BAKS: promoting the study and understanding of Korea in the United Kingdom

book reviews 1 (2002-5)

(Authors and publishers wishing to have new books reviewed on this page are invited to contact Emeritus Professor KeithPratt at k_l_pratt[at]yahoo.co.uk. Members of BAKS interested in reviewing new books will be welcome.)

Yi In-hwa, trans. Yu Young-nan. Everlasting Empire, Norwalk: EastBridge, 2002; pp. xxiii + 264. ISBN 1-891936-02-6.

This is a work of fiction, so deeply embedded in detailed historical fact as to make the reader suspend any initial disbelief and imagine himself to be reading the story of events that actually happened. It is a murder mystery, rather in the vein of Robert van Gulik's famous Judge Dee detective stories set in Tang China. Yi In-hwa's location is Seoul 1800, the action taking place in and around the court of King Chongjo. The court lives in a state of heightened tension. The king is tugged this way and that by supporters of the Noron and Soron factions; scholars tempted to follow the sirhak trail and question the age-old literati reliance on China and Chinese ways provoke the wrath of traditionalists; supporters of the new Catholic religion secretly infiltrate court circles and are rooted out with dire penalties; court procedures are appealed to and disregarded; even the rules about the torture and punishment of officials are flouted. And overshadowing all still hang agonising doubts and arguments raised by the killing of crown Prince Sado back in 1762. The life of a court official can be far from comfortable.

The narrator of the tale, and one of its principal characters, is Yi In-mong, a librarian at the royal Library Kyujanggak. He is fictitious, but among the dramatis personnae are well known historical figures, including Ch'ae Che-gong, Chong Yag-yong, Hong Kug-yong, Song Si-yol, Yi Sung-mun and many others. Far from enjoying a sheltered life of academic research, In-mong finds himself involuntarily embroiled in a deep web of political intrigue that plunges him without warning into a twenty-four hour period of acute mental and physical suffering. His story brilliantly brings to life the atmosphere in and around the sheltered confines of court buildings and out on the streets of the capital. It describes the minutely prescribed protocol amid which the supporters of opposing political groups strive to outmanoeuvre their enemies, and the military arrangements on which the security of the capital depends. It gives an insight into traditional yangban ways of thinking and behaving, especially on their use of the Chinese Classics of Poetry and History. It illustrates such varied aspects of social life as clothing, food, and medicine. In keeping with the best traditions of thriller writing, the plot twists and turns and the reader is kept in suspense until the very end of the book. The only grumble which this reviewer had was at the author's occasional habit of interjecting comments of his own, intended to elucidate points through reference to corresponding situations in modern South Korea. Helpful though these might be to Korean readers, they break the thread of the narrative and the otherwise convincing sense of time warp in which the reader is wrapped.

Everlasting Empire has been known since 1993 to readers in Korea, where it has won many awards and been made into a successful film. It has now been skilfully translated into excellent English by Yu Young-nan, and deserves to enjoy acclaim from all those interested in understanding the complicated political and social systems of Korea two hundred years ago.

KEITH PRATT

Koellner, Patrick, editor. Korea 2002: Politik, Wirtschaft, Gesselschaft. Hamburg, Germany: Institut fur Asienkunde, 2002. Pp. 302. Tables, Maps, Charts, Bibliog. ISBN3-88910-281-6.

This book from the Institut fur Asienkunde in Hamburg, and edited by one of BAKS members, is part of a regular series, covers a wide range of subjects. The main focus is on South Korea, with chapters on political and economic matters mixed in with coverage of the phenomenal church growth of the last forty years. Inter-Korean relations are also covered, and there are chapters on the North Korean political and economic scene, and on North Korea's tentative dealings with modern communications. There are many graphs and charts, and a short bibliography of works in German and English. The lack of an index is a pity, but there are detailed tables of contents for each chapter. The Institute has established a strong reputation for its work on China and Japan, and in the past has been one of the main sources in Western Europe for information on North Korea. Its quarterly English-language round up on North Korea, very much a one-man band, is much missed. The present volume shows, however, that scholarship on Korea is very much alive in Germany, and we can but hope that the Institute might reconsider publishing works such as this in English as well as German.

J E HOARE

Nathan Hesselink, ed, Contemporary Directions, Korean Music Engaging the Twentieth Century and Beyond, Korea Research Monograph 27; Berkeley, Cal: The Institute of East Asian Studies, 2001; pp. 262. ISBN 1-55729-074-1.

This collection of eight papers stems from a symposium on Korean folk music held at Berkeley in May 1999. Some readers may be surprised by the range of its contents, which reflects a long-standing debate among Korean musicologists about the definition of 'folk' music. If, as some see it, minsogak is the other half of a dualism with kugak (sometimes identified with court music), then it must obviously be about more than Arirang alone, more too than the razzmatazz of sinawi and farmers' music. We may be familiar with the idea that sanjo stems from folk tunes of the nineteenth century, even if it does seem to have 'crossed over' nowadays into the realms of 'art' music (a category, of course, just as indefinable as 'folk' music). We may also, if we stop and think about it, agree that by virtue of the fact that p'ansori clearly falls on the yin side of the dualism rather than the formal, yang, side, it too might be identifiable with folk tradition. But ch'angguk, successors to the theatrical tradition of the colonial period and now seen on stage at the NCKTPA; shin minyo, the westernized compositions that became popular with the phonograph in the 1920s; contemporary compositions for the kayagum; the choreographed song and dance routines that opened and closed the Seoul Olympic Games--do these really qualify as folk music? The contributors to this book certainly think so, and by analyzing them so seriously and so interestingly, they go a long way towards substantiating the view long held by Chinese musicologists that 'folk music' and 'traditional music' are more or less synonymous terms, if, that is, the latter simply means music that is continually evolving. In other words, they are saying, beware of confusing 'folk/traditional' music with 'antiquarian' music.

The authors of the papers printed here are Song Bang-song, Andrew Killik, Nathan Hesselink, Sheen Dae-chol, Lee Chae-suk, Chan E. Park, Keith Howard, and Marnie Dilling, to whose memory the volume is dedicated. Together, they offer an encouraging impression of the scope of musical composition and performance in modern Korea, and of the seriousness with which it is now treated by scholars from East and West alike. We have moved on from the days when 'Korean music' meant kugak alone, though ironically, perhaps, had it not been for the profoundly academic work of Lee Hye-gu, Chang Sa-hun and others fifty years ago, minsogak might never have attained the recognition it now enjoys.

