The rise and fall of anti-American sentiment in South Korea : Deconstructing hegemonic ideas and threat perception

Asian Survey

Volumn 50, Issue 5, 2010, Pages 946-964

  Jung, Heon Joo ^a  

^a INDIANA UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

Anti American sentiment; Main enemy; North Korea; South Korea; Threat perception

Indexed keywords

HEGEMONY; PERCEPTION; POLITICAL IDEOLOGY; POLITICAL RELATIONS; SECURITY THREAT;

NORTH KOREA; SOUTH KOREA;

EID: 78049387346     PISSN: 00044687     EISSN: 1533838X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1525/as.2010.50.5.946     Document Type: Article

References (59)

1. Katharine H. S. Moon, "Citizen Power in Korean-American Relations," in Korean Attitudes toward the United States: Changing Dynamics, ed. David I. Steinberg (New York: M. E. Sharpe, 2005), p. 233.
2. David I. Steinberg, ed., Korean Attitudes toward the United States
3. Derek J. Mitchell, ed., Strategy and Sentiment: South Korean Views of the United States and the U.S.-ROK Alliance (Washington, D.C.: Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2004)
4. Eric V. Larson, Norman D. Levin, Seonhae Baik, and Bogdan Savych, "Ambivalent Allies? A Study of South Korean Attitudes toward the U.S.," TR-141-SRF (Santa Monica, Calif.: RAND Corporation, March 2004).
5. One of the rare exceptions includes Youngshik Bong and Katharine H. S. Moon, "Rethinking Young Anti-Americanism in South Korea," in The Anti-American Century, eds. Ivan Krastev and Alan McPherson (Budapest: Central European University Press, 2007).
6. Nae-Young Lee and Han Wool Jeong, "Fluctuating Anti-Americanism and the Korea-U.S. Alliance," International Studies Review 5:2 (October 2004), pp. 23-40.
7. Pew Research Center, "Obama More Popular Abroad Than at Home, Global Image of U.S. Continues to Benefit: 22-Nation Pew Global Attitudes Survey," June 17, 2010, , accessed June 20, 2010.
8. Victor D. Cha, "Anti-Americanism and the U.S. Role in Inter-Korean Relations," in Korean Attitudes toward the United States, ed. Steinberg, pp. 116-38.
9. This naval clash took place when two North Korean naval vessels crossed the Yellow Sea border and opened fire at a South Korean naval vessel on June 29, 2002. The South Korean navy returned fire and forced the North Korean vessels to retreat across the border. The clash resulted in the deaths of six South Korean sailors, with 18 wounded, and the sinking of a patrol boat. It was reported that one North Korean ship was severely damaged, and more than 30 North Korean sailors were dead or wounded. See Donga Ilbo [East Asia Daily News], July 1, 2002, p. 1.
10. Peter J. Katzenstein and Robert O. Keohane, eds., Anti-Americanisms in World Politics (Ithaca, N. Y.: Cornell University Press, 2007)
11. Krastev and McPherson, eds., The Anti-American Century.
12. Chung-in Moon, "Between Banmi (Anti-Americanism) and Sungmi (Worship of the United States): Dynamics of Changing U.S. Images in South Korea," in Korean Attitudes toward the United States, ed. Steinberg, pp. 139-52
13. Seung-Hwan Kim, "Anti-Americanism in Korea," Washington Quarterly 26:1 (Winter 2002), pp. 109-22
14. Byung-Kook Kim, "An Anti-american Americanized Generation? The Paradox of Democratization, Globalization, and Antiterrorism in Korea," a paper presented at the International Conference on "East Asia, Latin America, and 'New' Pax Americana," Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and the East Asia Institute, Harvard University, 2003
15. Katharine H. S. Moon, "Korean Nationalism, Anti-Americanism, and Democratic Consolidation," in Korea's Democratization, ed. Samuel S. Kim (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 135-57
16. Chaibong Hahm, "Anti-Americanism, Korean Style," in Korean Attitudes toward the United States, ed. Steinberg, pp. 220-30
17. Chang Hun Oh and Celeste Arrington, "Democratization and Changing Anti-American Sentiments in South Korea," Asian Survey 47:2 (March/April 2007), pp. 327-50
18. Scott Snyder, "The Role of the Media and the U.S.-ROK Relationship," in Strategy and Sentiment, ed. Mitchell, pp. 73-81
19. Youngshik Bong, "Anti-Americanism and the U.S.-Korea Military Alliance," in Confrontation and Innovation on the Korean Peninsula, ed. Korea Economic Institute (Washington, D.C.: Korea Economic Institute, 2003)
20. Gi-Wook Shin, "South Korean Anti-Americanism: A Comparative Perspective," Asian Survey 36:8 (August 1996), pp. 787-803.
21. Kim, "An Anti-american Americanized Generation?" pp. 9-12
22. 1Kim, "Anti-Americanism in Korea," p. 116.
23. Mitchell, Strategy and Sentiment
24. Kim, "Anti-Americanism in Korea," pp. 113-16.
25. Jinwung Kim, "From "American Gentlemen" to "Americans": Changing Perceptions of the United States in South Korea in Recent Years," Korea Journal 41:4 (2001), pp. 172-98
26. from a social identity approach, the United States represented "shared reservoirs of externalization that absorb the unintegrated 'good' self-and object images" for a long time, while North Korea was fundamentally and inherently "bad." See Vamik D. Volkan, "Psychoanalysis and Diplomacy: Part I. Individual and Large Group Identity," Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies 1:1 (1999), pp. 38-39.
