marx south korea

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Marx in South KoreaSeongjin Jeong

Version of record first published: 15 Dec 2010

To cite this article: Seongjin Jeong (2010): Marx in South Korea, Socialism and

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Marx in South Korea

Seongjin Jeong

Marxist scholarship is currently reviving in Korea1 after about twodecades retreat since the 1990s. The recent opening of a graduate

school specializing in Marxist studies2 is a reflection of this. Koreahas a long history of socialist thought and politics, starting from itscolonial period (191045), but several factors have played a role inthe current renaissance of Marxism. First, the completion of the cycleof two oscillating variants of capitalism, Keynesian-statist and neolib-eral, with its traumatic results, above all, the East Asian Crisis in1997 and subsequent deepening of social polarization, was enough tofracture the neoliberal-Keynesian consensus around TINA (the viewthat there is no alternative to capitalism) and reawaken the search

for alternatives. Second, the fading away of Stalinism, which hadhistorically framed the development of Marxist scholarship andpolitics in Korea, paved the way for a new start after the time lag.

Marxs works were first introduced to Korea during the colonialperiod. They were mainly imported from Japan by radical Koreanintellectuals, who received and utilized them as the theoreticalweapons for the national liberation struggle. However, it was extre-mely difficult for Koreans to study Marxs works in this period,because the colonial rulers forbade the free discussion and publication

of radical literature. Among the few Marxist academic works then pub-lished, Baik Nam-Uns book on the economic history of Korea3 wasnotable, though it was written in Japanese and was merely a mechan-ical application of Stalins five-stage scheme of historical developmentto the Korean case.

1. I am thankful to Marcello Musto for his encouragement and help writing this paper.In this paper, the expression Korea is used to indicate either South Korea (Republic ofKorea) or the Korean peninsula as a whole. However, North Korea (DemocraticPeoples Republic of Korea) is always indicated as North Korea. The titles of

Korean-language and Japanese-language works are given here in English.2. Department of Political Economy at Gyeongsang National University, http://

marxism.gnu.ac.kr3. Baik Nam-Un, Korean Socio-Economic History (Tokyo: Kaizosa, 1933).

Socialism and Democracy, Vol.24, No.3, November 2010, pp.198204

ISSN 0885-4300 print/ISSN 1745-2635 online

DOI: 10.1080/08854300.2010.513627 # 2010 The Research Group on Socialism and Democracy

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As soon as Korea was liberated from Japanese rule in 1945, socialistpublications exploded in Seoul and Pyongyang. Hundreds of socialist

books, journals, and newspapers poured out, including first officialKorean editions of The Communist Manifesto and Capital.4 However,the first short Spring of Marxism was brutally repressed in SouthKorea with the establishment of the anti-communist government ofRhee Syngman in 1948. In the meantime, the North Korean regimeallowed Marxist scholarship to the extent that it was of use for itsrule, and published the first complete Korean edition of MarxsCapital during 1956 59 as well as Marx Engels Collected Works[MECW] during 1961 65.5 However, serious Marxist scholarship

phased out in North Korea with the rise of Juche, the extreme versionof national communism. After the Korean War, not just socialist poli-tics but also academic studies on Marx were severely repressed inSouth Korea under the anti-communist dictatorships of RheeSyngman (1948 60), Park Chung Hee (1961 79), and Chun DooHwan (198087). Even just carrying Marxs books was punished bymore than two years in prison. Progressive scholars who wanted tostudy Marxism in this period had no way but to do so under suchrubrics as dependency theory, the Frankfurt School, or alienation in

early Marx.Marxism flourished in Korea after the Kwangju Peoples Uprisingin 1980 and the Great Democratic Struggles of 1987. The Anti-Commu-nist Law could not prevent the sudden and explosive growth of publi-cation of Marxist literature which began in the mid-1980s. Thegovernments arrest and acquittal of Kim Tae-Gyeong, president ofthe publisher of the first volume of Capital in 19876 was the turningpoint. About 70 Korean versions of various works of Marx andEngels were published during 19871991.7 Reflecting the rise of anti-

systemic movements in this period, Marxist books tended to concen-trate on issues of revolutionary praxis rather than academic topics.Also, the academic quality of the publications and translations wasnot good; the first complete South Korean edition of Capital was noteven based on the German original.8

4. At thistime,only Volume 1 and 2 of Capital were translated from the Japanese edition.5. The publication of the North Korean edition of MECWseems to have been discontin-

ued after only 10 volumes were translated from the Russian edition.6. Karl Marx, Capital, Vol.1, trans. Kim Young-Min (Seoul: IhRonGwaShilCheon, 1987).

