Securitizing language: political elites and language policy securitization in South Korea

2018-12-05In 1948, when the newly established South Korean government was determining which language(s) should be official, South Korea was multilingual. Many Koreans knew up to four languages: Korean, Chinese, Japanese and English. Yet some sixty years later, South Korea had become overwhelmingly monolingual. This study seeks to account for the development whereby South Korea transformed into a monolingual society. The argument presented here is that this was achieved by implementing language policies that were wrapped in the rhetoric of “security.” By framing language issues in terms of security, political elites claimed they had a right to take extraordinary measures in the form of unilateral decisions on language policy in order to manage the issue. As a result the securitization of language issues provides a useful lens through which to explore South Korea’s language shift toward monolingualism. ❧ Throughout history, political elites have often sought to connect language issues with security concerns, but they have not always chosen to do so. Indeed there has been variation in the framing of language issues over time, thus raising the question: Under what conditions do political elites attempt to securitize language, as part of a strategy to shift language policy to address a threat? To answer this question, this study draws on the securitization theory. It examines a range of official texts to explore the emergence of securitization discourse in the context of military security threats and threat of large protest, which has the potential to lead to social instability, that have faced the Korean government since 1948, under periods of both democratic and authoritarian rule