Lee Myung-bak Research Articles

Who drives the green shift? EV and battery policymaking and systemic marginalisation of auto suppliers in South Korea

The swift global transition to electric vehicles (EV) and batteries in the automotive industry highlights the nature of governments’ efforts towards a green economy, marking a transition from environmental regulations to industrial policies. This shift has led to renewed interest in industrial policies, especially in East Asian developmental states, like South Korea. The EV and battery industries in South Korea have grown rapidly along with the government's efforts to mobilise the entire economy through aggressive green industrial policy, particularly during the Lee Myung-bak administration (2008–2012). Big Korean automobile and electronics manufacturers have participated directly in setting the country's industrial agenda, leading the green industrial policy with their business interests. However, the process of EV and battery policymaking also marginalized auto suppliers in the existing manufacturing sector from agenda setting. Focusing on business’ structural power, this paper explains how big business elites systematically alienate small and medium-sized suppliers from the new growth policy thanks to their strong information monopoly in the hierarchical structure of production in the automobile industry and EV policies in South Korea.

역사적 신제도주의를 통한 중소기업정책의 변화 - 경로의존과 단절적 균형을 중심으로

This study examined how small and medium-sized enterprise(SMEs) policies focused on protecting and fostering SMEs changed under the Kim Dae-jung, Roh Moo-hyun and Lee Myung-bak governments in the 2000s through historical new institutionalism. A path-dependent institutional change appeared in that both the quantitative growth of SMEs through the Kim Dae-jung government’s venture business development policy and their qualitative growth through the Roh Moo-hyun government’s innovative SMEs development policy were promoted for the purpose of creating jobs and securing new growth engines. The policy ideas of strengthening the competitiveness of SMEs, expanding competition, and transitioning to a technology- and knowledge-intensive industrial structure influenced the actors’ choice. Under the Lee Myung-bak administration, due to the external factor of the global financial crisis, there were not many restrictions on policy ideas for actors’ selection of institution, resulting in a punctuated equilibrium in which the social policy nature was greatly weakened and the political nature was strengthened. The abolition of the collective private contract system and designation of distinct business system appeared as a form of punctuated equilibrium between the ‘protection and development’ paradigm and the ‘autonomy and competition’ paradigm. It suggests that policies need to support industries that require protection in a selective and focused manner to ensure competitiveness of SMEs. It also suggests that effectiveness through institutional change should be improved by presenting a clear single policy stance on policy ideas to be considered when changing the institution.

텍스트 마이닝을 활용한 대학생 중소기업 취업 주요 이슈 분석

This study conducted text mining analysis using news data to objectively evaluate the effects of various policies, such as support for college student and small business employment, implemented during the tenures of past presidents. After collecting a total of 13,939 news articles, preprocessing such as removal of stop words was performed, and keyword analysis and correlation analysis were conducted. The news data was collected from 'Big Kinds' of the Korea Press Foundation. The main results analyzed are as follows: initially, a high-level analysis of the entire period showed that 'jobs' were the most frequently mentioned, followed by 'large companies', 'Seoul', 'workers', and 'job seekers'. Secondly, the yearly word cloud analysis results showed that President Moon Jae-in was associated with Covid-19, manufacturing, subsidies, minimum wage, in that order. President Park Geun-hye was associated with 'workers', youth, subsidies, manufacturing, in that order. President Lee Myung-bak was associated with 'unemployed', manufacturing, vocational high schools (Meister schools), college students, in that order. Thirdly, the TF-IDF analysis revealed distinct differences according to the timing of presidential changes. Additionally, among keywords related to government policies, terms such as National Employment Support System, Tomorrow Learning Credit, and Employment Encouragement Allowance emerged. Through this, it was possible to confirm that these support programs are mentioned in relation to college student employment in small businesses among various government support initiatives.