7. Chung Moon-Gil, Contours of Marxology in Korea (Seoul: MunHakGwaJiSungSa, 2004).8. Karl Marx, Capital, 3 vols, trans. Kim Soohaeng (Seoul: BiBong Publisher, 198990).

However, a direct translation, by Kang Shin-Joon, published by IhRonGwaShilCheon(198790), was completed soon thereafter.

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The most unfortunate aspect of this second Spring of Marxism,9

though seldom recognized by contemporary Korean progressives, was

that what South Korean radicals rediscovered was actually someversions of Stalinism rather than classical Marxist tradition. Indeed,many Korean progressives rushed to embrace various official commu-nist parties textbooks as orthodox Marxism during the 1980s, afterthey disowned their earlier intellectual influences, such as the FrankfurtSchool or dependency theory. Rediscovery of Marxism reached itshigh point during late 1980s when the two variants of Stalinism, PD(the Peoples Democracy tendency, which regarded the USSR asmodel socialism) and NL (the National Liberation tendency, which

followed Kim Il-Sungs Juche), debated furiously around the characteriz-ation of Korean society and related revolutionary strategies. While PDconceived Korea as embodying neo-colonial state monopoly capitalism,requiring an anti-imperial and anti-monopoly-capital peoples demo-cratic revolution, NL argued for the anti-imperial and anti-semi-feudalpeoples democratic revolution to overthrow a colonial semi-feudalKorea. Yoon So-Young, a leading theoretician of PD, summarized theposition of PD as the formula of strengthening monopoly cum deepen-ing dependency.10 However, it was obvious from the start that both

tendencies shared fatal theoretical defects, such as economic determin-ism, catastrophism and stagism. As the extreme detachedness of bothversions of Stalinism became clear with the development of Koreancapitalism, the terrain of the debate itself could not but implode evenbefore the collapse of Stalinist regimes in 1989.

Because most Korean progressives of the 1980s had viewed theStalinist regimes as the actualization of Marxism, regardless of theirdegeneration, it was natural that they threw away not just Stalinismbut also Marxist tradition as a whole after their disintegration. The

second Spring of Marxism was as short-lived as the first one. Itmutated into various kinds of reformism via post-Marxism. The con-versions of Yi Jin-Kyung11 and Lee Byung-Cheon, prominent theoristsof PD during 1980s, to Deleuzian postmodernism were only typicalexamples. In this period of disillusionment and confusion, Theory, aquarterly Marxist journal, launched by a united front of a dozenMarxist scholars, stretching from Althusserians to Trotskyists, played

9. If the first Spring for Marxism was 1945 48, the second was 1987 91.10. Lee Byung-Cheon and Yoon So-Young, Trends and Tasks of Post-war Studies in

Economics in Korea, Current Stage and Prospects of Humanities and Social Sciencesin Korea (Seoul: YeokSaBiPyungSa, 1988).

11. Yi Jin-Kyung was also a leading theoretician of PD. See his Theory of Social Formationsand Methodology of Social Sciences (Seoul: AhChim, 1987).

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a significant role in checking the wholesale drift to Post-Marxismduring the 1990s, as did the publication of complete Korean editions

of Ausgewahlte Werke in sechs Banden (Berlin: Dietz Verlag, 1970-72)12and the Grundrisse.13 The rehabilitation of Trotsky was also one ofthe small positive spin-offs of the demise of Stalinist regimes forKorean progressives. However, the main trend was irresistiblysubmission to postmodernism, post-Marxism and TINA (There IsNo Alternative [to capitalism]), and immersion in the so-calledimmaterial world of globalization.

