The Routledge Handbook of Europe-Korea Relations

Nicola Casarini, Antonio Fiori, Nam-Kook Kim, Jae-Seung Lee, Ramon Pacheco Pardo, Nicola Casarini, Antonio Fiori, Nam-Kook Kim, Jae-Seung Lee, Ramon Pacheco Pardo

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781032118109
• eBook ISBN: 9780429957642
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

The Routledge Handbook of Europe–Korea Relations provides a comprehensive overview of the changing dynamics in relations between Europe and Korea, provided by leading experts in the field.

Informed by high-quality academic research and key trilateral data and statistics, this book brings scope, balance, and depth, with wide-ranging coverage examining the history of Europe-Korea relations, the Cold War, contemporary Europe-Korea and Europe-North Korea relations, Europe and inter-Korea relations within the regional context, and relations between European countries and the Korea. Through this approach, it increases awareness of the extent and intensity of the multi-faceted and multi-layered connections between the Europe and Korea. Finally, it proposes a way forward for a future relationship between Europe and the Koreas. As a key reference point, for advanced-level students, researchers, policy-makers and journalists producing, and consuming, new material in the area and beyond, it provides an essential understanding of both the historical backdrop to, and the current crisis in, this troubled peninsula.

This Handbook will be an essential reference for scholars, students, researchers and practitioners interested and working in the fields of Asian Politics/ Studies, EU Politics/Studies, European Politics/Studies, Korean Politics/Studies and International Relations.

The Routledge Handbook of Europe–Korea Relations is part of the mini-series Europe in the World Handbooks examining EU-regional relations.

Part 1

Historical evolution

1
Korea–Europe relations from the origins to 1950

Yongmin Kim

DOI: 10.4324/9780429491351-3

Introduction

This chapter explores Europe–Korea relations from the origin to 1950, with the aim of presenting a historical overview while summing up the historical background of current modern diplomacy between the two regions.

In ancient times, Korea was closed to the world and described as the ‘Land of the Morning Calm.’ Largely due to the influence of China, Korea made few direct contacts with Europe and was eventually colonised by Japan from 1910 to 1945. After gaining independence from Japan, Korea was divided into two countries, commonly known as North and South Korea, and quickly fell into ideological confrontation in the peninsula. Therefore, it is very difficult to summarise the international relations of Korea before 1950 (the year the Korean War broke out). However, both countries of the peninsula, particularly South Korea, still have relations with the outside world, including Europe, despite their geopolitical restrictions. In this chapter, I will summarise the history of Korea-Europe relations before 1950 and give an outline of the handbook overall. This chapter focuses strictly on the historical relations of Korea-Europe without attempting to understand these through any socially scientific approach. The readers of this handbook should understand that this first chapter is quite different from others in the volume; please read casually in the sense of encountering an old tale.

The history of relations between Korea and Europe before the Japanese colonial era (to 1919)

Traditionally, Korea was represented by two famous images (terms), one that I mentioned previously, ‘Land of the Morning Calm,’ and the other is ‘the Hermit Nation’.¹ This image was a counterpart of the image of Japan as ‘The Land of the Rising Sun,’ two images implying similar impressions from Western visitors in response to Korea’s geographical isolation in Northeast Asia, unlike China and Japan.

Isolated geographically on the Korean Peninsula and blocked for centuries by China and Japan, Koreans were themselves prevented from reaching out to and contacting European or Western countries. For this reason, the first encounters of Korea with Europe occurred much later than those of China-Europe and Europe-Japan. Based on historical research, Lach stated that Chinese-European international relations were established during the Mongol Empire era (at the end of the thirteenth century).² In contrast, the Japanese first made contact with Europeans in 1543, when Portuguese who were travelling on a Chinese ship that eventually drifted to Tanegashima possessed two matchlock guns.³ However, Koreans did not make any contact with other Europeans until 1604, when Chosun dynasty naval forces captured a Tokugawa Japanese merchant vessel sailing to Cambodia and encountered a Portuguese merchant named Juan Mendes who was onboard.⁴ At this time, China and Japan had already established strong commercial relationships with Europe, but Korea chose to continue to keep its doors closed to foreigners. Despite the closed-door policy, the Chosun dynasty had two famous cases of European encounters before being opened by Japanese Imperial force, one with Jan Janse de Weltevree (Korean name Park-Yeon) and the other with Hendrick Hamel. Both men originally came from Holland and accidentally drifted to the Korean peninsula but chose a completely different way of life from their previous ones.

Jan Janse de Weltevree became the first European to settle on the Korean Peninsula after trying to reach Japan in 1627 but instead came ashore near Jeju Island. When he was captured on Jeju Island, local government officials quickly transported him to the capital as a criminal. Usually, the Chosun dynasty sent foreigners immediately to China, but at that time, China was in a civil war between the Ming dynasty and the Qing dynasty; therefore, he could not be sent to China. Officials of the Chosun dynasty also tried to send him to Japan, but Japan did not accept him because he was Christian. During the Manchu War of 1636, de Weltevree participated in the defence of the Chosun dynasty and became an officer of the Korean army because of his extensive knowledge about Western weapons. Originally an employee of the Dutch East India Company, he eventually gave up the hope of returning to his country and settled down in Korea, married a Korean woman, and had two children.⁵ When Hendrick Hamel arrived by boat in Korea, he acted as an interpreter for his fellow Dutchman to the Koreans.⁶

Our second case, Hendrick Hamel, is arguably the most famous European visitor to Korea prior to modern history. Hamel landed on Jeju Island on 16 August 1653, and on 29 October met Jan Janse de Weltevree, who recommended that Hamel not try to go to Japan because the Japanese government persecuted Christians and might execute him. Furthermore, King Hyo-Jong, having himself experienced the life of a captive under the Qing dynasty, was originally generous to Hamel’s party. However, when two of Hamel’s colleagues pleaded for release from their captive life to a Qing dynasty envoy, they were refused. This incident aroused the anger of the Chosun government, which banished Hamel and his colleagues to Jeolla-do Province. In 1666, Hamel escaped the Korean peninsula to Japan and returned to Holland on 20 July 1668, 13 years after he had been captured in Korea.⁷

He wrote the famous An Account of the Shipwreck of a Dutch Vessel on the Coast of the Isle of Quelpaert and Kingdom of Corea. He had not intended to write a work of journalism but rather just wanted to receive 13 years of back wages from Dutch East India Company. Therefore, it was not intended as a work of literature but was translated to French and English and gave European people valuable information about Korea for the first time. Until his book Kingdom of Corea, Europe had almost no information on Korea, and it subsequently attracted a huge amount of interest. American citizens also received this information through an English version of the book. Although the book contained some wrong information and went into excessive detail about his difficulty in getting his full back wages from the Dutch East India Company, Hamel’s book had a huge influence on the history of Korea-Europe relations because it was translated into several languages in Europe and even influenced the American public.

After Hamel, in the nineteenth century, Korea was forced to open its doors to other countries, starting with Japan, America, and European countries. Before the imposition of Japanese colonisation, Korea established diplomatic ties with Western countries and entered a period of enlightenment (1876–1910). Under modern Western influence, Koreans experienced great changes in all areas of their society; from politics to peoples’ dai...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Endorsements
• Half Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Notes on contributors
• Foreword
• Introduction: a multi-faceted and multi-layered relationship
• Part 1 Historical evolution
• Part 2 Social and cultural relations
• Part 3 Economic relations
• Part 4 Science and technology, energy, and the environment
• Part 5 Politics and global governance
• Part 6 Bilateral relations
• Part 7 Security and the regional context
• Conclusion: future challenges in Korea-the EU relations
• Index