25년간의 조기 영어교육 관점 변화

Objectives This study analyzed the changes and direction of early childhood English education (ECEE) according to changes in English education policy by analyzing newspaper articles from the conservative newspaper Chosun Ilbo and the progressive newspaper Hankyoreh from the introduction of English curriculum in 1997 to 2022.
 Methods For this purpose, the study utilized historical research methods based on historical data. By searching for the term ‘early childhood English education,’ 285 articles from Chosun Ilbo and 205 articles from Hankyoreh were collected. These were then classified using Bӧhm's (2004) three-step coding method: open coding, axial coding, and selective coding.
 Results The findings reveal a direct impact of changes in English education policies on ECEE. The periods of Noh Moo-hyun and Lee Myung-bak’s governments saw the highest number of newspaper articles on ECEE in both Chosun Ilbo and Hankyoreh, indicating active discussions on the subject. Despite political transitions, this era witnessed the expansion of English education, introducing diverse methods and media for ECEE. However, the English education normalization policies implemented by Park Geun-hye and Moon Jae-in’s administrations proved ineffective due to the prohibition of after-school English classes for kindergartens, daycare centers, and first and second-grade elementary students. This highlights the influence of government policies on the ECEE landscape.
 Conclusions Chosun Ilbo and Hankyoreh exhibited contrasting viewpoints on ECEE, with the conservative Chosun Ilbo and progressive Hankyoreh presenting divergent perspectives. These distinct viewpoints offer valuable insights for future research in the field.

중미 글로벌-지역 이중 극체제로 본 북중관계

This study aims to examine how China’s realization of polarity in international relations and its threat perception on the U.S. have affected China-North Korea relations in the post-Cold War era. Since the end of the Cold War, the world has formed a U.S.-led unipolar system, while East Asia has been a bipolar system between the U.S. and China. China has jumped on the U.S. bandwagon but confronted it when the U.S. has posed threats to East Asia where China's vital interests reside. When it has had cooperative relations with the U.S., China has kept a certain distance from North Korea, which is under international sanctions over its nuclear issue, while strengthening its relations with the DPRK when it has conflicted with the U.S. History has shown this pattern. Relations between China and North Korea, which had deteriorated since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and South Korea in 1992, normalized after China felt threatened by NATO’ military attack on Yugoslavia in 1999. Relations between the two countries, which had deteriorated following North Korea's first nuclear test in 2006, strengthened despite the DPRK's second nuclear test in 2009 as the South Korea-U.S. alliance strengthened after the Lee Myungbak administration took power. Worsened relations between China and the DPRK caused by North Korea's continued nuclear tests and missile provocations since Xi Jinping took power strengthened again when the U.S. began to balance against China in 2018. This pattern makes us predict how China-North Korea relations will be in the future. If conflict intensifies between the U.S. and China, China-North Korea relations will be strengthened. On the other hand, if U.S.-China relations turn to a cooperative stance, China-North Korea relations are likely to become estranged. It is predicted that conflictual relations between the U.S. and China would continue, and therefore, close relations between China and North Korea would persist for the time being.

한국의 청년정책 흐름과 향후 방향

The purpose of this study was to examine Korean youth policies of each regime from the early 2000s when youth problem became an issue to the present and, using news data, to analyze youth and youth policies of each regime through big data analysis. The period was divided into ① Roh Moohyun regime (2003/03 - 2008/02), ② Lee Myungbak regime (2008/03 - 2013/02), ③ Park Geunhye regime (2013/03 - 2017/04), and ④ Moon Jaein regime (2017/05 - 2022/04). The ‘Youth’ of each regime was analyzed, and the ‘Youth Policy’ was also analyzed for the Moon Jaein and Yoon Seokyeol regimes, the period when the Youth Basic Act was institutionalized into law. Based on the analysis results, plans and directions for the development of youth policies were suggested, including (1) the level of interest in ‘Youth’ and ‘Youth policies’, (2) youth participation and communication, (3) efforts by central government departments and local governments, and (4) comprehensive and comprehensive establishment and promotion of policies.
 This study contributed to this field by examining and summarizing the change and flow of social interest in youth and youth policies by regime over the past 20 years and, through big data analysis, suggesting development plans and directions for youth policies. Research on youth policy has a short history since it began before and after the enactment of the Basic Youth Act in 2020. For the development of youth policy, many studies on various topics are required.