The East Asian Crisis of 1997 was a moment of awakening forKorean progressives to the forgotten contradictions of capitalism,

emphasized by Marx. Deepening social polarization and inequalityunder the neoliberal assault on working people after the crisisprovided fertile ground for the return to Marx. The DemocraticLabor Party, which openly called for democratic socialism, wonparliamentary seats in 2003. Although reformists still dominated theprogressive parties, some even joining the neoliberal governments ofKim Dae-Jung (1998 2002) and Roh Mu-hyun (200307), seriousattempts at Marxist renewal were made after the crisis. These includedthe launching of Radical Review, a successor of Theory, in 1999 and

inauguration of Marxcommunale, a biennial anti-capitalist conference,in 2003.The changed mood of Korean radicals could be sensed when Yi

Jin-Kyung returned to Marx after a decade-long odyssey to postmo-dernism.14 However, as is evident in his concepts like mechanicalsurplus value, Yi chose to keep the postmodernist baggage.Eventually, Yi identified himself with Communalism or Autonomism.15

Yoon So-Young, who had retreated to Althusserian philosophy during1990s, resumed publishing a series of books on Marx, around the

work of his GwaCheon Research Center. Yoon tried to extend Marxscritique of political economy by incorporating the profit-rate economicsof Gerard Dumenil and the historical sociology of Giovanni Arrighiand applying them to the analysis of alterglobalization movementsand the current global financial crisis.16 Jeong Seongjin also tried to

12. Kim Se-Kyun ed, Selected Works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, 6 vols (Seoul: Park-JongChull Publisher, 199197). Kim also published a book on Marxist analysis ofKorean labor politics, Democracy and Workers and Peoples Politics in Korea (Seoul:HyunJangEhSeoMiRaeReul, 1997).

13. Karl Marx, Grundrisse, trans. Kim Ho-Gyun (Seoul: BaikEui, 2000).14. Yi Jin-Kyung, Capital beyond Capital (Seoul: EeWho, 2006); Future Marxism (Seoul:

GreeBee, 2006).15. Ko Byung-Kwon et al., Communalist Manifesto (Seoul: GyoYangIn, 2007).

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contribute to the return to Marx in Korea in his two books on Trotskyspolitical economy and empirical Marxian analysis of the Korean

economy.17Among various disciplines of Marxist scholarship, economics has

been traditionally strong in Korea. Korean Marxist economistsplayed a crucial role in founding the Korean Social and EconomicAssociation (KSESA), equivalent to the Union for Radical PoliticalEconomics, in 1987, though they lost the hegemony to Keynesianheterodox economists after 1991. The favorite area of Korean Marxisteconomists has been Marxs value theory.18 Some of them publishedtheir works in prominent international journals. Lee Chai-ons

Single-System Interpretation of Marxs transformation theory andRieu Dong-Mins intervention in the debates on the Okishio Theoremare notable.19 They also tried to apply Marxian value theory tounderstanding the information technology revolution. For example,Kang Nam-huns attempt to define the value of information goodsas the socially necessary labor to produce a version rather than itscopy, ignited a big controversy,20 where Chai Man-Soo intervenedand argued that there is no substance of value in informationgoods and their price is just a monopoly price.21

Marxs crisis theory has been the central research topic forKorean Marxists especially after the East Asian Crisis in 1997.Notable among them is Kim Soohaeng, who tried to develop BenFines interpretation of Marxs law of the falling tendency of therate of profit by linking it with some Japanese Marxist crisis

16. Yoon So-Young, Marxs Capital (Seoul: GongGam, 2009); Generalized Marxism andAlternative Left (Seoul: GongGam, 2008); 2007 2009 Financial Crisis (Seoul:GongGam, 2009).

17. Jeong Seongjin, Marx and Trotsky (Seoul: Hanul, 2006); Marx and the Korean Economy(Seoul: ChaikGalPhi, 2005).

18. For example, refer to Korea Social and Economic Studies Association, ed., Studies inTheories of Value (Seoul: PulBit, 1995).

