Monthly Report III: April

Name: Kyuhyun Park (박규현)
Organization: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
Position: Junior Scholar

1. Events within Wilson Center. In April I attended two sessions within the Center. The first was, “Is Europe Post-Secular? Religion and Politics in the European Union”, where François Foret (a Wilson Fellow) discussed his book, “Religion and Politics in the European Union: The Secular Canopy”, that analyzed the place and influence of religion in European politics. The second event was, “Dangerous Ripples: Instability Spillover in the Contemporary MENA Region”, where Hy Matz, an ex-intelligence analyst from the U.S. Government, talked about the likelihood and ramifications of instability spillover in the Middle Eastern and North African region.


2. Events outside of Wilson Center. Throughout April I participated in four events outside of the Center. The first one was, “CSIS-Korea Foundation Forum: The ROK-U.S. Alliance: Strength and Resilience in the Face of Challenges”, which was a sizable conference that took place in CSIS with prominent participants (diplomats, policy-makers, scholars, and experts) from both South Korea and the U.S. in attendance. The event drew a lot of Korean media presence too. The second was the “Ode to My Father" (“국제시장”) film screening at George Washington University. It was interesting to see a high turnout of locals, as well as hearing first-person anecdotes of a U.S. admiral who had been present at the time of the ship evacuation as portrayed in the film. The third event I participated in was, “Trends in South Korea's Domestic Politics and Democracy”, hosted by Johns Hopkins SAIS that discussed the National Assembly election that had taken place in South Korea in April. Finally, the last event I went to was, “Spring of Hope: A Concert for North Korean Refugees”, a charity concert for North Korean defectors organized by a non-profit organization, NKinUSA.

3. Radio Free Asia tour. A unique as well as profound experience in April was the Radio Free Asia tour. I was fortunate enough to network with a RFA broadcaster at the North Korean Refugee charity event who kindly offered to give me a tour of the RFA broadcasting station as well as introduce me to his colleagues and the director of the Korea Service, whom I had the honorable opportunity to have a lengthy conversation with.


4. Research progress. Throughout April, I continued to solidify my thesis by reading numerous papers related to my research. Furthermore, I began using Nexis, a database for past and present print newspaper articles, in order to analyze U.S. portrayal of North Korea by some of the top newspapers in the country based on circulation.


5. Assignment from within Center. There were two main assignments in the Center during the month. The first was participating in the day-long “The Cold War and the Two Koreas” conference. It was interesting to meet in person some of the highly renowned U.S. scholars in Korean studies such as Gregg Brazinsky and Mitchell Lerner. Moreover, I was able to befriend a PhD student who was writing his dissertation on a topic related to Korea, and who later kindly introduced me to another colleague of his who had recently defended his doctoral thesis on a similar research topic to mine. Moving on, the second task that I was responsible for during April was tranion work.


6. Outside activity. Smithsonian's National Zoo is a great place to visit when the weather is nice. Don’t forget to try all the local American munchies!