한·영·일 주민자치회 제도의 비교에 관한 연구

In this paper, we analyzed the development process of the resident association system in Korea and tried to derive strategic implications for the resident association system in Korea by comparing the resident association system in the United Kingdom and Japan, which are developed countries for resident autonomy. In Chapter 2, the current status and progress of the residents' associations were analyzed through “Introduction of the resident autonomy center and resident autonomy committee under the Kim Dae-jung administration”, “Introduction of the resident autonomy association under the Lee Myung-bak administration”, and “Pilot implementation of the resident autonomy association according to the standard ordinance of the Ministry of Public Administration and Security”. In Chapter 3, the difference was analyzed by comparing the Parish of England, Ichikai in Japan, and Korea's Residents' Autonomous Association. In Chapter 4, the implications of Korea's residents' autonomous association were drawn through the comparison of the Korean and residents' autonomous association systems of the England and Japan. From advanced cases such as the England and Japan, the strategic implication of Korea's residents' autonomous association is that, first, in terms of the installation unit of the residents' autonomous association, it is necessary to reorganize the residents' autonomous association by reducing the unit of eup, myeon, or dong, or to introduce a resident's autonomous association in the unit of tonri or apartment. Second, in terms of the institutional composition of residents' autonomous associations, it is necessary to recognize the status of quasi-governmental organizations as local divisions of residents' autonomous associations in eup, myeon, and dong. In addition, the legislative right, organizational right, office handling right, financial right, etc. stipulated by the ordinance should be gradually transferred to the residents' association. Third, in terms of the functions and affairs of the Residents' Autonomy Council, it is necessary to expand the subject of residents' autonomy by separately regulating the autonomous affairs through the revision of the Decentralization Act, etc. Fourth, in terms of financial resources for residents' autonomous associations, it is necessary to secure independent financial resources such as membership fees, public facility usage fees, and rental income. Lastly, in terms of residents' autonomy councils (associations), in order to vitalize the operation of city, county and district residents' autonomy councils, it is necessary to strengthen the capacity of management and strengthen financial power through membership fees and financial support from local governments.

Impact Of GSOMIA (General Security Of Military Information Agreement) Treaty Bilateral Military Cooperation Between Japan And South Korea

North Korea's nuclear missile test launches in the East Asian region create security tensions for regional countries,especially Japan and South Korea, which are geographically very close. Faced with these problems, the two countriesstabilized their national security by carrying out military cooperation as stated in the GSOMIA treaty pact. The GSOMIA Agreement is an agreement made by both countries in response to North Korea's nuclear developments, the agreement allows the two countries to exchange information related to North Korea's nuclear developments supervisedby each country's weapons. However, in the process of ratification of the GSOMIA agreement experienced manyobstacles that came from South Korea's domestic, namely the negative sentiment of the South Korean people towardsJapan related to problems in historical times, this can be evidenced by the delay of the GSOMIA agreement in 2012 during the reign of Lee Myung-bak. In 2016 the GSOMIA agreement was successfully realized by both countries at that time Japan led by Shinzo Abe, South Korea by Park Geun Hye. Of all the processes that have been passed have an impact oneach country, namely the abdication of the South Korean president which is analyzed using the concept of Public Policy and affects the dynamics of bilateral relations between the two countries from decisions made by Japan and South Korea analyzed by the concept of Foreign Policy.

