5‧18 International Research Institute Agenda Forum: Sharing our parliamentary debate log(transcript)

On June 27, the 5‧18 Memorial Foundation's 5‧18 International Institute held a debate at the National Assembly on the topic of "5‧18 International Institute, How to Create?

Representatives Lee Hyeong-seok of the Democratic Party of Korea, Yoon Yeong-deok of the National Assembly, Seong Il-jong of the People's Power, Kim Hyeong-jung of the Institute for Democracy and Peace Studies at Chosun University, Song Kyeong-ho of Yonsei University, Kim Seok-dong of the Democratic Party of Korea, and many others participated in the discussion.

We share the transcript of the discussion below.

We would like to thank everyone who participated in the discussion and for their interest.

□ Discussion Overview

❍ Topic : 5‧18 International Research Institute, How to Create?

❍ Date and Time : June 27, 2023 (Tue) 10:00~11:30

❍ Location : 9th Conference Room, National Assembly Building

※ForumInformation : https://518.org/nsub.php?PID=0302&page=&category=&searchText=&searchType=&action=Read&idx=16

□ Discussion content

"The task ahead is to globalize and promote 5‧18,

The National Assembly should discuss together so that 5‧18 can be established as a revolution in world history."

❍ Lee Hyeong-seok (Member of the National Assembly, Democratic Party of Korea)

- Setting 5‧18 as an example of the realization of the Transitional Justice and meaningfully suggesting the role of the 5‧18 International Research Institute to study it

- Establishing 5‧18 as a model for democratic human rights in East Asia and setting the direction for revising the preamble to the Constitution should be assigned as tasks for the National Assembly in the future.

- What needs to be done now is to globalize 5‧18 and promote the spirit of 5‧18.

- Working together to secure a budget for the organization

"I hope that the 5‧18 International Institute will be an opportunity for us to spread our endless passion for freedom, translation, and democracy

for freedom, translation, and democracy around the world."

❍ Seong Il-jong (Member of the National Assembly)

- The globalization of the 5‧18 spirit is a presidential pledge, and the 5‧18 spirit is not a political party issue, but a national issue and an issue of all mankind.

- The spirit of 5‧18 is a universal value of humanity, and we need to gather opinions and support from everyone for the globalization of this value.

"Need to review the legal basis for the establishment of the 

5‧18 International Institute"

Yoon Yeong-deok (Member of the National Assembly, Democratic Party of Korea)

- It is unfortunate that the 5‧18 International Institute was started with insufficient budget, and if the research conditions are sufficient, the results of 5‧18 research can be shared with world citizens.

- The National Assembly needs to support the 5‧18 International Research Institute so that it can produce results.

- There are advantages and disadvantages of the national research institute level, local government level, and private level, and it is necessary to review laws that can bring together the central government, local governments, and the private sector based on governance that can bring together funding, research, and business.

"We need to expand the outreach of the 5‧18 Institute as an organization that promotes the spread of universal values,

"We need to give researchers a sense of ownership."

❍ Song Kyeong Ho (Specialized Researcher, Yonsei University)

- "We need to actively explore ways to increase the number of researchers who utilize 5‧18's primary data to make contact with their own research."

- Proposal for a Research Fellows Program to Nurture Researchers

- Propose research on world history in a way that evokes universal consensus

"Establishing the 5‧18 International Institute as a Possibility for International Cooperation on Democracy"

❍ Kim Seok dong (Research Fellow, Democracy Institute)

- Korea's successful democratization is an important means for international cooperation and needs to be established as a soft power for this purpose

