Korean Studies in Yemen

Korean Studies in the Middle East is poor besides a few universities because it has been concentrated on America and Europe. In these respects, the need of Korean Studies in the Middle East, especially in Yemen arose. In Korea, the Middle East has been a keen interesting region since the oil crisis of 1973. Due to the Korean advance in the Middle East, its studies and economic relations have been activated in Korea. Now the Middle East is not a strange part to Koreans. The advances and studies of the Middle East, however, have been confined really to the oil-rich countries and the confronted nations with the Israeli struggle.

For this reason, Koreans have been treated Yemen as a strange place. The great concerns about Yemen occurred among Koreans after the Yemeni unification on May 22, 1990. However insufficient materials and studies about Yemen and civil war of 1994 have still made her distant to Koreans. Moreover it is true that the significant cooperation has not been realized between Korea and Yemen, though the full diplomatic relations between two countries were established on August 22, 1985. To examine the Korean Studies in Yemen, my paper shall deal with Korean Studies abroad, Korean Studies in Yemen and the role and limit of private level.

Korean Studies is the studies to learn and develop the things native to Korea throughout the fields of language, history, geography, politics, economy, society and culture about Korea. The terms of Korean Studies began to use after the independence of Korea in 1945. Especially it has been widely used in accordance with the active study of the academic circle with the translation of Samkuksaki (The history of three countries) since Korean War. Korean Studies can express the study of the national literature simply. There is a growing tendency that scholars has been avoided it because this term can give the impression of conservatism or nationalism. Recently the terms of Korean Studies became generalization by reason of it. Korean Studies, however, have to distinguish from the Koreanology. The terms of Koreanology usually uses the study of the history of Korean culture and Korean Studies means the wide comprehensive study about Korea including not only historical aspects of Korean culture but also the study of humanities and social science.

Korean Studies has been started and developed centering on the universities of America except the Japanese study during the colonial period since 1970s. It has been widely expanded all over the world, especially Europe and the Middle East after the establishment of Korea Foundation in 1991. Starting in 1992, the Foundation has extended support for 18 libraries in 9 countries, including the Library of Congress in USA and the Korean Studies Department's Library at University of Paris VII.

Korea Foundation was a foundation to promote a better understanding of Korea throughout the world and to enhance international goodwill and friendship through a variety of internal exchanging programs. The Korea Foundation Law (Law No. 4414) promulgated on Dec. 14, 1991. The mission of the Foundation is to contribute to better understanding of Korea in the international community and to promote international friendship by carrying out various exchange activities between the Republic of Korea and foreign countries.

Korea Foundation provides financial support for overseas universities, which invite visiting professors for the establishment or expansion of Korean Studies courses. Since 1992, 28 universities around the world have received Foundation support under this program, including 12 universities in the Americas, three universities in Europe, one university in Oceania, and 12 universities in Asia and the Middle East.

The Activities of Korea Foundation consists of, 1) Support for Korean Studies Overseas, 2) Cultural Exchanges, 3) Personnel Exchanges, and 4) Publication & Reference Materials Distribution. In order to promote Korean studies overseas and enhance understanding of Korea, the Foundation supports Korean studies programs and related activities at major universities and academic institutions abroad.

Under this support program, the Foundation provides assistance to leading universities overseas for the (i) establishment or expansion of Korean-studies professorships and/or courses in the areas of humanities, social sciences, and culture and arts, (ii) invitation of visiting professors, (iii) organization of international conferences and seminars, (iv) publication projects, and (v) acquisition of Korea-related books and reference materials.

In an effort to build a groundwork for promoting Korean studies abroad, the Foundation has placed priority on the establishment of Korean studies professorships and the establishment or expansion of Korean studies courses at prominent universities overseas. Since 1992, the Foundation has supported the establishment of Korean studies professorships at 35 universities worldwide including 26 in North America, three in Europe, five in the Australia and New Zealand, and one in Asia.

In addition, the Foundation has extended support for the establishment of Korean studies courses at 57 universities in North America, Latin America, Europe, Oceania, Asia, and the Middle East, in the areas of Korean language, culture, history, and other social sciences.