Evolution and prospects of the Central Asian policy of the Republic of Korea

The article is devoted to the specifics of the policies of the Republic of Korea (ROK) towards Central Asia (CA). South Korean administrations viewed the region as part of a larger regional strategy, whether tied to Asia under Lee Myung-bak or Russia under Park Geun-ha and Moon Jae-in. The difficulties with the realisaion of the Russian vector of Moon Jae-in’s New Northern Policy (NSP) led to designing the Central Asian countries as key partners of the ROK’s NSP. Under the Russian-Western confrontation and traditionally tense relations between the conservative South Korean administrations and the DPRK, the relevance of the Eurasian vector has decreased for the ROK. However, the curtailment of continental rhetoric and the shift in the priorities of South Korean diplomacy to the Indo-Pacific region will not greatly affect the practical cooperation between the ROK and the Central Asian countries. A prolonged crisis in Russian-American relations may lead to the fact that the ROK will begin to build its Central Asian course in connection to the South Asian direction of its Indo-Pacific strategy. The ROK will try to refrain from joining an anti-Chinese or anti-Russian course in CA. However, the split of the world into two groups and the growing polarization may make it much more difficult for Seoul to balance and pursue a policy independent from the United States in Central Asia.

행복지표 속에 나타난 행복담론 변화연구

In this study aims to understand the changes in happinessism that the country aims for through the analysis of happiness indicators developed into national categories in Korea. In addition, the main implications derived through changes in happiness indicators in the national category developed during the presidency of Lee Myung-Bak, Moon Jae-In, and Park Geun-Hye can be summarized in two ways.
 First. The perspective of happiness that the state-oriented state-oriented happiness theory that the state-oriented relationship with social happiness theory, which has changed the relationship with social happiness theory.And this means that the direction of happiness that the direction of happiness that was considered as individual electricity of society.In particular, the standard of region structure may be seen as “social wealth” in the “social wealth” and horizontal network, reliability, reliability, reliability, and horizontal network.
 Second. The policy meaning of the happiness index carries out its institutional function as a state's role in community recovery. Recent indicators have extended the perception of the multi-dimensional concept of happiness by using happiness in the direct concept of the indicator, suggesting that interest in happiness has increased more than in previous times.
 And the indicator is that in the midst of misfortunes arising from social structural problems, the state is an alternative to protection for the maintenance and recovery of the community, which can be understood as the state's institutional management of community recovery.

2007 개정 교육과정 이후 한국의 영어교육 변화: 동아일보 기사를 중심으로

This study investigated the transition of English education after the 2007 revised curriculum in South Korea. This research focused on Dong-A Ilbo newspaper articles across three major political regimes: Presidents Lee Myung-bak, Park Geun-hye, and Moon Jae-in from March 2007 to June 2022. The research questions are 1) what are the prominent themes in English education in the three political regimes? and 2) what are the implications of these changes to the current English education in South Korea? A total of 522 newspaper articles were categorized into five major themes: 1) Experience of English education, 2) English education policy and its perception, 3) English instructors in and out of school, 4) English education curricula, and 5) English for the entrance exams in South Korea. Regarding political regimes, Lee Myung-bak administration emphasized English education by introducing English village, Jeju Global Education City, and the National English Ability Test (NEAT). Park Geun-hye administration applied criterion-referenced English test in the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, significant changes in English education during Moon Jae-in administration are not identified except for AI-appled online distance learning. This paper concludes with educational implications for future research.

민주화 이후 ‘민주주의와 성장’에 대한 언론의 담론지형 연구

This article will analyze the shape and the discursive terrain formed on the ‘relationship between democracy and growth’ in the media field after democratization in Korea. In addition, it will be to compare and verify the path dependence of the discourse on growth paradigm stipulated in each media company between the progressive and conservative governments. The results are as follows. First, JoongAng Ilbo's discourse on 'democracy and growth' during the progressive government is the epitome of neoliberalism, which puts the value of corporate activities first and ordered a small government that minimizes regulation and interference. Also, it was found that the Hankyoreh's discourse on 'democracy and growth' during this period mainly criticized polarization and neoliberalism. Second, it was confirmed that the JoongAng Ilbo’s discourse on ‘democracy and growth’ during the Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye regime implemented a perpetuation strategy that glorified and rationalized the dictatorship. In contrast, the Hankyoreh newspaper's discourse on 'democracy and growth' during this period directly contradicted the logic of Park Chung-hee's re-evaluation, which had appeared in the conservative media and civil society since the previous period. In conclusion, the positioning of the two newspapers, showing the opposite practice about growth paradigm discourse, which occupies a firm dominant position in our society, explicitly reveals the spatiality as a public domain where historical reality and ideological value orientation collide.

