‘북한 연구’와 ‘문화 냉전’－1960년대 아세아문제연구소와 『사상계』의 북한 연구

Abstract

This article examines how the political dynamics of the Cold War were linked to changes in discourse of North Korea and the recognition of division by exploring the background and meaning of North Korean studies in the 1960s. The analysis of the internal and external contexts that North Korean studies could have emerged reveals the early moment of the newly formed knowledge of North Korea, which has long been regarded as ‘improper knowledge’ in the Korean society, and the specific aspects of the cultural cold war that has developed on the Korean Peninsula. The 1960s is notable because it is the moment that the power which was related to the production of North Korean discourse had been redistributed and the new paradigm of North Korea had been formed. In other words, from this period in Korean society, "experiential knowledge" (experience) and "academic knowledge" (theory) began to be developed at the same time, and the two knowledges cooperated or conflicted with each other, consequently contributed to the formation and spread of North Korean discourse. And behind the rise of North Korean research as an ‘challenging problems,’ there were the ‘communism discourse’ and ‘unification discourse.’ The research subject called ‘North Korea,’ combined with these two issues, triggered the formation and differentiation of ‘improper knowledge’ and ‘academic knowledge.’ Based on these circumstances, this paper focused on Asiatic Research Institute Korea University and the ‘Sasanggye’, the agents that led the initial North Korean research. These two agents contributed to the expansion of the public sphere by providing conditions for the discourse on North Korea to be generated in a variety of ways. On the one hand, behind the rallying of South Korean intellectuals and the developing of the North Korean research, there were the struggle over cultural hegemony and the reality of the Cold War order and the division system, which were linked under the name of sponsorship and cooperation. It is in this context that we need to remember that North Korean research was also a ‘product of the Cold War’ and a ‘policy knowledge.’ In short, the complex context of the North Korean research provides a glimpse of the new period situation as it accessed the process of the formation of global Cold War knowledge, while it is linked to the historical experience of division and war.