Changing society and determination to study abroad

During these professional experiences, I could not at all throw away academic concerns. I decided to host regular seminar groups in order to read many political economy classics which were frequently neglected in contemporary academia regardless of their significance.

We focused on modern economic thinkers ranging from Adam Smith, David Ricardo, John M. Keynes and others. Through this reading group activities, I was able to read classical masterpieces such as An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, The principles of political economy and taxation, and The general theory of employment, interest, and money, The formation of English Working Classes by E.P. Thompson, Modern World System by I.M. Wallerstein, and finally The Distinction — Social Critique of the tastes by Pierre Bourdieu and so on.

This intensive reading experience gives me better opportunity to broaden my knowledge about the history of economics and modern social and political thoughts. I think these broad reading experiences can be cited as a firm basis of my academic aptitude.

Of course, basic motive behind these studies comes from changing socio-economic realities. Korean society is on the verge of rapidly changing politico-economic order. As a peripheral, divided country located in highly competitive and unstable North East Asian region, Korean society has to cope with outer blows in a bare face. Historically inherited U.S-Korean relations have set a series of structural constraints over autonomous decision-making of Korean society. When it comes to the realm of economic policies, there seems to be no alternative developmental strategies different from those of U.S driven financial market-oriented model.

Since 1992, especially after Asian Financial Crisis of 1997-98, this narrowest economic policy with long lasted bureaucratic administration of the government have aggravated Korean economic situation. International financial capital inflows and monetary organizations have badly influenced on Korean economy. Unlike advanced countries which are facilitated with various types of social welfare system and security net, these short-sighted financial market-oriented decision-making mean death-like chronic unemployment, increasing job instability, aggravation of quality of life, inveterate deflation, increasing income discrimination, and finally relative sense of deprivation to most of the population.

These Korean economic circumstances made me realize following significant theoretical problems: Are not there any alternative solutions to international financial volatility? Are not there any alternative resolutions to the problem of economic efficiency? Is not there any rational line into which sustainable economic development and democracy can be converged? What is the nature of, and how did transformation process of international monetary organizations occur? What are synthetic approaches with which social scientists can articulate various exogenous factors including “world system” (international industrial division of labor and interdependence) with endogenous elements affecting specific government’s policies?

I think these questions require studies of comparative political economy and Economics. However, I could not find any appropriate academic curricula and official educational institutions in Korea to solve these theoretical concerns. That is why I decide to study abroad. I hope I had opportunities to continue my academic interest, and absorb various interdisciplinary approaches of social sciences.

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.

I was born in Gwangju city located in Gyunggi province in 1971 as my parent’s fourth son. My mother lived in the countryside with her sons and two daughters engaging herself in agriculture while her husband worked as supervising lawyer for the U.S army stationed in Seoul.

I was brought up in the countryside with my parents’ loving care until when I transferred middle school. From then on, I lived with my father and one of my elder sisters until other family members moved to Seoul when I was a junior high school student.

I was brought up as an introverted child who liked to read books. After I change middle school, there were no special challenges or adversities until I was admitted to prestigious private high school and university. When I entered Sogang university, I got scholarships for my excellent records in CSAT(College Scholastic Aptitude Test). I could take advantages of winning scholarships due to my distinguished academic records for the first two academic semesters.

In the university, between academy and social activities

When I entered university in 1990, the atmosphere of campuses was dominated by democratic student movements fighting against the military regime. At first, I did not get involved in such radical student movements because I thought there must be much more fundamental value or truth of human life in academic fields. I devoted my freshman’s year to finding this self-defined ‘ultimate essence of life’ in the philosophical point of view. In retrospect, my soul was filled with various phrases and concepts quoted from French existentialists and one of the greatest German philosophers, G.W.F. Hegel’s process of phenomenology of mind.

