In the age of email, postage stamps are steadily losing their place in everyday life, but their position as state-issued items means their designs give insight as to how the government sees the world.

A Royal Asiatic Society Korea Branch lecture by Peter Beck on June 10 will explore this as a way of examining how North and South Korea see things.

After exploring the development of the postal service in Korea 120 years ago, Beck will turn to the postage-stamp rivalry that emerged between the Koreas soon after their division in 1945.

He will then explain how designs have developed in both halves of the peninsula since then and share some of his most interesting philatelic finds. 

Peter Beck has been the country representative for Korea at the Asia Foundation since January 2012. Before this he held academic positions and was the Northeast Asia director for the International Crisis Group in Seoul, director of research at the Korea Economic Institute in Washington, D.C., and was a member of the Ministry of Unification’s Policy Advisory Committee.

The lecture will take place from 7:30-9 p.m. on June 10 at the Residents’ Lounge in Somerset Palace near Anguk Station.

Attendance is free for RASKB members and 7,000 won for nonmembers.

(paulkerry@heraldcorp.com)