Anti-Communism Boy, a Mascot for South Korea: Lee Seung-bok and the Culture of North Korean Threats | Danny Kim

In 1968 in a small South Korean village in Pyeongchang County, commandos from North Korea on an infiltration mission stumbled across Lee Seung-bok, a boy of nine years of age. The soldiers, part of a larger campaign to assassinate the South Korean president Park Chunghee, killed the young boy along with most of the members of his family. During the attack, the nine year old boy was reported to have shouted “I hate the Communist Party” before his death. This phrase soon became a rallying cry for anti-communists and Lee was immortalized as a mascot, with the so-called “Anti-Communism Boy” (Bangong sonyeon) soon commemorated in songs, a memorial hall, elementary textbooks, and bronze statues featured in primary schools throughout the South. This talk traces Lee’s tale of martyrdom as a barometer for shifting attitudes towards North Korea from the 1960s to the present day.
 

Danny Kim is Assistant Professor of Asian History at California State University, Fresno. His current research is on the Rose of Sharon Alliance (Kŭnuhoe), a revolutionary Korean feminist organization with branches throughout the Japanese Empire during the colonial period (1910-1945). Professor Kim received his PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, after which he taught and conducted research at Portland State University and Korea University before joining the faculty at CSU Fresno.

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