유럽 내 한류에 관한 연구

In recent years, the Korean Wave (or 'hallyu') has been sweeping the entire world including Europe. Since the early 2010s, the number of hallyu fans in Europe is rapidly increasing. Such global attention and popularity of the Korean Wave is based on the hallyu policies the Korean government has implemented for several decades. Since the policy was initially implemented under the Kim Young-Sam government, it has been evolved during the succeeding governments― Kim Dae-Jung, Roh Moo-Hyun, Lee Myung-Bak, Park Geun-Hye and Moon Jae-In governments―by restructuring culture-related institutions and implementing the promotion strategies of K-Culture. The export of hallyu contents to Europe has achieved remarkable growth especially in the sector of K-Pop and film for the past couple of years. Europeans' perception of Korean contemporary culture and hallyu is generally very positive as well. It is important for both parties to discuss and take any necessary institutional steps to the existing EU-Korea Protocol on Cultural Cooperation in order to facilitate bilateral cultural cooperation further.

Stabilizing Japan–Korea relations: Restraining nationalism, appraising Beijing, reassuring Washington

By the time Prime Minister Abe Shinzo and President Park Geun-hye took office, Japan-South Korea relations were already experiencing a downturn over history issues and Lee Myung-bak’s unprecedented presidential visit to the disputed islets of Dokdo/Takeshima. Park’s refusal to hold a bilateral summit became the symbol of strained ties. Then on November 2, 2015 — 980 days after taking office — Park met Abe for bilateral talks in Seoul. On December 28, the two sides declared a rapprochement with an agreement supporting survivors of wartime brothels. Tensions worsened again during President Moon Jae-in’s term (2017–2022), contradicting the narrative that leaders had turned relations around in late 2015. Yet the diplomatic relationship was not on a downward spiral. Japanese and Korean policymakers managed to put a floor under their interactions owing to three stabilizing mechanisms that operated during both the Park and Moon administrations. First, political elites practiced mutual restraint to limit vicious cycles of nationalist recriminations. Second, Tokyo and Seoul carefully calibrated policies toward Beijing while avoiding divergence from each other. Third, reassuring the United States about the cost-effectiveness of its alliances involved trilateral cooperation that also helped stabilize Japan-South Korea relations.

Democracy and South Korea's Lemon Presidency

Although South Korea has elected every president under the same democratic constitution since 1987, it has an ongoing puzzle: why do some presidents personalize their regimes (or at least made an effort to do so) while others remain democratic? To explain this puzzle, this study introduces a novel concept, a "lemon presidency." This is where a democratically elected president engenders a personalized regime that is backed by prejudiced judicial authorities such as courts and prosecutors' offices. South Korea experienced two lemon presidencies under Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye. South Koreans viewed Lee and Park as true representatives of democracy during the 2007 and 2012 presidential elections; however, they turned out to possess an unrealistic sense of superiority and became semi-democratic rulers. They personalized political powers by exploiting their appointment and removal powers. Based on case studies and survey results, this study provides evidence for Lee's and Park's lemon presidencies. The overall analysis of this study envisions another lemon presidency in South Korea's future if voters choose to vote for a grandiose leader.

The Shifting Moral Authority of the Conservative Evangelicals’ Anti-LGBT Movement in South Korea

This paper reports on content analysis of the Korean Christian newspaper Kidok Sinmun (1998-2020) with regard to how conservative evangelical elites (CEs) change their discursive resources to construct persuasive appeals against the global LGBT movement. Our findings demonstrate that the CEs focus on different sources of moral authority in response to changing political ideologies of the Korean government or regardless of such ideologies (scientific research, family value). During the progressive Roh Moo-hyun and Moon Jae-in administrations, discursive tactics linked LGBT rights with the existential threat to liberal democracy or constitutional value, while the key words such as national security or military discipline were more frequently employed under the conservative Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye governments. Moreover, experiences shared by the transnational network of Christian activists appear to influence the construction of local perceptions on homosexuality.