- Need to revisit 5‧18 for constitutional revision

Contact +82 062-360-0572, nohsy12@518.org

+ Full transcript of the debate

Mr. Lee Hyeong-seok (Member of the National Assembly, Democratic Party of Korea): Yes, my name is Lee Hyeong-seok. I'm a little late, but I'm pleased to be here at the 5‧18 International Institute to host the 5‧18 International Institute Agenda Forum, and I'd like to especially thank Representative Seong Il-jong from the People's Power for being here and helping us a lot, and Representative Yoon Yeong-deok for being here as well. Now, I would like to thank Chairman Won Soon-seok, Executive Director Cho Jin-tae, and Dr. Yoo Kyeong-nam, Director of the 5‧18 International Research Institute, as well as many other members of the institute. I would like to thank Professor Kim Hyeong-joong for presenting the topic today, Professor Song Kyeong-ho and Research Fellow Kim Seok-dong for participating in the discussion, and especially Mr. Kim Young-hoon, Chairman of the 5‧18 Democracy Memorial Association, for being here with us. It's been 43 years, and I sometimes have a sense of shame, especially for the spirits and the survivors, that we still have to do this, "Should we still be doing this?" And on the other hand, there are still forces that are distorting and denigrating the 5‧18, so we are also fighting these people. So I think that what we really need to do now is to do things that are related to 5‧18 and to globalize 5‧18 and to promote a new spirit of 5‧18, and that's why I think it's so important that we're here today. As you all remember, when 5‧18 was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2011, there were two things that were said at UNESCO. The first was that 5‧18 was recognized for its contribution to the dismantling of the Cold War system and the democratization of governments in East Asia, and the second was the spirit of the Gwangju community during those 10 days, which, as you know, was unlike any other revolution in world history. I think it is very important for us to reorganize these parts of the history and to make it possible for us to place 5‧18 as one of the most important revolutions in world history. In that sense, I hope that today's agenda forum will be a good place to reestablish the future direction of the institute and the new value of the 5‧18 spirit.

In particular, I would like to thank Professor Ji Byeonggeun and Dr. Ahn Byeong cheol, who have always been with 5‧18, for being here today, and I hope that it will be a meaningful place where we can put our heads together and make 5‧18 new with good contents. Thank you again. Thank you very much.

Yoo Kyeong nam (Head of Research, 5‧18 International Institute): Yes, Representative Seong Il-jong, please speak.

Seong Il-jong (Member of the National Assembly): Yes, everyone, good to see you. Today, our Representative Lee Hyeong-seok has arranged this very precious occasion, and our Representative Yoon Young-deok is also here, so I think this place is very shining. Many people have suffered a lot in order for us to further develop and globalize the spirit of 5‧18. The bereaved victims' families, including Chairman Kim Young-hoon, and Director Cho Jin-tae, have worked really hard and have visited my room many times. It was also President Yoon seok yeol's pledge that the spirit of 5‧18 should be globalized. And now that it has been materialized and we are here today, and the budget has been developed, I think it is time for such a dialogue that you are proud of the history of our country, and that you are committed to the flowering of democracy, and that spirit is now blossoming into the world. I hope that through this seminar today, the spirit of 5‧18 can be an opportunity for us to spread our endless passion for freedom, prosperity, and democracy, which are universal values of humanity, to the whole world. The democratic movement in Gwangju is not just a movement in Korea. We saw it first, but it has spread to the Middle East, to the whole world, and it is a universal value of humanity, and every single person has the responsibility and the right to enjoy freedom and human rights. So I think we need to take all of that spirit and carry this meaning of Gwangju into today and think seriously about how we can recognize it globally in the future. It's not a matter of political parties, it's a matter of our nation, it's a matter of humanity, and I hope that we can all work together and help and support each other in various difficulties and give us a lot of strength to expand the meaning of those who played a noble role in Gwangju to the world. Thank you very much for being here today, and I hope that everyone will support us, especially those who are presenting, so that we can establish and refine our ideas and expand this spirit to the world. Thank you.