In 1999, the Foundation plans to provide financial support for eight universities in Americas, Europe, and the Middle East under this program. [Table 1] shows the Number of KF Fellows registered.

Year	Korean Studies	Korean Language	Sum of Each Year
1992	62	0	62
1993	70	63	133
1994	68	66	134
1995	71	74	145
1996	69	73	142
1997	63	93	156
1998	63	93	156
1999	31	46	77
Sum of Fellows	497	508	1005

Korean Studies in USA has been done from Harvard, Michigan, Washington, Hawaii, UCLA and other universities since the 1970s. In this paper, Korean Studies shall be concentrated on UCLA university that over 2,000 students every year take classes at UCLA dealing with Korea. The Center supports UCLA's academic and research programs on Korea through the following activities:

1) supporting a dynamic research environment in Korean Studies and helping to disseminate that research to a wide audience, both nationally and internationally

2) coordinating curricular development in Korean Studies at UCLA and expanding Koreanist faculty in departments throughout the university

3) promoting research exchanges among scholars from the United States, Korea, and other nations

4) training the next generation of scholars for academic careers in Korean Studies both in the United States and abroad

5) preparing students for careers in the public and private sectors in positions related to Korea;

UCLA's Korean Studies scholars are the most prolific group of Korean Studies researchers in the United States, with over 20 books and scores of articles to their credit. UCLAꡑs Koreanist faculty teach regularly over 40 courses related to Korea, on topics ranging from traditional and modern history, literature, art history, folklore, and religion, to contemporary sociology, anthropology, linguistics, and social welfare. Over 2,000 students every year take classes on Korea at UCLA. The Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures (EALC) at UCLA offers a comprehensive curriculum in Korean language, including four years of instruction in modern Korean and extensive training in traditional literary, historical, and religious texts written in classical Chinese and Sino-Korean. UCLA is in fact the only university in the United States that offers a regular curriculum in Korean classical language. UCLA has the largest enrollment of students of Korean heritage of any university in the country--over 3,300 students in 1999 out of a total UCLA enrollment of 35,000. For this reason, the university has designed the first program in Korean language instruction that caters specifically to the unique needs of 1.5- and 2nd-generation Korean-Americans. The Center for Korean Studies has also collaborated over the last four years with the Los Angeles Unified School District to develop a Korean-English Bilingual Immersion Program, in which students in elementary school are being taught to use both English and Korean in all academic subjects. We hope through this innovative program to train a generation of Korean-American students who will be perfectly bilingual and bi-cultural and able to function effortlessly in any professional setting in either the United States or Korea.

UCLA offers 40 courses in the Humanities and Social Sciences focusing on Korea, the widest array of courses in any university curriculum. UCLA offers two undergraduate degrees in Korean Studies: a B.A. in Korean Language and Culture and an interdisciplinary B.A. in East Asian Studies (Korea Emphasis). M.A. and Ph.D. degrees are also offered in Korean Studies, with specialties including history, literature, linguistics, religious studies, art history, folklore, and the social sciences. In 1998, nearly 100 UCLA students were undergraduate majors in Korean, and over 50 students were pursuing graduate degrees in various fields of Korean Studies. UCLAꡑs first generation of doctoral students in Korean Studies has now graduated. These exceptional alumni are now occupying academic positions at several major universities, and have begun to establish themselves as leaders in the field of Korean Studies both in the United States and abroad.

The Center for Korean Studies also maintains exchange agreements with 11 major Korean universities, which allows sharing of faculty and research projects between our campuses. About 15 scholars from Korean institutions of higher education visit the Center on an annual basis, substantially enriching the Centerꡑs programs(http: //www. isop.ucla.edu/korea/default.htm).

The Association for Korean Studies in Europe (AKSE) is the main scholarly society for Korean studies in greater Europe. AKSE is located on Abteilung Korea, Universitat Hamburg, Binderstrasse 34, D-20146 Hamburg, Germany. Its objectives are to stimulate and co-ordinate academic Korean studies in all countries of Europe, and to contribute to the spread of knowledge of Korea among a wider public. Founded in 1977, AKSE holds regular scholarly conferences and publishes an annual Newsletter.

