Despite there may be some commonalities between Korean Law and American Law in perspective of protecting individual’s rights, there still exist lots of differences, and one of the main cause for the disparity is based on their fundamental gaps in history. Looking into America’s history, freedom was not free. Obviously, the United States was built in objection of the Great Britain’s despotic monarchy, holding freedom, equality, and pursuit of happiness, which became the cornerstone of civil rights. As time passed by, America also went through the Civil War, and all those Civil Rights Movements by African Americans, paving the way for cultural and legal changes toward protecting more individual rights. On the other hand, Korea had a comparatively …show more content…
5 years later, as a result of unsolved ideology, the Korean War erupted, and Korean history of democratic law begins with the end of the war. There has been many challenges, usually fighting against dictators, some of whom even tried to amend the constitution. At that time, Korean law was sometimes argued as “nothing but an instrument or formality for the bourgeoisie to exercise its power and control the working class, all the while indoctrinating the working class with the illusion that all people are equal before the law”, and in his paper, even after 1980s, “the role of law and lawyers in the Korea was negligible in economic development as well as democratization of the Korean society”. (Chang-hee Lee, p. …show more content…
In regard of labor laws in Korea, Korean employees are paid by their job title and the years they have worked for the company, in comparison to US where people get paid by what they have done. (Law 360, New York, Where the US and Korean Labor Laws Divide, June 3, 2014) Furthermore, despite the fact that Korea also provides freedom of speech and press by the constitutional law, a 1989 Supreme Court decision shown on the case of ‘illustrating a paratrooper killing citizens in Gwangju, 1980’ says the opposite. The painter was sentenced to be imprisoned for 18 months, due to his “intent to defame the soldiers of being murderers of civilians”. (Liberal Law and The Press In South Korea, School of Law University in Maryland, p. 8) This case was absurd in that the Gwangju Uprising in 1980s actually ended up with army’s indiscriminate firing against citizens, resulting hundreds of people dead, injured, and taken to the police labelled as mobs. Most recently, July 18, 2015, an agent of National Intelligence Service (NIS) has committed suicide in his car, with a letter that NIS was not trying to spy on citizens.( K.J. Kwon and Hilary Whiteman, CNN, South Korean intelligence employee commits suicide, leaves note, Mon July 20, 2015) Few days before the incident, some proofs that NIS has bought spying program and implemented it in some free mobile applications were revealed. The worst part was that the program is even
"North Korea: Human rights concerns." Amnesty Australia. Amnesty International, 28 Nov. 2006. Web. 2 May 2014. .
The Republic of Korea emerged from Japanese colonialism as a Third World Country. Per capita income was under one hundred dollars, the little infrastructure the Japanese built was located in the North, and income inequality was staggeringly high. The future of the Republic of Korea (hereafter simply “Korea”) looked very bleak, even with United States foreign aid. Yet several decades later Korea had become one of the world’s largest, most modern economies run by a democratic government. The “Miracle on the Han,” the term for Korea’s stunning economic growth in such a short period of time, coincided with the lifting of millions of Koreans out of poverty and the
Yun, Tae-gyu. The Constitution of North Korea: Its Changes and Implications. [New York, N.Y.]: Fordham University School of Law, 2004. Print.
(migrationinformation, 2008). Citizens of North Korea do not attain the freedom to leave and experience other states. North Korea’s lack of freedom not only affects their citizens but also individuals from other countries in a negative sense, cutting off social bonds as a result. Not having mobility rights is an infringement on their negative liberty on account of the option of immigrating or emigrating not being available to them due to the laws placed by the government. In actuality, citizens “caught emigrating or helping others cross the border illegally are detained” (migrationinformation, 2008).
“That’s against the law!” But which law? There are two types of judicial system in the United States, which are the Federal and the States. In the article,” Federal vs. State courts-Key Differences” Federal judicial center stated that federal courts recognized under the U.S Constitution to decide to quarrel involving the Constitution and laws that passed by the Congress. While State courts recognized by a state within local courts such as cities, counties, and municipalities. Although federal law is effective throughout the United States, different states have different state laws. Through this essay, I will discuss the differences and similarities between federal and California judicial system.
Little is known about North Korea except for news stories concerning international terrorism, nuclear arms threats, and prison camps. From space, North Korea is shrouded in darkness like the history that surrounds this country. This is due to the nation's strict closed-country policy: not many outsiders have visited there and not many North Koreans have traveled to the outside world. While little action can be taken to help the North Korean people, action taken by the United Nations is crucial. Recently, United Nations human rights investigators issued a horrific report documenting massive human rights violations in North Korea. The United Nations feels these crimes of humanity should be brought to the International Criminal Court. UN members work to "promote and encourage respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion” (Youth For Human Rights). North Korea unlike any other country in the world cannot be reported on fully because of regulations on people entering its boundaries.