Yoon Yeong-deok (Member of Parliament, Gwangju): Yes, I'm Yoon Yeong-deok, Member of Parliament from Gwangju. Seeing our Representative Seong Il-jong and Representative Lee Hyeong-seok giving way to each other, it seems that the 5‧18 International Institute is off to a very good start. I can say that I am the generation that was baptized by 5‧18. I can only say, "The impact of 5‧18 on my life is enormous." Moreover, I worked at the 5‧18 Institute at Chonnam National University for 10 years before I started politics. Because of this connection, I have always been interested in the establishment of such an institute, and I am very pleased to be here today to share the valuable research achievements. The 5‧18 International Research Institute was President Yoon Seok-yeol's Gwangju pledge, as Representative Seong Il-jong also said. There is a lot of work to be done by the 5‧18 Research Institute, and it is a bit unfortunate that the budget of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety started with 1.3 billion korean won, which is not very generous, but I think that if the research conditions of the 5‧18 International Research Institute are sufficient and it has the capacity, it will be able to share the research results of the 5‧18 Uprising with the citizens of the world, and it will be able to be strengthened as a network of researchers and research organizations to spread the spirit of 5‧18. In that sense, I hope that today's discussion will be a time for us to draw a big picture of the 5‧18 International Research Institute, and at the same time, to make a commitment to support the institute's steps in the National Assembly so that it can achieve more solid results. When I came here today, I thought, "How do important historical events get passed on to the next generation?" I think that memory is the most important thing. "How do we remember?" will be the most important foundation for us and the institute to do research in the future. In the end, it will have to be a memory based on historical facts, and I think that the transmission based on that memory is the spirit of the present, past, present, and future of 5‧18. I hope that today's discussion will be a valuable time for us to reimagine the master plan for the 5‧18 International Research Center and to think about how we will work together to carry on this work of memory and inheritance. I would like to thank all of you for your hard work in organizing today's discussion, and I am especially pleased that such an opportunity has been created for us to talk about the 5‧18 Gwangju Democratic Uprising with Representative Seong Il-jong. Thank you.

Yoo Kyeong nam: Next up, Dr. Song Kyeongho and Dr. Kim Seokdong I'm sorry, but I'd appreciate it if you could speak for about 10 minutes.

