Korea’s iconic journal takes aim at new crises

A group of 100 scholars once named Sasangye the most influential force in Korean intellectual life from 1945 to 1960, according to a 2005 survey by Professors' News. Founded in 1953 by independence activist Chang Jun-ha, Sasangye became a wellspring of ideas as South Korea rebuilt from the ruins of war. The government forcibly shut it down in 1970, but the magazine left a lasting mark on the nation’s democratic and intellectual history.

Now, 55 years later, Sasangye has returned as a quarterly journal, with its first new issue published last month. Publisher Chang Ho-kwon, son of the founder and head of the Chang Jun-ha Memorial Foundation, said the times are calling for Sasangye once again. “We aim to open a small channel for change in this great era of transition, from civilization to politics,” he said.

The magazine's original closure was triggered by its 1970 publication of poet Kim Ji-ha's satire Five Bandits, which openly condemned the ruling elite. More than five decades later, South Korea’s challenges have only grown more complex. Yet politics remains mired in factional strife, with rivals still branding each other as thieves.

In a lead essay for the relaunch issue, Park Myung-lim, a Yonsei University professor and member of Sasangye's editorial board, wrote that politics in Korea has "degenerated into legal warfare between factions and personalities, abandoning its true purpose." He said the nation has repeatedly failed to establish broad, bipartisan policy goals.

As the political gridlock drags on, young people find themselves trapped in relentless competition, fraying the ties that once held communities together. One of the most talked-about recent YouTube videos comes from the German science channel Kurzgesagt, titled South Korea Is Over. It bluntly claims that the nation’s record-low birthrate has already set it on an irreversible path toward demographic and social collapse — warning that even tripling the rate overnight would not be enough to avert hard times ahead.

Observers say Korea’s failure to address these mounting crises reflects, in part, the decline of serious public discourse since the country’s democratization. Getting off the proverbial tiger’s back — or stepping off the speeding train — will require both courage and imagination. While the revived Sasangye is still finding its footing, its early focus appears to center on ecology and youth. In an age when competition feels like an ecological pressure in itself, many hope the magazine will chart a third path — one that goes beyond the stark choice between endless rivalry and communal collapse.