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{{Short description|Sole ruling party of North Korea}} |
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{{Infobox Political Party |
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{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2022}} |
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|colorcode = #FF0000 |
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{{Use shortened footnotes|date=June 2022}} |
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|party_name = Workers' Party of Korea<br><small>조선로동당 <br> 朝鮮勞動黨<br> ''Chosŏn Rodongdang''</small> |
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{{Infobox political party |
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|party_logo = [[Image:Flag of the Workers' Party of Korea.svg|200px|Workers' Party of Korea]] |
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| |
| colorcode = {{party color|Workers' Party of Korea}} |
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| name = Workers' Party of Korea |
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|leader1_name = ''Vacant'' |
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| native_name = {{nobold|조선로동당}} |
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|leader2_title = Presidium |
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| native_name_lang = ko |
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|youth_wing = [[Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth League]] |
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| abbreviation = WPK |
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|leader2_name = [[Kim Yong-nam]],<br />[[Choe Yong-rim]],<br />[[Ri Yong-Ho]] |
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| logo = WPK symbol.svg |
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|foundation = June 30, 1949 |
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| leader1_title = {{nowrap|[[General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea|General Secretary]]}} |
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|headquarters = [[Pyongyang]], [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea]] |
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| leader1_name = [[Kim Jong Un]] |
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|ideology = [[Korean nationalism]],<ref name=Myers_Constitution>[[Brian Reynolds Myers|Brian R. Myers]]: [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704471504574445980801810944.html “The Constitution of Kim Jong Il.” ''Wall Street Journal.'' 1 October 2009.] (Accessed 20 December 2011)</ref> <br>[[Juche]],<br>[[Songun]],<br>[[Socialism]]<ref name="Naenara DPRK web portal">{{cite web|title=Political System of the State|url=http://www.naenara.com.kp/en/great/state_pol.php|work=Naenara: Democratic People's Republic of Korea|publisher=The Democratic People's Republic of Korea|accessdate=23 December 2011}}</ref> |
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| leader2_title = [[Presidium of the Politburo of the Workers' Party of Korea|Presidium]] |
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|position = Disputed, see [[#Political position|Political position]]. |
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| leader2_name = {{plainlist| |
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|international = |
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* Kim Jong Un |
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|website = |
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* [[Kim Tok-hun]] |
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|country = North Korea |
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* [[Choe Ryong-hae]] |
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* [[Ri Pyong-chol]] |
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* [[Jo Yong-won]] |
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}} |
}} |
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| youth_wing = {{nowrap|[[Socialist Patriotic Youth League]]}} |
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{{Infobox Korean name |
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| wing1_title = [[Pioneer movement|Children's wing]] |
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|context = north |
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| wing1 = [[Korean Children's Union]] |
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|hangul = 조선로동당 |
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| wing2_title = [[Military|Armed wing]] |
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|hanja = 朝鮮勞動黨 |
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| wing2 = [[Korean People's Army]] |
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|mr = Chosŏn Rodongdang |
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| wing3_title = [[Paramilitary|Paramilitary wing]] |
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|rr = Joseon Rodongdang |
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| wing3 = [[Worker-Peasant Red Guards]] |
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|tablewidth = 288 |
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| wing4_title = South Korean [[Front organization|front]] |
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|fontcolor = yellow |
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| wing4 = [[Anti-Imperialist National Democratic Front]] |
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|color = #FF0000 |
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| foundation = {{start date and age|1949|6|24|df=y}} |
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| merger = {{plainlist| |
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* [[Workers' Party of North Korea]] |
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* [[Workers' Party of South Korea]] |
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}} |
}} |
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| headquarters = [[Government Complex No. 1]], [[Chung-guyok]], [[Pyongyang]] |
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| newspaper = ''[[Rodong Sinmun]]'' |
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| membership_year = 2021 {{estimation}} |
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| membership = {{increase}} ~6,500,000 |
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| ideology = {{Tree list}} |
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<!-- Do not make changes to the list of ideologies without discussing on the talk page first. --> |
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* [[Communism]]{{cref|A}} |
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* {{nowrap|[[Kimilsungism–Kimjongilism]]}} |
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** ''[[Juche]]'' |
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** ''[[Songun]]'' |
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{{Tree list/end}} |
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| position = [[Far-left politics|Far-left]]{{cref|B}} |
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| international = [[International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties|IMCWP]] |
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| seats1_title = [[Supreme People's Assembly]] |
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| seats1 = {{Composition bar|607|687|hex={{party color|Workers' Party of Korea}}}} |
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| colors = {{Color box|{{party color|Workers' Party of Korea}}|border=darkgray}} [[Red]] |
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| anthem = "[[Long Live the Workers' Party of Korea]]" |
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| flag = Flag of the Workers' Party of Korea.svg |
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| website = |
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| country = North Korea |
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| blank3_title = Status |
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| blank3 = Ruling party in North Korea; outlawed in [[South Korea]] under the [[National Security Act (South Korea)|National Security Act]] |
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| footnotes = {{cnote|A|[[Brian Reynolds Myers|B. R. Myers]], Michael J. Seth, and [[Suh Dae-sook|Dae-Sook Suh]] argue that the ideology of Workers' Party of Korea has little in common with communism, despite the party's official stance.{{sfn|Myers|2011|pp=9, 11–12}}{{sfn|Seth|2019|p=159}}{{sfn|Suh|1988|p=313}}}} |
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{{cnote|B|[[Brian Reynolds Myers|B. R. Myers]] describes the Workers' Party of Korea as [[Far-right politics|far-right]] due to its emphasis on [[Korean ethnic nationalism]].{{sfn|Myers|2011|pp=9, 11–12}}}} |
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}} |
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{{Infobox Chinese |
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| title = Workers' Party of Korea |
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| context = north |
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| nkhangul = {{linktext|조선|로동|당}} |
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| nkhanja = {{linktext|朝鮮|勞動|黨}} |
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| nkmr = Chosŏn Rodongdang |
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| nkrr = Joseon Rodongdang| |
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| skhangul = {{linktext|북한|노동|당}} |
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| skhanja = {{linktext|北韓|勞動|黨}} |
