Newsletter

The Northeast Asian History Foundation (NAHF) hosted a conference themed with “Formation of countries transcending time and space: comparison of Vietnam and Korea” on June 21, 2019 to look at common features of Korea’s and Vietnam’s history and confirm their status in Asia and the world by reviewing the confirmation process of their national identities. Six researchers of the Institute of History and the Institute of Chinese History under the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences (VASS) were invited to the conference to figure out land and maritime issues in medieval times, the colonial period, the Cold War era, and the present.

In her welcoming speech, Kim Hyeon-suk, head of the Foundation’s Office of Research and Policy-Planning, introduced the Foundation’s activities that have contributed to improving mutual understanding with neighboring countries along with its history. She gave a full account of the Foundation’s purposes of establishment, stressing the need for historians all over the world as well as from Asia to create communities to study the two countries’ dispute-settlement history and reflect it in the resolution of regional conflicts. In his ensuing opening address, Dinh Quang Hai, director of Vietnam’s Institute of History and concurrently dean of the VASS’ department of history, emphasized similarities between Vietnam’s and Korea’s history and stated that objective views would be expanded if historians could describe history through comparative study. Lee Won-u, head of the Institute on International Relations and Historical Dialogue, also mentioned in his opening speech the memorandum of understanding (MOU) the Foundation signed with VASS in 2017 and stressed the role of the Institute of History representing VASS in their cooperation projects.

Kim Gwan-won, researcher at the Dokdo Research Institute who served as a moderator in the conference’s first panel, focused on “land and sea” and underscored the two countries’ cultural and historical similarities of which experts from Korea and Vietnam can make a comparative study. In his presentation, Dr. Yu Ha-yeong, also an expert of international law, refuted allegations that Dokdo was an “ownerless land” and explained about the “Sutoje,” Joseon’s regular patrol policy on Dokdo, as evidence verifying Korea’s sovereignty. He also compared the Hoang Sa fleet of the Nguyen Dynasty with the Dokdo “Suto” activities. Dr. Bui Thu Hien of VASS explained why China’s marine activities in the disputed seas were in violation of international law, based on Vietnam’s maritime laws emphasizing the observance of the “United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982).” Prof. Veo Gim Queong of the Institute of History also investigated collisions occurring in Vietnam’s East Sea and relationships among the U.S., Russia, and China related to them. Kim Jong-geun, researcher with the Foundation, verified the lack of understanding in the English-speaking world concerning Korea’s location in Northeast Asia by investigating Northeast Asia described in Western atlases from the perspective of cartography and historical geography and confirming inadequacies of cartography that appeared in Korean maps. Then panelists had time to discuss issues concerning relations between powerful and smaller nations raised by director Gwak Jin-o for 30 minutes.

In the second panel themed with “before the modern era” moderated by researcher Park Seon-mi, Nguyen Duc Nhue of the Institute of History and researcher Lee Jeong-il of the Foundation made a presentation on sovereignty in Vietnam’s Le Dynasty (1428-1527) and Korea’s Joseon Dynasty, respectively. In their respective history, the two dynasties are evaluated as the most independent period during which their sovereignty was kept and their regional position was strengthened through flexible and efficient diplomatic policies. Researcher Yun Yu-sook of the Foundation surveyed the flow of Korean goods through the commercial route from Japan to Southeast Asia and Korea’s demand for Southeast Asian products. Dr. TRAN, Thi Phuong Hoa of the Institute of History looked at the concept of new republicanism applied to Vietnam’s colonial society and validated the appropriateness of the concept by analyzing civil education textbooks used in 1938. Dr. Park Jang-bae had a question-and-answer session under the theme of diplomatic strategies of medieval Korea and Vietnamese dynasties and France’s colonial policy regarding Vietnam’s education.

The last panel, chaired by researcher Choi Un-do, was devoted to Korea’s and Vietnam’s imminent tasks. Researcher Seo Jong-jin of the Foundation explained Japan’s colonial governing style that changed from military rule to cultural rule after the March 1^st Movement. Seo analyzed the main characteristics of this military rule and confirmed that Japan had tried to destroy Korea’s self-governing capabilities. Le Trung Dung and Dinh Quang Hai of the Institute of History gave a general explanation about the historical heritage of frontiers formed during the colonial period including borders between Vietnam and China and those between Vietnam and Cambodia. They discussed territorial treaties involving countries on the Indochina Peninsula including Vietnam and Cambodia as well as France and China and their impact on border demarcation. Researcher Lee Byeong-taek of the Foundation asked a question about how to acquire territories and types of colonial governance systems as a debater. In the closing ceremony, the chiefs of the Foundation and the Institute of History concluded the academic conference by raising the possibility of promoting understanding concerning the two countries’ history through comparative study in the context of regional and international change.