Truth & Reconciliation: Remembering War Crimes on the Korean Peninsula, 1948-1953

South Korea’s Truth & Reconciliation Commission is the first of its kind in Northeast Asia. Established by South Korea’s National Assembly in 2005, the Commission’s mandate includes finding the truth behind massacres of civilians before and during the Korean War, and human rights abuses perpetrated by South Korea’s authoritarian regimes.

The establishment of this Truth and Reconciliation Commission represents a dramatic change from the silence that was imposed by past authoritarian regimes in South Korea about massacres of civilians committed by U.S. forces and the South Korean police/military both before and during the Korean War.

1] Columbia University, Center for Korean Research

DATE:Tuesday, MARCH 24, 2009: 4:00-6:30 pm

LOCATION: 918 International Affairs Building

4:00: Welcoming remarks: Charles Armstrong, Director of the Center for Korean Research, Columbia University

4:20-5:00: Dong-Choon Kim, Ph.D. (Standing Commissioner, Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Korea): “Uncovering Hidden Stories of the Korean War: The Work of the Truth & Reconciliation Commission.”

5:00-5:40: Hee Kyung Suh, Ph.D. (Investigation Bureau, TRC): “TRC’s Verification Process for Mass Civilian Killings during the Korean War”

5:40-6:00: Discussant’s response: Lisa Yoneyama (University of California, San Diego) and Henry Em (NYU)

6:00-6:30:Audience Q&A

2) NYU, Department of East Asian Studies Korean Studies Colloquium

DATE: Wednesday, MARCH 25, 2009: 5:00-6:30 pm

LOCATION: 715 Broadway, Room 312

*Seating is limited. R.S.V.P. to Nicole: nicole.pandolfo@nyu.edu

NYU faculty and graduate students will have priority.

5:00-5:10:Welcome: Henry Em, Associate Professor, Dept. of East Asian Studies, NYU

5:10-6:00:Speaker: Dong-Choon Kim, Ph.D.

Standing Commissioner, Truth & Reconciliation Commission, Korea

“Uncovering Hidden Stories of the Korean War: The Work of the Truth & Reconciliation Commission”

6:00-6:15:Discussant:

Charles J. Hanley, Special Correspondent, The Associated Press

co-recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for investigative journalism into the massacre at Nogunri

6:15-6:30:Audience Q & A

6:30-7:00 Reception

Co-sponsored by the Center for Korean Research (Columbia University) & the Department of East Asian Studies (New York University)

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/ckr/events.html

http://www.nyu.edu/pages/east.asian.studies/

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