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| skmr = Pukhan Nodongdang |
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| skrr = Bukhan Nodongdang |
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| tablewidth = 288 |
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| fontcolor = #FFFF00 |
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| color = {{party color|Workers' Party of Korea}} |
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}} |
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The '''Workers' Party of Korea''' ('''WPK'''){{efn|{{Korean|hangul=조선로동당|mr=Chosŏn Rodongdang}}}} is the sole [[ruling party]] of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, commonly known as [[North Korea]]. Founded in 1949 from a merger between the [[Workers' Party of North Korea]] and the [[Workers' Party of South Korea]], the WPK is the oldest active party in [[Korea]]. It also controls the [[Korean People's Army]], North Korea's armed forces. The WPK is the largest party represented in the [[Supreme People's Assembly]] and coexists with two other legal parties that are completely subservient to the WPK{{sfn|Cha|Hwang|2009|p=214}} and must accept the WPK's "[[Vanguard party|leading role]]" as a condition of their existence. The WPK is banned in the Republic of Korea ([[South Korea]]) under the [[National Security Act (South Korea)|National Security Act]] and is sanctioned by the [[United Nations]], the [[European Union]], [[Australia]], and the [[United States]].{{sfn|The White House|2016}} |
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Officially, the WPK is a [[communist party]] guided by [[Kimilsungism–Kimjongilism]], a synthesis of the ideas of [[Kim Il Sung]] and [[Kim Jong Il]].<ref name="Kim 2021 speech">{{harvnb|Kim|2021}}: "Our Party never expects that there will be any fortuitous opportunity for us in paving the road for our people and in realizing their great aim and ideals to build socialism and communism.{{nbsp}}... When the hundreds of thousands of cell secretaries and officials across the Party unite its members firmly under the leadership of the Party Central Committee and give full play to their loyalty, patriotism and creative wisdom, our revolution will always emerge victorious in high spirits and the ideal of communism will surely come true."</ref><ref name="YNA communism">{{harvnb|Yonhap News Agency|2021}}: "The immediate aim of the Workers' Party of Korea is to build a prosperous and civilized socialist society in the northern half of the Republic and to realize the independent and democratic development of society on a nationwide scale, and the ultimate goal is to build a communist society in which the people's ideals are fully realized."</ref> The party is committed to ''[[Juche]]'', an ideology attributed to Kim Il Sung which promotes national independence and development through the efforts of the popular masses. Although ''Juche'' was originally presented as the Korean interpretation of [[Marxism–Leninism]], the party now presents it as a freestanding philosophy. The WPK recognizes the ruling [[Kim dynasty (North Korea)|Kim family]] as the ultimate source of its political thought. The fourth party conference, held in 2012, amended the party rules to state that Kimilsungism–Kimjongilism was "the only guiding idea of the party".{{sfn|Frank|Hoare|Köllner|Pares|2013|p=45}} Under Kim Jong Il, who governed as chairman of the [[National Defence Commission]], communism was steadily removed from party and state documents in favor of ''[[Songun]]'', or [[militarism|military-first]] politics. The military, rather than the working class, was established as the base of political power. However, his successor Kim Jong Un reversed this position in 2021, replacing ''Songun'' with "people-first politics" as the party's political method{{sfn|Yonhap News Agency|2021}} and reasserting the party's commitment to communism.<ref name="Kim 2021 speech"/><ref name="YNA communism"/> |
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The WPK is organized according to the [[Ten Principles for the Establishment of a Monolithic Ideological System|Monolithic Ideological System]], conceived by [[Kim Yong-ju]] and Kim Jong Il. The highest body of the WPK is formally the party congress; however, before Kim Jong Un's tenure as party leader, a congress rarely occurred. Between 1980 and 2016, there were no congresses held. Although the WPK is organizationally similar to other communist parties, in practice it is far less institutionalized and informal politics plays a larger role than usual. Institutions such as the [[Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea|Central Committee]], the [[Secretariat of the Workers' Party of Korea|Secretariat]], the [[Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea|Central Military Commission]] (CMC), the [[Politburo of the Workers' Party of Korea|Politburo]] and the Politburo's [[Presidium of the Politburo of the Workers' Party of Korea|Presidium]] have much less power than what is formally bestowed on them by [[Rules of the Workers' Party of Korea|the party rules]]. [[Kim Jong Un]] is the current party leader, serving as [[General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea|General Secretary of the WPK]]. |
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{{TOC limit|3}} |
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The '''Workers' Party of Korea''' (WPK) is the ruling [[political party]] of [[North Korea]]. It is also called the '''Korean Workers' Party''' (KWP). The WPK has been the ruling party in the DPRK since its foundation and has had as its leaders, [[Kim Il-sung]] (1912–1994) and his son, [[Kim Jong-il]] (beginning in 1997, when he officially took over as [[General Secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea|General Secretary]] until his death in 2011). [[Kim Ki-Nam]] is the current Secretary of the Central Committee, as of October 2007.<ref name='KoreaHerald2007-10-04'>{{cite news |first=Jin |last=Dae-woong |coauthors= |title=Who's who in North Korea's power elite |date=2007-10-04 |publisher= |url=http://www.koreaherald.co.kr:8080/servlet/cms.article.view?tpl=print&sname=National&img=/img/pic/ico_nat_pic.gif&id=200710040041 |work=[[Korea Herald|The Korea Herald]] |pages= |accessdate=2007-10-05 |language=}}</ref> |
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==History== |
==History== |
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{{ |
{{main|History of the Workers' Party of Korea}} |
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===Founding and early years (1945–1953)=== |
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===Foundation of the party=== |
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On 13 October 1945, the [[North Korean Bureau of the Communist Party of Korea]] (NKB–CPK) was established,{{sfn|Lankov|2002|p=20}} with [[Kim Yong-bom]] as its first chairman.{{sfn|Lankov|2002|p=21}} However, the NKB–CPK remained subordinate to the [[Communist Party of Korea|CPK]] Central Committee, which was headquartered in Seoul and headed by [[Pak Hon-yong]].{{sfn|Lankov|2002|p=22}} Two months later, at the 3rd Plenum of the NKB, Kim Yong-bom was replaced by [[Kim Il Sung]], an event which was probably orchestrated by the Soviet Union.{{sfn|Lankov|2002|pp=21–22}} The North Korean Bureau became the [[Communist Party of North Korea]] in spring 1946, with Kim Il Sung being elected its chairman.{{sfn|Lankov|2002|pp=28–29}} On 22 July 1946, Soviet authorities in North Korea established the [[Democratic Front for the Reunification of Korea|United Democratic National Front]], a [[popular front]] led by the Communist Party of North Korea.{{sfn|Lankov|2002|p=29}} The Communist Party of North Korea soon merged with the [[New People's Party of Korea]], a party primarily composed of communists from China.{{sfn|Lankov|2002|p=29}} A special commission of the two parties ratified the merger on 28 July 1946, and it became official the following day.{{sfn|Lankov|2002|p=31}} One month later (28–30 August 1946), the party held its [[1st Congress of the Workers' Party of North Korea|founding congress]], establishing the [[Workers' Party of North Korea]] (WPNK).{{sfn|Lankov|2002|p=31}} The congress elected the former leader of the New People's Party of Korea [[Kim Tu-bong]] as the first WPNK chairman, with Kim Il Sung its appointed deputy chairman.{{sfn|Lankov|2002|p=31}} However, despite his formal downgrade in the party's hierarchy, Kim Il Sung remained its leader.{{sfn|Lankov|2002|pp=31–32}} |
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According to North Korean sources, the origins of the Workers' Party of Korea can be traced to the [[Down-With-Imperialism Union]], which was supposedly founded on October 17, 1926 and led by Kim Il-sung, then 14 years old. It is described in these sources as "the first genuine revolutionary communist organization in Korea."<ref>Kim Il-sung. ''Works'' Vol. I. Pyongyang: Foreign Languages Publishing House. 1980. p. 467.</ref> The Workers' Party of North Korea was formed on 29 August, 1946 from a merger between the Communist Party of North Korea and the New Democratic Party of Korea.<ref>Kim Il-sung. ''Works'' Vol. 2. Pyongyang: Foreign Languages Publishing House. 1980. p. 327.</ref> |
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[[File:Kim Il-sung and Pak Hon-yong, Baik Namun in Pyungyang.jpg|thumb|left|[[Kim Il Sung]] (left) with [[Pak Hon-yong]] in [[Pyongyang]], 1948]] |
