In his book “Shrimp to Whale: South Korea from the Forgotten War to K-Pop,” Ramon Pacheco Pardo, a professor of international relations at King’s College London, attempts to give a fuller picture of the country beyond Samsung and North Korea. Kalani Scarrott (05:29): I will touch on the book. Just curious who came up with the title of the book? Cause I love it. Kalani Scarrott (39:42): So, yeah. Cool. Ramon, thank you so much for coming on today. I really appreciate it. I had a blast and yet cannot recommend your book us to anyone. Kalani Scarrott (35:20): And again, general, or even, you can apply this to Korea if you want, but have there been either any books or people maybe that have been influential in shaping you and your worldview? Change the plan you will roll onto at any time during your trial by visiting the “Settings & Account” section. What happens at the end of my trial?

It remains to be seen if the country can continue to shine as brightly as portrayed by Pardo, but Shrimp to Whale is an enjoyable read that does well to describe how South Korea became an improbable “whale” from its humble beginnings during the mid-20th century. This fascinating nonfiction picture book filled with stunning illustrations details the end of life for a whale, also known as a whale fall, when its body sinks to the ocean floor and becomes an energy-rich food source for organisms living in the deep sea. When a whale dies, its massive body silently sinks down, down, through the inky darkness, finally coming to rest on the silty seafloor. For the whale, it's the end of a 70-year-long life. But for a little-known community of deep-sea dwellers, it's a new beginning. First come the hungry hagfish, which can smell the whale from miles around. Then the sleeper sharks begin their prowl, feasting on skin and blubber. After about six months, the meat is gone. Year after year, decade after decade, the whale nourishes all kinds of organisms from zombie worms to squat lobsters to deep-sea microbes. This completely fascinating real-life phenomenon is brought to vivid and poetic life by nonfiction master Melissa Stewart and acclaimed illustrator Rob Dunlavey. Yet South Korea endures: today it is a boisterous democracy, a vibrant market economy, a tech powerhouse, and home to the coolest of cultures. In just seventy years, this society has grown from a shrimp into a whale. What explains this extraordinary transformation? For some, it was individual South Koreans who fought to change their country, and still strive to shape it. In a sense it was the election. So, okay, let’s stop with the election, because then of course after the election you could have carried on, right? more things happening, right? Like Extraordinary Attorney Woo, right? The new drama becoming successful, but you cannot just keep having everything, right? and, and that was a bit of a challenge. and the final one, which is a challenge, of course, you have a word limit. and I didn’t, I really didn’t want to go beyond, beyond the word limit. So sometimes you have to make choices and you say, Well this interesting, right? But I don’t have the space to discuss it. Let’s say, for example in Korean manga, right? which is something, it has been sector that has been growing right? Especially the stories that people read on their, on their, on their mobile phones, for example. Strongman Rhee Syngman, who first came to power by winning an election in 1948 that led to the formal creation of the Republic of Korea (South Korea), oversaw the nation’s gradual recovery from the war, but also entrenched an authoritarian system that was to remain intact until the 1980s.Shrimp to Whale is a lively history of South Korea, from its millennia-old roots, through the division of the Peninsula, dictatorship and economic growth, to today’s global powerhouse. About the author