According to AKSE guide, the Association shall be non-political and its objects shall be: to stimulate and to co-ordinate academic Korean studies in all countries of Europe; to contribute to the spread of knowledge of Korea among a wider public. The objects of the Association shall be attained: by organizing academic conferences on Korea, by issuing a Newsletter, and by encouraging and facilitating co-operation with other organizations having aims consistent with its own objects.

The membership of the Association shall consist of Full Members in the categories of Ordinary Members and Honorary Members, and of Associate Members in the categories of Individual Associate Members and Corporate Associate Members. Ordinary Membership is open to persons permanently resident in Europe with a serious academic interest in Korea. Individual Associate Membership is open to persons not permanently resident in Europe. Applications and proposals for Membership are to be addressed to any member of the Council and decided upon by the Council of the Association. Members shall pay an annual fee to be determined by the Council(http: // www. akse. uni-kiel.de/aksenews.htm).

Yemen, located in the southeastern area of Arabia Felix in the Greek Era, is well known to Korea as the Kingdom of Sheba (B.C. 950-B.C.115). Over the course of history, the rather small country on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula has been serving as a wellspring of people emigrating across the peninsula and beyond, quickly adapting to foreign surroundings and even settling down for good. By reason of the fact, Yemen has been a root of the Arabic language and history.

In every sense of Arabic language, The Semitic languages can claim a much older ancestry than the Indo-European languages, having been written since about 2,500 B.C. Up to this time the Arabian peninsula was on the fringe of the Semitic region and populated by various tribes. We know about Semitic peoples in the Gulf who were in contact with Mesopotamia in the 3rd millennium. Later, another large tribe arrived in southern Arabia about 600 B.C., the Sabean, whose south-Arabian dialect comes closest to Arabic among the southern Arabic languages. Islam also brought Arabic to East Africa, of course. Its powerful expansion led to the incorporation of other Semitic elements in the African languages, in the same way that Ethiopic and pre-Semitic Yemenitic had done previously.

In its historical aspects, Yemen is very important to understand Arab culture and civilization in the Middle East. There are quite a number of families living in Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, the Gulf States and certainly Saudi Arabia, who claim to be of Yemeni origin. Names like "Yamani" or "Hamdani" can be easily traced back to Yemen. Home to 16 million of the Arabian Peninsula's 30 million inhabitants, Yemen offers the only agriculturally fertile land in the Arabian Peninsula. The capital of Sanaa has been called “the Roof of the Arabs," hemmed in by mountains of which "each peak is crowned by a fortified village".

Yemen belongs to Arabia like salt belongs to food. The country of Yemen cannot be properly understood apart from Arabia, while Arabia without Yemen would have lost one of the its most essential and spiciest ingredient. Over the course of history, the rather small country on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula has been serving as a wellspring of people emigrating across the peninsula and beyond, quickly adapting to foreign surroundings and even settling down for good. There are quite a number of families living in Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, the Gulf States and certainly Saudi Arabia, who claim to be of Yemeni origin. Names like “Yamani” or “Hamdani” can be easily traced back to Yemen(New Traveller's Guide to Yemen, 1987: 11).

Yemen is not only the geographical heartland of Arabia, but also the historical and geopolitical heartland of entire Arab world. The little known Yemeni epic illuminates all of Arab history with its force. Yemen is Happy Arabia, and it is hardly surprising that this country, whose beauty rivals that of its own Queen of Sheba, can experience its own form of Arabism with such happiness and tolerance.

Yemen is the land of Queen of Sheba, whose great wealth is praised in the Bible. It is the land of the Three Kings, or Wise Men, who walked towards Bethlehem laden with gold and incense. The Greek geographer Euhemerus of Messina, charged by the king of Macedonia with reconnoitering the Red Sea (then called the Arab Gulf), referred for the first time to Eudaimon Arabia, which the Romans then called Arabia Felix (Happy Arabia). The Quran calls it “the land of the Two Paradises.” The celebrated Arab explorer Ibn Batuta marveled at the beauty of its cities and the abundance of its fields. Votataire wrote that Yemen is “the most agreeable country in the world." And Paul-Emile Botta lauded “the veritable works of art in the cities' architecture,” the importance of trade, and the beauty of its women(Charles Saint-Prot: 9).