KEITH PRATT

North Korea in the World Economy. Edited by E. Kwan Choi, E. Han Kim and Yesook Merrill. London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003. Pp. XIX, 246. Charts, notes, references. ISBN 0415304296. Price 75 Hb. (RoutledgeCurzon Advances in Korean Studies, no. 4.).

When the conference on which this book is based was held in August 2001, some of the euphoria that had followed the summit meeting between North Korea's Kim Jong-il and the South's Kim Dae-jung had evaporated, and it was clear that there would be no easy coasting down to peace and prosperity on the Korean peninsula. The change from the Clinton to the Bush administration had produced a tough line towards North Korea, which seemed set to undermine Kim Dae-jung's wish for engagement. President Bush himself seemed to have a personal antipathy to Kim Jong-il, for no obvious reason. Developments in the following two years, and especially since October 2002, have firmly reinforced that message. North Korea is now part of an 'axis of evil', one third of which has already been tackled militarily. The leader of the world's most powerful sovereign state has described Kim Jong-il as a 'pygmy', who has let his country's children starve.

In such circumstances, these essays might well have long since passed their 'use by' date. In fact, this is not so for most of them. The collection is a mixture of what were clearly short, to-the-point interventions and longer, more detailed papers. The participants included current and formerdiplomatic service officers from the US and other countries, aid officials, economic and other academic specialists, and the South Korean politician, Rhee In Jee. Only one paper is of such a highly technical nature as to be accessible only to specialists. The rest look at politics, aid and economic development in North Korea with a clear eye to the real problems. They also provide possible answers to those problems.

It is in the answers that the real surprise of the essays will be found. None of the writers are likely to be seen as pro-North Korean; the only one who might once have fallen into that category, William J. Taylor, a former army officer turned academic who once enjoyed a friendly relationship with North Korea's Kim Il-sung, has long since become disillusioned by North Korea's leadership. But even he sees the current problems with North Korea as not being entirely of North Korea's own making. Time and again, the various writers note how the United States, while calling on North Korea to reform and modify its behaviour, takes actions that prevent it from doing so. Thus, told to reform and open up by the United States, North Korea is effectively barred from the very institutions that would allow such reform by the opposition of the United States and Japan. At the same time, demands that North Korea follow the Chinese on the road to reform ignore the fact that in terms of industrialisation, North Korea went down that path fifty years ago. A Chinese-style reform, drawing on the resources of the land to fund a modern industrial development, is not possible. So unless the United States lifts sanctions and ends its obstruction to North Korean membership of the international financial institutions, North Korea can never hope to meet United States demands that it reform.

Not that North Korea has not begun to change. Kenneth Quinones, formerly of the State Department, shows some of the ways that North Korea has moved forward since Kim Il-sung's days, but also indicates the difficulties of doing more without a change of US policy. Erich Weingartner looks at the issue of Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) in North Korea, and how youthful idealism and the realities of North Korean life can sometimes come into conflict. He also shows how the two sides learn to work together and the positive benefits that result, but he is equally clear that NGO work is not going to deliver the economic changes that North Korea needs. These are examined by other contributors, who all come back to the same point. If there is to be change, there needs to be funding, and the present level will just not be sufficient.

In conclusion, therefore, there is little dross and much of value in these essays, despite the lapse of time since they were first prepared. Policy makers and more academic readers will find them refreshing and informative. A pity, therefore, that a relatively slim volume has been produced at such a high price that even institutional libraries are likely to think twice before considering buying it. Perhaps there is a need for some economic rethinking at RoutledgeCurzon as well as in North Korea!

J E HOARE

James B. Lewis, Frontier Contact Between Choson Korea and Tokugawa Japan, RoutledgeCurzon 2002; pp. xiii + 322.

The publisher's blurb reads as follows:

'Focusing on the period 1600-1900, this ground-breaking work presents Korean history as a tension between structures and agents. It examines, economy, demography, and mentalities and focuses on Korean and Japanese attitudes towards each other, forged at their point of contact on the frontier. The book argues that frontier contact in the pre-modern world was at least as important for the formation of cultural perceptions and historical memory as the writings of intellectuals far away in national centres. It raises questions about pre-modern self-perceptions and the processes by which perceptions were formed of other peoples. The book also links local history with transnational relations and presents East Asian pre-modern history in a completely new light.'

All of which is true, but in plain English what it means is this. History is not just about kings and things, or ministers and commanders taking decisions in capitals and headquarters. It is also about real, ordinary people living in provincial towns, in the countryside, in seaports, at the front line of events. Its fascination lies in discovering what stirred them up, what they enjoyed, laughed at, worried about, what they thought about each other. Were they just there to carry out the government decisions that form the subject matter of so many history books, or was it not, rather, reports of their experiences that helped to frame intellectual attitudes and policy? Good historians - writers like Barbara Tuchman, Frederick Wakeman, and Jonathan Spence - bring history to life by personalizing it, and here Jay Lewis shows us that he can do so too. His book may be about Korea-Japan relations, about treaties and the analysis of attitudes, cultural and ethnic correspondences and interactions, but its impact is all the greater because it sees these through the lives of real people - magistrates, merchants, interpreters, prostitutes, rioters, and castaways - reacting to daily situations in which they found themselves. It is about ordinary life in a far from ordinary environment.

The island of Tsushima lies in the middle of the narrow strait separating Korea from Japan. The feudal lords who ruled it for centuries, the So clan, were ideally placed to control diplomacy and trade between the two states. By the 15th century the So daimyo owed allegiance to the emperor of Japan (and contributed troops 'reluctantly' to Hideyoshi's invasion force in 1592), but knew that Tsushima's economy depended heavily on rice and cotton coming from Korea. Whether it had once been Korean territory is a matter for later academic debate. The island's inhabitants probably didn't see themselves as either Korean or Japanese passport-holders. In earlier ages frontiers did not have the same kind of defining effect as they do today on those who lived near them. The current debate on the Korean Studies Discussion List over whether UNESCO is right to list Ji'an as a Chinese site on its World Heritage List rather than a Korean one, and whether in modern terms Koguryo was more Chinese than Korean, would have meant nothing to the inhabitants of Manchuria in the early centuries AD.

