Aiding and Abetting : Role of Foreign Missionaries in the South Korean Democracy Movement

This article e xamines the c ontributions of the Monday N ight G roup (MNG) t o the transnational advocacy network (TAN) which formed to assist the Korean Democracy Movement. It argues that the MNG was uniquely located in the TAN in that it functioned as a domestic-cum-international organization given it was spatially located in Korea but its international membership allowed it to seamlessly interact with Western governments and organizations. This unique location also led the MNG to engage in constant communicative interactions with Korean activists and thus led to reflexive learning about their own societies roles in the human rights situation in Korea. The article expands the understanding of the TAN which assisted the Korean Democracy Movement and adds to the theoretical discussion on TANs by identifying a unique domestic-cum-international group that operated in ways not covered in the original TAN model.