While South Korea’s rapid rise from third world dependency on the United States to its current position as a fully developed East Asian industrial and trading power has been widely discussed, the social costs of its rapid development are less well known. The history of South Korean labor does not run parallel to the success of its export industries. Indeed, much of South Korea’s new capital wealth was built on the backs of a repressed laboring sector. Prof. Robinson will discuss the background to the rise of the South Korean labor movement during the period of rapid development, its maturation in the late 1980s, and its current retrenchment in the aftermath of the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997-98. In addition, Jinyoung Park will present on the details of her work within the contemporary women’s labor movement, illustrating its successes and challenges.

Michael Robinson is a professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures where he teaches courses on modern Korean history and culture.

Jinyoung Park is one of two 2007-08 POSCO TJ Park Foundation NGO Fellows, here for a yearlong research sabbatical. Her work with the Korean Women Workers’ Association and the Committee for Asian Women based in Bangkok has centered around the women’s labor movement.