臺灣和韓國雙方是有諸多的類似點。它們同樣都受過日本的殖民統治，且戰後在權威統治下，經濟都獲得快速的成長。在歷經多年的奮鬪后，雖然都實現了民主化，但現在還是處於分裂的狀態。縱然臺灣和韓國有著相似的歷史經歷，但韓國人卻不太關注臺灣，對臺灣的了解亦停留於較為膚淺的水準。另一方面，在韓國和中國大陸建交之前，臺灣是韓國學者進行中國研究的一條重要管道，雖有大批留學生曾在當地留學，但對臺灣本身的研究卻寥寥無幾。因此，韓國學界對臺灣的研究成果自然薄弱。筆者認為，重要的原因在於臺灣在地理上距離韓國較遠，且歷史關聯少，又同樣是一個小國。在如此的條件下，韓國為了在周邊大國間尋求生存空間，而無暇顧及同為弱者的臺灣。或許是由於對臺灣的成見，而產生優越感，並出現錯誤認識？如果這種現象來自於對臺灣的錯誤認識，其根源又是在那裏呢？本文基於該項問題意識，試圖探尋在日本的殖民統治時期，朝鮮人究竟是怎樣認識臺灣的，認識到什麼程度，其認識的依據又是什麽。爲釐淸該項問題，需要對整個殖民地時期的各種報章、雜誌中所刊載的文章，以及個人著作進行綜合分析。但由於時間的關係，本文僅以當時韓國具有代表性的報紙《朝鮮日報》所刊載的新聞作為研究對象。本文原則上將内容中存在“臺灣”一詞的所有新聞視爲相關報導，但因為僅在朝鮮日報社所提供的新聞目錄中對其進行檢索，所以不免仍有遺漏之處，特留待後日對其再進行仔細調查研究。本文的硏究方法是依照年度、主題和性質統計新聞的數量，分析其報導動機，以及在那些領域，何以關注這些事件。接下來透過對新聞內容和用語來分析對臺灣的認識和觀點。首先，如按年度新聞的統計所示，對臺灣銀行破産事件、米穀統制的實施、大地震、霧社事件等發生年度的報導較多。就不同主題的新聞而論，則經濟、政治方面的報導佔了全部報導的79%。在不同性質的新聞中，單純的記事性報道佔了絕大部分，評論、解說只佔了非常小的比重。其次，在政治方面，民族運動的相關報導大約3 成，剩下的都是有關殖民地權力和統治方面的報導。在民族運動方面，與自治運動相比，主要報道了左派系列的運動。在經濟方面，則臺灣銀行事件、米穀統制的實施，以及臺灣米的相關報導佔了絶大多數。就社會方面而言，地震、颱風等氣象方面的報導較多。在文化的層面上，旅行和風俗，特別是對高山族的報導佔了一半以上。其三，臺灣一方面被認爲是一個氣候炎熱，四季常綠的南方島嶼，物產豐富，人民生活富足，但另一方面朝鮮人亦認爲臺灣是與朝鮮距離遙遠接觸機會較少的異域，也是獵取人頭的野蠻人出沒之地。同時臺灣作為朝鮮米的競爭對象和解決糧食不足問題的替代品，臺灣米備受矚目。雖然臺灣同為日本的殖民地，與朝鮮有著同命相憐的苦痛，但由於文化水平較低，且存在民族意識和國家認同上的問題，朝鮮人好像認爲臺灣社會與朝鮮有所不同。總之，從《朝鮮日報》對臺灣相關新聞的分析，不難發現有助於使朝鮮人了解、認識臺灣的社會文化方面的報導較少，報導多集中在政治經濟層面，而且與對抗殖民地統治的民族運動相比，新聞多集中於殖民統治和體系方面的單純報導。究其原因是除了在殖民當局的高壓統治下，缺乏言論自由，且因朝鮮和臺灣同為日本殖民地，互相有密切關係外，也可以看到其對臺灣存在某種優越感。但是本文推測在朝鮮人形成其對台認識的過程中，同時反映日本殖民者的觀點，但無法闡明具體的過程。此外，到目前爲止還很難斷定《朝鮮日報》所表現出來的對臺觀點能否代表整個朝鮮。筆者日後的課題是擬由《東亞日報》等報刊中找尋更多的線索，盼更能有助於闡明殖民地朝鮮對臺灣的認識及其形成過程。

Even though Taiwan is similar to Korea in many aspects, Koreans are not usually keen on Taiwan and their understanding of it is at a low level. Is it because Taiwan is a small country, far away from Korea geographically and historically, and thus can't be reached by the interest of Korean people who struggle to survive between big countries around them? Or is it because of "Orientalism within ourselves", that is, a misrecognition caused by a prejudice or the following arrogance toward Taiwan? If so, where can we find the origin of this misrecognition? On the basis of these issues, this study aims to trace back how and to what extent the Korean people of the Japanese colonization understood Taiwan and on what ground the understanding became possible, by researching the related articles of The Chosun Ilbo, one of the leading newspapers at the time. Research methods include the analysis of the statistics for the number of articles in terms of publishing year, topic, and feature to find motivations and reasons for Korean people's interests in Taiwan, and the analysis of the content of articles to pin down their understandings and attitudes toward Taiwan. According to the annual statistics for the number of articles, many articles about Taiwan were published in the years that had the news such as the bankruptcy of Taiwan Bank (1927), the execution of rice control policy (1933, 34), the great earthquake(1935), and the Wu Shi Affair(1930). As for the topic, the nubmer of the articles about economy and politics amounted to 79% of all. Most of the articles were featured as the simple report about various events, while the editorials or columns were rare. In the politics section, the number of articles about the nationalist movement amounted only to 30%, which mostly covered the leftist movement rather than the self-governing issues, and the rest were about colonial politics and policies. In the economy section, most articles dealt with the bankruptcy of Taiwan Bank, the rice control policy, and the Taiwan rice. In the society section, the articles about earthquakes and cyclones were dominant. And in the culture section, more than half of the articles dealt with traveling and customs, especially those of High Mountain Tribe. Taiwan, meanwhile, was understood as a hot southern island of evergreen beauty and wealth due to bountiful natural resources, but as a land of strangers which had no intimate relationship with Korea due to its geographical distance. It was also recognized as a land of barbarians who were supposed to cut the human head cruelly. On the other hand, Taiwan was recognized as a land that could compete with Korea for its rice production or that could supply their rice for Korea in an urgent situation. In fact, Korean people supposed that Taiwan maintained a culture of low quality and it had the problems with its nationalist spirit and identity, even though it shared the similar experience with Korea as a Japanese colony. And thus, Korean people seemingly considered Taiwan as an irrelevant country. The newspaper articles about Taiwan mostly tended to deal with its politics and economy rather than its society and culture which were the necessary areas for the unbiased understanding of Taiwan. They also tended to deal with the simple reports on the colonial governing system, and the articles about the nationalist movement to protest against the colonization were relatively in small numbers. The reasons for this tendency were that (1) no freedom of speech was allowed by the suppression of the colonial government in Korea, and (2) the colonized Korea seemed to show a sense of superiority to Taiwan in spite of the sympathetic relationship to each other as the same Japanese colony.