Pollution Disasters and Anti-Pollution Movements of South Korea in the 1970s

 

The problem of environmental pollution in South Korea became prominent in the 1960s and escalated into a “disaster” situation in the 1970s. This talk focuses on complaints and litigation activities centered on residents of high-pollution areas in the 1970s, when environmental pollution became a serious problem in South Korea. These residents fought for the right to live as victims, who had been hidden behind economic development, exports, and growth at the time and until now. Ko will examine their struggle for the right to live, and highlight the problems of the pollution control system and government administration at the time. In addition, by examining the historical significance and limitations of the pollution problem in the 1970s, we would like to consider the relationship between the Global North and the Global South today. This study can be said to be a kind of “people's history of pollution”. It is also part of Ko’s long-term plan to publish a book called “A History of Environmental Pollution in Korea in the 20th Century”.

 

 

Taewoo Ko (고태우) is an assistant professor in the Department of Korean History at Seoul National University in South Korea, and is studying modern Korean history and environmental history of the 20th century. In his doctoral dissertation, he revealed how Japanese-centered civil engineering contractors formed relationships with the Japanese Government-General of Korea in colonial Joseon and pursued profits, and the limitations of colonial development in the process. In 2019 after receiving his Ph.D., he became a research professor at Chosun University, Gwangju City, and was appointed the Department of Korean History at Seoul National University in 2020. Along with research on colonial Korea, he is currently researching the environmental history of East Asia, focusing on Korea in the 20th century. He historically examines environmental pollution, human responses to disasters, and the destruction and restoration of ecosystems in Korea under a critical perspective on capitalism. He is also interested in the Anthropocene/Capitalocene and post-humanism.