The great dam at Marib; the city of Sana'a, named an international heritage by the UNESCO; Mokh's coffee; the world's first skyscrapers in Hadramawt; the fortress perched on the northern mountains; the majestic volcano in Aden, one of the first stops on the trade route between Asia and Mediterranean. Committed to a courageous experiment in democracy since its 1990 reunification, Yemen is politically unique in 속 Arabian Peninsula, where it occupies the entire southwestern corner (approximately 540,000 square kilometers). Located on the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, it controls the Gate of Tears, or Bab al-Mandeb. The position confers on Yemen a strategic dimension which continues to increase in importance, but which is not easy to assume given the region's highly sensitive geopolitical situation. Home to 16 million of the Arabian Peninsula's 30 million inhabitants, Yemen offers the only agriculturally fertile land in the Peninsula. The capital of Sanaa lies on one of the many mountain plateaus, within a wide and stony amphitheater. Sanaa has been called “the roof of the Arabs,” hemmed in by mountains of which “each peak is crowned by a fortified village" (ibid.: 9-10).

Beyond regional, social, religious, or clan differences, Yemenis share a common, higher value: Love for their country. They are deservedly proud to belong to one of the rare nations, along with China, Egypt, France, Japan, Russia, Morocco, and a very few others, whose age exceeds a thousand years, the result of a continuous and consistent historical formation (ibid.: 11).

When the Bilqis, the Queen of the Land of Sheba, visited King Solomon 22 centuries ago, Yemen had already reached a high level of civilization several centuries earlier. Its inhabitants mastered the construction techniques for dams, built monuments, and attained great artistic refinement, in particular with statues. The South Arabians descended from Qahtan, the son of Shem (or Sam, the origin of the word Semite) and grandson of Noah. Their neighbours to the north are the offspring of another of Shem's sons, Adnan. The Kingdom of Sheba, known as Saba and whose capital was Marib (Maryaba), was very rich. Bilqis offered Solomon gold, precious stones, and incense in great quantities, according to the Bible (Matthew 12, 42 and Luke 11, 31). The Quran also refers to the opulence of the Sabeans (Sura XXⅦ, 22-23).

Marib controlled the great caravan routes linking South Arabia to Egypt and Gaza in the West, and to Mespotamia in the east, where the Assyrians reigned. The Sabeans exported their own produce (incense, herbs, spices, and perfumes) to these two regions, and also served as intermediaries with India thanks to their ports on the Indian Ocean. An Assyrian inscription from 715 BC attests that the King of Saba, Yitaamar, paid a tax to Sargon Ⅱ of Iraq(721-705 BC), a sort of customs right for the transit of merchandise through the port of Gaza, which had been occupied by the Assyrians. Another Assyrian inscription, from around 685 BC, also establishes that the Sabean King Karibilu sent gifts to the Assyrian king as a sign of friendship and alliance. These two poles of civilization thus maintained important links with each other in Antiquity. The people of saba and Mesopotamia moreover were cousins(ibid.: 15-16).

The religion of Saba was rather close to that of Babylon, with its diviners and star cults. The two main gods were the Moon God and the Sun Goddess, towards which the Sabinas turned to pray at dawn, in the manner of northern Arabs. This is why the northern Arabs referred to the land of Saba as “Yemen”(the country “on the right-hand side”, as it was located on the right when looking towards the rising sun(ibid.: 16).

Sabeans spoke a Semite language. The first traces of writing go back to around the 7th century BC. According to French Arabist Maxime Rodinson, the South Arabians “used a Semitic language close to but different from the Arabic of nomadic pastoralists in the center and north of the arabian Peninsula,” Called south Arabian by researchers, this language was written in a distinctive alphabet which, like Arabic, noted only consonants. It was spoken by the other kingdoms which formed around Saba in Marib. These included the Minaens, whose capital of Qarnaw (Ma'in) was located northest of Marib in present-day Jawf; Qataban , whose capital was Timna, not far from today's Bayhan; and Hadhramawt, whose princes ruled from Shabwa. One by one, as either vassals or allies of saba, these kingdoms became rivals beginning in the late 5th century BC. during this period the Minaeans managed to gain control over many of caravan routes and to forge profitable contacts directly with Egypt, Palestine, Phoenicia and Greece(ibid.: 17).

