When World Politics Fails a People

There was never a peace treaty between North and South Korea to end the 1950–53 US-Soviet proxy war on the Korean Peninsula – only a ceasefire. Families were divided, and the two nations’ economies, politics and societies developed in diametrically opposite directions.

How do North and South Koreans view each other today, more than 70 years later? Song Byeok was a propaganda artist in North Korea when he managed to defect to South Korea in 2002. He now lives in Europe and works as a satirical cartoonist and artist. Bora Chung is a renowned South Korean fiction writer who has made a name for herself as an outspoken critic of Korean politics and what she sees as its authoritarian turn.

The two meet Morten Traavik, who has immersed himself in both North and South Korea through art projects and documentary films. The three discuss how art, literature and humour can challenge Korea’s collective trauma.

The event will be held in English and Korean and interpreted into Norwegian.