This book departs from existing studies by focusing on the impact of international influences on the society, culture, and language of both North and South Korea. Since President Kim Young Sam's segyehwa drive of the mid-1990s, South Korea has become a model for successful globalization. In contrast, North Korea is commonly considered one of the least internationally integrated countries. This characterization fails to account for the reality of the two Koreas and their global engagements. The opening essay situates the chapters by highlighting some significant contrasts and commonalities between the experiences of North and South Korea's history of engagement with the world beyond the Peninsula. The chapters explore both the longer-term historical influence of Korea's international contacts as well as specific Korean cultural, linguistic, and social developments that have occurred since the 1990s demise of the global Cold War and greater international integration.

Andrew David Jackson is currently Associate Professor of Korean Studies at Monash University, Melbourne. Before this, he taught Korean Studies at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He obtained his Ph.D. in Korean history from the School of Oriental and African Studies, the University of London, in 2011, and he wrote a dissertation on the Musin rebellion of 1728. As well as premodern history, Andrew is interested in modern Korean history and society, North and South Korean film, and theories of rebellion and revolution.