The Kingdom of Saba was weakened by the war with the Romans and her declined favored the emergence of a new kingdom: Himyar. In the 4th century AD the total conquest of Hadhramawt brought about the completion of Yemeni unity. The kingdom even spread further north, and the Himyarite rulers proclaimed themselves “king of all the Arabs.” The Sabean-Himyarites also conducted new incursions into East Africa. In 821 the governor of Yemen, Ziyad, recognized only the spiritual and formal authority of the Caliph. On the temporal level he proclaimed his independence, founded a capital in Zabid, and installed a Ziyadi family dynasty which ruled the region until 1016. Yemen's prosperity would prove to be the cause of its misery. In the late 15th century Portuguese navigators began taking an interest in the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea. An initial Turkish expedition managed to gain control of part of Yemen in the early 16th century, reducing the Tahirid dynasty to a small territory around Aden. But the Zayid Imam Sharaf a--Din Yahya(1506-1551) organized the resistance, repulsed the Turks from the Sanaa region where they penetrated, and extended his own power to the gates of Aden. In the early 19th century a weakening of central power encouraged the autonomy of petty kings in Hadhramawt and small princes (sultans) in certain southern areas. But it was above all the intervention of foreign powers which now posed the greatest threat to Yemen(ibid.: 19-31). Charles Saint-Prot said in his book that what makes a nation is the will of its people to live together, the desire to identify oneself with it and to form a community with a single destiny.

In the medieval ages Yemen played a not insignificant role in world trade. We have already mentioned the Rasulid glass vase found in China. in the 11th and 12th centuries Aden was a center of overseas trade which was organized for the most part by Jewish merchants. Ibn Kurdadhbih (mid-9th century): “Aden is one of the chief ports ---; it has amber and mush, as well as goods from Sind, Hind and China, from Africa, Persia, Basra, Jidda and Egypt”(Warner Daum: 27).

The journey was occasionally accomplished in reverse as well, with Chinese traders coming to Arabia, as is shown in the account by the Chinese, Ma-huan, of the diplomatic visit to Aden in 1422 by the eunuch Li: “The land is rich, the people happy. The king and his subjects are all Muslims who speak Ah-la-Pec” (the Chinese cannot distinguish between l and r). The Chinese took with them coral branches, precious stones, and amber. “The king (of Aden), grateful for the most gracious attentions of the Chinese emperor, had two gilt belts made specially for his majesty ---”. The Chinese also took back with them two rhinoceros horns as a “tribute”. In the middle of the 13th century the Chinese master of ports, Chau Ju-Kua, wrote a detailed manual on trade with the western world(ibid.: 27).

The Semitic languages can claim a much older ancestry than the Indo-European languages, having been written since about 2,500 B.C. As they remained for the most part confined to their original territory(roughly between the river Tigris and the Mediterranean) they have had a much closer typological relationship with one another than the Indo-European languages taken together. Semitic languages were also linked with other, African, languages: ancient Egyptian and its extension Coptic (the language of the Christians in Egypt), the Berber languages, the various East african languages (Somali, Galla, Agaw, Begia, etc.), which are called “Cushitic", and finally with a larger number of languages of central and northern Africa, the “Chadic". The best known of these is the Hausa(Giovanni Garbini, 1988: 104)

As early as prehistoric times, tribes wandered from Asia to Egypt and North Africa. Thus the pre-Egyptian and pre-Berber languages contained pre-Semitic elements. The uniting of Egypt under the first pharaoh Narmer (about 3,200 B.C.) largely prevented any further passage. As a result, Egyptian evolved through the superimposition of African words (Narmer came from the south) on a language whose grammar was pre-Semitic. Further west pre-Berber became the Berber language by linking pre-Egyptian with what were really pre-semitic elements, and later (most recently since the Arabian conquest) with further Semitic elements. This is how the oldest Hamitic languages developed. In the 3rd millennium an extensive renewal of Syria's Semitic languages took place due to the influence of nomadic tribes. The first phase was the Amorite (end of the 3rd up to the middle of the 2nd millennium), the next the Aramaic (from the end of the 2nd millennium up to the birth of Christ). At the beginning of the 1st millennium there then emerged the type of language that was to find its most consummate expression in Arabic. This Amorite-Aramaic-Arabic line pointed the course of the renewal of the Semitic languages(ibid.: 106).