Dr. Song Kyeong Ho (Specialized Researcher, Yonsei University): Yes, hello, this is Dr. Song Kyeong Ho. Yes, I listened to Dr. Kim hyeong joong's presentation very well. I'm not an expert in this field, so I was wondering, "What role should I play?" and I'm going to try to contribute a little bit of discussion and opinions based on my personal identity as a researcher among the post-5‧18 generation. I'm a researcher who studies freedom, justice, democracy, human rights, peace, and these keywords that we focus on here at the 5‧18 Institute, at the Institute for International Studies, and especially conceptually, "How have these things been accepted in East Asia? "I think that 5‧18 is a very important world historical event, and I think it should be recognized as a world historical event, but the problem is that because we, including people like me, do not have a sense of ownership of 5‧18, it will be virtually impossible for the people who actually experienced 5‧18 to be remembered and shared in the form that they want. If you think about the French Revolution, the way the French Revolution actually felt to the people who lived through it and the way we remember the French Revolution now is completely different, and yet there are two dimensions that allow the memory of the French Revolution to be sustained and the French Revolution to be remembered as some kind of world event, and one is to make it a universal event on a very thin level, so this is a thin understanding of the French Revolution as an event that symbolizes it as a people's resistance. So there's one way to abstract it and understand it in a way that it has a universal resonance, and then there's a thicker study that makes it practically possible, so there's a thicker study of the French Revolution itself, so it's still the French Revolution, for example, as a human rights researcher, the French Revolution and the American Declaration of Independence appear at the beginning of all human rights, so in order to make 5‧18 mean something like that, we need to have a process of making 5‧18 not a fanaticism, not something that belongs to Korea, but something that belongs to the world, hence we need to have a thicker study of 5‧18 itself. But what's interesting is that when it comes to researching the French Revolution, it's not something that the French do. There are a lot of people around the world who find that the French Revolution comes up in whatever research topic they're thinking about, and even if they didn't major in the French Revolution, they touch on it in some way, some part of their research, or they write a paper about it in their research life, and I thought that this is actually a way to get in line with what you were talking about in your presentation, which is the globalization, the internationalization of the 5‧18 spirit. So I'm just kind of outlining what I'm going to talk about because I've only got a short amount of time, so I'm just going to make a couple of points that I think are important. I think the first thing is that I think the name international is very good. But the problem is that international is one thing that I'm not objecting to, but I'm just giving you an opinion, because international in the sense of international is usually focused on the relationship between countries, so you all know, there are also expressions like global or world, and there are actually some research institutes that use the word world or global, so I'm just giving you a little bit of an opinion about whether we should necessarily use the word international. But I basically agree with the diversity of being an international research institute, and I think that's where we can differentiate ourselves from other researchers who may be symbolizing the democratization process within the democratic movement in Korea, but if it is international, I'm now saying, "Personally, I would like to be more international. On the other hand, in terms of topics, I think that we don't necessarily have to do research on 5‧18 to put it in the scope of interest of this international institute, but even if it is not related to 5‧18 at all, people who are doing research on freedom, justice, democracy, human rights, peace, etc. that we are interested in, in the spirit of 5‧18 should be supported, or should be the subject of a network of relationships, and we should create an environment where they can do research on 5‧18. So, it is very important to have 5‧18 expert researchers, but I think that if various researchers in various fields around the world deal with 5‧18 issues and publish a paper at least once, it can help to expand outward and secure a network. As a concrete way, I suggested something called Research Fellow, and this is starting from Harvard Yanqing Institute, and many institutes have such Research Fellow programs. But the important thing is that starting from professors, young scholars, including PhDs, master's students, and master's students who have completed their PhDs, they can freely choose the duration and the scope of the program, and they can provide lab space and access to 5‧18-related materials, and if possible, they can provide a small research grant or stipend. I think there are many people who want to go to Gwangju to do research and spend time. If we don't necessarily limit the scope to 5‧18 research, I think we can attract more researchers than we think, and then this will create an alumni network. If you say that I did research in Gwangju for a month or three months and developed some research under the auspices of the 5‧18 International Institute, then this network of people will function as a network of researchers that covers the international, national, and international researchers that the 5‧18 International Institute wants to pursue, and this experience will give the researchers a sense of agency. So if a researcher is studying the French Revolution not because I experienced the French Revolution, but because I'm interested in it, or because I have a love for France, or because the French Revolution came up in the course of my research, but if the 5‧18 International Institute invites someone who hasn't actually studied 5‧18, but who studies human rights, who studies democracy, and says, "Make yourself at home here and do your research," it gives them a sense of agency, and they can look at all the 5‧18 materials that are there and think, "I wonder if I can relate this to my own research. So now it's not just a domestic issue, but I want it to be expanded internationally, and I want it to be expanded from the beginning, and that's why it's now called 5‧18 research as a medium for raising national awareness, You said that the 5‧18 Institute should be used as a medium for raising national prestige, but in the same vein, it can also have a public diplomacy character, so if we simply call it 5‧18 research, there may be some limitations in terms of government support or something like that, but if we do this program in the context of public diplomacy about Korea as a guardian of certain universal values, it can have a more universal persuasion, and then it can be justified in terms of securing a budget. ' I've been thinking about that. Ultimately, the reason why I was thinking about this in general is because I've been to a lot of 5‧18 conferences as a researcher, and you mentioned this year is the 43rd anniversary, and I was at the 40th anniversary conference, and I was looking at the basic trends in 5‧18 research, and as you mentioned, there's been a lot of primary source digging, there's been a lot of secondary source digging, and there are two main problems. One is that a lot of the current research is actually focused on the social discursive struggles around 5‧18, and there's a lot of stuff about the rhetoric, there's a lot of stuff about the conflict, and there's not a lot of deep dives into primary sources. The other thing was that most researchers would write one paper on the 5‧18 in the short term, maybe because they had some kind of funding or they were involved in some kind of project, and then they would leave the field. But now I think that this is quite natural on the other hand. It's not that we don't need people who study 5‧18 in depth and spend their whole lives studying 5‧18, but we do need people who spend their whole lives thinking about 5‧18 and using the vast amount of primary data that's out there and making connections to their own research, and it's not a problem at all if that number grows, and I think that's something that I would like to see explored as part of the design of the institute in the first place. Because again, I thought that could be a way to give the researchers a sense of ownership and also to make them feel like, "Oh, my research and 5‧18 are not far away." I think that's all the time I have, so yeah, thank you.

Yoo Kyeong nam : I think you've touched on a lot of aspects of what you need to do as a researcher, what you need to consider when you're researching 5‧18 outside of Gwangju, and I'd like to turn it over to Kim Seokdong next.