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On June 30, 1949 the [[Workers Party of North Korea]] and the [[Workers Party of South Korea]] merged, forming the Workers' Party of Korea, at a congress in [[Pyongyang]]. Both parties traced their origins to the [[Communist Party of Korea]]. Kim Il-sung of the Workers Party of North Korea became the party Chairman{{Citation needed|date=April 2010}} and [[Pak Hon-yong]], who had been leader of the Workers Party of South Korea as well as the earlier Communist Party of Korea, and [[Alexei Ivanovich Hegay]]<ref name="HegayNames">{{lang-ko|'''허가이'''}}, {{lang-ru|'''Алексей Иванович Хегай'''}}.</ref><ref name="Hegay">{{cite web|accessdate=2008-01-09|language=Russian|publisher=Khasansky District: History, Nature, Geography (by Kulinczenko Marseille and Larissa)|title='''Hagay Aleksei Ivanovich'''|url=http://khasan-district.narod.ru/directory/person/hegay.htm}}</ref><ref name = "Hogai">{{cite web|accessdate=2008-01-11|first=Andrei Nikolaevich|last= Lankov|language=Russian|publisher=The Seoul Herald (Editor: Evgeny Shtefan) >> Library|title= HO GA I: Background of Life and Work |url=http://vestnik.tripod.com/library/hogai.html}}</ref> becoming deputy chairmen. |
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Party control increased throughout the country after the congress.{{sfn|Lankov|2002|pp=33–40}} From 27 to 30 March 1948, the WPNK convened its [[2nd Congress of the Workers' Party of North Korea|2nd Congress]].{{sfn|Lankov|2002|p=40}} While Kim Tu-bong was still the party's formal head, Kim Il Sung presented the main report to the congress.{{sfn|Lankov|2002|p=42}} In it he claimed that North Korea was "a base of democracy", in contrast to South Korea, which he believed to be dictatorial.{{sfn|Lankov|2002|p=42}} On 28 April 1948 a special session of the [[Supreme People's Assembly]] approved the constitution proposed and written by WPNK cadres, which led to the official establishment of an independent North Korea.{{sfn|Lankov|2002|p=44}} It did not call for the establishment of an independent North Korea, but for a unified Korea under a communist government; the capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) would be Seoul, not Pyongyang.{{sfn|Lankov|2002|p=45}} Kim Il Sung was the appointed head of government of the new state, with Kim Tu-bong heading the legislative branch.{{sfn|Lankov|2002|p=47}} A year later on 24 June 1949, the Workers' Party of Korea was created with the merger of the WPNK and the [[Workers' Party of South Korea]].{{sfn|Suh|1988|p=74}} |
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However, official North Korean sources consider October 10, 1945 as the 'Party Foundation Day', citing a founding meeting of the 'North Korea Bureau of the Communist Party of Korea' founded under Soviet guidance. Foreign historians, however, dispute that date and claim that the meeting was in fact held on October 13. The party considers itself as a direct continuation of the North Korea Bureau and the Workers Party of North Korea, considering the two congresses of the Workers Party of North Korea as its own. This version of events can be seen as a move to downplay the importance of the communists from [[South Korea]], who were purged in the 1950s. |
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Kim Il Sung was not the most ardent supporter of a military reunification of Korea; that role was played by the South Korean communists, headed by Pak Hon-yong.{{sfn|Lankov|2002|p=60}} After several meetings between Kim Il Sung and [[List of leaders of the Soviet Union|Soviet leader]] [[Joseph Stalin]], North Korea invaded South Korea on 25 June 1950, thus beginning the [[Korean War]].{{sfn|Lankov|2002|p=61}} With [[United States in the Korean War|American intervention]] in the war the DPRK nearly collapsed, but it was saved by [[People's Volunteer Army|Chinese intervention]] in the conflict.{{sfn|Lankov|2002|p=61}} The war had the effect of weakening Soviet influence over Kim Il Sung and the WPK.{{sfn|Lankov|2002|p=62}} Around this time, the main fault lines in early WPK politics were created. Four factions formed: the domestic faction (WPK cadres who had remained in Korea during Japanese rule), the Soviet faction (Koreans from the Soviet Union), the [[Yan'an faction]] (Koreans from China) and the guerrilla faction (Kim Il Sung's personal faction).{{sfn|Lankov|2002|p=62}} However, Kim Il Sung would be unable to further strengthen his position until the end of the war.{{sfn|Lankov|2002|p=62}} |
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The first five years of the WPK's rule were dominated by the [[Korean War]]. By October 1950 [[United Nations]] forces had occupied most of the DPRK and the WPK leadership had to flee to [[People's Republic of China|China]]. Many believe that if it had not been for Chinese intervention, the Korean communists would have been militarily defeated at that point. But in November, [[People's Liberation Army|Chinese forces]] entered the war and threw the U.N. forces back, retaking Pyongyang in December and Seoul in January 1951. In March U.N. forces retook Seoul, and the front was stabilised along what eventually became the permanent "Armistice Line" of 1953. The WPK was able to re-establish its rule north of this line. |
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===Kim Il Sung's consolidation of power (1953–1980)=== |
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===Factions in the WPK=== |
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[[File:Mosaic Depicting Kim Il Sungs Homecoming, Pyongyang, North Korea (2907648510).jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.8|Propaganda mosaic depicting Kim Il Sung's first public speech given in Pyongyang in September 1945, after the [[National Liberation Day of Korea|liberation of Korea from Japanese occupation]].]] |
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As the Workers' Party of Korea, and its two founding parties, had emerged through a series of mergers, it contained various competing factions. At the time of its foundation, the party was made up of four factions, the ''Soviet Koreans'' faction, the ''Domestic'' faction, the ''Yanan'' (or Chinese) faction and the ''Guerrilla'' faction. |
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* The ''Soviet Koreans'', led first by [[Alexei Ivanovich Hegay]] and then by [[Pak Chang Ok]] were made up of waves of ethnic Koreans who were born or raised in Russia after their families moved there starting in the 1870s. Some of them had returned to Korea covertly as Communist operatives in the twenties and thirties but most were members of the [[Red Army]] or civilians who were stationed in North Korea following [[World War II]] to help the Red Army establish a Soviet satellite. Many came as translators or as Russian language instructors. |
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* The ''Domestic'' faction, led by [[Pak Hon-yong]] were Korean Communists who never left the country but engaged in a struggle against the Japanese occupation. Many members of the domestic faction had spent time in Japanese military prisons as a result of their activities. |
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* The ''[[Yenan group|Yanan faction]]'', led first by [[Mu Chong]] and then by [[Kim Tu-bong]] and [[Choe Chang-ik]], were those Korean exiles who had lived in China's [[Shaanxi]] province and joined the [[Communist Party of China]] whose regional headquarters were at [[Yan'an]]. They had formed their own party, the ''North-Chinese League for the Independence of Korea'', and when they returned to North Korea from exile they formed the ''New People's Party'' which merged with the North Korean Bureau to form the Workers Party of North Korea. Many members of the Yanan faction had fought in the Chinese 8th and New 4th Armies and thus had close relations with [[Mao Zedong]]. |
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* The ''Guerrilla'' faction, led by [[Kim Il-sung]], was made up of former Korean guerillas who had been active in [[Manchuria]] after it was occupied by Japan in 1931. Many in this group ended up fleeing Manchuria, as their armed resistance was suppressed, and moved to the Soviet Union where many of them, including Kim, were drafted into the [[Red Army]]. |
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Relations worsened between the WPK and the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] (CPSU) when Stalin's successor, [[Nikita Khrushchev]], began pursuing a policy of [[de-Stalinization]].{{sfn|Lankov|2002|p=65}} During the [[Sino–Soviet conflict]], an ideological conflict between the CPSU and the [[Chinese Communist Party]] (CCP), Kim Il Sung manoeuvred between the two socialist superpowers; by doing so, he weakened their influence on the WPK.{{sfn|Lankov|2002|p=65}} By 1962 Kim Il Sung and the WPK favored the CCP over the CPSU in the ideological struggle, and "for a few years North Korea almost unconditionally supported the Chinese position on all important issues."{{sfn|Lankov|2002|p=65}} The primary conflict between the WPK and the CPSU during this period was that Kim Il Sung did not support the denunciation of [[Stalinism]], the creation of a [[collective leadership]], and the theory of [[peaceful coexistence]] between the capitalist and socialist worlds.{{sfn|Lankov|2002|p=65}} Kim Il Sung believed peaceful coexistence to be synonymous with capitulation and knew that de-Stalinization in North Korea would effectively end his unlimited power over the WPK.{{sfn|Lankov|2002|p=65}} The result of the souring of relations between the CPSU and the WPK was that the Soviet Union discontinued aid to North Korea.{{sfn|Lankov|2002|p=66}} China was meanwhile unwilling to increase its aid, and, as a result, several industries in North Korea were on the brink of disaster.{{sfn|Lankov|2002|p=66}} [[Mao Zedong]] began the [[Cultural Revolution]] shortly thereafter, an event criticized by the WPK as "left-wing opportunism" and a manifestation of the "[[Trotskyism|Trotskyist]] theory of a [[permanent revolution]]."{{sfn|Lankov|2002|p=66}} Relations between the CPSU and the CCP stabilized during the 1960s, with the WPK making it clear it would remain neutral in the Sino–Soviet conflict,{{sfn|Lankov|2002|p=66}} thus resulting in the 1966 launch of the ''Juche'' program aimed at national self-determination at all levels. This, in turn, strengthened Kim Il Sung's position in the WPK.{{sfn|Lankov|2002|p=66}} |