Up to this time the Arabian peninsula was on the fringe of the Semitic region and populated by various tribes. We know about Semitic peoples in the Gulf who were in contact with Mesopotamia in the 3rd millennium²⁾. But we do not know their language. In the 2nd and 1st millennia certain linguistic phenomena appeared in Syrian and Babylonian texts (e. g. the suffix conjugation with -ku or -ka) which were later typical of southern Semitic. The domestication of the camel in the Gulf towards the end of the 2nd millennium brought tribes in large numbers to the Arabian peninsula. It was in this period that the Minaeans, Qatabanians and Hadramites entered southern Arabia, bringing with them their language consisting of Akkadian-Babylonian and Aramaic elements. There lived in this region tribes which can be categorized linguistically as pre-Semitic in the sense that, owing to the great distance from the north, the more recent developments in Semitic had not yet penetrated to the south. There is archaeological evidence that groups of African origin lived here at the same time. Not only the above-mentioned word “grb” (terraced field) is pre-Semitic but also the southern Arabian personal pronouns “ho” (“I”), “het” (“you”). These forms are probably derived from the older “ku” and “kat” (masc.) and “kit” (fem.) and are related to Berber and several Cushitic forms(ibid.: 106).

Later, another large tribe arrived in southern Arabia, the Sabean, whose south-Arabian dialect comes closest to Arabic among the southern Arabic languages. The Sabeans settled there about 600 B.C. and established the mature form of south Arabian civilization: monumental architecture, script and imperialist policies were the main impulses which the Sabeans gave to the Yemeni civilization.

Around 500 B.C. southern Arabian groups from Hadramawt settled in Ethiopia. A few decades later they were followed by the Sabeans. As a result of these tribal migrations there emerged several centuries later the last Semitic language group, Ethiopic, which can be described as a form of southern Arabic that was transplanted to Africa. Where the Sabean influence was strongest there emerged the northern Ethiopic languages (Geʿez, later Tigrinya and Tigré), while the older immigrations produced the various southern Etiopic languages, the main one being Amharic.

Islam also brought Arabic to East Africa, of course. its powerful expansion led to the incorporation of other Semitic elements in the African languages, in the same way that Ethiopic and pre-Semitic Yemenitic had done previously. These are the “Cushitic” languages of the East Africa. A little further westward Arabic and Berber influenced the local African languages. From these developed, under Semitic and Hamitic influence, the group of “Chadic languages”. As the expansion of Semitic languages into Africa is not yet over, there are likely to be yet more surprise in store for coming generations of Semitist(ibid.: 106).

In the Arab World, colloquial dialects vary not only from country to country and town to town, but even from village to village. Strictly speaking, we cannot speak of the colloquial dialect of a particular country or town or village, because speakers of a particular dialect differ among themselves, mainly due to their educational and cultural backgrounds. In addition to these colloquial dialects, there is a superposed standard language commonly referred to as Classical Arabic, the revered language of the Quran, pre-Islamic poetry, and the medieval classics of Arabic literature. Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), as used nowadays, refers to the language learned by Arab students after their initial acquisition of a colloquial dialect of spoken Arabic. It is used on formal occasions - speeches, discussions, debates, news broadcasts, and in schools and universities, being the medium of instruction. Furthermore, newspapers and textbooks all over the Arab World are written almost exclusively in MSA. Others names currently used are ‘Contemporary Arabic’, ‘Modern Literary Arabic’, ‘Modern Written Arabic’, etc. The name abbreviated MSA: however, is intended to represent the literary language in both its spoken and written forms.

