The two Koreas' societies reflected in stamps

East Asia

Volumn 22, Issue 2, 2005, Pages 77-95

  Jonsson, Gabriel ^a  

^a STOCKHOLM UNIVERSITY   (Sweden)

Author keywords

Implications; North Korea; South Korea; Stamps

Indexed keywords

CULTURAL IDENTITY; POLITICAL IDEOLOGY;

ASIA; EURASIA; FAR EAST; KOREA; NORTH KOREA; SOUTH KOREA;

EID: 33645300387     PISSN: 10966838     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1007/s12140-005-0010-x     Document Type: Article

References (27)

1. Lena Johannesson, Den massproducerade bilden [The Mass-Produced Picture], Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1978, pp. 130, 132 (author's translation).
2. Data on stamps' motifs are from Lars Löwenberg, "Frimärke" ["Stamp"], in Nationalencyklopedin [National Encyclopaedia], vol. 6, Höganäs: Bra Böcker, 1992, p. 47. This is the main source for the division of motifs in the study.
3. Commemorative issues are stamps commemorating a variety of national and international events and is by far the broadest category. History refers to Korean history prior to 1945 national division; international events that took place before 1945 are included under commemorative issues, with a few exceptions. Famous persons are Koreans who lived before 1945. Culture refers to arts, clothes, literature, music, paintings, relics and so on, but old buildings are regarded as history. Economics and politics refer to post-1945 events, unless otherwise recorded. In the case of politics, great consideration is taken to the half a century of national division. Nature includes animals, plants and secenrey. Miscellaneous refers to the remainder.
4. For instance, East Germany issued far more stamps than West Germany did. From Kurt Genrup, "Frimärken som kulturellt och politiskt medium - 40 års frimärksutgivning i DDR: Ett försök till etnologisk/ kultur-historisk frankoteckenanalys" ["Stamps as a cultural and political medium - 40 years of GDR stamps: An attempt of ethnological/ cultural-historic franco sign analysis"], Postryttaren 1997 [magazine of the Stockholm Postal Museum], Stockholm: Postmuseum [Postal Museum], 1997, p.124.
5. A consequence of North Korea's stamp policy is recorded by Stanley Gibbons, op. cit., 1999, p. 77: "The following stamps have either been issued in excess of postal needs or have not been available to the public in reasonable quantities at face value. Such stamps may later be given full listing if there is evidence of regular postal use". Such stamps are recorded from 1976 to 1977, 1979 and from 1981 to 1984.
6. Börje Wallberg, "Nordkoreas tidigare emissioner 1946-1953" ["North Korea's earlier emissions 1946-1953"], Postryttaren 1968, Stockholm: Postmuseum, 1968, p. 127.
7. The finding is consistent with an investigation from 1991 by the Ministry of Communications (MOC) of how frequently the presidents were shown on stamps between 1948 and 1991. See Yun Chong-gyu, "Chôn-ssi taet'ongnyông kinyôm up'yo choeda kirog ["Mr. Chôn is the president who has appeared most on commemorative stamps"], Dong-a Ilbo, April 7, 1991.
8. Stamps likely played a similar political role in South Korea as they did in North Korea during the war.
9. Kim Il Sung led a band of men who caught the Japanese off guard and successfully destroyed much of that little border town. From Joungwon Alexander Kim, Divided Korea: Politics of Development, 1945-1972 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1976), p. 40.
10. North Korea had announced its participation in the 1968 Olympics but did not take part because it was called 'North Korea' and was not allowed to participate under the name 'Democratic People's Republic of Korea'. From Olympiaboken 1968 [Olympic Book 1968], Stockholm: Brunnhage, 1969, pp. 231, 245.
11. The issue 'Rebirth of Republic' from 1 October 1960 shows a sprout and demonstrating students (Han'guk Urmungwan, op. cit., 2001, p. 71).
12. The investigation refered to in note 7 records that he appeared 24 times (Yun, op. cit.). The difference seems to be due to the stamp issued after the 1961 May Revolution that does not show his portrait.