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Once the WPK was created there was a virtual parity between the four factions with the Yanan, Soviet and Domestic factions each having four representatives on the [[Politburo]] with the Guerrilla faction having three. |
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Beginning in the 1960s, Kim Il Sung's cult of personality reached new heights.{{sfn|Lankov|2002|p=70}} It had been no greater than Stalin's or Mao's until 1972, when [[Day of the Sun|his birthday]] on 15 April became the country's main [[Public holidays in North Korea|public holiday]] and statues of him began to be built nationwide.{{sfn|Lankov|2002|p=70}} Kim became known as "Great Leader", the "Sun of the Nation", "The Iron All-Victorious General" and "Marshal of the All-Mighty Republic" in WPK and state publications; official propaganda stated that "burning loyalty to the leader" was one of the main characteristics of any Korean.{{sfn|Lankov|2002|p=70}} |
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In the early years of the party, Kim Il-sung was the acknowledged leader, but he did not yet have absolute power, since it was necessary to balance off the interests of the various factions. To eliminate any threats to his position, he first moved against individual leaders who were potential rivals. He drove from power Alexei Ivanovich Hegay (also known as Ho Ka-ai), leader of the Soviet faction, first demoting him during the Korean War in 1951 and then using him as a scapegoat for slow repairs of a water reservoir bombed by the Americans to drive him from power (and to an alleged suicide) in 1953. In part, it was possible for Kim to do this because the intervention of "Chinese People's Volunteers" in the war reduced the influence of both the USSR and the Soviet faction and allowed Kim Il-sung the room he needed to dispose of his main rival. |
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Kim Il Sung and his guerilla faction had purged the WPK of its opposing factions during the 1950s and the 1960s, to the dismay of both the CCP and the CPSU.{{sfn|Lankov|2002|p=62}} The domestic faction was the first to go (in 1953–55), followed by the Yan'an faction in 1957–58 and the Soviet Koreans (along with anyone else deemed unfaithful to the WPK leadership) in the 1957–62 purge.{{sfn|Lankov|2002|pp=62–63}} According to historian [[Andrei Lankov]], "Kim Il Sung had become not only supreme but also the omnipotent ruler of North Korea—no longer merely 'first amongst equals, as had been the case in the late 1940s".{{sfn|Lankov|2002|p=63}} After purging his WPK opposition, Kim Il Sung consolidated his power base with [[nepotism]] and hereditary succession in the Kim family and the guerilla faction.{{sfn|Lankov|2002|p=72}} Beginning in the late 1980s, "a high (and increasing) proportion of North Korean high officials have been sons of high officials."{{sfn|Lankov|2002|p=72}} Since the 1960s, Kim Il Sung had appointed family members to positions of power.{{sfn|Lankov|2002|p=73}} By the early 1990s, a number of leading national offices were held by people in his family: [[Kang Song-san]] ([[Premier of North Korea|Premier]] of the [[Government of North Korea|Administrative Council]] and member of the WPK Secretariat), [[Pak Song-chol]] ([[Vice President of North Korea|Vice President]]), [[Hwang Jang-yop]] and [[Kim Chung-rin]] (members of the WPK Secretariat), [[Kim Yong-sun]] (Head of the [[International Department of the Workers' Party of Korea|WPK International Department]] and member of the WPK Secretariat), [[Kang Hui-won]] (Secretary of the [[Pyongyang Municipal Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea|WPK Pyongyang Municipal Committee]] and Deputy Premier of the Administrative Council), [[Kim Tal-hyon]] ([[Ministry of Foreign Trade (North Korea)|Minister of Foreign Trade]]), [[Kim Chan-ju]] ([[Ministry of Agriculture (North Korea)|Minister of Agriculture]] and Deputy Chairman of the Administrative Council) and [[Yang Hyong-sop]] (President of the [[Academy of Social Sciences (North Korea)|Academy of Social Sciences]] and chairman of the [[Supreme People's Assembly]]).{{sfn|Lankov|2002|p=73}} These individuals were appointed solely because of their ties to the [[Kim dynasty (North Korea)|Kim family]], and presumably retain their positions as long as the Kim family controls the WPK and the country.{{sfn|Lankov|2002|p=73}} The reason for Kim's support of nepotism (his own and that of the guerrilla faction) can be explained by the fact that he did not want the [[nomenklatura|party bureaucracy]] to threaten his—and his son's—rule as it did in other socialist states.{{sfn|Lankov|2002|p=73}} |
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Kim Il-sung also attacked the leadership of the Yanan faction. When the North Koreans were driven to the Chinese border, Kim Il-sung needed a scapegoat to explain the military disaster and blamed [[Mu Chong]], a leader of the Yanan faction and also a leader of the [[North Korean military]]. Mu Chong and a number of other military leaders were expelled from the party and Mu was forced to return to China where he spent the rest of his life. Kim Il-sung also removed [[Pak Il-u]], the Minister of the Interior and reputedly the personal representative of [[Mao Zedong]]. |
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It was first generally believed by foreign observers that Kim Il Sung was planning for his brother, [[Kim Yong-ju]], to succeed him.{{sfn|Lee|1982|p=442}} Kim Yong-ju's authority gradually increased, until he became co-chairman of the North-South Coordination Committee.{{sfn|Lee|1982|p=442}} From late 1972 to the [[6th Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea|6th WPK Congress]], Kim Yong-ju became an increasingly remote figure in the regime. At the 6th Congress, he lost his Politburo and Central Committee seats,{{sfn|Lee|1982|p=442}} and rumours that Kim Il Sung had begun grooming Kim Jong Il in 1966 were confirmed.{{sfn|Lee|1982|p=442}} From 1974 to the 6th Congress, Kim Jong Il (called the "Party centre" by North Korean media) was the second most powerful man in North Korea.{{sfn|Lee|1982|p=442}} His selection was criticized, with his father accused of creating a dynasty or turning North Korea into a [[Feudalism|feudal state]].{{sfn|Lee|1982|p=434}} |
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The sacking of Hegay, Mu and Pak reduced the influence of the Chinese and Soviet factions, but Kim Il-sung could not yet launch an all out assault on these factions because he would risk the intervention of [[Moscow]] and [[Beijing]] when he was still dependent on their support. |
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===Kim Jong Il's rule (1980–2011)=== |
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[[File:Kim Jong il Portrait-2.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|Although [[Kim Jong Il]] headed the WPK with no pretence of following the party rules, it was revitalized at the 3rd Conference at the end of his rule.]] |
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As the [[Korean War]] drew to a close, he first moved against the Domestic faction. While the Soviet faction had the sponsorship of the Soviet Union, and the Yanan faction was backed by China, the Domestic faction had no external sponsor who would come to their aid, and was therefore in the weakest position. With the end of the Korean War, the usefulness of the Domestic faction in running guerilla and spy networks in South Korea came to an end. Former leaders of the Workers Party of South Korea were attacked at a December 1952 Central Committee meeting. In early 1953 rumours were spread that the "southerners" had been planning a coup. This led to the arrest and removal from power of [[Pak Hon-yong]] (who was foreign minister at the time) and [[Yi Sung Yop]] the minister of "state control" who was charged with "spying on behalf of the [[United States]]". |
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With Kim Jong Il's official appointment as [[heir apparent]] at the 6th Congress, power became more centralized in the Kim family.{{sfn|Buzo|1999|p=105}} WPK officials began to speak openly about his succession, and beginning in 1981 he began to participate in (and lead) tours.{{sfn|Buzo|1999|p=105}} In 1982, he was made a [[Hero of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea]] and wrote ''[[On the Juche Idea]]''.{{sfn|Buzo|1999|p=105}} While foreign observers believed that Kim Jong Il's appointment would increase participation by the younger generation, in ''On the Juche Idea'' he made it clear that his leadership would not mark the beginning of a new generation of leaders.{{sfn|Buzo|1999|pp=105–106}} The WPK could not address the crisis facing Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il's leadership at home and abroad, in part because of the [[gerontocracy]] at the highest level of the WPK and the state.{{sfn|Buzo|1999|p=106}} |
