Breaking the Myth of Nuclear Power Omnipotence in the Cold War era: Discourse on Nuclear Power and the Movement against the Construction of Nuclear Power Plants in South Korea in the 1980s and early 1990s

IF 0.2 Q2 HISTORY
Sangrok Lee
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Abstract

In South Korea, the frontline of the Cold War in East Asia, an active anti-nuclear movement could not emerge until the 1970s due to the effects of Korean War, national division, and the Cold War culture. In the 1970s, youth activists, religious figures, and intellectuals who opposed the military regime became concerned about environmental issues as a reaction to the adverse effects of industrialization pursued by the military. In the 1980s, the ecological movement gave way to the anti-nuclear peace movement, which confronted the security discourse that dominated the Cold War era. The South Korean democratization movement of the 1980s overcame and transcended Cold War factionalism on an ideological level, and as a result, anti-nuclear peace activists opposed the nuclear disarmament of the Korean Peninsula and called for the abolition of nuclear power plants. Based on anti-foreign nationalism, they used a discourse that directly linked individual life, safety, and health rights to national survival and peace, and treated nuclear weapons as a symbol of imperialist oppression.Environmentalist organizations, such as the ‘Anti-Pollution Movement Association’, actively engaged in solidarity activities with local residents' protests against the construction of nuclear power plants and nuclear waste sites. As the case of Yeonggwang-gun, Jeollanam-do shows, the difference in position between the local residents who pursued economic compensation and the establishment of a sustainable basis for livelihood and the environmental movement group that pursued the public spread of the anti-nuclear movement led to distrust and conflict, despite the devoted solidarity of both sides. As the case of Anmyeonisland shows, conflicts between residents were intensified by monetary inducements from government organizations, undermining their everyday relationships. Nevertheless, the anti-nuclear movement in Korea from the late 1980s to the early 1990s contributed greatly to breaking the myth of nuclear power omnipotence in the Cold War era, revealing the ecological agenda to Korean society, and laying the foundation for the growth of the eco-environmental movement in the 1990s.
打破冷战时代核电无所不能的神话:20世纪80年代至90年代初韩国核电话语与反对建设核电站运动
在东亚冷战前线的韩国,由于6•25战争、民族分裂和冷战文化的影响,直到20世纪70年代才出现了积极的反核运动。20世纪70年代,反对军事政权的青年运动家、宗教人士和知识分子开始关注环境问题,这是对军队追求工业化的不利影响的反应。在20世纪80年代,生态运动让位于反核和平运动,后者面对的是主导冷战时代的安全话语。20世纪80年代的民主化运动在意识形态上克服并超越了冷战时期的派系斗争,因此反核和平运动人士反对韩半岛核裁军,呼吁废除核电站。他们以排外的民族主义为基础,将个人的生命、安全、健康权利与民族的生存与和平直接联系起来,将核武器视为帝国主义压迫的象征。“反污染运动协会”等环保组织积极声援当地居民反对建设核电站和核废料场的抗议活动。以全罗南道永光郡为例,主张经济补偿和建立可持续生活基础的当地居民和主张反核运动的环境运动团体的立场不同,虽然双方团结一致,但却产生了不信任和冲突。从安民岛事件可以看出,居民之间的矛盾因政府机关的金钱诱惑而加剧,破坏了他们的日常关系。然而,20世纪80年代末至90年代初韩国的反核运动,对打破冷战时期核电无所不能的神话,向韩国社会揭示生态议程,为90年代生态环境运动的发展奠定了基础,做出了重大贡献。
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