However, no account of South Korea could be complete without mentioning its impressive soft power gained from its pop culture, comprising world-famous K-Pop bands, Korean movies, TV dramas, and authors, which first conquered Asia, and then much of the world. Yet even here, there is a practical aspect to its development, which was fostered and supported by the country’s authorities who wanted Korean movies and music to spread overseas and attract the wallets of foreign consumers. Other notable leaders include Park Jung-hee, who came to power in a coup in 1961 as a general before being assassinated in 1979; Roh Tae-woo, whose reign began in 1988 with the nation’s transition into a full democracy; and Kim Dae-jung, whose “Sunshine Policy” in the late 1990s led to widening exchanges with North Korea and the first-ever inter-Korean summit.Ramon Pacheco Pardo (38:17): I mean as you mentioned, we discuss in the beginning, right? I’m working in London and Brussels right working at Kings College and University of Brussels. And other than that, I’m in Korea really most of the time, right? As often as possible. and the book, from what I understand I mean it is available in bookstore for sure. I’ve seen it in London, in Brussels, in the US as well actually in Korea, places such as, such as Kyoto. But many readers have told me that in the countries not for sale, So just buy it online, right? I know in many European countries, I said the US, Korea is definitely available, but I do know that many people are telling me, Look, I just bought it online because that was the easiest thing for me to do. And I’m not going to name any platforms, but that different platforms, of course, and that’s where you can get it. As South Korea progressed, its northern neighbor and fellow Koreans continued to go the other way, becoming more isolated and destitute under an authoritarian regime led by the Kim dynasty. There are brief moments of solidarity, such as the “Sunshine Policy” under South Korea’s Kim Dae-jung and North Korea’s Kim Jong-il which established economic, tourism and family reunion exchanges, but these dried up over the last decade. As a result, relations between the two, which are still technically at war, remain precarious. Meanwhile, showing that even leaders are not untouchable in modern South Korea, several former presidents have been tried for corruption, with one, Roo Moo-hyun, tragically committing suicide, while another president Park Geun-hye was impeached during her reign for corruption in 2016. But what “Shrimp to Whale” does well is to provide snapshots of some of Korea’s most crucial moments in snappy, digestible paragraphs. These include when King Sejong the Great, the fourth ruler of the Joseon Dynasty of Korea, created Korea’s native alphabet known as Hangeul; the country’s path to democracy that came after Japan’s colonial rule; and the Korean War. He touches upon crucial K-pop moments too, including when soloist BoA first topped the music charts in Japan with her debut album in 2002.

If there’s a country that “punches above its weight”, it’s South Korea. It’s home to some of the world’s largest and most important companies, and the source of pop culture that dominates Asia—and even planted a foothold in the West. Pardo said he was blown away by “how full of life” South Korea was when he first came to the country in 2003 as a student. Originally from Spain, both countries went through a dictatorship coinciding with a period of economic development before transitioning to democracy. These similarities were what first motivated him to experience living in South Korea.Ramon Pacheco Pardo is Professor of International Relations at King’s College London, and KF-VUB Korea Chair at the Brussels School of Governance. He is also a non-resident adjunct fellow with the Center for Strategic Studies Korea Chair, and a non-resident fellow at the Sejong Institute. Kalani Scarrott (32:12): Ah, okay. Wow. The more you know. So before I get into my closing round of questions that I ask every guest, is there anything we haven’t talked about that’s consequential about the future of South Korea, in your opinion?

So I think innovation really is, is where Korea can thrive. I think it’s well known there is a population decline. Of course, some people see this as a challenge. but then I think there is a debate there because it can be a challenge if there are less workers, but we focus on the economy. Something interesting that you see in Koreas that focus on these less labor intensive sectors, cause it doesn’t have enough workers, right? And more focused on these high tech, capital intensive sectors. Plus, for example something very interesting, whenever I visit the increasing presence of robots actually before it was in factories only, but now you go to the airport or you go to a restaurant and you see robots because they simply don’t have enough workers, right? So robots, for example, they will take your dishes, you know, once they’re dirty instead of a waiter doing this because they don’t have enough, right? Libertinage is, in contemporary parlance, problematic. Giacomo Casanova (1725-98), the great seducer, may be a fascinating historical figure but, notes his latest biographer Leo Damrosch, his story “is often disturbing and sometimes very dark”. Not all the bedpost notches that Casanova recounted in his own version of his career, Histoire de ma vie, were fully consensual: there were plenty of willing wives but also pre-teen girls, girls prostituted by their parents, mother-and-daughter threesomes and, in one case, his own daughter. Casanova’s get-out clause was that he believed women were entitled to pleasure too and, what’s more, he was almost permanently in love. Casanova was more than just a libido, however. He was a mathematician, lawyer, man of letters and librarian – as well as a con man, gambler and liar – whose professional and personal urgings took him across Europe, where he met many of the great men of the age. A contemporary declared that Casanova “would have been a very handsome man if he hadn’t been ugly” but ugly or not, morally reprehensible or not, truthful or not, in Damrosch’s adroit and balanced narration he is never less than enthralling. You may also opt to downgrade to Standard Digital, a robust journalistic offering that fulfils many user’s needs. Compare Standard and Premium Digital here.

This is a book by someone who adores South Korea and has done so since his first trip there as a student. […] Pacheco Pardo captures the remarkable scope of recent triumphs that give South Korea both agility — as Moon’s diplomacy has shown — and the affection of a global audience.’ — Financial Times