Harvard's Relations With South Korea

The decision to give South Korean dissident Kim Dae Jung a fellowship last spring from the prestigious fellows program at Harvard's Center for International Affairs is another chapter in the controversial relationship that Harvard has had with South Korea Most memorably, the University accepted a $1 million dollar contribution from a South Korean government organization which prompted a debate about whether it was proper to take money from the authoritarian regime.

The $1 million grant that Harvard received in 1975 was from the Korean Traders Association (KTA), and was used to establish a chair in Modern Korean Economy and Society Some members of the academic community expressed concern at the time that the gift not have political attachments to it. These sentiments subsequently led to Harvard's inclusion in a Congressional sub-committee investigation on Korean-American relations in 1977.

The report of this investigation, published in 1978, found that the KTA "provided the funds after being directed to do so by the highest level of Korean government." But University officials at the time assured the subcommittee that there were no stipulations that accompanied the funds.

This was the result of extensive negotiations between Harvard and Korean representatives which included a modification of the title of the chair.

"The KTA made a political decision not to include the word 'politics' in the charter for the chair," says Edward W. Wagner, Director of Harvard's Korea Institute, which he says does not benefit in any way from the gift. The chair has yet to be filled, but has supported several temporary appointments including the current junior faculty position of Karl Moscowitz. The endowment also currently funds three courses in Korean economics and history, Wagner says.

Visiting lecturer Vincent S. R. Brandt, who presently teaches one of the three course, says that "there is a political question involved" in the still unfilled chair. He says, "General feeling was that it was awkward to take the money and appoint an activist [against the Korean government], but on the other hand it was not in Harvard's interest to appoint an apologist for the South Korean government.

Niemans

South Koreans have also been suspended from participating in the Nieman Foundation for Journalism since 1974 James B. Thomson, director of the Nieman Fellowship program, explains that the decision to "put Korea on hold" was on the advice of Koreans who are alumni of the program.

"Nieman Fellows receive fellowships so that the journalists may go home and practice the craft of journalism with some modicum of freedom. In Korea, it's a special case of government oppression," says Thomson However, there are journalists from similar political climates in the Nieman program--from Poland and China--but Thomson says that in Korea's case. "We like to avoid countries ... that are closing down.

Wagner calls this decision "wrong". He adds, "If you don't have anything to do with a regime like that, you throw away an opportunity to influence a situation." The Korea Institute, which Wagner heads, and other Harvard research centers have maintained open relations with Korea.

The academic ties to Korea are reinforced by Korea's financial contributions to several programs and institutes. Wagner says that there was a "small grant" to the Korea Institute made by the Korean Research Organization last fall to help publish an English lay journal of Korean studies. Other joint Harvard Korean projects include a ten volume analysis of the modernization of Korea, of which nine have been completed, written in a cooperative effort between the Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID) and the Korea Development Institute.

The most visible connection between Harvard and Korea is this exchange of scholarship and of scholars. Last spring, Harvard's Mason Fellows a one-year program in public administration for middle-level officials from developing countries directed from HIID, traveled for ten days through Korea to learn from the Korean experience first-hand. Similarly, Harvard's Graduate School of Design announced last spring that a new program aimed at teaching land planning skills to foreign professionals would open with a group of eight executives from the Korea Land Development Corporation.

It appears that since the 1970s when Harvard's connections with Korea were controversial enough to involve Harvard in the Congressional investigation, there has been a lessening of attention focusing on these ties, but no clear affirmation of any particular policy.

"It's very difficult to say that you're going to cut off all relations with any government that doesn't live up to your standards," says Wagner. "There is a general trend in the lessening of these standards I feel general optimism."