Difference between MSA and the colloquials are apparent in phonology and morphology, for the most part a matter of deletion of MSA inflections; e. g., case inflections, dual forms for pronouns and verbs of MSA are not present in most of the colloquials. Syntactic features of MSA and most colloquial dialects, however, are similar(Hamdi A. Qafisheh, 1990: Ⅷ)

On September 10, 1975 law No. 22 for the year 1975 concerning the founding of the University of Aden was issued. The university was founded to provide Yemen with the necessary manpower in accordance with the economic and social development plans and to provide opportunities of university education for the growing numbers of secondary school graduates. Academic work in the university had to be organized in accordance with the internationally recognized standards and a favorable climate had to be created for scientific research that is linked with the development needs of the Yemeni society.

Prior to the issuance of the Law for the founding of the university in 1975, three colleges had been established: College of Education - Aden (1970), Nasser College for Agricultural Sciences (founded in 1972 in Lahej, 46 kilometers from Aden) and College of Economics and Administration, Aden (1974). These colleges which were then placed under the supervision of the General Directorate of Higher Education in the Ministry of Education formed the nucleus for the University of Aden. More faculties were founded later. The university now comprises fifteen faculties.

In the founding year (1975), there were 1403 students in the University. The number of students increased considerably in the following years. In the academic year 1997/98, students enrolled in the university totaled 18252. Likewise, there was a considerable increase in the number of teachers. It rose from 127 teachers in 1975 to 864 teachers in 1997/98. Local teachers constituted 32% of the total teaching staff in 1975 while in 1997 their proportion rose to 97 %.

The University of Aden recognizes the role that it has to perform in the service of the local community. For this purpose, the university set up the following scientific centers to provide training, consultancy and other services to citizens as well as government and private institutions(See Table 2):

No.	Centers	Founding Year
1	Yemeni Research and Studies	1986
2	The Computer Center	1995
3	The Continuing Education Center	1995
4	The Language Institute	1996
5	University Consultancy Center	1996
6	Center for British, American and Translation Studies	1996
7	Center for Environmental Studies and Sciences	1996
8	Science and Technology Center	1997
9	Women Studies & Research Center	1998
10	Agriculture Consultancy Center	1998

In 1995, President Ali Abdulla Saleh laid down the foundation stone for the new campus of the university at Madinat. The campus will have a total area of 400 hectares and will accommodate 38000 students. Construction work for the Faculty of Law started in 1996. It is expected that construction work for the Faculty of Engineering will begin in the year (1998).

The University of Aden signed a number of agreements of scientific and cultural cooperation with the following Arab, Islamic and foreign universities and institutes(See Table 3):

No.	Institutes/ Universities	Country
1	University of Baghdad	Iraq
2	University of Damascus	Syria
3	University of Khartoom	Sudan
4	Al- Mustansiriyya University	Iraq
5	Qar Younis University	Libya
6	University of Algiers	Algeria
7	Ain Shams University	Egypt
8	National University	Somalia
9	Yarmouk University	Jordan
10	Saddam University	Iraq
11	Koufa University	Iraq
12	Nasser International Univ.	Libya
13	University of Rewan	France
14	University of Sorbonne	France
15	University of Lumomba	Russia
16	Institute of Orientation	Russia
17	Higher Institute for Medical Sciences	Cuba
18	University of London	U.K
19	FrSchiller University	Germany
20	University of Sheisen	Poland
21	University of Prague	Czechoslovakia
22	University of Roorkee	India
23	University of Ottawa	Canada
24	University of Gratis	Austria
25	Indian Inst.of Tech. Delhi	India
26	Indian Inst.of Techn. Kanpur	India
27	University of Medical Sciences	Cuba
28	University of Foreign Studies	China

The agreements of cultural and scientific cooperation mentioned above greatly helped the university of Aden to meet about 90% of its needs for the postgraduate training of its teaching staff. Besides, a number of specialists from those universities and institutes were invited, as visiting professor or on a contractual basis, to teach some courses in certain scientific specialization's in the University of Aden.

It should be pointed out that the conclusion of the aforementioned agreements of cooperation indicating the University of Aden's recognition of the importance of promoting close scientific ties with Arab and Foreign Universities.

