This episode of the Korea Now podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Kathryn Weathersby. They speak about ‘borderlands’ as places of fear and confrontation, how this phenomenon impacted Russian involvement in the great power struggle over Korea prior to its seizure by Japan in 1905, the patterns that informed Moscow’s actions toward the peninsula, and which ultimately led the Soviet Union and the United States to divide Korea. Kathryn Weathersby is an Adjunct...

This episode of the Korea Now podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Robert Winstanley-Chesters. They speak about the plagiarism scandal that surrounded Charles Armstrong and his book ‘Tyranny of the Weak’, the nature of the plagiarism and academic corruption involved, the extraordinarily immoral response from much of the Korean Studies community who chose to defend Armstrong and publicly attack the people making the allegations, the history of such behaviour within...

This episode of the Korea Now podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Brad Glosserman. They speak about Russia’s war in Ukraine and its short-to-long term effects for the East Asian region. Brad Glosserman is both the Deputy Director of, and Visiting Professor at, the Tama University Center for Rule Making Strategies, as well as a Senior Advisor for the Pacific Forum. Brad was also the Executive Director of the Pacific Forum for 15 years, and is the author of ‘The...

This episode of the Korea Now podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Meredith Shaw. They speak about Meredith’s new article Godzilla vs Pulgasari: Anti-Japanism and Anti-Communism as Dueling Antagonisms in South Korean Politics Godzilla vs Pulgasari: Anti-Japanism and Anti-Communism as Dueling Antagonisms in South Korean Politics | Journal of East Asian Studies | Cambridge Core. Meredith Shaw is an Associate Professor in the Institute of Social Sciences at the...

This episode of the Korea Now podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Balázs Szalontai. They speak about China’s controversial role in North Korea’s economic transformation, Chinese involvement in planning for a potential second Korean war (1965-1967), Chinese attitudes toward confrontational acts by North Korea, and how North Korea has managed to exploit conflicts between China, Japan, and South Korea, while trying to sabotage trilateral cooperation. Balázs Szalontai...

This episode of the Korea Now podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Vladimir Tikhonov. They speak about the counter-hegemonic role that socialism has played in South Korea, the history of socialism across the Korean peninsula, the often quiet impact that socialism has had on mainstream politics and policies in South Korea, and how this impact is still poorly understood today. Vladimir Tikhonov is a Professor of Korean Studies at the University of Oslo, and is a...

This episode of the Korea Now podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Terence Roehrig. They speak about the issues and challenges that South Korea faces as a maritime nation. Terence Roehrig is a Professor of National Security Affairs at the U.S. Naval War College, the author of ‘From Deterrence to Engagement: The U.S. Defense Commitment to South Korea’, ‘Korean Dispute over the Northern Limit Line: Security, Economics, or International Law?’, and ‘Japan, South Korea,...

This episode of the Korea Now podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with David Tizzard. They speak about the Netflix series Squid Game. David Tizzard has a Ph.D. in Korean Studies. He is a social/cultural commentator and musician who has lived in Korea for nearly two decades. He is also the host of the Korea Deconstructed podcast, which can be found online, and a columnist at the Korea Times, amongst much more. David’s Korea Times column: The Korea Times - Home Korea...

This episode of the Korea Now podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Stephen Nagy. They speak about the challenges and implications of the rise of China, the need to counter this with Indo-Pacific strategic planning, the geopolitical issues surrounding trade and sovereignty in the South China Sea, how middle powers should deal with difficult issues such as the status of Taiwan and Hong Kong, Chinese regional revisionism and its dangerous implications, and what China...

This episode of the Korea Now podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Youngju Ryu. They speak about how modern Korean literature has dealt with the nation’s difficult legacy of authoritarian violence and suppression, how torture and the morality/immorality attached to it is written and described, the challenges of post-authoritarian accountability, the life and significance of the poet Kim Chiha, his lionization within the Korean democratization movement, his...

This episode of the Korea Now podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Chizuko Allen. They speak about the life of Choe Nam-son, the difficulties of publishing during the Japanese colonial era, the youth magazines that he managed to launch and distribute at this time, the special branch of globalized nationalism he championed, the language nationalism that he pioneered through his magazines, and his legacy today within modern Korea. Chizuko Allen is an associate...

This episode of the Korea Now podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Ksenia Chizhova. They speak about the practice of calligraphy in late Choson Korea, the highly aestheticized craft and the social importance attached to it, the differences between traditionally male and female calligraphy, the meticulous training processes involved, the different moral and character insights that the practice was said to offer unto their authors, the male domination of the practice...