The focus of Dr Lewis's study is the Korean-Japanese frontier region embracing Tsushima and the Korean coastal fringe facing it. In the 15th century the Korean authorities opened five Japan Houses (waegwan) in the county of Tongnae, near the mouth of the Naktong river, to segregate the Japanese from ordinary Koreans. They were supervised by Japanese officials, who were responsible for controlling their inhabitants and for liaising with the local Korean magistrate at Tongnae. In particular, they were intended to suppress illicit sexual behaviour between Koreans and Japanese, to control Japanese pirates, and to supervise important economic matters concerning trade and the reception of visiting embassies. They were the forerunners of the Japanese extraterritorial settlement and consulate of the 19th century, and as such, major contributors to the development of Pusan as a rich international port. The publisher's blurb is right to suggest that the book is far more than a local history, and has wide implications for understanding relations that both countries concerned regarded as important, especially in the aftermath of the Imjin waeran. The book opens, intriguingly, with Roh Tae-woo's olive branch held out to the Japanese emperor in 1990, in which he gently reminded his host of how quickly the two countries had recovered from their troubles after 1598 and entered into a long period when 'the Confucian ideal of a self-sufficient, communal society pursuing the arts of civilization stood dominant in East Asia'.

Dr Lewis writes with ease and clarity. I appreciate the way he gently reminds the reader from time to time of earlier points of importance, thus saving a good deal of backward foraging. The book is pleasant to handle and the typeface easy on the eye. Just about the only things I do not like about it are the computer-generated maps and diagrams, and I hope these are not to become a standard feature of RoutledgeCurzon books on Korea.

KEITH PRATT

Byong-an Ahn. Elites and Political Power in South Korea. (Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, Glos. UK and Northampton, Massachusetts, 01060, USA: 2003.) Pp. xii + 339, tables. ISBN 1 804064 971 2.

All books in English that help explain the South Korean political process are to be welcomed. South Korea is seen as remote and opaque, and therefore in need of explanation. Ahn Byong-man, as Professor of Public Administration and President of the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, is in a unique position to guide readers towards an understanding of how the South Korean political process actually operates. He begins with an examination of the Korean political system as it operated in an independent Korean kingdom before the Japanese colonial period. Here he looks at themes such as Korea's centrifugal tendencies, and the strong pull of Seoul, the capital. He concludes, however, that this was on the whole a benevolent system, whose aim was the benefit of the people at large. With the arrival of Japanese colonialism, however, any pretext that the state was organised for the benefit of ordinary people disappeared. The Japanese system set out to create pro-Japanese and pro-imperial sentiment, but did not succeed. Yet this period would have a profound effect on the political structure that would develop after South Korea became independent in 1948.

Ahn shows the importance of Korea's traditional approach to government and politics for an understanding of modern South Korea. The idealised view of the scholar official, for example, has been taken forward into modern South Korean politics, even though, as he shows, the reality has often been very different. He examines how the South Korean political system has reinforced itself, and in particular, how the state has benefited from the centrifugal traditions of the past. He clearly holds out no hope that such tendencies have gone away, despite the steady movement forward of genuine civilian candidates in the case of Kim Young Sam (though he clearly has doubts here), and Kim Dae Jung. He is also interesting on the way South Korean party politics gave developed, and he makes quite clear that these are the politics of factionalism rather than principle. He shows how Korean politics have been concentrated on the far right of the political spectrum from the very first polarisation between the Korean Communist Party and the ultra-conservative, but eventually opposition, Korea Democratic Party.

In many ways, I found the last chapter, on the relationship between various politically important groups in South Korea, the most interesting and informative. Ahn shows the tensions between the executive and legislature sections of the government, and how the former has always sought to reduce the effectiveness of the latter. Indeed, under Park Chung Hee, the legislature was dismissed, as Park sought to promote an authoritarian bureaucracy as 'Korean democracy'.

Professor Ahn's study has been handsomely produced by Edward Elgar, though the lack of a bibliography an odd omission in a book of this nature (and price). I also found the romanization of Korean words difficult, since it seemed to conform to no system with which I am familiar. There were also some oddities in translation that were puzzling. I am not sure what is meant by describing Korea as a 'land-locked peninsula' since by definition, a peninsula is not land-locked. I hold no brief for toads, but feel that 'toadish behaviour' is now rather an old fashioned way of describing 'toadyism'. Sometimes translations from Korean of foreign words and phrases have gone a little awry. It was HMS 'Amherst' that visited Korea in 1816, not 'Amast, and while the Reverend Karl Gutzlaff had many occupations, seaman was not among them. The long-surviving politician, Kim Jong Pil, runs a party, the Chaminryon, whose English name has long been established as the 'United Liberal Democrats' not the 'Liberal Democratic Association'. And the Japanese beer, whose local brewery was taken over by Koreans in 1945 from the Japanese, is 'Sapporo', not 'Shaparo'.

J E HOARE

Michael Breen. Kim Jong-il: North Korea's Dear Leader: Who He Is, What He Wants, What To Do About Him. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester and Singapore, 2004.) In UK, pp. xx + 200. Map, bibliog., index. ISBN 0-470-8213-0.

North Korea is not well known in the West, and so any new book casting light on it is to be welcomed. This lack of knowledge is not entirely the North Koreans' fault, although they do not help themselves. Western visitors and western journalists in particular tend to go to the country with fixed ideas, from which they seem unwilling to be parted; when I lived there, one visiting Swedish journalist demanded that I describe the rockets that I had seen so he could report this to his readers. When I said, truthfully, that in my time in Pyongyang, I had not seen a single rocket on display, he grew very hostile, and the conversation came to an abrupt end.

Michael Breen, a well-known commentator on North Korea, both as a journalist and latter as a consultant, has been many years watching developments in North Korea. As readers of his book The Koreans, published in 1998, know, he writes with ease and fluency, ranging widely over a large canvas. His new book, therefore, should provide much insight into North Korea and its leadership. But although at first sight, this does seem to be a scholarly work, with endnotes and a bibliography, and some unusual pictures, the reality is that it comes across as a quick scamper through the obvious sources, leaving us not much wiser about Kim Jong Il (the North Korean preferred transliteration) than we started.