Kim Seokdong (Research Fellow, Democratic Institute for Democracy): My name is Kim Seokdong and I am a research fellow at the Democratic Institute for Democracy, where I work on politics, administration, and the legal system. As I recently participated in the constitutional revision task force led by the Democratic Party of Korea, I was very interested in how to reflect the Gwangju democratic movement in the constitutional revision, and I had contacted the 5‧18 International Institute a few months ago, so I am very grateful that you invited me to speak again. As the name 5‧18 International Institute says, the democratic movement through the 5‧18 movement led to the June Democratic Uprising and after that to the candlelight rallies in 2016 and 17, and so the Gwangju Democratic Movement led to the democratization of South Korea, and then the democratization came through the constitutional amendment in '87, but the quality of democracy in South Korea is not as high as it should be, and so there has been a strong demand for political reform. That's why I think that the Gwangju Democracy, 5‧18 International Institute can play a leading role in establishing the 5‧18 Gwangju Democratic Movement as a symbol of democracy in Korea, and that's why I made this presentation, focusing on how the 5‧18 International Institute can become a leading democracy research institute in Korea and how Korea can contribute to spreading the democratic movement around the world. I, myself, I received this academic, debate request very recently, a few days ago, so I had a short period of preparation, so there are some weaknesses because of the short period of preparation, but I hope that through today's discussion, I will do my best to make a sufficient contribution to the growth of the 5‧18 Institute in the future.

The main reason why Korea has been discussing constitutional amendment is that Korea has not gone beyond democracy and there have been calls for reform of the power structure in Korea, especially the presidential system. So, for a long time, many politicians have been calling for constitutional amendment, and it has been discussed, but it has not been successful. So I hope that through this debate, the National Assembly, including the ruling party and the opposition, will raise the need to publicly discuss the constitutional amendment. And so I think that the 5‧18 Institute can play a leading role in improving the quality of democracy in Korea and in reforming the presidential system. And as the name of the 5‧18 Institute suggests, when we lead international cooperation in relation to democracy, in terms of our international cooperation, international development cooperation, Korea's economic development, economic development is also an important object and means to spread around the world, but Korea's successful democratization is also an important means of international cooperation. So, Korea's economic development is a factor that Korean people can feel proud of around the world, but Korea's successful democratization is also an important opportunity to showcase Korea's international status. So, starting on page 31, just to give you the highlights of my presentation, the idea of inserting the May 18th democratic movement in the preamble of the constitutional amendment in South Korea has been a very strong consensus across the ruling and opposition parties, across generations, across regions, and you can see that high level of support in the polls. It can be said that the Gwangju Democratic Movement was the foundation of the student movement, labor movement, and all democratization movements in South Korea since the 80s, and it was a strong driving force for all democratic movements. So, if you look at page 42, it is also a national task that can no longer be postponed to include the full text of the 5‧18 democratic spirit in the constitutional revision of South Korea. So in the last presidential election, Yoon Seok-yeol, then candidate, and Lee Jae-myeong, then candidate, and now the current president and current opposite party leader, one of their common pledges in the last presidential election was to insert the spirit of 5‧18 democratic movement into the preamble of the constitution in the constitutional amendment, and recent polls have shown that people across regions and generations are in favor of inserting it into the preamble of the constitutional amendment. If we look back at the last presidential election, the last constitutional revision process, we can say that the '87 constitution was a stopgap measure that was made as a short-term, short-sighted compromise between the ruling party and the opposition leaders after the June '87 democratic uprising, and it has been 30 years since then, and it does not reflect many of the circumstances of the times that have followed since then. For example, it doesn't reflect the technological innovations since the 2000s, and it doesn't reflect the social changes since the COVID-19 crisis, which happened recently, one, or two, or three years ago, and of course, the many socioeconomic inequalities that have emerged since then, and the socioeconomic demands that have emerged from that, for example, the demands for economic democratization and decentralization, are also not reflected in the current constitution, so the call for constitutional amendment has been growing stronger. In terms of Korean political leadership, one of the main reasons for the growing demand for constitutional amendment is that the quality of Korean democracy is not high even after the consolidation of democracy in Korea. Therefore, putting the democratic spirit of the 5‧18 Movement into the preamble of the constitution is an important measure to improve the quality of Korean democracy and institutionalize the consolidation of democracy. Therefore, since 30 years have passed since democratization and there have been many demands for institutional reforms, the significance of the '87 Constitution has been lost, and therefore, there have been strong demands for constitutional amendments. Therefore, in order to improve the quality of democracy, it is necessary to revisit Korea's democratic tradition, including the 5‧18 Movement, the June Democratic Uprising, and the 2016 Candlelight Rallies and in this regard, the 5‧18 International Research Institute can play a leading role. The main demand for constitutional amendment is that it should reflect the 30 years that have passed since '87, as shown in the table at the bottom of page 44, to reflect the changed politics and the civic capabilities of Korean citizens since the candlelight rallies, and therefore reflect the demand for direct democracy. In order to reflect this demand for improving the quality of democracy, the constitution needs to be amended, and in order to do that, we can see that we need to revisit the May 18 Democratic Movement in the spirit of democracy. What I would like to say in the remaining one minute is on page 44, item 3, that Korea can be seen as one of those projects of international cooperation where the Korean democratic movement can also be spread around the world. In terms of Korea's successful political development, economic development, the leap from a developing country to a developed country, from a low-income country to a high-income country, to one of the top 10 economies in the world in a very short period of time, has signaled its international status, and that international status is what we now talk about in international politics as women's soft power, so it's a strengthening of the country's status by non-military means. In this sense, it is now a soft hub and the Korean Wave is not just in economic development, but if we look at political development, Korea's successful democratization can also be a model for the rest of the world. The most important start of such a democratic movement was the Gwangju Democratic Uprising, and in this sense, I think 5‧18 International Institute can play a leading role in becoming a representative research institute in Korea and therefore in international cooperation around the world in promoting democratization and democratic consolidation, which is the Korean Wave in political terms, to the rest of the world. This concludes my presentation.

