SOAS, University of London (The School of Oriental and African Studies)

Overview

Name:

Mr Wonwoong Jeong

Thesis title:

The Broken Three Arrows: Abduction, Assassination, and the Dissolution of the Cold War Relations between South Korea, Japan, and the United States, 1973-1975.

Year of Study:

1st

Internal Supervisors

• Anders Karlsson
• Owen Miller

Biography

Born and raised in Korea, I completed my BA and MA in the United States, majoring in history. Through the Columbia-LSE dual degree program, I moved to London to attend LSE where I wrote my master’s dissertation about North Korea’s military adventurism in the late 1960s. My general interest lies in histories of the cold war, international relations, and radicalism in East Asia.

PhD Research

My research is about the dissolution of the trilateral relations between South Korea, Japan, and the United States in the early détente period. I am specifically looking at two incidents, the abduction of Kim Dae Jung and the attempted assassination of Korean president by Mun Se-gwang, occurred in 1973 and 1974 respectively. I intend to examine domestic and international cause and effect of these incidents and to find their implications in the global cold war. Also revealing the role of burgeoning global civil society at the time is crucial in the research. Through this project, I hope to unveil the convoluted nature of the trilateral relations during the cold war.