It is soon clear that Breen does not like his subject. So all the well-known stories about his alleged drinking and womanising are repeated, too often in clich-ridden prose. There are too many silly throwaway remarks, such as references to Kim's "bad hair day", and facile comparisons to Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson. Many of the stories are dated, though it would not have been difficult to check them out. It may be true that in Kim Il Song's day, the old and the handicapped were absent from Pyongyang, along with bicycles, but all three are there now. Perhaps all the foreigners to whom he spoke found North Korea vile, but this was not my experience. Different, difficult and challenging, hard to understand, but not vile. Too much is stated, not argued. Some claims, such the one that Koreans have been Koreans for several thousand years, and Korea has been linguistically and culturally distinct since 1000BC, may not be terribly important- though the current dispute between China and the two Koreas over the Koguryo kingdom perhaps indicates otherwise-but others do. North Korea's willingness "to stage awful war" seems to me at best unproven. It is after all, the United States, seen as the country's main enemy, which has twice staged pretty awful war in the Middle East twice in the past decade.

But despite all the critical comments on North Korea, at the end, Breen argues that the way forward on the peninsula is not conflict, but engagement. And whatever doubts I have about the rest of the book, here I find myself in agreement. But I suspect that it will be Breen's hostile picture of Kim Jong Il rather than his appeal for a change in United States' policy towards North Korea that will command most international attention.

J E HOARE

Patrick Koellner (ed.), 2003. Korea 2003: Politik, Wirtschaft, Gesellschaft. Hamburg: Institut fur Asienkunde. ISSN 1432-0142. ISBN 3-88910-296-4.

This latest volume in the series edited by Dr Patrick Koellner (himself a member of BAKS) on the political, economic and social situation in both Koreas again offers readers a valuable comprehensive review of developments in the peninsula. The series, inaugurated in 1996, carries an annual round-up and analysis of events, supplemented by articles on particular aspects of the contemporary scene in both the ROK and the DPRK. An impressive bank of information and discussion has already accumulated, to which future volumes can be expected to contribute.

The volume for 2003 outlines developments in the economy, politics and external affairs of the ROK and the DPRK for the period 2002-03. In his foreword, Dr Koellner points to continuing domestic uncertainty in the South Korean economy and to small changes noticeable in the North's economy. He touches on the nuclear tension in the peninsula and asks if the DPRK is truly prepared to forego a nuclear weapons programme in exchange for equivalent concessions on its economy and security. More detailed contributions examine increasing foreign involvement in South Korea's retail trade, shifts in foreign trade policy from Park Jung Hee to Kim Dae Jung, German enterprises in the ROK, ROK-Mexico relations, the 'Park Jung Hee syndrome' of re-evaluation of and nostalgia for the former president, and the evolution of a culture and consciousness of rights in the ROK. Further essays deal with the US and the second North Korean nuclear crisis and with the formative years of the DPRK and compare the DPRK's special economic zones with their Chinese counterparts. A chronology for 2002 and a short bibliography of material on the North's nuclear policies complete this useful work.

The contributors, nearly all from academic backgrounds, are joined by three diplomats, the doyen of whom is Dr Hans Maretzki, the last ambassador of the German Democratic Republic to the DPRK.

The series, as currently presented, is written entirely in German. Time to get the dictionaries out!

SUSAN PARES

Robert Willoughby, North Korea: The Bradt Travel Guide. Chalfont St. Peter, Bucks., UK: Bradt Travel Guides, 2003. Pp. xii, 238. ISBN 1-84162074 2.

Chris Springer, with photos by Eckart Dege, Pyongyang: The Hidden History of the North Korean Capital. Budapest: Entente Bt., 2003. Pp. 157. ISBN 963-00-8104-0.

Guides to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) are rare. Avid hunters after information will find a short section tacked onto the Lonely Planet Guide to South Korea, and similar short pieces occur in other guidebooks that are essentially concerned with South Korea, butthere is nothing in English that amounts to a comprehensive guide to North Korea. In North Korea itself, the diligent traveller may be able to track down some surprising useful local products both about Pyongyang and about the country more generally from a tourist point of view. But this is a hit and miss process. These two books are therefore to be welcomed. I should confess a slight involvement with the first, in that I contributed a foreword and a short piece on differences between North and South. My wife and I are also thanked for our assistance. However, the author's work is his own, not mine, so I do not think that my independence has been compromised.

As Robert Willoughby readily acknowledges, his book draws heavily on the work of others. Some sections are acknowledged as the work of other hands, and he clearly did not get to all the places that are described. He has benefited from conversations with a variety of people who have lived in North Korea or been there more frequently than he has, and from a diligent search of a wide range of published material. Some of this is ephemeral, such as hotel flyers, but he also draws on more detailed work to provide useful background information on a variety of subjects. This is a book that will serve the visitor planning a trip to the DPRK as much as it will help those who actually get there. As well as a historical introduction, there is much practical information on where to get visas, and on organisations that will help arrange travel to the DPRK. He describes hotels and restaurants, and notes the surprisingly large number of these available in Pyongyang. At a few points, the information provided needs some qualification. Thus, he describes Pyongyang's bus and trolley bus systems as though these were freely available to foreigners. The reality is that even resident foreigners are dissuaded from using these forms of transport. There are plenty of maps, and the photographs, some taken by Robin Tudge, and others by Nick Bonner, well-known for running the Beijing-based Koryo tours, are a good addition to the book. The tone is light, with occasional throwaway remarks indicating a degree of scepticism on the part of the author about some of the DPRK's wilder claims.

Chris Springer's account of Pyongyang is also well-illustrated, with excellent photographs by the German geographer, Eckart Dege, who will be well-known to many members of BAKS. Another unusual source of illustrations is postage stamps; many North Korean stamps depict the sights of Pyongyang, and they reproduce well. The maps too are of a high order.