This response will focus on the key issue of fragmentation. In his book Korea’s Twentieth-Century Odyssey, Michael E. Robinson wrote “Multiple interest groups resided within the bureaucracy and even divided the royal house” (p. 16). Arguably, Korea’s sovereignty was lost in large part, due to the lack of unity among different groups and faction. It was clear from the readings that some Korean individuals and groups prioritized their self-interests above their own country’s benefit. Nowhere was this most evident then the issue of national security.
North Korea is notorious as the “Hermit Kingdom”. Defensive and secretive to the point of paranoia, its history as well as its present conditions remains shrouded in mystery. What little we do know can be murky at best. The central govern...
This book is pieced together in two different efforts, one which is to understand the latter history of the post-1945 era with its political liberalization and rapid industrialization period, while at the same time centering its entire text on the question of Korean nationalism and the struggle against the countless foreign invasions Korea had to face. The purpose of this book was composed to provide detailed treatment of how modern Korea has developed with the converged efforts of top eastern and western scholars who wanted to construct a fair overview of Korea's complicated history. Also, the writers wanted to create an updated version of Korea's history by covering the contemporary arena up to the 1990's. The ...
In conclusion, Korea and America have different social customs and cultures. No one can judge whether one country is better than another country. We need to realize that everything is made for their saturation. To accept other cultures and to extend our scope of thinking is
1945 marked the end of World War II and the end of Japan’s reign in Korea. Korea had been under Japanese rule since the Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty in 1910. During this time, Korea had been brutally treated by Japan. The Korean language was suppressed as well as traditional Korean culture. Japan forced Korean people to take Japanese surnames and took many “comfort women” otherwise known as sex slaves for the Japanese military. As a result, the diplomatic relations between Korea and Japan were strained. Japan was determined to forget the past and deny many of the things that happened while Korea was determined to not move past it. There have been disputes between the two countries about acknowledging comfort women and territories, many sprouting up from World War II and before. While there has been improvement, the relationship between Japan and Korea is strained, mainly due to Japan’s unwillingness to remember and apologize for the past and Korea’s stubbornness to not move on from the past.
Throughout the global media North Korea’s isolation and Harsh rule has become increasingly secretive, although some facts have been detected (“North Korea Profile”, 1). According to data collected from The Guardian, eighty-one out of one-hundred people in South Korea have access to the internet, yet in North Korea around .1 out of one-hundred people have access to the internet . Not only is the greater population of North Korea disconnected from outside sources, yet leaders in North Korea are also isolated from outside sources; putting themselves at a disadvantage. North Korea may launch a war, but they are unaware as to what they are up against because of its secrecy . Around one million are serving in the North Korean Army, but when South Korea’s army; combined with the U.S’s army (their ally), the ratio of the North Korean Army is signi...
Steinberg, David I., and Donald N. Clark. "Review of The Kwangju Uprising: Shadows over the Regime in South Korea." The Journal of Asian Studies 47.3 (1988): 662-63. Print.
South Korea, once a broken country filled with broken families, has transformed itself into a fine example of perseverance in a tough situation. South Korea and its neighbor to the north have developed past where they were before the Korean War, but in different ways. The two countries, while certainly dependent on each other, are vastly different. Their conflicting styles of government and their differing cultures speak for themselves in this case. South Korea has, over the years, changed dramatically from the crippled country of the Korean War into a blossoming beacon of Asian cultural and economic changes. The combination of its recent economic importance, its heavy cultural influence, and its constant danger of participating in a war makes South Korea one of the most influential countries in the world.
To understand this situation more fully, one must be given some background, starting in the early 1950s. Due to the harsh differences between the peoples of Korea, and especially due to the onset of Communism, the Korean War erupted and the nation split in half, with the Communist-supported Democratic People’s Republic in the north and those who favored democracy in the Korean Republic of the south (Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2000). The two separate countries of North Korea and South Korea went their opposite ways, and each has experienced different fortunes in the past half-century. The South Koreans managed to recover from the turmoil of the 1950s and 1960s to become an economic power and a democracy supporter. On the other hand, North Korea can be viewed as a retro country, based first on a Communist ideology, laid down by leader Kim Il Sung and inherited by his son, the current dictator Kim Jong Il, then evolving into a totalitarian state (Pacific Rim: East Asia at the Dawn of a New Century). Today North Korea holds the distinction of being one of the very few remaining countries to be truly cut off from the rest of the world. Author Helie Lee describes this in her novel In the Absence of Sun: “An eerie fear crawled through my flesh as I stood on the Chinese side of the Yalu River, gazing across the murky water into one of the most closed-off and isolated countries in the world.” (1)