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In August 1953, following the signing of the [[armistice]] that suspended the Korean War, Yi and eleven other leaders of the domestic faction were subjected to a [[show trial]] on charges of planning a military coup and sentenced to death. In 1955, Pak Hon Yong, the former leader of the WPSK and deputy chairman of the WPK, was put on trial on charges of having been a US agent since 1939, sabotage, assassination, and planning a coup. He was sentenced to death, although it is unclear if he was shot immediately or if his execution occurred some time in 1956. |
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[[File:Monument to the Founding of the Worker's Party 01.JPG|thumb|left|The [[Monument to Party Founding]] in Pyongyang, erected in 1995.]] |
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The trials of Yi and Pak were accompanied by the arrest of other members and activists of the former SWPK, with defendants being executed or sent to forced labour in the countryside. The domestic faction was virtually wiped out, though a few individual members who had personally allied themselves to Kim Il-sung remained in positions of influence for several more years. |
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With the death of [[O Jin-u]] on 25 February 1995, Kim Jong Il became the sole remaining living member of the Presidium (the highest body of the WPK when the Politburo and the Central Committee are not in session).{{sfn|Gause|2011|p=7}} While no member list of the [[Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea|WPK Central Military Commission]] (CMC, the highest party organ on military affairs) was published from 1993 to 2010, there were clear signs of movement in the military hierarchy during 1995.{{sfn|Gause|2011|p=8}} For the WPK's 50th anniversary, Kim Jong Il initiated a reshuffling of the CMC (and the military leadership in general) to appease the old guard and younger officials.{{sfn|Gause|2011|p=8}} He did not reshuffle the WPK Central Committee or the government, however, during the 1990s the changes to its membership were caused mostly by its members [[Death by natural causes|dying of natural causes]].{{sfn|Gause|2011|p=11}} |
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===The "August Incident" and aftermath=== |
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Kim Il-sung sent out preliminary signals in late 1955 and early 1956 that he was preparing to move against the Yanan and Soviet factions. The [[Twentieth Party Congress]] of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Soviet Communist Party]] was a bombshell with [[Nikita Khrushchev]]'s [[On the Personality Cult and its Consequences|Secret Speech]] denouncing [[Joseph Stalin]] and the inauguration of [[destalinisation]]. Throughout the [[Soviet bloc]] domestic Communist parties inaugurated campaigns against [[cult of personality|personality cults]] and the [[general secretary|general secretaries]] who modelled themselves after Stalin were deposed throughout Eastern Europe. |
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Beginning in 1995, Kim Jong Il favoured the military over the WPK and the state.{{sfn|Gause|2011|p=11}} Problems began to mount as an [[economic crisis]], coupled with a [[North Korean famine|famine]] in which at least half a million people died, weakened his control of the country.{{sfn|Gause|2011|pp=11–13}} Instead of recommending structural reforms, Kim began to criticize the WPK's lack of control over the economy, lambasting its local and provincial branches for their inability to implement central-level instructions.{{sfn|Gause|2011|p=13}} At a speech celebrating the 50th anniversary of [[Kim Il Sung University]], he said: "The reason why people are loyal to the instructions of the Central Committee is not because of party organizations and workers, but because of my authority."{{sfn|Gause|2011|p=13}} Kim Jong Il said that his father had told him to avoid economics, claiming that it was better left to experts. After this speech, the WPK's responsibility to control the economy was given to the Administrative Council (the central government).{{sfn|Gause|2011|p=13}} By late 1996 Kim Jong Il concluded that neither the WPK nor the central government could run the country, and began shifting control to the military.{{sfn|Gause|2011|p=15}} A constitutional amendment in 1998 later redirected supreme state power in North Korea to the leadership of the military, rather than the WPK.{{sfn|Yoon|2003|p=1301}} |
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Kim Il-sung was summoned to [[Moscow]] for six weeks in the summer of 1956 in order to receive a dressing down from Khrushchev, who wished to bring North Korea in line with the new orthodoxy. During Kim Il-sung's absence, [[Pak Chang Ok]] (the new leader of the Soviet faction after the suicide of Ho Ka Ai), [[Choe Chang Ik]], and other leading members of the Yanan faction devised a plan to attack Kim Il-sung at the next plenum of the Central Committee and criticise him for not "correcting" his leadership methods, developing a personality cult, distorting the "Leninist principle of collective leadership" his "distortions of socialist legality" (i.e. using arbitrary arrest and executions) and use other Khrushchev-era criticisms of [[Stalinism]] against Kim Il-sung's leadership. |
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On 8 July 1997, the three-year mourning period for Kim Il Sung ended.{{sfn|Gause|2011|p=18}} Later that year, on 8 October, Kim Jong Il was appointed to the newly established office of General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea.{{sfn|Gause|2011|p=18}} There was considerable discussion by foreign experts about why Kim Jong Il was appointed General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, instead of succeeding his father as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea.{{sfn|Gause|2011|p=18}} In a clear breach of the WPK rules, Kim Jong Il was appointed WPK General Secretary in a joint announcement by the 6th Central Committee and the CMC rather than elected by a plenum of the Central Committee.{{sfn|Gause|2011|p=18}} Although it was believed that Kim Jong Il would call a congress shortly after his appointment (to elect a new WPK leadership), he did not.{{sfn|Gause|2011|p=18}} The WPK would not be revitalized organizationally until the 3rd Conference in 2010.{{sfn|Gause|2011|p=18}} Until then, Kim Jong Il ruled as an [[Autocracy|autocrat]];{{sfn|Gause|2011|p=18}} only in WPK institutions considered important were new members and leaders appointed to take the place of dying officials.{{sfn|Gause|2011|p=18}} The 10th [[Supreme People's Assembly]] convened on 5 September 1998, amended the [[Constitution of North Korea|North Korean constitution]].{{sfn|Gause|2011|p=22}} The [[Constitutional amendment|amended]] constitution made the [[National Defense Commission]] (NDC), previously responsible for supervising the military, the highest state organ.{{sfn|Gause|2011|p=23}} Although the new constitution gave the cabinet and the NDC more independence from WPK officials, it did not weaken the party.{{sfn|Gause|2011|p=24}} Kim Jong Il remained WPK General Secretary, controlling the [[Organization and Guidance Department of the Workers' Party of Korea|Organization and Guidance Department]] (OGD) and other institutions.{{sfn|Gause|2011|p=24}} While the central WPK leadership composition was not renewed in a single stroke until 2010, the WPK retained its important role as a [[mass organization]].{{sfn|Gause|2013|p=20}} |
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Kim Il-sung became aware of the plan upon his return from Moscow and responded by delaying the plenum by almost a month and using the additional time to prepare by bribing and coercing Central Committee members and planning a stage-managed response. When the plenum finally opened on August 30 Choe Chang-ik made a speech attacking Kim Il-sung for concentrating the power of the party and the state in his own hands as well as criticising the party line on industrialisation which ignored widespread starvation among the [[North Korean people]]. Yun Kong Hum attacked Kim Il-sung for creating a "police regime". Kim Il-sung's supporters heckled and berated the speakers rendering them almost inaudible and destroying their ability to persuade members. Kim Il-sung's supporters accused the opposition of being "anti-Party" and moved to expel Yun from the party. Kim Il-sung, in response, neutralised the attack on him by promising to inaugurate changes and moderate the regime, promises which were never kept. The majority in the committee voted to support Kim Il-sung and also voted in favour of repressing the opposition, expelling Choe and Pak from the Central Committee. |
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On 26 June 2010, the Politburo announced that it was summoning delegates for the 3rd Conference,{{sfn|Gause|2013|p=20}} with its official explanation of the need to "reflect the demands of the revolutionary development of the Party, which is facing critical changes in bringing about the strong and prosperous state and Juche development."{{sfn|Gause|2013|p=20}} The conference met on 28 September, revising the party rules and electing (and dismissing) members of the Central Committee, the Secretariat, the Politburo, the Presidium and other bodies.{{sfn|Gause|2013|p=20}} [[Kim Jong Un]] was confirmed as heir apparent;{{sfn|Gause|2013|pp=30–32}} Vice Marshal [[Ri Yong-ho (general)|Ri Yong-ho]] and General [[Kim Kyong-hui]] (Kim Jong Il's sister) were appointed to leading positions in the [[Korean People's Army]] and the WPK to help him consolidate power.{{sfn|Choi|Hibbitts|2010|p=3}} The following year, on 17 December 2011, [[Death and state funeral of Kim Jong Il|Kim Jong Il died]].{{sfn|Gause|2013|p=19}} |