A short introduction gives the history of Pyongyang before 1945 and the subsequent transformation of the city from a major provincial town into the capital city of the DPRK. There are some poignant pictures of the destruction of the city during the Korean War. The bulk of the book describes the city as it is today, with details of all the principal buildings and historical sites, including some that are no longer visible. The author, who seems to know the city well, appears to have a love-hate relationship with it. While clearly admiring the determination that recreated Pyongyang from the ashes of the Korean War, he comes across as wholly out of sympathy with the North Korean ruling elite. This need not concern the reader too much; what matters are the precise descriptions of monuments, buildings and historical and revolutionary sites - this last category being reserved for those places that are closely associated with Kim Il Sung or with members of his family. As Springer makes clear, some of accounts of these sites need to be taken with a grain or two of salt. They include the alleged site of the attack on the American armed merchant ship, 'General Sherman', in 1866, which, since the 1970s, Kim Il Sung's great grandfather is supposed to have played a major part. Also somewhat suspect are various revolutionary sites linked to Kim Jong Il, who succeeded his father in some roles in 1994. One thing I found puzzling was the claim that various sites are unknown. Some of these are not difficult to find; the former Soviet cemetery is not far from the Munsu-dong diplomatic area, and can easily be visited. Similarly, there is nothing unknown about the site of the former Pyongyang airport, heavily damaged in the early days of the Korean War. On the site where it once stood, there are now a number of theatres, sports facilities, the Golden Lanes Bowling Alley, and, most recently of all, a hall for displaying the Kimjongilia and Kimilsungia flowers. Springer is not concerned with the practicalities of being a visitor in Pyongyang; there are none of the details of restaurants and hotels that are to be found in Willoughby's work. Instead, the guide explains what the visitor may see while being taken around the city.

Any traveller going to North Korea will benefit from consulting both these books. Springer is perhaps more cynical than Willoughby, but both make pretty trenchant criticisms of the North Korean system, and both make it clear that they are not in sympathy with its leadership. I would have been pleased to have both books with me during my time in Pyongyang, but I think that the casual traveller not protected by diplomatic immunity would be well advised to read both books at home, and to leave them there. I cannot think that North Korean officials would take to either Robert Willoughby's occasional flippancy or to Chris Springer's clear dislike of what he found in Pyongyang.

J E HOARE

Kim, Ilpyong J. (2003), Historical Dictionary of North Korea, Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 280 pages.

Kim Ilpyong's book Historical Dictionary of North Korea consists of a 26-page chronology of major events in Korean history from 1918 to 2001; a 23-page introduction; and the actual dictionary itself, which contains 147 pages. The text is also supplemented by four appendices containing the texts of the DPRK's 1998 constitution, the 1953 Armistice Agreement, the 2000 North-South Joint declaration and the October 2000 DPRK-US Joint Declaration; and a 26-page bibliography.

Given the dearth of information on the DPRK and the absence of works of reference in particular on the North Korean state, Kim's book does provide a welcome addition to the literature. As the author states in the preface, the dictionary relies heavily on the two main South Korean reference works on the DPRK: Pukhan Taesajon (1999) and A Handbook on North Korea.

As a simple, easy to use work of reference for the non-expert on North Korea the book provides a valuable service. However, for those whose knowledge of Korea surpasses that of the well-educated layman, or who wish to use the text as a prompt to further study the text has a number of serious shortcomings.

The introduction and dictionary itself contain a number of inaccuracies: some of these are perhaps the result of the constraints imposed by the brevity of the book itself, at 280 pages it is difficult to see how the book can live up to its preface and provide "the most up-to-date and comprehensive history of North Korea"; and some are the result of poor grammar obscuring the meaning of the entry, or, as in the case of the heading 'Central Committee of the Korean Workers' Party' (page 14), albeit unintentionally, giving inaccurate information. Explanations under such essential headings as 'Juche' also fail to develop or elucidate vital differences between the DPRK's homespun ideology and Marxism-Leninism. For Koreanists the text is also weakened by inconsistent and sometimes inaccurate romanisation or the absence of Korean transcripts or Chinese characters. For example, headings such as 'March under Trials' do not contain Romanised transcripts of the original Korean.

Further, although the book includes a long bibliography, no references are to be found in the text itself as to the sources of statistics given. This makes the task of further study and verification of sometimes contentious data very difficult: for example, the heading 'Agrarian Reform' includes the claim that "approximately one million escaped from North Korea and took refuge in South Korea" (page 3). However, it is well-known that even the ROK's leading demographers cannot agree on the numbers of North Koreans who crossed the 38th Parallel in the Post-Liberation and Korean War periods-estimates range from 250,000 to 4 million. Moreover, important linkages are not made between aspects of North Korea's politico-social system and Korea's more distant history: the entry under 'Five-household System', for example, contains no reference to the 'five families system' (O-ga-tong) introduced in the mid-15th century in the Choson period. On a more basic level, the text has been poorly edited and errors such as spelling mistakes abound; dates of birth and death for some of the biographical information on leading figures in North Korea's history also sometimes contradict the information provided in the entries.

JAMES A FOLEY

Paul M. Edwards (2003), The Korean War: A Historical Dictionary, Lanham, Maryland, and Oxford: The Scarecrow Press, 406 pp., ISBN 0-8108-4479-6.

Paul Edwards's dictionary includes a fourteen-page chronology of the Korean Peninsula from 1882 to 1954; a concise twelve-page history of Korea with emphasis on the Korean War; the 281-page dictionary itself; two appendices (number of casualties and UN commanders during the war); and a 67-page bibliography.

More than fifty years after it ended, the Korean War is still affecting the military situation on the Korean Peninsula and elsewhere in Eastern Asia. This is one of the main reasons why this dictionary is very important for students and scholars in the field of East Asian and Security Studies and even for politicians who wish to understand the motives that lead to war. This book joins an impressive list of books in modern Korean studies and the Korean War that have appeared in the last five years, including Spencer C. Tucker's Encyclopedia of the Korean War: A Political, Social, and Military History (2002) and James E. Hoare and Susan Pares' Conflict in Korea: An Encyclopedia (1999).

Writing a dictionary is difficult because of the selection and editing involved. The author has to ask him/herself which terms to include, which to exclude, and how to scrutinize each term without missing important data. In this specific field, the author also has to decide whether the entries should focus on North and South Korea?after all, the war was fought on Korean soil and most of its casualties were Korean?or on the US side, since the US forces played an important role in the war. Then again, should the dictionary focus on the other countries that participated in the war? These questions are crucial in understanding the difficulties that any writer faces in writing any book about the Korean War. When a dictionary on the Korean War is published, we should expect the writer to mindful of all participants.

