Foreign relations of South Korea Foreign relations of South Korea Alexander Vershbow (born in Boston, Massachusetts) is the United States Ambassador to South Korea; he was appointed to the position in October 2005. Before that post he had been the ambassador to the Russian Federation from 2001 to 2005 ** and the ambassador to NATO from 1998 to 2001. For his work with NATO he was awarded the State Department's Distinguished Service Award. ...more on Wikipedia about "Alexander Vershbow"
The modern division of Korea into North Korea and South Korea stems from the 1945 Allied victory in World War II. The United States and the Soviet Union agreed to jointly administer the newly liberated nation, much as they were doing in Germany, with the zones of control demarcated along the 38th Parallel. Though elections were scheduled, the two superpowers backed different leaders and two nations were effectively established, each of which claimed sovereignty over the whole peninsula. A few years later the Korean War would make the division permanent for all practical purposes, and the two Koreas would remain one of the tensest spots in the world during the Cold War. ...more on Wikipedia about "Division of Korea"
In August 1991, South Korea joined the United Nations along with North Korea and has remained active in most United Nations agencies and many international forums. The Republic of Korea has also hosted major international events such as the 1988 Summer Olympics and the 2002 World Cup Soccer Tournament (co-hosted with Japan). ...more on Wikipedia about "Foreign relations of South Korea"
Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS), a university specializing in languages and foreign studies, is located in Seoul, South Korea. ...more on Wikipedia about "Hankuk University of Foreign Studies"
The International adoption of South Korean children is a recent historical process triggered initially by casualties of the Korean War after 1953. The initiative was taken by religious organizations in the United States, Australia, and many European nations, and eventually developed into various apparati that sustained adoption as a socially integrated sytem. ==Historical Context== International adoption of South Korean children started after the Korean War which lasted from 1950 to 1953. When the war was over, many children were left orphaned. In addition a large number of mixed race ‘G.I babies’ (offspring of U.S. and other western soldiers and Korean women) were filling up the country’s orphanages (Jang, 1998). Touched by the fate of the orphans, Western religious groups as well as other associations started the process of placing children in homes in the USA and Europe (Jang, 1998). Adoption from South Korea began in 1955 when Harry Holt, a born again Christian from Eugene, Oregon, went to Korea and adopted eight war orphans (Rotschild, The Progressive, 1988). His work has been followed by the Holt International Children's Services. The first Korean babies sent to Europe went to Sweden via the Social Welfare Society in the mid 1960s. By the end of that decade, the Holt International Children's Services began sending Korean orphans to Norway, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Switzerland and Germany (Hong, Korea Times, 1999). For the next decade, most of the children adopted from Korea were fathered by American soldiers who fought in the Korean war. But Amerasians presently account for fewer than 1 per cent of adoptees. Today, Korea is exporting its own. Foreign adoptions serve many purposes for the government (Rotschild, The Progressive, 1988). ==Social Context== Korean traditional society places significant weight on paternal family ties, bloodlines, and pureness of ‘race’. Children of mixed race or those without fathers are not easily accepted in Korean society (Jang, 1998). Many families would go through excessive and expensive procedures such as surrogacy or in vitro fertilization to ensure that their offspring are at least related than to accept a child of a complete stranger into their family. Indeed, it was the case until recently that Korean citizenship was directly tied to family bloodline. Children not a part of a Korean family (i.e., orphans) were not legal citizens of Korea. Another reason is the stigma of adoption. Ninety-five percent of families who do adopt choose babies less than a month old so that they can pass them off as their natural born offspring, overlooking older adoptable children (Yun, Korea Times, 1997). In addition, most Western countries started to face a shortage of healthy, domestic babies available for adoption in this period, as a result of social welfare programs, legalized abortions and use of contraception. Many Western couples became open to the idea of adopting children from abroad. This was the start of a popular trend which is still present today, as the demand for foreign babies from infertile, upper- and middle class couples in the West is rising (Jang, 1998). The procedure of international adoption is today a growing and often favoured method for couples to build their families and new countries are constantly opening up for international adoption, both as sending and receiving countries. ==Economic Impact== They relieve the government of the costs of caring for the children, which could be a drain on the budget. And they help with population control, an obsession of the Korean government. Also, they solve a difficult social problem: What to do with orphans and abandoned children? In 1986, South Korea had 18,700 orphaned or abandoned children. Almost half were sent abroad for adoption, 70 per cent of these to the United States, the rest to Canada, Australia, and eight European nations (Rotschild, The Progressive, 1988). Some skeptics claim that Korean adoption agencies have established a system to guarantee a steady supply of healthy children. Supporters of this system claim that adoption agencies are only caring for infants who would otherwise go homeless or be institutionalized. While their motives can not be easily determined, their methods are efficient and well-established. Korean adoption agencies support pregnant-women's homes; three of the four agencies run their own. One of the agencies has its own maternity hospital and does its own delivery. All four provide and subsidize child care. All pay foster mothers about $80 a month to care the infants, and the agencies provide the food and the clothing and other supplies free of charge. And they support orphanages, or operate them themselves. When the time for departures arrives, the babies are flown to their foreign families, escorted by strangers who wait in line for their discount airfares (Rotschild, The Progressive, 1988). Payments are routine to maternity hospitals,midwives, obstetricians, officials at each of the four agencies acknowledged. The agencies will cover the costs of delivery and the medical care for any woman who gives up her baby for