19. Lee Chai-on fully developed his Single System Interpretation in his New Discoveryof Marxian Political Economy (Kwangju: Chonnam National University Press, 2008).Rieu Dong-Min, Has the Okishio Theorem been Refuted? Metroeconomica, Vol.60, No. 1 (2009).

20. Kang Nam-hun, Political Economy of the Information Revolution (Seoul: MunHwa-GwaHakSa, 2002); Kang Nam-hun et al., eds, Debates on the Value of InformationGoods (Osan: Hanshin University Press, 2007).

21. Chai Man-Soo is one of few remaining Stalinists in Korea and upholds the thesis ofstate monopoly capitalism. As late as 2006 Chai published a Korean equivalent ofthe CPSUs textbook on political economy: Workers Introduction to Economics(Seoul: Workers Institute of Social Science, 2006).


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theories.22 However, against Kim and Fines falling-profit-rateapproach to crisis, Kim Seong-Gu recently argued that the current

crisis should be understood through Marxs theory of cyclicaloverproduction.23

Compared to economics, Marxism has been much more margina-lized in other areas of social science and humanities. The effects ofthe postmodern fad after the demise of communism were especiallyvirulent and are yet to be overcome. Even after the ebb of postmodern-ism, most progressive philosophers or literary critics leaned towardAutonomism instead of classical Marxism. Indeed, Autonomism-related ideas seem to win some currency in Korea after 2000.24 For

example, Park Seung-Ho attempted to reconstruct Marxist theories ofmodern capitalism around the concept of commodity fetishism,drawing upon the Open Marxism of John Holloway.25

Despite the significant advances since its rediscovery in 1987,Marxist scholarship in Korea still leaves a lot to be desired. Firstof all, there has not yet been any serious attempt to publish thecomplete Korean edition of MECW. Considering the disproportion-ate strength of Marxist scholarship in economics in Korea, it is ashame that the complete Korean edition of Theories of Surplus

Value has yet to be published. It has something to do with thefact that Marxism in Korea is disappointingly underdeveloped inits basics, such as Marxology, compared to its application andpolitics. Marx has always been read politically or tendentiouslyand in liaison with Marxism, Lenin, etc. In this respect, ChungMoon-Gils meticulous philological works on the historiographyof MECW and Yahng Hee-Seoks judicious study on the relationbetween Hegels dialectic and Marxs method in Capital are pre-cious exceptions.26

22. Kim Soohaeng, Economic Crisis and Panic in Capitalist Society (Seoul: Seoul NationalUniversity Press, 2006). Kim had taught Marxs Capital at Seoul National University,the top university in Korea, and supervised a dozen PhD students specializing inMarxist economics.

23. Kim Seong-Gu, A Criticism on the Theory of Falling Rate of Profit from a Methodo-logical Perspective, MARXISM 21, Vol. 7, No. 1 (2010).

24. Joe Jeong-Hwan is a leading theoretician of Autonomism in Korea. See his Autono-mia (Seoul: GalMuRi, 2003).

25. Park Seung-Ho, Critical Reconstruction of Theories of Modern Capitalism of the Left

(Seoul: Hanul, 2004).26. Chung Moon-Gil, Nibelungs Treasure (Seoul: MunHakGwaJiSungSa, 2008); Yahng

Hee-Seok, Hegel and the Labor Theory of Value, MARXISM 21, Vol. 2, No. 2(2005).

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Considering the recent growth of counter-hegemonic institutionalcapacities for Marxism in Korea, such as the launching of several

Marxist journals27 as well as radical left political organizations, it isnot mere wishful thinking to suggest that the third Spring ofMarxism is just around the corner. Of course, for this to happen,progressive social movements and solidarity, which have been some-what weakened under the recent neoliberal assaults of the LeeMyung-bak government, need to be rebuilt. Marxist scholarship inKorea needs to share in this task if it hopes to benefit from it.

27. Among them, MARXISM 21, launched in 2004, Revolutionary Socialist, launched in2008, Studies in Workers Social Science, launched in 2008, and Marx 21, launched in2009, are important.


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