0102, 2024

“Expanding Horizons: Reciprocal Access Agreements, the Japan-Australia Special Strategic Partnership, and Japan’s Novel Security Cooperation.” Journal of International and Area Studies

Andrew Soohwan Kim/ February 1, 2024/ Blogs

I recently wrote and published a paper titled “Expanding Horizons: Reciprocal Access Agreements, the Japan-Australia Special Strategic Partnership, and Japan’s Novel Security Cooperation” for the Journal of International and Area Studies (JIAS), which is published by the Institute of International Affairs (IIA) of Seoul National University’s Graduate School of International Studies. I am the first and main author and my

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3101, 2024

“Ambitious Policies and Ideal Colonists: Building a Colonial City in Iri, North Jeolla Province.” Clio’s Scroll

Andrew Soohwan Kim/ January 31, 2024/ Blogs

For my BA thesis as a history major at the University of California at Berkeley, I wrote concerning the formation and development of a colonial city in Iri (modern-day Iksan in North Jeolla Province). I detailed this process of urban genesis via the lens of a Japanese settler in the city, Ōhashi Sokujō, whose written account served as a major

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1404, 2022

National Memorial of the Korean Provisional Government: Seodaemun-gu

Andrew Soohwan Kim/ April 14, 2022/ Blogs

It has only been about a month since the opening of the National Memorial of the Korean Provisional Government (국립대한민국임시정부기념관) in Seodaemun-gu (an event commemorating the building of the museum was held on the eleventh to coincide with the 103rd anniversary of the founding of the Korean Provisional Government in Shanghai in April 11, 1919). The new addition to Seoul’s

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0803, 2022

Election Eve in Korea: A Short Prelude

Andrew Soohwan Kim/ March 8, 2022/ Blogs

Tomorrow, the ninth of March, is election day in South Korea. The campaign, a particularly negative one featuring a slate of candidates with plenty of both populist followers and glaring personal flaws, has left a particularly foul taste in people’s mouths. The general expectation is that of continued political polarization and acrimony after Wednesday’s vote, and a result that will

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3107, 2020

Grounded: The Coronavirus and South Korea’s Airports

Andrew Soohwan Kim/ July 31, 2020/ Blogs

Perhaps no single industry in the global marketplace has faced quite as much disruption from the COVID-19 pandemic as the aviation industry. With the ossification of national boundaries and de-facto elimination of passenger air travel between countries and within countries, commercial aviation is now looking forward to perhaps its single worst year this century, if not in its entire history.

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2305, 2020

Trains and Temples: A Historical Trip to Iksan

Andrew Soohwan Kim/ May 23, 2020/ Blogs

Iksan (익산) is a city too small to be considered big yet too big to be considered small.  Nestled in its rural surroundings in remote North Jeolla Province, much like Naha vis-à-vis the island of Okinawa (which has a similar population), the city is disproportionately large.  But the raw population of three hundred thousand pales in contrast with the urban

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0104, 2020

3.1 Yi Sun-sin and Homecoming

Andrew Soohwan Kim/ April 1, 2020/ Blogs

In 2015, I won the grand prize in the 20th 3.1 Essay Contest held in Koreatown, Los Angeles. I subsequently won a scholarship and an opportunity to participate in a homecoming program in Korea hosted by an organization of the R.O.K. Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The award winning essay, written in Korean on the great admiral Yi Sun-sin and a

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2103, 2020

Fiat 光： Yonsei Annals Op-Ed

Andrew Soohwan Kim/ March 21, 2020/ Blogs

This past fall semester, I received an invitation by Yonsei University’s English magazine, The Yonsei Annals, to write an op-ed piece on a topic of my choosing. At the time, the Seoul Metropolitan Government had just announced that it was suspending its erstwhile vast redesign and expansion plans for Gwanghwamun Square in Jongno District. I wrote down my thoughts regarding

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1403, 2020

Hello!

Andrew Soohwan Kim/ March 14, 2020/ Blogs

Hi, I’m Andrew. I am a second-generation Korean-American born and raised in California. A former homeschooled student, I now attend UC Berkeley as a history major with a regional concentration on East Asia. I have study abroad experience in Taiwan and South Korea. My main interests are East Asian history, politics, and culture. I will focus on these subjects in

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