Leiden University Student Repository

Kablau, Floris (2021)

Reconciliation in the face of polarisation: An analysis of the transitional justice efforts navigation of South Korean political discourse

Bachelor thesis | International Studies (BA)

Born in the wake of the Second World War, moulded by the polarisation of the Cold War and diametrically opposed to its Northern counterpart, South Korea’s domestic history and the arising memory issues are among the issues that were deemed worthy of addressing by the conception of the 2005 Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Korea (TRCK). The truth-seeking activities of a truth and reconciliation commission tap into the larger debate on transitional versus punitive justice. This thesis will argue that South Korean politics are polarised along the same moral issues as the debate around the merits of a truth and reconciliation commission and that in the crossroads of the goals of a truth and reconciliation commission and the South Korean political context it tried to operate in lies a reflection of the structural problems of a truth and reconciliation commission.

South Korea

reconciliation

conservative

progressive

transitional justice

Author

Kablau, Floris

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

East Asia

Supervisors

Veldkamp, E.
Green, C.K.

ECTS Credits

15

Language

en