Editorial Note

Our spring 2015 issue contains seven substantial articles on Chosŏn and modern Korea that cover literature, history, law, political philosophy, music, and politics. We’re especially pleased to have an article about the resident Chinese population in North Korea, a topic about which little is known in the English-speaking world. This follows our fall 2014 issue guest edited by Ju Hui Judy Han and Jennifer Jihye Chun, “Gender and Politics in Contemporary Korea,” and we look forward to our next thematic issue this fall guest edited by Ted Hughes and Jina Kim, “Korean Culture, New Media, Digital Humanities.”

This will be the antepenultimate volume I will edit. After eight years of responsibility I have decided to relinquish my editorship of the journal with the spring 2016 volume. Ted Hughes and Charles Armstrong at Columbia University have graciously agreed to take over the editing and fundraising necessary to keep this journal growing, and our electronic presence through Project Muse and JSTOR make us more available than ever before. We have also added three new scholars to the board: Nojin Kwak, Jisoo Kim, and Judy Han.

And grow the journal has! While we were only able to issue single skimpy volumes through 2010, for the last four years we have managed to produce two fat volumes a year—a spring issue of miscellaneous articles and a thematic fall issue with a guest editor. All of this is thanks to the growth of the Korean Studies community and to the financial support of the Korea Foundation that makes publication of a quality journal of this size possible.

When the journal first started out in the 1970s finding enough articles to fill a volume was a big problem. Now we are starting to build up a backlog. Much of our spring 2016 issue is already full, and some articles are being scheduled for spring 2017. It soon may be time to increase the size of our journal to three issues a year. However, whether this is appropriate or not I will leave to the succeeding editors whom I trust to make excellent decisions. Let the Korea field continue to grow and prosper!