KORI Masahiro
| KORI Masahiro |
| [Belonging・Position] | Current Affairs Studies Group, Area Studies Center |
| [Research Field] | Politics and society of DPRK(North Korea) |
| [email] |
masahiro_kori 
|
Previous research
In my master's thesis, I examined the relationship between the legitimacy of domination and economic policy in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) by analyzing the political, economic, and social changes in the country and the shifts in its ideological discourse. In the DPRK, the economic crisis of the 1990s led to "marketization" and the appearance of newly emerging wealthy class. Although society in the DPRK has changed dramatically, the regime still advocates "socialism". In this context, I analyzed how the regime has responded to these changes and attempted to maintain the legitimacy of authority, focusing on its “state” discourse on economic policy.
Current research projects
I am interested in how domination is possible in the DPRK, not only in terms of violence and repression, but also in the possibility of spontaneous obedience. My recent research has focused on the following two topics. First, I am continuing my research on the relationship between the political, economic, and social situation in North Korea and the changes in its ideological discourse. Second, I am interested in the relationship between literature and domination in the DPRK. Previous studies have analyzed the trend of literature in the DPRK and the social reality that can be read in literary works. In addition to these kinds of studies, I am analyzing the social function of literature in the DPRK society and how it is changing by using sociological methods such as Niklas Luhmann's Social Systems Theory.
Membership of Academic Societies
Association for the Study of Korean Culture and Society