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How change in South Korea changes the North

Book analyzes South’s moves toward democracy and resulting inter-Korean shifts
Gianluca Spezza April 11, 2014
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How change in South Korea changes the North
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Book Review: “Contentious Activism & Inter-Korean Relations”, by Danielle L. Chubb, Columbia University Press, 2014.

How much is it possible to learn about North Korean human rights or the question of reunification through a book focusing on South Korea’s domestic politics? Quite a lot, if the book takes the right approach; this is certainly the case for Australian researcher Danielle Chubb’s first work.

Contentious Activism and Inter-Korean Relationsanalyzes four historical junctures, four case studies that have marked the South Korean journey towards democratization, and at the same time have been also very important for the development and the reshaping

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About the Author

Gianluca Spezza

Gianluca Spezza

Gianluca Spezza earned his PhD in 2017 from the University of Central Lancashire under the supervision of Professor Hazel Smith, on the strength of research on the cooperation between UNICEF and the DPRK in education and childcare. Dr Spezza is an assistant professor of international relations and a senior researcher at the DPRK Strategy Center at KIMEP University in Almaty, Kazakhstan; he is writing a monograph on education, international cooperation, and human capital in North Korea (Palgrave 2021). His work on the DPRK, articles or interviews, can be found, among others, on the websites of the BBC, The Guardian, The Diplomat, IRIN News, NK News, DR.dk, Newsweek Korea, and El Confidential.

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