Yoo Kyeong nam : Dr. Kim seok dong, said the constitution is very fundamental to our society and the community that we are living in, which is Korea. This constitution is probably half of the people in this room who have witnessed this constitution being changed and half of the people are born and living in the constitution that has already been enacted, but this constitution is not fixed, but it is a procedural process that continues to be made by our society, and in that process, the 5‧18 democratic movement is a historical event that is a very major point of confrontation and has a forward momentum, so I think you said with that expectation that the 5‧18 International Institute can be a very important strategy and policy for South Korea, and in that sense, the 5‧18 International Institute can play a very important role in the constitution and any strategic policy of South Korea. So I'm very grateful to both of you, the researchers, for talking about so many different aspects in such a short time, and I wonder if you, Mr. Kim Hyeong-Joong, would like to comment briefly?

Dr. Kim Hyeong-joong (Director, Institute for Democracy and Peace Studies, Chosun University): Yes, I was relieved that you didn't go into too much detail, and I think that both of you made excellent suggestions, and I think that the case of Yanqing University and then the issue of the constitutional amendment is something that we should actually take note of, so I don't think I have anything to say except thank you to the two panelists.

Yoo Kyeong nam: Yes, Representative Lee Hyeong-seok, who organized this event today, was listening very seriously, if you have any comments.

Lee Hyeong-seok : I listened to your presentation, Professor Kim Hyeong-joong, and I think that you have made some meaningful suggestions about the role of international researchers, especially the Research Fellow that you mentioned, and I think that what we are pursuing now could be a very important program in terms of the direction that we take as a model for new democratic human rights in East Asia. I think that Mr. Kim Seok-dong has summarized well the roles that international researchers should play in these areas because it is an issue that is approaching our reality right now, so I think that the National Assembly will probably be assigned homework today. Starting with the budget, there are many things that will be thrown at the National Assembly when this agenda comes out, and we will try to solve the fateful task of this country of 5‧18 one by one with the ruling and opposition parties together with Representative Yoon Yeong-deok and Representative Seong Il-jong, who participated earlier. Thank you very much for your presentation and comments today.

Yoo Kyung-nam: Our Representative Yoon Yeong-deok, who is honored to be here.

Yoon Yeong-deok: You misunderstood me as a 5‧18 researcher because I was at the 5‧18 Institute, but I am a China expert.

