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Creating Harmony: In Conversation with Hyung-Joon Woon

I insist the solution be music. Hyung-Joon Won, South Korean violinist, spoke this line while giving a talk at Merton College. It speaks volumes about his mission to bridge the gap between the two Koreas by bringing together musicians from both sides, which he has made his life’s work.  Born in a divided country, Won seeks to find ways to heal its wounds: a dedicated musician and conductor, he advocates for promoting peace on the Korean Peninsula through providing a platform for exchange in which North and South Koreans can share the stage. He has performed in various countries, especially his concerts with a North Korean musician in China and Sweden last year. Speaking about the various obstacles he encountered in his efforts to make an inter-Korean performance possible, the sense of urgency that he attached to such initiatives was apparent as he painted a compelling picture of his musical journey. Hyung-Joon Won Won’s personal connection to North Korea also underlies his
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Removing the Veil: a Possible Solution to the North Korean Problem

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I- I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference."  -  Robert Frost, 'The Road Not Taken'   When the darkness came down with a few drops of rain in Oxford, a few students, including myself, walked through a cobblestone lane. When we finally reached the top of a circular staircase that seemed as though it appeared in Harry Potter, we saw a group of students lined up in front of a room with warm lights. This event, filled with students, was nothing but a lecture on "How do you solve a problem like North Korea?" by Edward Howell, an expert on North Korea. As most would assume from the title of the event, the talk started with big questions: "Why is North Korea a problem to the international community? Can we actually solve this problem? What does it mean to ‘solve’ the problem?" In response to these questions, Howell emphasized that we do not really know about North Korea. In fact

The Korean War; 'a Horror that I Cannot Express in Words'

"I shrink - I shrink with a horror that I cannot express in words. The war in Korea has already almost destroyed that nation of 20,000,000 people. I have never seen such devastation. I have seen, I guess, as much blood and disaster as any living man, and it just curdled my stomach the last time I was there. After I looked at the wreckage and those thousands of women and children and everything, I vomited… if you go on indefinitely, you are perpetuating a slaughter such as I have never heard of in the history of mankind." - General MacArthur to the Senate's Committee on Armed Services and Committee on Foreign Relations  The Korean war has often been called a ‘proxy’ war between America and the capitalist West, and communist China and North Korea, the first of the Cold War period. The conflict was instigated by North Korean troops of the North Korean Peoples’ Army crossing the 38 th  parallel into The Republic of Korea on 25 June 1950. The invasion