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Several leaders of the Yunan faction fled to China to escape the purges that followed the August plenum, while supporters of the Soviet faction and Yanan faction were rounded up. Though [[Kim Tu Bong]], the leader of the Yanan faction and nominal President of North Korea, was not directly involved in the attempt on Kim, he was ultimately purged in 1958, accused of being the "mastermind" of the plot. Kim Tu Bong "disappeared" after his removal from power, and likely was either executed or died in prison. |
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===Kim Jong Un's rule (2011–present)=== |
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In September 1956 a joint Soviet-Chinese delegation went to Pyongyang to "instruct" Kim Il-sung to cease any purge and reinstate the leaders of the Yanan and Soviet factions. A second plenum of the Central Committee, held on September 23, 1956, officially pardoned the leaders of the August opposition attempt and rehabilitated them, but in 1957 the purges resumed, and by 1958 the Yanan faction had ceased to exist. Members of the Soviet faction, meanwhile, facing increased harassment, decided to return to the Soviet Union in increasing numbers. By 1961 the only faction left was Kim Il-sung's own guerrilla faction, along with members who had joined the WPK under Kim Il-sung's leadership and were loyal to him. In the 1961 Central Committee there were only two members of the Soviet faction, three members of the Yanan faction and three members of the Domestic faction left out of a total Central Committee membership of 68. These individuals were personally loyal to Kim Il-sung and were trusted by him; however, by the late 1960s, even these individuals were almost all purged. |
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[[File:Kim Jong-un April 2019 (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.8|[[Kim Jong Un]] became the leader of the party following his father's death in 2011.]] |
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After Kim Jong Il's death, the North Korean elite consolidated Kim Jong Un's position; he was declared in charge of the country when the official report of his father's death was published on 19 December.{{sfn|McCurry|2011a}} On 26 December 2011, the official newspaper ''[[Rodong Sinmun]]'' hailed him as supreme leader of the party and the state.{{sfn|McCurry|2011b}} On 30 December a meeting of the Politburo officially appointed him [[Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army]], after he was nominated for the position by Kim Jong Il in October 2011 (the anniversary of Kim Jong Il's becoming general secretary).{{sfn|AFP|2011}} Despite the fact that he was not a Politburo member, Kim Jong Un was named to the unofficial position of the supreme leader of the Workers' Party of Korea.{{sfn|Frank|Hoare|Köllner|Pares|2011|p=50}} |
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One likely reason for the failure of the Soviet and Yanan factions to depose Kim Il-sung was the nationalist view by younger members of the party who had joined since 1950 that the members of these factions were "foreigners" influenced by alien powers while Kim Il-sung was seen as a true Korean. |
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After celebrations for Kim Jong Il's 70th birth anniversary, the Politburo announced on 18 February the 4th Party Conference (which was scheduled for mid-April 2012, near the 100th birth anniversary of Kim Il Sung) "to glorify the sacred revolutionary life and feats of Kim Jong Il for all ages and accomplish the ''Juche'' cause, the ''Songun'' revolutionary cause, rallied close around Kim Jong Un".{{sfn|Chen|2012}} Kim Jong Un was promoted to the rank of "[[Wonsu|Marshal of the Republic]]" in July 2012.{{sfn|BBC News|2012}} At the 4th Party Conference on 11 April, Kim Jong Il was declared Eternal General Secretary and Kim Jong Un was elected to the newly created post of First Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and the Presidium. The conference amended the party rules to say [[Kimilsungism–Kimjongilism]] "the only guiding idea of the party".{{sfn|Rodong Sinmun|2012}}{{sfn|Frank|Hoare|Köllner|Pares|2013|p=45}} In December 2013, the party experienced its first open inner struggle in decades with the purge of [[Jang Song-thaek]].{{sfn|Oh|2013}} |
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===Sino-Soviet Split and North Korea=== |
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Until the 1960s the regime in the DPRK was seen as an orthodox Communist one-party state, with power residing in the Communist Party. All industry was [[nationalization|nationalised]] and all agriculture was collectivised on the Soviet model, and the party controlled this [[command economy]] at every level. All other political organisation was suppressed and [[civil society]] was extinguished. A pervasive [[political police]] apparatus suppressed all [[dissent]]. Even at this stage there was a [[personality cult]] of Kim Il-sung, but it was usually assumed in the west that the DPRK was a Soviet satellite like [[People's Republic of Poland|Poland]] or [[German Democratic Republic|East Germany]] though, in reality, this had stopped being the case after 1956. |
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The party has seen somewhat of a revival under Kim Jong Un, with more frequent meetings. There have been two conferences, after a gap of 44 years, and a congress between 2010 and 2016.{{sfn|Frank|2018}} After staging a huge [[military parade]] in celebration of the party's 70th [[Party Foundation Day|anniversary]] on 10 October 2015, the Politburo announced that its [[7th Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea|7th Congress]] will be held on 6 May 2016 after a 36-year hiatus. The congress announced the first Five-Year Plan since the 1980s and gave Kim Jong Un the new title of chairman, which replaced the previous office of First Secretary.{{sfn|Reuters|2016}} In January 2021, the [[8th Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea|8th WPK Congress]] was convened, where Kim Jong Un was given the title of general secretary, replacing the title of chairman.{{sfn|AP News|2021}} The congress also marked the consolidation of WPK control over the army and a decrease in the army's power, with the number of military delegates in both the congress and the Politburo decreasing.{{sfn|Lee|2021}} It was reported in June 2021 that the party set up the post of 'First Secretary', with speculation that [[Jo Yong-won]]{{sfn|Koko|2021}} or [[Kim Tok Hun]], the [[Premier of North Korea]] would fill the position.{{sfn|Seo|Berlinger|2021}} Starting from 2021, Kim Jong Un has started reviving communism and communist terminology within the WPK, with the ideology being again written to the party rules.<ref name="Kim 2021 speech"/>{{sfn|Lankov|2021}} He also increasingly replaced ''Songun'' with "people-first politics" in the party rules.{{sfn|Yonhap News Agency|2021}} |
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The [[Sino-Soviet split]] helped Kim Il-sung take the Workers' Party of Korea on an independent path between Moscow and Beijing. The party and Kim Il-sung in particular were wary of [[de-stalinization]] and of Khrushchev's reforms. In the late 1950s, the DPRK began to increasingly emulate the [[People's Republic of China]] (PRC), launching its own version of the [[Great Leap Forward]] calling it the ''Chollima'' movement. The press did not mention the Sino-Soviet split at first. In 1961, Kim Il-sung signed a treaty of friendship and mutual cooperation with [[Zhou Enlai]] and then proceeded to sign a similar treaty with the Soviet Union. After 1962 and particularly after the Twenty-Second CPSU Party Congress in which Soviet leaders criticised Chinese leaders, the WPK began to side openly with the PRC not only on issues such as the [[personality cult]] and [[anti-revisionism]] but also against Khrushchev's theory of [[peaceful coexistence]]. Editorials began to appear in the press openly criticising the Soviet position and defending the Chinese and obliquely attacking Khrushchev. The WPK supported the [[Sino-Indian War|PRC during its conflict]] with [[India]] in 1962 and denounced the USSR's "capitulation" in the [[Cuban missile crisis]]. |
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==Ideology== |
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The Soviet Union responded by cutting off all aid to the DPRK, seriously damaging North Korea's industry and military capability. PRC did not have the resources to replace the Soviet aid, and after 1965 was embroiled in the chaos of the [[Cultural Revolution]]. Events in PRC shocked the WPK leadership and caused it to distance itself from PRC and criticise Mao's "dogmatism" and recklessness, even accusing the Chinese of adopting the "Trotskyist theory of [[permanent revolution]]", a serious heresy in the Communist world. The Chinese [[Red Guards (China)|Red Guards]] began to attack Kim Il-sung and Korean domestic and foreign policy. After 1965, North Korea took a neutral stand in the Sino-Soviet conflict, backing away from its previous uncritical support of PRC. |
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{{main|Ideology of the Workers' Party of Korea}} |
