The Korea Society The Korea Society

April 11, 2024 - Join us for a rapid reaction analysis of the Republic of Korea’s high stakes 2024 legislative election, held in South Korea one day prior on April 10. This election could shift the control of power in the National Assembly, resulting in an emboldened electoral mandate for President Yoon Suk Yeol, or else creating a new challenge for his administration’s agenda. In this conversation with Korea Society policy program officer Chelsie Alexandre, Stanford University’s Professor Dr. Gi-Wook Shin explores the implications of the election for: Korea’s political, economic, and social policy; its relations with its Alliance partner the United States, and regional states, such as North Korea, China, and Japan. 
For more information, please visit the link below:
https://www.koreasociety.org/policy-and-corporate-programs/item/1772-rapid-reaction-unpacking-the-korean-election

April 9, 2024 - Join us for a conversation about recovering lost ground in the international effort to address North Korea’s human rights violations, featuring: Ambassador Julie Turner, U.S. Special Envoy for North Korean Human Rights Issues, James Heenan, UN Human Rights Office representative in Seoul, Dr. Katrin Katz, Korea Society Van Fleet Senior Fellow, and Sean Chung, CEO of HanVoice, in conversation with policy director Jonathan Corrado. The United Nations Human Rights Council published its landmark report of the commission of inquiry on human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea ten years ago. That report documented “systematic, widespread and grave violations of human rights” in North Korea. But the international effort to ensure accountability, involving U.S. coordination with allies such as the Republic of Korea and through the United Nations, is only just beginning. The U.S. State Department describes credible reports of unlawful or arbitrary killings by the government, harsh and life-threatening prison conditions, arbitrary arrests and detentions, total state control of expression and media through censorship, severe restrictions on political participation, gender-based violence, and the worst forms of child labor. A Korean American adoptee with twenty years of diplomatic experience, Ambassador Julie Turner said, “The human rights situation in the DPRK is one of the most protracted human rights crises in the world,” in her testimony to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. This discussion explores issues impacting refugees, information distribution, separated family reunions, pathways to practical progress, North Korean human rights success stories, the connection between the regime’s human rights abuses and its weapons programs, and the nexus of humanitarian assistance and human rights.
For more information, please visit the link below:
https://www.koreasociety.org/policy-and-corporate-programs/item/1813-recapturing-lost-ground-on-north-korean-human-rights-with-ambassador-julie-turner

April 3, 2024 - Darye–"etiquette for tea" or "tea rite"– has been an integral part of Korean history and culture for over a thousand years. Donghyun Kim, a Korean heritage curator, discusses the history of tea practices and aesthetics in Korea and the landscape of contemporary Korean tea culture.
YouTube version with images can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sRVfQpAmJg
For more information, please visit the link below:
https://www.koreasociety.org/arts-culture/item/1797-the-philosophy-of-korean-tea

April 2, 2024 - Join us for a discussion with the Senior Washington Correspondent for Bloomberg News Saleha Mohsin on her newly released book Paper Soldiers: How the Weaponization of the Dollar Changed the World Order, in cooperation with the National Committee on American Foreign Policy (NCAFP). As the global order continues to evolve, it seems that the dollar’s dominance may find itself waning for the first time in 70 years. In a world dividing into two camps, one led by China and the other by the U.S, Mohsin investigates America's strong dollar policy and how it has shaped the world order, the effects of America's heavy-handed sanctions on its adversaries, and how American allies like South Korea view the dollar in today's global financial system. The conversation will be moderated by former CBS White House Correspondent and NCAFP Board Member, Jacqueline Adams.
Purchase the book here
For more information, please visit the link below:
https://www.koreasociety.org/policy-and-corporate-programs/item/1810-paper-soldiers-how-the-weaponization-of-the-dollar-changed-the-world-order

March 27, 2024 - In her intimate and touching debut, Starry Field: A Memoir of Lost History, journalist Margaret Juhae Lee uncovers her family’s lost history that had been buried in the darkness of Korea’s colonial decades.

Growing up in Houston, Margaret Juhae Lee was never told about her grandfather, Lee Chul Ha. His memory was submerged in 1936 Korea, when Lee Chul Ha died a disgraced communist rebel, leaving Margaret's grandmother widowed with their two young sons. To his surviving family Lee Chul Ha was a criminal. As an act of unearthing her own identity, Margaret needed to understand why.

Margaret began investigating the truth of her grandfather’s story. After many trips to Korea, she located her grandfather’s interrogation records, and began a series of long-form interviews with her grandmother. Through her research, Margaret discovered an extraordinary young man, Lee Chul Ha – a student revolutionary imprisoned in 1929 for protesting the Japanese government’s colonization of Korea. Lee Chul Ha was a hero and eventually honored as a Patriot of South Korea almost 60 years after his death. With this new knowledge came Margaret’s realization that her grandmother had old wounds she needed to heal.

Starry Field weaves together Margaret’s family story against the backdrop of Korea’s tumultuous modern history, with a powerful question at its heart. Can we ever separate ourselves from our family’s past—and if the answer is yes, should we?

In her conversation with Grace M. Cho, Margaret Juhae Lee discusses her memoir.
For more information, please visit the link below:
https://www.koreasociety.org/arts-culture/item/1784-starry-field-with-margaret-juhae-lee-and-grace-m-cho

March 25, 2024 - The Korea Society is delighted to present Colloquy: Translating Korean Poetry, featuring five poets and translators –Stine An, Eunice Lee, Seo Jung Hak, Megan Sungyoon, and Soje– for an evening of poetry reading and conversation.

Colloquy: Translators in Conversation is an event series presented by World Poetry Books in collaboration with Montez Press Radio and a partnering New York City institution. Since 2022, Colloquy event series provides a forum for translators to engage with live audiences in an exploration of the art of translation. Each Colloquy event presents a group of two to four translators of recently published works (or works-in-progress) for short readings and moderated conversations, followed by Q&A’s with the audience.
For more information, please visit the link below:
https://www.koreasociety.org/arts-culture/item/1794-colloquy-translating-korean-poetry