid to the decisions and actions of the US Armed Forces Command aimed at avoiding panic among refugees from the North, evacuating civilians, setting up and operating Refugee Camps. The unprecedented scale of the Hungnam rescue operation carried out during the offensive of the Chinese and North Korean troops in December 1950 is examined. The first exampled experience was the work of the United Nations Civil Aid Command in Korea, whose field teams distributed clothing, supplies, consumer goods and large-scale vaccinations against smallpox and typhoid during the second half of 1950. In addition, it reviewed the work of UNCURK, which was to help rebuild the country. As part of the program, Korean refugees received rice, used clothing and shoes, and medical equipment. At the same time, the establishment and activities of the UNKRA, to whom the United States has been the major donor, have played a leading role in assisting the forced migrants. The relief programs subsequently became a significant factor in the Westernization and economic revival of the Republic of Korea. It has been shown that in the context of the military conflict in Korea, US assistance to refugees was provided not only through a profile UN agency but also through the active involvement of US military structures and non-governmental organizations. The role of volunteer organizations and private initiatives of the American public in support of the Korean Refugee was noted.

Sheila Miyoshi Jager, Brothers at War: The Unending Conflict in Korea

Sheila Miyoshi Jager, Brothers at War: The Unending Conflict in Korea

The Role of Political Parties in Resolving Social Conflicts in Korea

The Role of Political Parties in Resolving Social Conflicts in Korea

Cold War Crucible: The Korean Conflict and the Postwar World by Masuda Hajimu

Cold War Crucible: The Korean Conflict and Postwar by Masuda Hajimu. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 2015. vi, 388 pp. $39.95 US (cloth). The time has long past when 1950-1953 conflict in Korea could be called the forgotten Of course, war has never been forgotten on Korean peninsula itself, where a heavily fortified armistice line still separates two mutually hostile regimes more than sixty years after ceasefire. In China, Aid Korea, Resist America as it is called, remains a source of pride for People's Republic even if relations with both Korea and America have changed radically since war. In West, including United States that contributed by far largest number of United Nations forces to conflict (followed by Britain and Canada), scholarship and memorialization of war has recently come into its own, after decades of being overshadowed by World War II and Vietnam. Masuda Hajimu's Cold War Crucible is a unique and valuable contribution to historiography of Korean War--or more precisely, to history of Cold War and Korean War's central place in emergence of that global conflict. Masuda Hajimu, a US-trained Japanese historian based in Singapore, admits that his book is not about Korean War itself. Rather, it explores how war functioned as a catalyst in crucible of postwar and contributed to materialization of Cold War world (6). Hajimu reverses usual logic about relationship between Korea and Cold War: rather than see Korean War as an effect of emerging Cold War, Hajimu argues that Korea in important ways produced Cold War. As Bruce Cumings and others have long pointed out, Communist invasion of South Korea in June 1950 justified rapid and long-lasting expansion of US forces around and hardened geopolitical lines of Cold War conflict between Soviet Union and China, on one side, and United States-led Free World, on other. But Hajimu is not primarily interested in Cold War geopolitics. He focuses instead on effects of Korean War on domestic societies in Asia, North America, and Europe. The Korean War, Hajimu claims, turned domestic societies into battlefields in which people were forced to choose sides in a global conflict expressed at local level. Cold War Crucible is interested less in geopolitical realities than in discursive imaginings. The Korean War created bipolarity within societies on both sides of East-West divide, and bipolar division of Cold War became a simplified prism for seeing a postwar, decolonizing, post-imperial whose realities were far more multi-dimensional and complex. …

Cold War Crucible: The Korean Conflict and the Postwar World by Masuda Hajimu, and: Hanoi’s Road to the Vietnam War, 1954–1965 by Pierre Asselin

Reviewed by: Cold War Crucible: The Korean Conflict and the Postwar World by Masuda Hajimu, and: Hanoi’s Road to the Vietnam War, 1954–1965 by Pierre Asselin Matthew Masur Cold War Crucible: The Korean Conflict and the Postwar World. By Masuda Hajimu. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2015. 388pp. $39.95 (cloth). Hanoi’s Road to the Vietnam War, 1954–1965. By Pierre Asselin. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013. 319pp. $55.00 (cloth), $29.95 (paper). If the “origins of the Cold War” is a well-trod subject for historians, Masuda Hajimu offers an innovative approach to the topic. The Cold War, he argues, was not “something that existed as an objective situation immediately following World War II.” Instead, the Cold War was an “imagined reality” that “existed . . . because people thought that it existed.” Cold War Crucible is “a history of the fantasy of the Cold War, focusing on its imagined and constructed nature as well as the social need for such an imagined reality” (p. 2). According to Masuda, the “imagined reality” of the Cold War initially took hold in the United States, East Asia, and Europe—areas that had potent recent memories of wartime experiences. (Africa and Latin America would be slower to adopt the “Cold War” construct because they tended to view international events through a postcolonial lens.) But even in areas where the “Cold War” reality took hold, it was as much a product of local conditions as it was the reflection of a global conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union. In the immediate post–World War II years, the United States, Japan, and China experienced periods of intense social and political conflict. In the United States, a grass-roots conservative movement attacked groups or individuals perceived to be “un-American.” In Japan, conservatives pushed back against postwar occupation reforms intended to reshape Japanese society. In China, anger at America’s “reverse course” [End Page 343] in Japan led to growing support for the Chinese Communist Party and vocal denunciations of America’s Guomindang allies. While all of these disputes would later be identified as part of the early Cold War, Masuda sees them as outgrowths of local political and social conditions. It was not until the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950 that people in the United States, Japan, and China—and in other parts of the world—began to interpret domestic politics through a Cold War lens. Particularly in areas affected by World War II, people came to see the Korean War as the beginning of a new global conflict—the first salvo in World War III. In this heightened atmosphere, the political differences that had emerged after 1945 intensified and hardened. Moreover, political and social conflicts took on a distinctly “Cold War” cast, reflecting the growing perception of a global conflict between communism and capitalism. The Korean War has long been understood as a key event in the hardening of American and Chinese Cold War policies. Masuda echoes this view, though he explains the relationship differently. In both the United States and China, common people reacting to the conflict in Korea pressured their governments to respond firmly. On the American side, Masuda argues that public opinion influenced the Truman administration’s decisions to cross the 38th parallel and to adopt NSC-68. On the Chinese side, the Chinese Communist Party similarly responded to growing public pressure to intervene in the conflict on the Korean peninsula. Both cases illustrate “the encroachment of the social into the sphere of high politics” (p. 143). They also show that “the Cold War was not necessarily a product created through policymakers’ conduct and misconduct; numerous nameless people were, more or less, also participants in the making of such a world” (p. 144). Cold War Crucible concludes with a section describing the suppression of dissent—often violently—during the Korean War. In Korea itself, massacres of civilians were perpetrated under the guise of eliminating Communists or class enemies. Masuda suggests that a similar dynamic was at work elsewhere: at roughly the same time, “China cracked down on counterrevolutionaries; Taiwan implemented the White Terror; the Philippines suppressed ‘un- Filipino’ activities; Japan conducted its...