adoption. The agencies also use their influence with hospitals, and with the police, to acquire abandoned children (Rotschild, The Progressive, 1988). ==Upbringing, Identity, and Nationalism== The International adoption of South Korean children has had a series of impacts on the culture and identity formation of the korean adoptees. == Statistics == * Domestic adoptees in Korea 1953- 2001: 62 100 (Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare, 2002) * Overseas adoptees outside Korea 1953-2001: 148,394 (Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare, 2002) === Breakdown by receiving country === Number of adopted Koreans by country, from 1953-2001: Other countries 1960-84: New Zealand: 559 (1964-1984) Japan: 226 (1962-1982) Okinawa: 94 (1970-1972) Buland: 47 (1970) Ireland 12 (1968-1975) Poland: 7 (1970) Spain: 5 (1968) China: 4 (1967-1968) Guam: 3 (1971-1972) India: 3 (1960-64) Paraguay: 2 (1969) Finland: 1 (1984) Hong Kong: 1 (1973) Tunisia: 1 (1969) Turkey: 1 (1969) Total 1960-1984: 966 Other Nordic countries 1970–2000: The Faroes: 36 (1973-2000) Iceland: 22 (1970-1978) Greenland: 7 (1971-1992) Finland: 3 (1970s-1984) Total 1970-2000: 68 (Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare, 2002). ==References== *Baker, Michael, "South Korea struggles to free itself from adoption stigma", Christian Science Monitor, 17 November 1997, Vol. 89 Issue 246, p6 ...more on Wikipedia about "International adoption of South Korean children"
The Joint Security Area is the only portion of the Korean Demilitarized Zone where South and North Korean forces stand face-to-face. From time to time, it is the scene of negotiations between South and North. ...more on Wikipedia about "Joint Security Area"
The Demilitarized Zone (or DMZ) in Korea is a strip of land running across the Korean Peninsula that serves as a buffer zone between North and South Korea. The DMZ cuts the Korean Peninsula roughly in half, crossing the 38th parallel on an acute angle, with the west end of the DMZ lying south of the parallel and the east end lying north of it. It is 248 km long and approximately 4 km wide. ...more on Wikipedia about "Korean Demilitarized Zone" Who is www.shortopedia.com?
Korean nationalism may refer to two closely related ideologies, separated in time and differentiated by their respective conditions, that are sometimes confused due to historical circumstances and a chance of jargon usage. ...more on Wikipedia about "Korean nationalism"
The Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO) is an organization founded on March 15, 1995 by the United States, South Korea, and Japan to implement the 1994 Agreed Framework that froze North Korea's indigenous nuclear power plant development centered at Yongbyon, that was suspected of being a step in a nuclear weapons program. ...more on Wikipedia about "Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization"
Major non-NATO ally (MNNA) is a designation given by the United States government to exceptionally close allies who have strong strategic working relationships with American forces but are not members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. While being elevated to MNNA status does not automatically include a mutual defense pact with the United States, it does confer a variety of military and financial advantages that otherwise are not obtainable by countries not in NATO. ...more on Wikipedia about "Major non-NATO ally"
Nordpolitik was the signature foreign policy of South Korean president Roh Tae-woo. Named in 1983 by then-Foreign Minister Lee Bum-suk but not formally announced until the run-up to the 1988 Seoul Olympics, the policy guided South Korean efforts to reach out to the traditional allies of North Korea, with the ultimate goal of normalized relations with the Soviet Union and People's Republic of China, both to improve the South's economy and to leave the North so isolated that it would have no choice but to open itself up and reduce military tensions. ...more on Wikipedia about "Nordpolitik"
One of the most famous cases of abduction was that of actress Choe Eun-hui and her husband, film director Shin Sang-ok, who were kidnapped by North Korean intelligence in Hong Kong in 1978. They were abducted on the orders of Kim Jong-il, son of the "Great Leader" Kim Il-sung, who wanted to use them to improve the North Korean film industry. Shin attempted to escape, and spent five years in a re-education camp, before being reunited with his wife. While living in North Korea, Shin made the monster movie Pulgasari. They escaped while on a visit to Vienna in 1986. ...more on Wikipedia about "North Korean abductions of South Koreans"
Six-party talks is the name given to meetings of the People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea, Russia, Japan and the United States, held in order to find a resolution of the crisis over the North Korean nuclear weapons program. The first round was held in August 2003, the second round in February 2004, the third round in June 2004, the fourth round in July 2005, and the fifth round in September 2005. Little headway has been made disarming North Korea as of yet. ...more on Wikipedia about "Six-party talks"
* "South Korea's Nuclear Surprise" , Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, January/February 2005. ...more on Wikipedia about "South Korean nuclear research programs"
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The Sunshine Policy is the guiding philosophy of South Korea's foreign policy towards North Korea. It emphasizes peaceful cooperation between the two states, seeking short-term reconciliation as a prelude to re-unification in the future. Since its introduction in 1998 the policy has resulted in greater political contact between the two nations and several high-profile business ventures, and brief contacts between separated families. Critics believe that it ignores what they call the fundamentally repressive and belligerent nature of North Korea, and has resulted mainly in a propping up of the regime of Kim Jong-il. ...more on Wikipedia about "Sunshine policy"
The Syngman Rhee line ( Hangul: 이승만 라인) refers to a boundary line established by ...more on Wikipedia about "Syngman Rhee line"
Unification Shoes are shoes in which the soles are made in South Korea and the uppers are made in North Korea. The shoes are marketed under the "Stafild" brand name in South Korea. The North Korean portion of the shoes is manufactured at the Kaesong Industrial Region. ...more on Wikipedia about "Unification Shoes"
VANK, Voluntary Agency Network of Korea is a non-governmental South Korean organization made up of volunteers. It states that its purpose is to "enhanc[e] the image of Korea on the road." VANK links Korean teenagers with teenagers around the world to benefit both by cultural and historical enrichment through penpals and chatting. ...more on Wikipedia about "VANK"
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