Dr. Paul Edwards, director of the Center for the Study of the Korean War at Graceland University, has published several books on the Korean War. One of his motives in focusing on this topic, perhaps, was his own service in Korea in 1953, with the US 7th Division.

The dictionary is dominated by the American side of the war, although not to the total exclusion of other players. The chronology on p. XXV begins in 1882, the year that Korea and the US signed a treaty of friendship and commerce. The chronology seems to be Korean-US?centric; other regional players that influenced Korean history receive less emphasis. The Korean War period in the chronology, however, is highly detailed and very helpful in understanding the war. It would have been even more helpful if Dr. Edwards had followed it with a few more maps about the war. Students who are unfamiliar with the geography of the Korean Peninsula, for example, would find a map of the Pusan Perimeter most useful in understanding how much South Korean territory the North Koreans were able to occupy in the initial phase of the war.

Dr. Edwards's treatment of war casualties emphasizes the American forces and makes only general reference to others whose blood was shed. Appendix 1 (p. 295), for example, gives a detailed breakdown of casualties in each US division but only a general accounting of members of other Allied forces who were killed or wounded in action. It would have been better if Dr. Edwards had provided a detailed report on casualties from all sides, including civilians. (Some of the data do appear on p. 48, under 'Casualties.')

The 67-page bibliography at the end of the book is divided into various sections: General, Atlases, Origins of the War, etc. The comprehensive and impressive list is very helpful for students and researchers who wish to augment their reading about issues related to the Korean War.

Reviewing the entries in the dictionary, I find two tendencies by the writer. First, he focuses too much on the military aspects of the war. For example, he provides fifty-four entries on United States military vessels and forty-six entries on Commonwealth military ships that took part in the Korean War. The sheer quantity of entries tips the balance toward the military focus and against the broader political and social aspects of the war. Importantly, too, in the case of the British ships the publisher should change the names of vessels after 1952 from 'His Majesty's Ships' to 'Her Majesty's Ships.'

Dr. Edwards' second tendency is to emphasize American political and military leaders and leave aside some key Korean leaders. Thirteen entries relate to Douglas MacArthur but only one touches on Syngman Rhee. Ch'oe Yong-gon and Chong Il-Kwon do not appear in the dictionary at all. On the whole, however, key players on the South Korean and North Korean sides appear in the book.

Many soldiers from different countries died in this war but the 'Korean War Veterans Memorial' entry mentions only the one in Washington, D.C. What about other participating countries? The 'Medal of Honor' entry speaks only about the medal awarded by the US and overlooks citations earned by other soldiers. British, UN, South Korean, North Korean, Chinese, and other uniformed participants, for example, received medals.

There are additional minor mistakes that can be corrected in the next edition. The dates associated with two officials transcend their lifetimes. Ernest Bevin (1881-1951) is described as having served in the British Government until 1961, ten years after he passed away (p. 36). Arleigh A. Burke died on January 2, 1996, but is shown as having a lifespan of 1901-1998 (p. 45). William I. Roberts is in fact William L. Roberts (p. 219). The 'Sea of Japan' entry (p. 223) makes no mention of the term 'East Sea.' The South Korean government is sensitive to this term and made a worldwide effort to add it to all maps. Finally, there are some factual problems with the entry 'Neutral Nations' Supervisory Commission' (NNSC). For example, India was not a member of the NNSC and the NNCS continued to function after 1957.

While it is a useful addition to the literature documenting the Korean War, readers should treat this book cautiously due to the problem discussed before. Hopefully the next edition of the Historical Dictionary will address more recently published literature, and will correct the various errors that appear in the first edition, thus making it an important tool for students of the Korean War.

ALON LEVKOWITZ

Michael Harrold. Comrades and Strangers: Behind the Closed Doors of North Korea. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2004. Pp.xii, 424. Illus. Index. Bibliog. Paperback GBP 14.99/US 19.95. (A Wiley Paperback Original).

For those following East Asian affairs, one of the most poignant news stories of recent weeks must be that of the former American soldier, Charles Jenkins, who has lived in North Korea since 1965. How he got there is disputed. His family in the United States claim he was kidnapped but the US authorities say he is a deserter and liable to be charged if he comes within US jurisdiction. But Jenkins is married to Soga Hitomi, one of the Japanese abducted to North Korea since the 1970s, and the couple have two daughters. As I write, the family is united in Indonesia, safe at present from an apparently vengeful United States but for how long must be uncertain. Should Jenkins ever decide to tell his story, all Korean watchers will be hanging on his words, since few outsiders have had the chance to live and work in North Korea as he has done.

One who did was Michael Harrold, author of this book. He did not live as long in North Korea as Jenkins, but at a couple of months short of seven years, his is quite a record. Harrold was one of a small group of translators/polishers, whose work was to improve the quality of the English-language materials prepared by Pyongyang's Foreign Language Publishing House. In particular, his charge was to make sure that the English versions of the works of the leaders, both Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, were accurately presented. Although there were some cutbacks in staff, as North Korea's economic difficulties grew worse, such arrangements continued in place all through what the North Koreans call the 'Arduous March' of the late 1990s. Only in 2001, did they finally dispense with English-language experts. Since it had been Koreans who always had the last say, whatever the foreign experts argued, I must confess that we did not notice any major down turn in the quality of what was published.

It was a curious world that Harrold occupied. With his other colleagues, he lived in the Ansan Guest House near the Potang River and the Potanggang Hotel. Although provided with cars and drivers and encouraged to stay in the guest house, Harrold and some of his fellow foreign workers roamed the city from bar to bar, restaurant to restaurant, generally without much attempt being made to stop them. They walked, took the metro, or used taxis with greater or lesser success. In the process, he acquired a fair amount of Korean, and tried to develop real contacts with the people around him. He was clearly to some extent successful, and records interesting exchanges, which helped him to come to a refreshing understanding of North Korea and what makes it work. It is an understanding that made him dissatisfied with the superficial interpretations of most of the journalists he came across, with their glib theories and stock phrases.