통일교육정책의 변동 요인에 관한 연구

This paper used Kingdon's multiple streams framework to analyze why the unification of the education policy was changed in 2008. As analytical results, in the problem steams, unification education reflects the reality as it is and strengthens security due to the opposition to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, domestic politicization of North Korea policy, discussion of North Korea's sudden change, North Korea's nuclear development, and the Cheonan and Yeonpyeong Island incidents. In the political streams, President Lee Myung-bak took office, who had the idea that overall change was necessary in the policy of appeasement toward North Korea. Support for North Korea policy by the Koreans, the spread of negative awareness about North Korea and unification, the spread of public opinion to reinforce the weakened sense of security, created conditions for changes in unification education. In the policy streams, Proposals that the existing education for unification needed to be changed suggested. These three streams were able to combine with the creation of policy opportunities such as 'change of government to conservatives' and 'the Cheonan/Yeonpyeong Island incident', leading to policy changes.

Liberalism Versus Political Equality in South Korea: Ideological Conflicts Around Democracy in the Postdemocratization Era

This article explores the two competing democratic concepts of liberalism and political equality in Korean politics. In the development of Korean democracy, liberalism has evolved as a form of anticommunism as a way to pursue social stability; meanwhile, political equality has emerged by means of civic participation as a way to seek equal opportunities to be involved in decision making. This article traces how political equality has tended to expand from the time of Kim Young-sam to the Roh Moo-hyun administrations, while liberalism dominated during the administrations of Lee Myungbak and Park Geun-hye. In addition, this article identifies different trends of civic participation between the progressive governments that promoted civilian ascendancy and the conservative governments that showed uncommunicative leadership in the decision-making process.

The dynamics of development of relations between the Republic of Korea and Mongolia in modern historical period

This article is dedicated to examination of the modern stages of transformation of diplomatic relations between the Republic of Korea and Mongolia. The subject of this research is the political interaction of Mongolia and the Republic of Korea over the period from 1990 to 2020. The goal lies in the analysis of crucial aspects of the high-level Mongolian-South Korean visits, as well as determination of the key stages in the development of bilateral relations over the period from 1990 to 2020. Research methodology leans on the historical-retrospective method, which allowed tracing the vector and dynamics of the development of relations between the Republic Korea and Mongolia, as well as chronological method aimed at outlining the stages of establishment and development of cooperation and fundamental changes thereof. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that this topic is poorly studied, It is revealed that over the past 30 years, Mongolian-South Korean relations have taken a new leap 4 times. In 1999, the visit of the Korean Leader Kim Dae-jung to Mongolia lead to the establishment of "complementary cooperation" between the two countries; in 2006; visit of the Korean President Roh Moo-hyun to Mongolia in 2006 marks consolidation of the status of “friendly nations”; in 2011, the Presidents Lee Myung-bak and Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj announced the transition to a "comprehensive partnership". In 2021, the Republic of Korea and Mongolia agreed upon propelling the bilateral relations to the level of strategic partnership, which made South Korea the sixth country to achieve a high status of bilateral relations.

U.S. Relations with the Republic of Korea Under Obama’s Administration


 
 The ROK-U.S. partnership had succeeded under the presidencies Lee Myung-bak & Barrack Obama. As a matter of fact, it is difficult to characterize in articulations the collaboration in either Seoul or Washington in the lead-in to new executive decisions & possible changes in activity toward the complete of 2012. This paper examine the two pioneers have fortified approach management toward DPRK & got a handle on a Shared Idea for the Coalition in the June of 2009 that has assisted to enlarge partnership parts & limits past the landmass to a surprising degree. Additionally, they viably protected affirmation of US-KOREA Free Trade Agreement. The two understandings address a reaching out of ROK-United States benefits & a development of collaboration past particularly adjacent technique & safety coordination towards North Korea (DPRK), which has for most part given the essential strategy for thinking to ROK-United States safety joint effort.