2026-06-25 –, Room 201 (Seats 42)
This session explores how U.S. aid and transnational mobility reshaped South Korea’s institutions, infrastructures, and state formation from the 1950s to the 1970s. Moving beyond a state-centric diplomatic narrative, the panel approaches aid as a multidirectional process involving the circulation and appropriation of people, knowledge, technology, and financial models across Cold War East Asia.
The papers shed light on different dimensions of these mobilities. One analyzes the contested movement of Zainichi Koreans in Japan, highlighting how repatriation and border control regimes exposed the tensions between mobility and sovereignty. Another explores the reconstruction of the Seoul–Busan highway, showing how military-led infrastructure projects facilitated the transfer of technical expertise and the growth of civilian engineering capacity. A third investigates the establishment of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science (KAIS), demonstrating how American technical assistance was selectively appropriated to institutionalize scientific expertise and consolidate a developmental state. The final paper considers U.S. aid officials’ perceptions of traditional rotating credit associations (kye) and their relationship to agricultural cooperatives, revealing how local financial practices were reconfigured within broader development frameworks.
Together, these studies questions the assumption that the South Korean developmental state emerged from domestic initiative or American imposition to emphasize complex negotiations within Cold War transnational networks. By foregrounding mobility and institutional transformation, this session attempts to situate Korean history within wider debates in Cold War studies, development history, and global history.
Cold War, mobilities, technology, capital, migration, aid
Modernizing and Masculinizing the Nation through Cold War Technological Aid and Appropriation: KIST, KAIS, and Technological Elites in South Korea (1960s-70s)
Abstract for Additional Participant 1:This presentation examines South Korea’s development of science and technology in the 1960s and 1970s through U.S. technological aid within Cold War connections and state-led developmentalism. It argues that such aid was not merely external support for economic growth, but a state-driven process of appropriating foreign knowledge and institutional models for nation-building. Amid rapid industrialization, the South Korean government identified science and technology as central to national development. A critical turning point came with the establishment of the Korean Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) in 1966 and its transformation into the Korea Advanced Institute of Science (KAIS) in 1971. Rather than representing simple transplatation, these institutions reflected active appropriation by state and technocratic actors, who postitioned themselves as agents of modernity and leaders of national progress. In doing so, Cold War technological aid simultaneously enabled transnational exchange and reinforced domestic nation-building.
Title for Additional Participant 2:Sealed Cross-Border Mobility and Everyday State Violence: Zainichi Koreans’ Demands for free movement to North Korea in the 1960s
Abstract for Additional Participant 2:This study analyzes the 1960s Zainichi Koreans(Koreans in Japan) demands for cross-border mobility between Japan and North Korea (DPRK). Following South Korea’s vehement opposition, Japan imposed travel restrictions on Zainichi Koreans, echoing South Korean interests. This paper explores how minority mobility is thwarted not only by nationality and ideology but also by the Cold War geopolitical landscape. It argues that the issue of Zainichi Koreans was not merely an internal Japanese matter but was significantly shaped by the intervention of an external actor: South Korea. this paper examines legal entry and exit frameworks to reveal the “ordinary lives” of Zainichi Koreans and the existence of multifaceted state violence perpetrated by diverse actors. finally this study reveals a defining characteristic of the 1960s Northeast Asian political order, where minority rights were sacrificed for regional power dynamics.
Title for Additional Participant 3:Roadway to renaissance: The road construction from Seoul to Pusan in 1950s ―focusing on the America’s technical training and the changes of Korean engineers
Abstract for Additional Participant 3:This study examines the evolution of Korean road construction in the 1950s, focusing on the Seoul-Pusan route. U.S. 8th Army’s 1951 Road Improvement Plan provided essential technical training for Korean engineers. This foundation transitioned into a civilian-centric approach with the 1957 Road Pavement Plan. Supervised by U.S. aid agencies, this empowered Korean construction firms, such as Hyundai Construction, to accumulate critical technical expertise. By analyzing these infrastructure developments, this research argues that the technical and human capital cultivated during this decade established the necessary foundations for Korea’s full-scale industrialization in the 1960s, bridging the gap between wartime devastation and rapid economic growth.
Title for Additional Participant 4:U.S. Aid Authorities’ Perceptions and Responses to Traditional Financial Systems in 1950s East Asia : From ROSCAs to Cooperatives
Abstract for Additional Participant 4:This study examines how U.S. aid authorities perceived and responded to rotating savings and credit associations (ROSCAs) in post-liberation Korea, focusing on gye, which became a major social concern during the late-1950s “gye crisis,” and its relationship to the expansion of agricultural cooperatives in the 1960s. Amid acute inflation and restricted bank lending, Koreans relied heavily on private financial mechanisms such as gye, mujin, and moneylending, but cascading failures of gye organizations prompted government countermeasures, including public-interest pawnshops. U.S. aid officials, who convened rural development conferences across East Asia, treated traditional finance as a key policy issue. Observing an inverse correlation between cooperative growth and the decline of gye, they promoted agricultural cooperatives as a formal, transferable alternative to ROSCAs. This study moves beyond a state-centered narrative to reinterpret popular finance and financial reform in 1950s–60s Korea within a broader transnational framework
Seung Woo is Assistant Professor, Department of History at Hanyang University. His latest research includes South Korea's external debt management and the way in which technocrats leveraged indebtedness to introduce liberalization policies under the new military government of the 1980s. He also explores the economic relations between North Korea and Sweden in the 1970s and 1980s.
forthcoming
forthcoming
forthcoming
forthcoming