27. Jae-Jung Suh, Power, Interest, and Identity in Military Alliances (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007).
28. Stephen M. Walt, The Origins of Alliance (Ithaca, N. Y.: Cornell University Press, 1987).
29. Michael N. Barnett, "Identity and Alliance in the Middle East," in The Culture of National Security: Norms and Identity in World Politics, ed. Peter J. Katzenstein (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996), p. 401.
30. Suh, Power, Interest, and Identity, ch. 4.
31. Jae-Jung Suh, "Bound to Last: Power, Interest, and Identity in the U.S.-Korea Alliance," Ph.D. diss., Political Science Department, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 2000, p. 66.
32. Jang Jip Choi, "Political Cleavages in South Korea," in State and Society in Contemporary Korea, ed. Hagen Koo (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993).
33. Manwoo Lee, "Anti-Americanism and South Korea's Changing Perception of America," in Alliance under Tension: The Evolution of South Korean-U.S. Relations, eds. Manwoo Lee, R. D. McLaurin, and Chung-in Moon (Boulder: Westview Press, 1988).
34. Ibid., p. 10
35. for the 1980 Kwangju massacre and its effect on the image of America, see Gi-Wook Shin, "Marxism, Anti-Americanism, and Democracy in South Korea: An Examination of Nationalist Intellectual Discourse," Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique 3:2 (1995), pp. 509-13.
36. Sang-Dawn Lee, Big Brother, Little Brother: The American Influence on Korean Culture in the Lyndon B. Johnson Years (Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2002), p. 22.
37. SOFA has outlined how the U.S. servicemen in South Korea should be treated since its signing in 1966. It has been argued that U.S.-ROK SOFA is heavily in favor of America compared with similar pacts the U.S. signed with other countries such as Japan and Germany.
38. Youngshik Bong, "Yongmi: Pragmatic Anti-Americanism in South Korea," Brown Journal of World Affairs 10:2 (Spring/Summer 2004), pp. 153-66.
39. Pew Research Center, "Obama More Popular Abroad Than at Home," p. 1.
40. Roland Bleiker, Divided Korea: Toward a Culture of Reconciliation (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2005), p. 4.
41. Suh, Power, Interest, and Identity, pp. 196-98
42. Chung Min Lee, "Revamping the Korean-American Alliance: New Political Forces, Paradigms, and Proses and Missions," in Korean Attitudes toward the United States, ed. Steinberg, p. 162, fn. 16.
43. MND, Defense White Paper, 1994 (Seoul: MND, 1995),
44. Chosun Ilbo [Chosun Daily News], September 11, 1995, p. 2
45. a Defense White Paper had been issued every year since 1988, and the controversial concept appeared amid high tension over North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
46. MND, Defense White Paper, 1995 (Seoul: MND, 1996).
47. In this regard, Kim Dae-jung was a prominent political entrepreneur: his "sunshine policy" not only transformed the paths to approach North Korea but also fundamentally changed the rules of the game in the triangular relationship. For political entrepreneurship, see William H. Riker, The Art of Political Manipulation (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1986)
48. Mark Schneider and Paul Teske, "Toward a Theory of the Political Entrepreneur: Evidence from Local Government," American Political Science Review 86:3 (September 1992), pp. 737-47.
49. Donga Ilbo, July 1, 2000, p. 1.
50. Chosun Ilbo, June 23, 2000, p. 9.
51. Ibid., December 5, 2000, p. 2.
52. Donga Ilbo, November 23, 2001, p. 2.
53. Joongang Ilbo [Central Daily News], December 28, 2002, p. 2.
54. Especially, the share of those people who thought that "North Korea would not initiate a war against South Korea at all" increased from 17.6% in 2001 to 31.4% in 2002.
55. Donga Ilbo, June 30, 2002, p. 5.
56. EAI, Joongang Ilbo, and CCGA, "Taeoeinsike taehan kungmin yoron chosa" [Public opinion survey on perception of foreign affairs], June 19, 2006-July 7, 2006.
57. In a similar analysis, Chae finds no significant relationship between threat perception and attitudes toward the U.S. This difference may result from the fact that Chae uses survey data of South Korean college students in 2004. See Haesook Chae, "Understanding Anti-Americanism among South Korean College Students," International Journal of Korean Studies 9:1 (Fall/Winter 2005).
58. It is noteworthy that after the sinking of the Cheonan, a South Korean warship, near the disputed Yellow Sea waters on March 26, 2010, the Lee Myung-bak administration reportedly considered resuming the use of the main-enemy concept that had not been used since the mid-2000s. On May 20, 2010, the South Korean government officially announced that the Cheonan was sunk in a torpedo attack by a North Korean submarine. In response to this latest threat from the North, South Korea conducted one of the largest-ever joint military exercises with the U.S. in July. See Chosun Ilbo, May 26, 2010, p. 4
59. Joongang Ilbo, July 29, 2010, p. 8.