• Economic Analysis
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.70-119
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• 2021

This paper analyzes the changes in financial reform during the Kim Jong-un era based on North Korean literature. We find that North Korea has systematically and functionally separated the central bank from commercial banks since the Kim Jong-un era began. In addition, enterprises have been allowed to withdraw cash from bank accounts and make inter-enterprise cash payments. In other words, nowadays non-cash currencies with passive money can partially serve as active money with purchasing power. With the systematic and functional separation of the central bank and the commercial bank, the issuance of the central bank changed to a money supply method through the commercial bank, and changes in the currency distribution structure have allowed commercial bank's credit creation function to be implemented. This means that the banking system and the monetary·payment system of the socialist planned economy are changing in the way of the market economy. Reforms in the financial sector are believed to have been necessary to support changes in the economic system and to restore the function of the public financial sector. These changes have progressed in terms of the level of reform, but they are still considered similar to the period of the former Soviet Union's Perestroika or to the early period of China's reform and opening. Although North Korea's financial reform is superior in terms of enacting the banking law, it is insufficient in terms of realizing the functions of commercial banks. In addition, it is assessed that institutional constraints such as maintaining a planned economy, and the lack of confidence in public finances limit the effectiveness and development of the financial system. It should be noted that these results are based on literature published in North Korea. In other words, there is a limit in the fact that such recent changes have been carried out on a trial basis in some areas, or have been carried out in a full-scale manner with a blueprint, since Kim Jong-un's inauguration.

• Journal of Popular Narrative
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.469-506
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• 2019

More than a few existing studies on popular narratives that pay attention to 'place' tend to adopt as their theoretical framework the celebrated distinction between space and place. According to this distinction, to put it simply, space is allegedly mobile, whereas place is static. Given this distinction, and in this age of high-mobility, where the spaces of mobilities seem to rapidly and extensively undermine the places of immobilities, would studies on popular narratives focusing on 'place' still remain convincing? Referring to David Seamon's recent book Life Takes Place: Phenomenology, Lifeworlds, and Place Making, this article aims to consider the possibility of studies on popular narratives in the era of high-mobility. To explore the concept of 'place' through phenomenological methodology, Seamon's book uses a theoretical framework called the 'progressive approximation,' which is attentive to synergistic relationality. According to this approach, the place should first be put under scrutiny as a whole, i.e. as the monad of place. Phenomenological studies on the monad of place as a whole identify places as the fundamental condition for human beings. Then, in accordance with the 'progressive' order of research, places are studied as dyads, i.e. as binary oppositions. Through these analyses, movement/rest, insideness/outsideness, the ordinary/the extra-ordinary, the within/the without, homeworld/alienworld are identified as the five dyads of place. To make a detour around these binary oppositions and confrontations, however, phenomenological studies on place now advance to the higher order of six place triads including place interaction, place identity, place release, place realization, place intensification, and place creation, whereby the study of place progressively approaches the 'approximate' essence of place. Reflectively asking himself about the idea of 'place' in the high-mobility era, the author of this informative and insightful book submits an answer that place is still the fundamental sine qua non of human beings. However, this answer is more likely to be bounded by the binary opposition of space/place, and movement/rest accordingly. In this article, I suggest as an alternative and hopefully more promising answer a perspective of transcending this kind of a dead-end dichotomy and of performing 'place-making' through the mobilities themselves, while presenting a noticeable example of the manner in which research on popular narratives could begin from this perspective.

• Journal of Popular Narrative
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.159-190
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• 2019

This paper aims to examine to the political unconsciousness of social movies that have caused social repercussions in the 2010s, and to study the social imagination of Korean films at that time. Korean Movies such as (2013), <1987>(2017) and (2017) reflect the ethos of civil society based on common sense and justice. The epic structure was the same as that of ordinary citizens, who move toward a public space (court, square) after awakening their political correctness. More than anything else, the fact that such films were based on "a historical fact" could have been a strategy to avoid censorship in the era of the blacklist. In these social films, courts and squares have become places for democracy. The conservative government of the time was tired of anti-government resistance and the politics of the square. Thus, films from directors and producers blacklisted were difficult to produce. That's why the court in the movie during this period could become a symbolic proxy for the "legitimate" reenactment of the politics of the square, which was subject to censorship and avoidance by the regime of the time. Meanwhile, the square has gradually become the main venue for political films that advocate "historic true stories." The square of the 1980s, which appeared in the movies, will be connected to the Gwanghwamun candlelight square that audiences experienced in 2017. Furthermore, it was able to reach the concept of an abstract square as an "open space for democracy." At the foundation of these works is a psychological framework that equates the trauma of the failed democratic movement of the 1980s to the trauma of the failed progressive movement of the 2010s. Through this study, we were able to see that social political films in the 2010s were quite successful, emphasizing "political correctness" and constitutional common sense. But they also had limitations as "de-political popular films" that failed to show imagination beyond the censorship of the blacklist era.

• Journal of Popular Narrative
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.165-191
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• 2019

The purpose of this article is to elucidate why the motif of time travel is repeated in the science fiction narrative by examining the functions of this motif in the SF movie series of Star Trek in its narrative and non-narrative aspects. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) aims to attract the audience's interest in the story through the use of plausible time travel in the form of the slingshot effect which causes the spacecraft to fly at very fast speeds around an astronomical object. The movie also touches upon the predestination paradox that arises from a change of history in which it describes a formula of transparent aluminum that did not exist at the time. The film also serves as an evocation of the ideology of ecology by including humpback whales in the central narrative and responding to the real issue of the whale protection movement of the times. Star Track VIII: First Contact (1996) intends to interest the audience in the narrative with the warp drive, a virtual device that enables travel at speeds faster than that of light and a signature visual of Star Trek, at the time of its birth through time travel. The film emphasizes the continuation of peaceful efforts by warning the destruction of humanity that nuclear war can bring. It tackles with the view of pacifism and idealism by stressing the importance of cooperation between countries in the real world by making the audience anticipate the creation of the United Federation of Planets through encounters with the extraterrestrial. Star Trek: The Beginning (2009) improves interest through the idea of time travel to the past, this time using a black hole and the parallel universe created thereby. The parallel universe functions as a reboot, allowing a new story to be created on an alternate timeline while maintaining the original storyline. In addition, this film repeats the themes pacifism and idealism shown in the 1996 film through the confrontation between Spock (and the Starfleet) and Nero, the destruction of the Vulcan and the Romulus, and the cooperation of humans and Vulcans. Eventually, time travel in three Star Trek films has the function of maximizing the audience's interest in the story and allowing it to develop freely as a narrative tool. It also functions as an ideal solution for commenting on current problems in the non-narrative aspect. The significance of this paper is to stress the possibility that the motif of time travel in SF narrative will evolve as it continues to repeat in different forms as mentioned above.