Korean Peace: Framing the Nexus of Movements, Identity and Peace

Abstract

The Korean War never officially ended, resulting in continued hostilities on the Korean Peninsula for over 70 years. International state-led diplomatic talks have achieved little success in reducing tensions. In these failures, there has been a grassroots social movement voicing demands for peace in the region. However, perspectives from this movement have not been given much consideration, thus, this thesis explores perspectives of Korean-identified activists involved in the Korean peace movement. Semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis were used to identity three overarching frames – han, jeong, and rights talk – which inform the activists’ views on conditions in the Korean Peninsula and their approaches to peace activism. Drawing on framing theory, as understood in social movement studies, these frames were analyzed in their three core framing tasks – diagnosis, motivation, and prognosis. Findings show a cultural context for peace activism, based in historical injustices, and centered around Korean identity. Peace is interpreted not as an end goal, but as a means to a right for greater self-determination.