13. The figure is equal to that of the MOC that identifies the relationship that the more authoritarian the president was, the more frequently his portrait appeared on stamps (Yun, op. cit.).
14. Yun records that the stamps showing President Chun became impopular among collectors. Choi Kyu Ha (1979-80) is the only interim president who has appeared on a stamp (Han'guk Umungwan, op. cit., 2001, p. 144).
15. Personal communication. His saying suggests that the situation must have been similar previously when North Koreas was more closed to the outside world than it was at this time. Interestingly, Wallberg records that around 1957 the North Korean authorities had realized that money could be earned from philatelists (op. cit., p. 114).
16. Sô Hyôn-mi, "Pukhan myônmo poyô chunûn 'Chosôn up'yo' Sôul nadûri", ["An outing to Seoul of North Korean stamps showing the country's features"], T'ongil Han'guk 2002 (9), p. 61.
17. It is strange that not more countries were listed: also small islands in the Caribbean issue stamps unrelated to the country for commercial reasons. For instance, tiny Grenada issued 1,866 stamps since independence (from the United Kingdom) in 1974 until late 1992. From Stanley Gibbons, op. cit., 2004 Edition, vol. 2, Countries E-J, pp. 446-58.
18. North Korean stamps can often be found in packages for beginners and in motif packages.
19. Oberdorfer, The Two Koreas: a contemporary history (London & New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1998), p. 158. That stamps are controversial in inter-Korean relations is clear from the author's experience. First, a South Korean diplomat in 1986 requested the author to buy North Korean stamps at Stockholmia '86. Secondly, according to South Korean stamp dealers, as of 2004, North Korean stamps on sale had to be approved by the National Intelligence Service and stamps with political motifs were entirely prohibited. Third, among the North Korean stamps displayed at the Korea Institute for National Unification in 2004 there were no political motifs. However, at the Unification Observatory such stamps were displayed at the same time although it is unclear why.
20. A similarity can be identified with the role of stamps in East Germany about which Kurt Genrup (op. cit., p. 114) writes: "In the case of the GDR, we can see its stamps as concrete means of state and party discourse and as one of many instruments in the planned building of socialism" (author's translation).
21. This becomes clear also from Joe Peters' article "The German Democratic Republic - A Political and Philatelic Time Capsule", Gibbons Stamp Monthly, October 2000, pp. 64-67.
22. In terms of frequently issuing stamps on the leader's birthdays, Nepal exceeds North Korea by issuing stamps on the king's birthday every year since 1960. However, only one or two stamps were issued on each occasion. From Stanley Gibbons, op. cit., 2004, vol. 3, pp. 540-50; no stamps are shown after 2001. To the author's knowledge, Kim Il Sung's body cannot be stamped.
23. According to Kim (op. cit., pp. 199, 200), at the Fourth Party Congress held in 1961 "...Kim Il Sung was clearly unchallengeable...."
24. The first stamps showing Lenin were "Lenin Mourning" from 1924. Stamps were issued almost every year between 1945 and 1991 to commemorate his birth and death anniversaries and the 1917 October Revolution. From Stanley Gibbons, op. cit., 2004, vol. 3, pp. 1018-1088.
25. Her wedding was an omnibus issue within the British Commonwealth. The only other non-member countries that issued stamps on the wedding recorded in Stanley Gibbons (op. cit., 1999, pp. 125, 238. 439, 494) are Liberia, Mauritania, Niger and Paraguay.
26. In contrast to Stanley Gibbons, the Korean Stamp Catalogue (op. cit., 1998, pp. 141, 146, 148, 149) does not record any pictures of these stamps but it is unclear why.
27. The third famous person appearing on both nations' stamps is the scholar Tasan Chông Yak-yong refered to above.