Today is the third agenda forum, so there are probably a lot of things that have been discussed in the previous two forums, and there are a lot of things that Professor Kim Hyeong joong has talked about today, but there are also a lot of things that the master plan research team is thinking about, but first of all, I want to thank Yoo Kyeong nam for the comprehensive progress report today, and I really enjoyed listening to the discussion between Dr. Song Kyeong ho and Kim Seok dong. There were a lot of things to think about, and this is a phenomenon that I think is very good. In any case, I hope that the process of establishing the 5‧18 International Institute will incorporate the wisdom of more people, and I hope that there will be many opportunities for such wisdom to be put forward. It was a time to think about what we can do as parliamentarians. I would like to say just one or two things, and this may be a question for Professor Kim Hyeong-joong. I think this will be a very important issue. I think it will be. Is it a pure research institute, or is it a research institute that is trying to embody the spirit of 5‧18, not just a network of researchers, but there may be various organizations that are trying to embody the spirit of 5‧18, and there may be an international solidarity system, and there may be exchanges with this place, and depending on these things, I think there may be various types of regulations. There are some research functions, and then there is the 5‧18 Democratic Movement Archive, which is mainly archiving, and there are some research functions, right? And then there is the Chonnam National University 5‧18 Research Institute, which has been operating as a pure research organization. The three institutions that come to mind in my head are representative of that, but in addition to that, in Gwangju alone, there are various commemorative projects and things like that, so I think there are places where they collect materials in their own way and partially conduct research, but how to set up this relationship is also something that I am quite curious about. The second thing I would like to talk about is that if that is the case, I wonder if it is a little too narrow to stay within the framework of existing laws when we are thinking about the founding law, the founding law of the institute. For example, If this becomes a national research institute, it will be a little bit limited to involve local governments, and there will be limitations on the private level, and if you go like this with a small private organization, there will be limitations on what is now called government support, and there will be limitations or advantages of going to local governments. I will take a look at whether it is possible to create a new legal basis for such governance where local governments and the private sector can work together, but I thought it would be meaningful to consider the law in this framework, whether it is a financial source, research, or business, where more people can participate and work together in such a larger framework. Yeah, that's it.

Kim Hyeong-joong : To answer briefly, the issues you pointed out are actually the most difficult ones and the ones we are most concerned about. How should the relationship between the existing institutions and the newly created 5‧18 International Research Institute be, how can the work done so far be shared, and what kind of legal basis should be established or modified to establish the institute. However, the scope of the institute is definitely different from the previous institutes, and the international nature of the institute should be international in nature, and the networking with other similar institutes abroad and the exchange between scholars are important. We are also considering the issue of collaboration with various archives and other organizations, but because the records we keep are different, we are considering creating a portal to link the materials we have rather than integrating them all at once, and then we are considering various options, such as collecting secondary literature or collecting research materials, because the archives are mainly records of the time, and then the researchers are mainly research materials. But you asked the most difficult questions to answer, so it's hard for us to talk about specifics yet at our level, so I'll talk about it when we have a chance.

Yoo Kyeong-nam : Yes, I think today we're having the third forum because we're trying to convey the very important issues, the opinions that were expressed in the first discussion, the expectations of the region, on the one hand, to the National Assembly, and on the other hand, to get the parliamentarians to pay attention to this issue, and now we're having the third forum, and when I heard the highlights within this third forum, I think you said that the tasks, expectations, and roles of international research institutes are very large, and there are many things that need to be done accordingly. I'd like to give you one example, right now we have the World Sociological Congress going on in Melbourne from June 24th to July 1st. The congress has been traveling around the world every four years since 1950, and has been held twice in Asia, in India and Japan. The next World Sociological Congress is scheduled to be held in Gwangju in 2027, four years from now. The 5‧18 International Institute is running a booth to promote 5‧18 and Gwangju at the World Sociological Congress in Melbourne, which was attended by Director General Lee Ki-bong and two researchers. Tonight, we are organizing a Korea Night event, an event to promote the next sociology congress, together with the Gwangju Metropolitan City, the Korean Sociological Association, and the Gwangju Tourism Foundation. We are discussing the role of the 5‧18 Memorial Foundation, Gwangju City, and the National Assembly about the role of the 5‧18 International Institute in Korea, but I think the reason why Gwangju and the third sociology congress of 5‧18 in Asia is hosted by Korea and Gwangju is because of the historical event of 5‧18. Since the world is already paying attention to 5‧18 and Gwangju, I think that we should play a role in meeting the expectations of the world in line with that trend, and I think that the 5‧18 International Institute is one way to do that. With such a sense of responsibility, not only the 5‧18 International Institute but also the members of the 5‧18 Memorial Foundation will make efforts. I would like to conclude today's event by thanking all the teachers and all the people who have been busy since the early hours of the morning.