However, it also led him to fall in love with a bar girl, one of his contacts. As he explains, Pyongyang¡¯s bar girls and shop staff who work in the hard currency outlets are likely to be the daughters of university professors or party officials; these jobs are valuable. He tells the story of this enterprise in a dream-like sequence that is hauntingly painful. Of course, it was doomed from the start; Harrold may have had some left wing leanings, but as he gradually came to accept, there would be no way he could stay for ever, and no way that the girl could leave, however much he allowed himself to be led into thinking that another outcome might be possible.

It is easy to see why the Koreans wanted him to stay so long, despite the occasional problems. He writes extremely well, with a clear style, whether describing the beauties of Mount Myohyang, which he clearly enjoyed visiting, or recounting his adventures walking home late at night and encountering columns of tanks. Best of all are the insights that derive from the long hours talking to the Koreans with whom he worked or whom he met in the bars and restaurants where he passed the long evenings. The only mistake I spotted was confusion between the Rajin-Sonbong Special Economic Zone and the Tumen River Development Area; the former is described as though it covered the latter, instead of being only a minor part of it. Since neither seems to be going anywhere, this is hardly a major error.

I have never met Michael Harrold, although our paths did once briefly cross. In late 1988, we received a request in the British Embassy in Beijing from his family in England, who had not heard from him for some time. Would we contact him to make sure that there were no problems? In those days, we had no contact with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, but I had got to know the Swedish charge d'affaires in Pyongyang and sought his help. He promised to look out for Michael Harrold, and pass the message on. After a long delay, the news came back that he was fine and surprised that anybody was concerned. We told the family, and that was that. I wish now, in the light of this excellent book, that I had suggested that he call on the embassy when he was in Beijing. I think that I would have learnt a lot.

J E HOARE

Times Past in Korea: An Illustrated Collection of Encounters, Events, Customs and Daily Life Recorded by Foreign Visitors edited by Martin Uden. London: Korea Library (Taylor and Francis Group), 2003. Pp. xxiv, 371. Illus., bibliog., index. ISBN 1-903350-6-9

Martin Uden is a Diplomatic Service officer, who has two spells in the Republic of Korea, beginning as a language student in the late 1970s. Indeed, we briefly worked together in the Embassy in Seoul in 1981. During these postings, he began to collect old books about Korea and the Koreans, and he has now produced this selection of extracts, which are partly drawn from his own collection, supplemented by material from out of the way journals and other sources. There are many ways in which one could approach this material; Uden has decided to try to match each of his extracts to a particular day in a year. And the reader is not short-changed; this is a full 366-day year, with an entry from James Scarth Gale's Korean Sketches for 29 February 1892 marking the leap year. The extracts begin with Hamel's journal and come up to the mid-20th century. Most are well selected, and they include a few translated by the editor from French and German sources. One or two are a bit dull but most provide interesting or entertaining anecdotes about a Korea that has long passed. There is a brief historical introduction but otherwise no attempt to provide any context or backup for the extracts. For those who are involved with things Korean, this may not be a drawback - they will know about the perils of romanization or how cities appear to change their names - but for those who are not involved in the study of Korea, it will be a bit harder to understand. While Times Past in Korea is not essential reading, it is fun and introduces some little-known Western-language sources.

J E HOARE

Andrew C. Nahm and Hoare, James E. Hoare, editors, Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Korea. Oxford, Scarecrow Press, 2004. Pp.313. ISBN: 0-8108-4949-6.

This new edition of the Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Korea revises and updates the prevision edition, written by the late Professor Andrew Nahm. The second edition is the work of Dr. James E. Hoare, formerly a British diplomat who served in South Korea (1981-1985) as well as in the North, where he was in charge of opening the embassy in P'yongyang.

The volume opens with a chronology mentioning the most significant historical events from the Old Chosun Period onwards. While entries of the earlier period deserve a bare line, more recent developments (ca. after the 19th century) are outlined more in length. The late 20th century receives large attention, particularly the period following the establishment of the Republic of Korea.

Though the information available in the chronology is necessarily short and the reader needs to look elsewhere for detailed information, the coverage is extensive and meticulous and the author strove to keep the dictionary as up-to-date as possible (the most recent entries date 2003). Particular attention is predictably devoted to developments and relations with the United States and North Korea.

A more detailed explanation of history, climate, people and the economic development follow in the lengthy introduction, itself preceding the dictionary proper. It is difficult to comment on every single entry. One should not look in this dictionary for something that the volume - because of its own structure - cannot provide, namely analysis. The volume counter-balances this by providing an extensive coverage of a wide range of topics, ranging from international relations to religion, geography to the country's domestic political system, thus providing a useful and enlightening roadmap into recent Korean history. What the reviewer found particularly helpful was also the translation into English language of some concepts at times of not immediate use, such as the term 'Kye', a sort of credit system among a small group of people in a narrow circle of friends, relatives, or neighbours, here translated as 'cooperative' (p.42).

This edition touches not only Korea's relations with Japan, the US and China, but interestingly addresses sensitive and/or controversial political questions such as transliteration (whether one should write Korea or Corea), the use of geographical terms (Sea of Japan or East Sea), as well as the thorny and painful issue of comfort women during World War II seeking to be as objective as one possibly can.

The volume is aimed at both an academic and a general audience of non Korean specialists who will be able to find references to key events, processes and historical and political actors. Given the length and the very type of volume this is more likely to offer a big picture of history and the society rather than a detailed analysis thereof. So, overall, yes this is a dictionary, but this reviewer read this very informative and readable volume from cover to cover with the memory going back to her history textbooks in Korea. One should hope that this helpful guide to Korea's past and present will be followed by equally thoroughly researched updated editions.

YOUNGMI KIM

Choong-Sik Ahn. The Story of Western Music in Korea: A Social History, 1885-1950. eBookstand Books, 2005. ISBN 1-58909-263-5.

There is little information readily available in English on the early existence and development of western music in Korea. A number of books and articles have been published in Korean, where there was an explosion of interest in the 1970s and early 1980s, at about the same time as many of those involved were coming to retirement age, and in the late 1980s materials started to appear that made use of North Korean sources. This, then, fills a gap, usefully relating how western music arrived in Korea with the coming of missionaries and the development of mission schools, and how concerts evolved, based partially on well-known musicians passing through Korea on their way to Japan. Many pages give details of specific concert programmes. Ahn demonstrates how training, beyond school level, remained rudimentary throughout the Japanese colonial period, hence many musicians went abroad to study, the majority to Japan. Ahn's storyline begins with the arrival of Protestant missionaries, and ends as a music college, latterly part of Seoul National University, was set up in 1948.

