Political Economist

Re-enrolling in graduate program and writing M.A thesis

My relatively short (compared to others) yet ‘longer’ military experience was finished after being released from prison under the Court of appeal’s decision. I could re-enroll for graduate program. The time when I was trying to be accustomed to academic atmosphere again, Korean society was on the verge of radical political change. Prominent political leader Kim Dae-jung, who had been leading national opposition party for a long time, won the presidency against equally long-lasted authoritarian political structure. I could restore my honor after Kim Dae-jung’s presidential inauguration.

However, this amnesty had nothing to do with my daily life as a graduate student. I did want to concentrate on my M.A thesis. It should not only reflect on my own experiences but also be more excellent than others in the academic perspective, because the thesis was not a formal ritual for graduation but a cause itself for me to uphold, with and to which I had devoted my whole undergraduate life.

My thesis was to explore the true meaning of Karl Marx’s socialist political economy. Underlying motive of my research was to ask what Marx’s socialist economic theory was, and whether there was any possibility of alternative interpretation to conventional vulgarization. Through logical analysis of Marx’s major political economic works, I have questioned commonly believed notion that Marx’s socialism was based on state-ownership and direct product-distribution system by the ‘Central board of Planning.’

Of course, because there were logical flaws or antinomies in Marx’s position toward alternative economic system, I had tried to reconstruct his main concepts and ideas. Furthermore, I should have considered various alternative feasible socialist models which were suggested by a series of market socialist theorists. As the result of one year of my intensive theoretical analysis, I bore fruit and finally completed my M.A degree thesis, entitled “A Critical study of Karl Marx’s socialist economics.”

This thesis has some merits both in theory and practice; the concrete analysis of Marx’s theory of property rights provides us useful insights with which political economists can appreciate economic developmental processes and realities of the old USSR and eastern European communist countries, not to mention modern China and North Korea’s industrialization process. Furthermore, by focusing on the significance of self-governing structure of modern business corporations, my thesis could be utilized as a firm basis for promoting economic theory of ‘participatory’ and ‘industrial democracy.’ My thesis brought me the first prize for excellent thesis of the year in social science fields by Graduate School of Sogang universtiy.

Newly acquired experiences and theoretical questions

Even after graduation, my career was characterized by continuous efforts to broaden my knowledge in social science areas. Meanwhile, I also want to involve in more practical social activities. At first, I got an internship program at a non-governmental organization (NGO), “Hankyoreh Unification Foundation,” which was founded by Hankyreh daily newspaper in order to encourage independent interchanges among peoples in the North and South Korea.

Main purpose of this organization was to aid North Korean children suffering from famine. While I was working at this NGO, I planned a series of educational programs for college students and volunteers, especially focusing on theoretical approaches to build peaceful inter-Korean relations and cooperation among North East Asian countries.

This humanitarian activities and my commitment to this NGO for 8 months brought me closer to recognize a tremendous pile of severe social problems deriving from the divided country. Unlike EU countries, North East Asian countries, especially, China, the Korean peninsular, and Japanese, have had quite a lot of conflicts in terms of their diplomatic relations since Japanese imperialist occupation and World War Ⅱ. Contrary to European countries, North East Asian countries have long been suffering from their ignorance and prejudice against each other. The serious problems of Japanese sexual enslavement of Korean women and ceaseless political instability arising from North Korea can be reduced to North East Asian countries’ distressing historical background.

All of these concrete and serious social problems posed me significant theoretical problematic; how to promote cooperative relationship among North East Asian countries; what is the role of government and business corporations as well as individuals in restoring rapprochement among these countries.

In August 1999, I entered a publishing company. I worked for about 3 and a half year as an editor and then chief editor at Paek-Ui publishing company, one of the most well- known publishers in social science fields. As an incipient editor, I enrolled for “Korean Publishers Academy” for 5 months to absorb complex procedures and methods for book editing and publishing. At a time when I finished the course, I won an honor prize and commendation for my excellent aptitude and positive participation in the program.

However, the most representative achievement showing my academic performance and perseverance was the publication of the Korean version of the great social science classics such as Grundrisse – Foundations of the critique of political economy by K. Marx, and the contemporary internationally influential journal, Le monde Diplomatique.

As for the Grundrisse, the first translation of the Grundrisse remained forgotten for last ten years. I organized seminar groups consisting of young scholars, who majored Economics, modern social and political thoughts, to edit this book as perfectly as possible. We compared the English version of Grundrisse with the German and the Japanese editions to reduce any errors that translators might make during translation process. After about two years of enduring efforts, the first Korean version of Grundrisse was published in 2001 in 3 volumes. Almost all the independent book reviews and review corners of some major newspapers turned the spotlight on our work.

In the course of editing this book, I had chances to meet various types of scholars and intellectuals who devoted their lives to exploring their own research questions. And I also learned the significance of meticulous attitude toward theoretical problems and the significance of perseverance. These invaluable virtues will surely be conducive to my future intellectual endeavor.

As a chief editor, I had planned to publish new series-books containing significant values in our society. After 1 and a half year of ongoing efforts to appreciate Korean society’s academic trends, I finally published a book entitled “Beyond Privatopie” in a bid for many Korean scholars and government officials to rethink their narrowest financial market-oriented reform model.

Most articles of this anthology of Le monde Diplomatique were originally written by internationally famous scholars such as Noam Chomski, Pierre Bourdieu, Eduard Galeano, Benjamin Barber, etc., to pose some serious global agenda such as international financial market volatility, environmental issues, international human right movements, main cause and detrimental consequences of widespread of mass destructive biological weapons and the problem of terrorism, on which all of international community members should deliberate for the permanent development of (wo)mankind.

The time when I firstly projected and published this book, Korean society was driven forcefully by neo-liberalistic foreign openness under the fantasy of globalization. However, there seemed to be no scholars and intellectuals who warned against devastating consequences of myopic financial market openness. Thus, it is necessary for some intellectuals to introduce another interpretation of the world.

During the course of publication, I devoted my daily life enthusiastically to review and select various articles with helps of some scholars who studied in European countries. This experience was so exciting and gave me great opportunity to reflect myself and our society as well as international surroundings in which I live with other communities.