The University of Aden is a member of Arab University Union, Islamic University Union and International Union of Universities.

Korea has to hurry up the establishment of Korean studies in accordance with the globalization in the Middle East. Korea, however, has many barriers to extend Korean Studies in the Arab Countries, especially in Yemen. Koreans think that Yemen is the unified nation simply in the early of 1990s and is very important country for Korea's unification. Some scholars⁴⁾ had visited to Korea for the purpose of Korean Studies and hope to study about Korea. Really I had discussed the parallel study (Korean Studies in Yemen and Yemeni Studies in Korea) with vice rector of Aden University when I visited Yemen in 1999. Now two organizations between Korea-Yemen Center and Aden University are promoting to have an effect on parallel study since then.

Yemen that has a long history and experience of disintegration and integration in the Arabian Peninsula has much potential for Korean Studies. In Aden University, there are many scholars who had studied in North Korea before unification. They can speak Korean well and know many things about Korea. Academic work in Aden university (founded on September 10, 1975) had to be organized in accordance with the internationally recognized standards and a favorable climate had to be created for scientific research that is linked with the development needs of the Yemeni society. In the founding year (1975), there were 1,403 students in the University. In the academic year 1997/98, students enrolled in the university totaled 18,252.

Frankly speaking, the role of private level has a limit to promote the Korean Studies. As the above mentioned, Korean Studies and its support by Korea Foundation are concentrated on USA and Europe. Nevertheless Korean Studies has a different style in its performance. In USA, Korean Studies is centered on the universities and is performing by the organization like Association For Korean Studies In Europe (1977) voluntarily. Korean Studies in the Middle East, especially in Yemen must take a compromised style between USA and Europe. In the private level, academic relations and cultural approach have to realize. In the governmental level, diplomatic relations and financial support have to maintain. Present style of approach in Yemen for Korean Studies has many problems in its ability of the private level.

Despite favorable circumstances of Korean Studies in the Middle East, Korea has great barriers and burdens to solve a question pending between the two countries. Korea faced with crucial diplomatic relations, but nobody feels the result of serious problem in the near future. Korean government established the diplomatic relations with North Yemen in 1985. We, however, must know the existence of North Korea in Yemen. Prior to our diplomatic relation, North Korea established diplomatic relation with South Yemen in 1963 and is also maintaining friendly good relations between them till now. To make a things worse Korean government had withdrawn Korean embassy from Yemen in 1998 on the reason of the structural adjustment of IMF incident. Yemen, of course, is maintaining the embassy not only in South Korea but also in North Korea and clarifying to withdraw the embassy from Korea if Korean government does not decide to reopen Korean embassy in Yemen in the near future.

Korea has to find a way for Korean Studies in Yemen, and, in point of fact, that Korea is missing the opportunity to start parallel study between Korea and Yemen. Even though Korea-Yemen Center, established in 1994, is making an effort to expand the academic exchanges in the private level, it has the limit of approach. There is no time for hesitation to promote the diplomatic relation and academic exchanges as well as in private level and governmental level.

Korea must breed from the lesson of Yemeni unification and expand the academic exchanges with Yemen through parallel study due to the common consciousness of the long history and disintegrated grief. Yemen is very important for us beyond unification issue. Now Yemen is a developing country after unification as an oil producing country. Considering the study for the Middle East in future, we have to maintain a concrete relation in the field of cultural, social, economic and political matters as well as academic relation. Shakespeare's mention in his writings, "those who take a breed of barren metal" remind me of Yemeni situation about Korea. I am afraid that Yemeni thinks Koreans, as is the realist.

Daum, Warner. 1988. “From the Queen of Saba to a Modern State: 3000 Years of Civilization in Southern Arabia." Yemen. Autria: Penguin.

Garbini, Giovanni. 1988. “Semitic and Indo-European Languages." Yemen: 3000 Years of Art and Civilisation in Arabia Felix. Austria: Penguin.

Saint-Prot, Charles. _____. Happy Arabia: From Antiquity to Ali Abdullah Salih, The Yemeni Unifier. ______: Bissan.