This episode of the Korea Now podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Michael Kim. They speak about the history of the Christian Publishing Company (Changmunsa), the difficulties of operating during the Japanese colonial period, the complexities of the colonial publishing market, the movement among Korean Christians to achieve more cultural autonomy from Western missionaries, and the unique insights that can be gained from the diaries and letters of Yun Ch’iho...

This episode of the Korea Now podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Sixiang Wang. They speak about the exchanges between Choson Korea (1392-1910) and Ming China (1368-1644), the Korean envoys and interpreters who mediated between the two dynasties, the need of these interpreters to master spoken Chinese, the extensive body of language materials that were created for this purpose, and the invention of the Hangul script to systematically represent the phonology of...

This episode of the Korea Now podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Daniel Pieper. They speak about James Scarth Gale and the significance of his translation work, the extraordinary upheaval and change that he witnessed as a missionary in late-Choson Korea, how he saw the changing face of Korea and the importance of Korean literature, the accusations that Gale was a pro-Japanese sympathiser during the colonial period, Gale’s view of the existing religious landscape...

This episode of the Korea Now podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Ross King. They speak about the landscape of pre-modern Korean literature, the complex ecology of spoken and written language that existed, the broader East Asian cultural formation of which Korea was a part, the problems with descriptors such as ‘diglossia’ and ‘Chinese’ that are often used in Korean literary research today, why the phrase ‘Sinographic Cosmopolis’ is much more appropriate in terms...

This episode of the Korea Now podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Ross King. They speak about the life of James Scarth Gale, the significance of Gale’s translation work and how it fit-in with his missionary duties, the libraries of Korean literature that he amassed, how he saw the changing face of Korea and Korean literature, Gale’s legacy today both inside and outside of Korea, and importantly the extraordinary research that Ross has done tracking down Gale’s lost...

This episode of the Korea Now podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Hyunhee Park. They speak about Hyunhee’s book Soju: A Global History, the Eurasian roots of distilled liquors with arak and shaojiu, the Mongol origins of soju and the technology transfers to Koryo-Korea, how soju was distilled and the early role it played in Koryo, the increased popularity of soju during the Choson dynasty and the rise of its cultural significance, the impact of the Japanese...

This episode of the Korea Now podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Ben Young. They speak about Ben’s new book Guns, Guerillas, and the Great Leader: North Korea and the Third World, how and why North Korea sought allies around the Third World during the Cold War period, what these alliances looked like and consisted of, how the changing internal politics of North Korea affected these partnerships, how North Korea saw these international relationships as a means to...

This episode of the Korea Now podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Donald Baker. They speak about the history of Korean Confucianism, the rise of Confucianism and the ‘privatization’ of Buddhism in the Chosŏn dynasty, what differentiates Korean from Chinese Confucianism, the metaphysical debates between the Toegye and Yulgok factions and how this division defined the course of Korean Confucianism, the emergence of Tasan Chŏng Yagyong and the new reading of...

This episode of the Korea Now podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Brad Glosserman. They speak about Brad’s recent and ongoing work on the new national security economy, the changing global realities and how countries will need to adapt, the importance that governments such as South Korea and Japan recognise these new national security economy issues and integrate them into their broader defence policies, how this fits into the new superpower conflict between...

This episode of the Korea Now podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Thomas Duvernay. They speak about Thomas’ new book Sinmiyangyo: The 1871 Conflict Between the United States and Korea, the historical background and context of the battle, the original misunderstandings that sparked the conflict, how the conflict progressed, the nature of the fighting and the military technology involved, how the important historical sites look today, and the long-term impact of the...

This episode of the Korea Now podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Bruce and Ju-Chan Fulton. They speak about Bruce and Ju-Chan’s translation of Kim Soom’s novel One Left, the difficult subject matter of Korean comfort women and how the author deals with this, the lingering emotions of guilt and shame, the challenges of dealing with such intense trauma, the failures of Korean society to assist these women, the translation process for the novel and the complications...

This episode of the Korea Now podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Balázs Szalontai. They speak about the origins and the evolution that occurred with in the North Korean socio-political system from 1945 to 1994 with the death of Kim Il-sung, the impact of Japanese colonial rule, the creation of this system under Soviet occupation, the impact of significant events such as the Korean War, the factionalism and in-fighting that happened, the purges and the eventual...