🎧 Podcast: A Nation in Uniform (+ a few updates)

A Nation in Uniform: How Emergency Became Everyday in South Korea
Summary
After the 1968 shocks, South Korea rebuilt everyday life around emergency. This episode looks at how the state turned men into reserve soldiers, schools into drill grounds, and citizens into trackable numbers. It is the “hardware” of the garrison state that sat on top of last week’s “software” of laws, policing, and ideology.
What’s inside
1968 aftershocks: Blue House Raid and the Uljin–Samcheok landings
Hardware 1: Yebigun (reserve forces) and the monthly culture of readiness
Hardware 1.5: Minbangwi (Civil Defense Corps), blackout drills, and why the upper age later dropped to 40
Hardware 2: Gyoryeon (school military training), plus Jihyun’s memories from class
Hardware 3: Resident Registration Number, the 12→13-digit ID, and embodied surveillance
The “iron triangle” recap and what slowly changed after democratization
📝 Read the original full essay here (yoonjiwon.substack.com/p/korea-nation-in-uniform)
🎨 See Jihyun’s graphic novel about this era here (blog.naver.com/yaohouse1/223443805726)
Thanks so much for listening.

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