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The WPK maintains a leftist image,{{sfn|Myers|2011|pp=9, 11–12}} and normally sends a delegation to the [[International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties]], where it has some support;{{sfn|KKE|2011}} its 2011 resolution, "Let us jointly commemorate the Birth Centenary of the Great Leader comrade President Kim Il Sung as a Grand Political Festival of the World's Humankind", was signed by 30 of the 79 attending parties.{{sfn|Solidnet.org|2011}} The WPK also sees itself as part of the worldwide leftist and [[socialist]] movements; during the [[Cold War]], the WPK and North Korea had a policy of "exporting revolution", aiding leftist guerrillas worldwide. Additionally, its party rules say its ultimate aim is to "realize a communist society in which the people's ideals are fully realized" and further state it upholds "the revolutionary principles of Marxism–Leninism".{{sfn|Yonhap News Agency|2021}} However, [[Brian Reynolds Myers]], [[Jasper Becker]], and [[Suh Dae-sook|Dae-Sook Suh]] argue that the WPK's ideology is xenophobic, racist, and nationalist.{{sfn|Myers|2011|pp=9, 11–12}}{{sfn|Becker|2005|p=66}}{{sfn|Suh|1988|pp=139, 313}} |
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Although Kim Il-sung's regime emulated some of the slogans of the [[Mao Zedong]]'s [[Cultural Revolution]], Kim Il-sung remained wary of Chinese domination, and never applied anything like the Cultural Revolution in North Korea. In the same year DPRK forces captured the U.S.S. [[USS Pueblo (AGER-2)|''Pueblo'']], an American spy ship, showing that Kim Il-sung was running his own version of the [[Cold War]], independent of Soviet or Chinese tutelage. |
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===Juche |
===''Juche''=== |
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{{main|Juche}} |
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After 1956, Kim Il-sung was no longer a Soviet puppet and the DPRK moved away from being a Soviet satellite or "people's democracy". Nor did he trust the Chinese due to their suspected support of the Yanan faction's move against Kim Il-sung. Rather, he pursued an independent policy and initiated his [[juche]] program of national self-reliance in order to diminish the influence of the USSR and China over domestic North Korean affairs. The program was officially launched in June 1966 (after the state visit of the Soviet Foreign Minister) as the ''program of national self-determination and Communist and Workers' Parties' non-interference''. By the late 1960s, the North Korean media was hailing the juche ideology as being superior to Leninism and other foreign ideologies and "burning loyalty" to the "Great Leader" became a major ideological theme (the term "Great Leader" was first used in the early 1960s) and took the Stalinistic practice of the [[personality cult]] to new levels. |
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===={{anchor|Relation to Marxism–Leninism}}Relationship to Marxism–Leninism==== |
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With the removal of the other factions, Kim Il-sung became the supreme leader of the DPRK. By 1960, Kim Il-sung had purged virtually all the members of the Yanan, Domestic and Soviet factions through show trials, intimidation, and encouraging Soviet Koreans to return to the USSR, leaving the party to be dominated by his guerrilla comrades as well as young technocrats who had joined the party after its founding and were loyal to Kim Il-sung. |
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Although the term "''Juche''" was first used in Kim Il Sung's speech (given in 1955), "[[On Eliminating Dogmatism and Formalism and Establishing Juche in Ideological Work|On Eliminating Dogmatism and Formalism and Establishing ''Juche'' in Ideological Work]]", ''Juche'' as a coherent ideology did not develop until the 1960s.{{sfn|Cheong|2000|pp=138–139}} Similar to Stalinism, it led to the development of an unofficial (later formalized) ideological system defending the central party leadership.{{sfn|Cheong|2000|p=139}} Until about 1972, ''Juche'' was called a "creative application" of Marxism–Leninism and "the Marxism–Leninism of today", and Kim Il Sung was hailed as "the greatest Marxist–Leninist of our time".{{sfn|Cheong|2000|p=139}} However, by 1976 ''Juche'' had become a separate ideology; Kim Jong Il called it "a unique ideology, the contents and structures which cannot simply be described as Marxist–Leninist."{{sfn|Cheong|2000|p=139}} |
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At the [[5th Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea|5th Congress]], ''Juche'' was elevated to the same level as Marxism–Leninism.{{sfn|So|Suh|2013|p=107}} It gained in prominence during the 1970s, and at the 6th Congress in 1980 it was recognized as the WPK's only ideology.{{sfn|So|Suh|2013|p=107}} During the following decade, ''Juche'' transformed from practical to pure ideology.{{sfn|So|Suh|2013|p=107}} ''[[On the Juche Idea]]'', the primary text on ''Juche'', was published in Kim Jong Il's name in 1982.{{sfn|Kwak|2009|p=19}} ''Juche'' is, according to this study, inexorably linked with Kim Il Sung and "represents the guiding idea of the [[History of North Korea|Korean Revolution]]{{nbsp}}... we are confronted with the honourable task of modelling the whole society on the ''Juche'' idea".{{sfn|Kwak|2009|p=19}} Kim Jong Il says in the work that ''Juche'' is not simply a creative application of Marxism–Leninism, but "a new era in the development of human history".{{sfn|Kwak|2009|p=19}} The WPK's break with basic Marxist–Leninist premises is spelt out clearly in the article, "Let Us March Under the Banner of Marxism–Leninism and the ''Juche'' Idea".{{sfn|Kwak|2009|p=20}} |
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In 1972 the DPRK adopted a new constitution, under which an executive presidency was created, and Kim Il-sung became President as well as the WPK's General Secretary. Thereafter Kim Il-sung's personality cult reached heights that made even Stalin and Mao appear modest by comparison.{{Citation needed|date=October 2011}} Kim Il-sung was credited with personal direction of every supposed achievement of the regime, his biography was rewritten to make him the founder and leader of the WPK from its inception, and a new ideology of Kim Il-sung's creation, ''Juche'' or self-reliance, replaced [[Marxism-Leninism]] as the regime's official ideology. All other WPK leaders remained completely anonymous, although Kim Il-sung's power in fact depended on the control of the [[Korean People's Army]] and the security forces by his loyal agent, Defence Minister [[Oh Jin-wu]]. Kim Jong-il explains in ''Socialism of Our Country is Socialism of Our Style as the Embodiment of the Juche Idea'', a speech made to the [[central committee]] of the WPK on December 27, 1990 the divorce with Marxism-Leninism. "We could not literally accept the Marxist theory which had been advanced on the premises of the socio-historic conditions of the developed European capitalist countries, or the Leninist theory presented in the situation of Russia where capitalism was developed to the second grade. We had had to find a solution to every problem arising in the revolution ... from the standpoint of Juche". |
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Despite ''Juche''{{'s}} conception as a creative application of [[Marxism]] and [[Leninism]],{{sfn|Suh|1988|p=302}} some scholars argue it has little direct connection to them.{{sfn|Suh|1988|p=309}} Policies may be explained without a Marxist or Leninist rationale, making the identification of specific influences from these ideologies difficult.{{sfn|Suh|1988|p=309}} Some analysts say it is easier to connect ''Juche'' with nationalism, but not a unique form of nationalism. Although the WPK claims to be [[socialist-patriotic]],{{sfn|Suh|1988|p=309}} some analysts state its socialist patriotism would be more similar to [[bourgeois nationalism]]; the chief difference is that socialist patriotism is nationalism in a [[socialist state]].{{sfn|Suh|1988|pp=309–310}} ''Juche'' developed as a reaction to foreign occupation, involvement and influence (primarily by the Chinese and Soviets) in North Korean affairs, and may be described "as a normal and healthy reaction of the Korean people to the deprivation they suffered under foreign domination."{{sfn|Suh|1988|p=310}} However, there is nothing uniquely Marxist or Leninist in this reaction; the primary reason for its description as "communist" is that it occurred in a self-proclaimed socialist state.{{sfn|Suh|1988|p=310}} The WPK (and the North Korean leadership in general) have not explained in detail how their policies are Marxist, Leninist or communist; ''Juche'' is defined as "Korean", and the others as "foreign".{{sfn|Suh|1988|pp=310–313}} |
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The practical effect of ''Juche'' was to seal the DPRK off from virtually all foreign trade, except to a limited extent with China and the Soviet Union. But the economic reforms of [[Deng Xiaoping]] in China after 1978 meant that trade with the undeveloped centrally-planned economy of the DPRK held decreasing interest for China, while the fall of communism in the Soviet Union in 1991 completed the DPRK's isolation. This, added to the continuing high level of expenditure on armaments, led to a steadily mounting economic crisis from the 1980s onwards. |
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====Basic tenets==== |
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{{quote box|width=25em|align=right|bgcolor=ivory|quote=You requested me to give a detailed explanation of the ''Juche'' idea. But there is no end to it. All the policies and lines of our party emanate from the ''Juche'' idea and they embody this idea.|source=— Kim Il Sung, when asked by a Japanese interviewer to define ''Juche''{{sfn|Oh|Hassig|2000|p=18}}}} |