However, peruse of modern European philosophical masterpieces brought me no closer to ultimate goal of discovering the meaning of life. By the time I became a sophomore, there were tragic incidents; one university student who participated in demonstration requesting for freedom of speech and political democracy was killed by riot police. Furthermore, many university students made attempts to burn themselves to death calling for social justice. I could not keep ignoring all miserable situations because I found my existence was placed under the authoritarian military regime. I thought the true meaning of life and the essence of human-beings might be pursued in the positive participation in social movements seeking to realize ‘social and historical objectives,’ as one of the greatest French philosophers, J.P. Sartre once did after the World War Ⅱ. From then on, I started to get involved in democratic student movements. I worked for Sogang Herald — English campus newspaper — as a reporter as well as a constructive director of student academic association doing research on history and contemporary reality of the third world and political economy of Korea.

When I was a junior student, I organized national student movement organization called “National Student Solidarity” longing for achieving social democracy. The main goals of this student body was to fight against the military regime and unjust laws, to criticize corrupted collaboration between political regime and Chaebol, Korean conglomerates, and finally to propagandize progressive social thoughts such as critical theories about Third world inequality, various kinds of western Marxism, and international labor movement history in the name of “alternative university movement.” I dedicated my last undergraduate years as the chairman of this student organization.

Through these student activities, I could learn various approaches of political theories ranging from western political thoughts to modern critical theory, and have high moral sensitivity of inequality and social discrimination in Korean society.

Determination to enter graduate school, and new experiences as a military officer

After graduating from university, I made up my mind to enter the graduate school of Sogang University to study political science. The main motive and personal goals of graduate courses was to reflect my undergraduate student activities.

My academic curiosity was not circumscribed by any particular fields. I organized open forums to read philosophical and political masterpieces ranging from classical western political thoughts such as Plato, Aristotle via modern social contract theorists (Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jean-Jacque Rousseau, James Mill) to modern and contemporary German philosophers such as Immanuel Kant, G.W.F. Hegel, Juergen Habermas, etc.

And I was also fully engaged in Graduate Student Association as a research fellow for 1 and a half year hosting academic conferences on a regular basis; one of the most representative outcome of these activities was to hold a series of conferences entitled “Modern French Philosophies and its implication on Korean society,” and “Rethinking Social Formation Debates in 1980s”, either of which were academically sophisticated enough to be published as a series of journal articles and books.

After 1 and a half year of studying as a graduate student, I had to enlist Korean army. In the course of military service, however, I had to face another kind of adversity which influenced me thereafter; I was arrested by military police in charge of violation of “National Security Law” when I was serving the army as a platoon commander.

The main cause of military prosecutor’s accusation was related with my undergraduate student’s activities. They indicted me of making “national security” and “social order” in peril. Military court sentenced me to 1 year’s imprisonment. However, I could not accept the court’s decision because I did nothing potentially harmful to “national security.” Rather, my undergraduate activities were bridging democracy into the political and economic areas of Korean society. I think the law does not have any juridical and moral legitimacy without making reference to the strong urges of Human Right Commission of the UN.

I was able to be released from military prison after being sentenced to put on probation by the Court of appeal. However, my unique experiences under military jails were deeply ingrained in my mind. Past seems to last forever forming one’s personal history. I could meet a lot of soldier-prisoners who were suffering from lack of legal facilities and aids. The only fault of a group of youth who were sentenced to 3 years’ imprisonment was their firm belief that armament and taking military training were considered serious violation of God’s rules.

When I was in another military jail, notorious for its frequent violation of basic human rights for a long time in South Korea, I met many intelligent soldiers who were sentenced to life sentence. Most of them were suffering from their own chronic diseases. However, they could not receive any appropriate medical treatments. Some soldiers were sentenced to several years’ imprisonment only because they had violated anachronistic military conventions.

I don’t want to stay here to depict these painful experiences any longer. However, I could learn invaluable lessons from those experiences: I should live the rest of my life for the interest of miserable victims of mainstream society as a social scientist.