Chong-sik Ahn is himself a graduate of Seoul National, who left Korea for the United States in 1955, and spent his career as a political scientist. Here, he recalls much of his own personal experience before 1955, as well as reprising much of the available Korean literature. He gives particularly valuable accounts of some of the better-known musicians, including the composers and instrumentalists An Kiyong, Kim Insik, Hong Nanp'a, Kim Sunnam and An Ikt'ae alongside the likes of the vocalist Yun Shimdok. Indeed, it is the musicians who form the focus of the volume: the index consists entirely and exclusively of Korean people (not even including the missionaries and the mission teachers who are mentioned in the text), and two of the three appendices detail each, listed chronologically by birth, to show how the earlier generation of musicians got their initial training in mission schools, while a later generation, born from 1910 onwards, typically studied abroad.

An Kiyong (1900-1980) is considered in detail. Intriguing personal data is incorporated, since the author is a relative and was taken by the composer and string player to rehearsals as a child. Little, though, is said about his life (or that of Kim Sunnam) after both had moved to North Korea. An, we are told, was taken to North Korea for re-education after northern troops took Seoul at the beginning of the Korean War, whereas Kim's left-wing politics and activities meant he moved voluntarily, after an arrest warrant was issued for him in Seoul, in 1948. We do now have much information of his life after 1950, and it would surely be sensible to consider how his career continued for 30 more years; similarly, the large book by No Tongun published in 1993 on Kim Sunnam (1917-1986), which incorporates much of his life story within North Korea, is omitted.

The story of Yun Shimdok, given several times within the volume, is both piquant and tragic. She recorded, with her sister on piano, a landmark recording of Ivanovich's 'Danube Waves', with her own words retitled as 'Saui ch'anmi/In Praise of Death', in 1926. This is often regarded as the first Korean popular song, and remains well-known, reappearing, for example, intact but behind a cover on an album by Yoon Suk Hwa (SKC, YCD-1, 1995). She recorded in Tokyo, then met her married lover, the actor Kim Ujin, and as both sailed back to Pusan they jumped overboard; Ahn frames this story by telling of their long romance, their collaborations in acting, and the opposition Yun faced from her parents to her choice of career. Ahn's perspective on popular music relies too heavily on a single book by Pak Ch'anho; it ignores the large body of materials written by cultural critics under the Norae banner, which have, since the early 1980s, considerably expanded our knowledge of the various genres and how they evolved. Again, I would question the veracity of a number of statements, such as the notion that the songs known as ch'angga, designed in part to provide repertory that could be taught in schools, can be traced back to Christian hymns (pages 11-2) - the equivalent Japanese genre, shoka, using the same two Chinese characters, was popularised in Japanese schools from the 1880s onwards.

The information on Kim Insik (1885-1963) matches older Korean scholarship, and erroneously considers his first composition to be 'Haktoga/Student Song' (1905), a ch'angga song, although this is clearly a copy of an earlier Japanese song, 'Tetsudo shoka/Railroad Song'. Better is Ahn's account of the composer Hong Nanp'a (1900-1941), who as the student of Kim on the violin quickly surpassed his teacher's skills, and who became key to the development of western music as a composer, conductor, and director of ensembles. The cellist and composer Eaktay Ahn (1906-1965), who left for America and then Europe to further his training, living in exile, and settling in Majorca, is given considerable nationalist leanings. Indeed, it was a section of his Korea Symphonie Fantasque that generated the current South Korean national anthem, but his nationalism requires careful assessment, which the volume never gives, since, after all, he settled in Europe (it could also be noted that the anthem closely mirrors European folk tunes, rather than anything Korean).

This is a partial account, and is far from exhaustive. While this is understandable, the story-telling is not always supported by adequate documentation. The author claims that virtually all musicians opposed the Japanese colonial occupation of Korea; this chimes with commonplace Korean nationalism, but it is difficult to assess whether the perspective is reliable, not least since, following the work of Cumings, Robinson, and others, we now appreciate how fragmented the nationalist movement was. The author is on safer ground with his observation that early western music education was closely tied to Christian mission schools, particularly after the demise of the imperial brass band as Japan took control of Korea. There is one startling omission: Korea's greatest composer, Yun Isang (1917-1995). Yun falls well within the period under consideration, with his early training in Korea supplemented by training in cello and composition in Osaka in the late 1930s, even though he later destroyed most of his early works; his name is even missing from the appendix that lists musicians. Could this reflect his close relations to North Korea? Or the avant garde nature of his compositions?

The book could also do with knowing more about the music industry: the story of gramophones, the cost of discs, the way that local recordings were made initially, and how discs were then used to popularise the mechanical devices themselves, all match how the industry was developed across the globe, rather than, as here, being part and parcel of the Korean-Japanese relationship. Traditional music also gets a slightly raw deal: we are told that the only music available to those outside the court was 'so sensual and decadent that men of sober spirit and sound character would have nothing to do with it' (pages 15-6). This ignores p'ansori (epic storytelling through song), vocal genres such as sijo, and anything from the middle classes such as the many hundred local p'ungnyu instrumental ensembles that were still active in the early twentieth century. And then there is an issue of romanization. Yes, this is a regular concern of Korean Studies specialists, but here the difficulty is compounded by transcribing Korean names in ways that do not match those used by the people concerned: the scholar Lee Hye-ku for instance, is rendered here as Yi Hae-ku (McCune-Reischauer would be Yi Hyegu); the composer Eaktay Ahn is rendered Ahn Ik-tae; the music publisher Se-kwang (in McCune-Reischauer, 'Segwang') is given as 'Se-kuang' and 'Saekwang'. (Note: above, in this review, I have given McCune-Reischauer romanizations for names except where other preferred spellings are known.)

And yet Western music is now the dominant music culture in South Korea. Korean students populate the conservatoires of both Europe and America (I am told that some 40% of students in Julliard have Korean ancestry), and the concert scene in Seoul and other southern cities has mushroomed, creating a vibrant and very visible scene. Since so little is available on the arrival and development of western music in Korea, this book serves a useful purpose, and its accounts and stories provide a solid basis for our understanding of today's Korea.

KEITH HOWARD