Since the 1990s, South Korea has enthusiastically developed and applied digital technologies to every sector of economic and social life, and constructed the most intensively connected society in the world. This thesis explores the impact of Digital Korea on the country s cultural industries, focussing particularly on the main audio-visual industries of broadcasting and film. While the push to digitalise Korea has been enthusiastically pursued by successive national governments with the aim of ensuring that Korea maintains its status as a key world economy as the leading edge of capitalism shifts from an industrial to an information base, to fully understand the forms it has taken and its impacts national initiatives have to be placed in the wider context of shifts in the global trading system. With the rise of neo-liberalism across the globe and the perceived ineffectiveness of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in extending multi-lateral trade, both emerging and developed economies have increasingly embraced Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). In line with this trend, South Korea has signed FTAs with the USA, the European Union (EU) and The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). This thesis explores the interplay between national initiatives and global trade through a detailed case study of the US-led FTA with South Korea (KORUS-FTA) focusing particularly on its implications for the Audiovisual Sector and the accompanying, and pivotal, debates around Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs). The KORUS FTA simultaneously opened the Korean market to American audiovisual content and strengthened existing national IPR laws to match the provisions prevailing within the US. Both these moves were opposed within Korea on the grounds that they operated unequally, to the advantage of the US and the detriment of national production that had, in recent years, enjoyed considerable success in export markets, creating what came to be known as the Korean Wave . In addition utilising the extensive corpus of available public documentation the analysis presented here draws on two original research exercises: in depth interviews with experts in international trade and intellectual property rights, conducted in South Korea, the UK and Switzerland (in Geneva, at the WTO Forum 2008), and a web-based survey of a cross section of professionals working in the Korean broadcasting industry. The results obtained show that while Korean economists followed the government in arguing that signing the FTA with the US was essential if Korea was to remain a major player in the global economy, a majority of those working in the audiovisual sector believed that the terms of the agreement, particularly the imposition of US-style IPR laws, disproportionately favoured US interests and would weaken the strong position the sector had achieved in recent years and impede its future growth.

自由貿易有利有弊，一方面為國內經濟的出口優勢產業開拓新市場，另一方面伴隨著撤除各種貿易壁壘措施，將會使國內弱勢、內需產業遭到衝擊，無法避免國外進口不斷增加帶來的傷害。因此在自由貿易過程中，政府如何制訂對進口競爭引起衝擊的相關救濟問題與貿易調整協助措施，或是補償措施逐漸受到重視，例如美國自1962年開始採取的貿易援助法案(Trade Adjustment Assistance, TAA)，後改為貿易調整協助方案，旨在透過協助方式協助貿易自由化下容易受到衝擊的產業與勞工，而韓國也因簽訂美韓 FTA 而制定相似的救濟政策。 本文以韓美FTA作為個案討論，研究發現以韓國角度來看，韓美FTA簽訂快速的原因包含政府及人民的大多數支持、韓國政府對受衝擊產業制定各項因應措施等因素。而這些因應措施無論是在談判階段或是協議簽訂後，都不斷在修正與制定，以達到符合協助受衝擊產業之目的。 / Free trade is accompanied by advantages and disadvantages, it could expand new markets for the export advantageous industries; on the other hand, it could affect the disadvantageous minority industries while removing trade barriers.　Thus, it is important how the government sets up the countermeasures or the indemnify measures to ease the harm that foreign import products bring. For instance, the United States have adopted Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) since 1962, it is meant to assist industries and workers that are affected by free trade. South Korea has established similar countermeasures since KORUS FTA was concluded. This study is a case study of KORUS FTA . It shows that from South Korea’s perspective, it has support among government and people, Korean government has established countermeasures for the affected industries, and all these factors made KOURS FTA took less time to sign than South Korea’s most FTAs. These countermeasures were being amended during the negotiation process and after the FTA was concluded, in order to achieve the goal of assisting affected industries.

This paper examines the different attitudes of the Republic of Korea (South Korea) and the United States of America with regards to the Kaesong Industrial Complex, a joint inter-Korean economic project located in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea). The paper uses the theoretical framework of Social Constructivism to analyze the different ideas available in the political discourse of both actors with regards to North Korean policy in general and policy towards Kaesong specifically. The paper relates these ideas to the positions both actors have taken with regards to the inclusion of Kaesong products in the S. Korean-U.S. FTA.