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[[Kim Jong-il]] had been groomed to become his father's successor for a long time. In 1964 he was appointed Central Committee member, then promoted to Politburo member and designated successor to Kim Il-sung in 1974 by a Central Committee plenum. In 1980 the WPK Congress elevated Kim Jong-il to senior positions and publicized his status as [[heir apparent]]. Until then it seemed likely that Kim's successor would be either Oh Jin-wu or Prime Minister [[Kim Il (Premier of North Korea)|Kim Il]] (not related to Kim Il-sung). In fact it seems that Kim Il-sung had always planned that his son would succeed him, and had been advancing him within the Army (the real source of power in the DPRK) since 1974. Kim Il was removed from office in 1976 and died in 1984, and Oh remained loyal to the Kim family. Well before Kim Il-sung's death in 1994, Kim Jong-il had become the day-to-day ruler of the country, and had promoted his own followers to key positions in the Army. Kim Jong-il's accession was followed by a round of purges in the WPK, in which some of his father's old followers were removed from office. |
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''Juche''{{'s}} primary objective for North Korea is political, economic and military independence.{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=105}} Kim Il Sung, in his "Let Us Defend the Revolutionary Spirit of Independence, Self-reliance, and Self-defense More Thoroughly in All Fields of State Activities" speech to the [[Supreme People's Assembly]] in 1967, summarized ''Juche'':{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=105}} {{blockquote|The government of the republic will implement with all consistency the line of independence, self-sustenance, and self-defence to consolidate the political independence of the country (''chaju''), build up more solidly the foundations of an independent national economy capable of insuring the complete unification, independence, and prosperity of our nation (''charip'') and increasing the country's defence capabilities, so as to safeguard the security of the fatherland reliably by our own force (''chawi''), by splendidly embodying our Party's idea of Juche in all fields."{{sfn|Lee|2003|pp=105–106}}}} |
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The principle of political independence known as ''chaju'' is one of ''Juche''{{'s}} central tenets.{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=106}} ''Juche'' stresses equality and mutual respect among nations, asserting that every state has the right to self-determination.{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=106}} In practice, the beliefs in self-determination and equal sovereignty have turned North Korea into a perceived "[[hermit kingdom]]".{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=106}} As interpreted by the WPK, yielding to foreign pressure or intervention would violate ''chaju'' and threaten the country's ability to defend its sovereignty.{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=106}} This may explain why Kim Jong Il believed that the Korean revolution would fail if North Korea became dependent on a foreign entity.{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=106}} In relations with fellow socialist countries China and the Soviet Union Kim Il Sung urged cooperation, mutual support and dependence, acknowledging that it was important for North Korea to learn from other countries.{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=106}} Despite this, he abhorred the idea that North Korea could (or should) depend on the two nations and did not want to dogmatically follow their example.{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=106}} Kim Il Sung said that the WPK needed to "resolutely repudiate the tendency to swallow things of others undigested or imitate them mechanically", attributing the success of North Korea on the WPK's independence in implementing policies.{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=106}} To ensure North Korean independence, official pronouncements stressed the need for the people to unite under the WPK and the Great Leader.{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=106}} |
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Despite the almighty status and power of the WPK, it has not functioned normally since Kim Il-sung's death. A party congress has not been held since the sixth party congress in 1980. According to the Party Rules, a party congress is supposed to be held every five years. The plenum of the Central Committee has not been held since the 21st Plenum in December 1993. The plenum, which has the right to elect the General Secretary, was not held even when Kim Jong-il became the party's general secretary in October 1997. Instead Kim Jong-il was endorsed by both the Central Committee and the Central Military Commission on ground of petitions and letters from lower organizations. For the first time in the history of North Korea's Communist Party, a plenum also was not held before the first session of newly-elected SPAs. It is also suspected that Secretariat and Politburo meetings have not been held since Kim Il-sung's death (the last known Politburo meeting before 2010 was held in 1994). It is likely that not one organization within the party is fulfilling its decision-making function, and thus that the party is not working properly as a system. |
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Economic independence (''charip'') is seen as the material basis of ''chaju''.{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=106}} One of Kim Il Sung's greatest fears involved North Korean dependence on foreign aid; he believed it would threaten the country's ability to develop socialism, which only a state with a strong, independent economy could do.{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=106}} ''Charip'' emphasizes an independent national economy based on [[heavy industry]]; this sector, in theory, would then drive the rest of the economy.{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=106}} Kim Jong Il said:{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=107}} |
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=== 2007–2010 === |
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{{blockquote|Building an independent national economy means building an economy which is free from dependence on others and which stands on its own feet, an economy which serves one's own people and develops on the strength of the resources of one's own country and by the efforts of one's people.{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=107}}}} |
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The Party was given new prominence starting from 2007–2008: in 2007 the Administration Department was re-established with [[Chang Song-taek]] as director, and in 2009 [[Choe Yong-rim]] was appointed chief secretary of the [[Pyongyang]] Party Committee filling a 9-year vacancy. |
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Kim Il Sung considered military independence (''chawi'') crucial.{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=107}} Acknowledging that North Korea might need military support in a war against [[imperialism|imperialist enemies]], he emphasized a domestic response and summed up the party's (and state's) attitude towards military confrontation: "We do not want war, nor are we afraid of it, nor do we beg peace from the imperialists."{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=107}} |
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In 2009 South Korea’s government released the latest constitution of North Korea which codified the prevailing ideology of party and government. It omitted all mention of communism. A press representative also explained to South Korean officials that communism is not considered viable.<ref name=Myers_Constitution>[[Brian Reynolds Myers|Brian R. Myers]]: [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704471504574445980801810944.html “The Constitution of Kim Jong Il.” ''Wall Street Journal.'' 1 October 2009.] (Accessed 20 December 2012)</ref> |
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According to ''Juche'', because of his [[consciousness]] man has ultimate control over himself and the ability to change the world.{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=109}} This differs from classical Marxism, which believes that humans depend on their [[relations of production|relationship]] to the [[means of production]] more than on themselves.{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=111}} The ''Juche'' view of a revolution led by a Great Leader, rather than a group of knowledgeable revolutionaries, is a break from [[Vladimir Lenin|Lenin's]] concept of a [[vanguard party]].{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=111}} |
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===The 2010 Party Conference=== |
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On 26 June 2010 the Party Politburo called the 3rd Party Conference for early September; after an unexplained delay, the Conference was held on 28 September; it re-elected Kim Jong-il as Party General Secretary, renewed the Party Central Committee with Kim Jong-il's son [[Kim Jong-un]] as member, and adopted new Party Rules which eliminated the clause that a party congress must be convened every 5 years, increased the power of the Central Military Commission and inserted a praise to Kim Jong-il in the preface.<ref>Ken E. Gause, ''North Korea Under Kim Chong-il. Power, Politics and Prospects for Change.''</ref> |
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[[File:Partycongress.jpg|thumb|August 2010 Pyongyang propaganda proclaims "Greet the conference of the Workers' Party of Korea as an auspicious event which will shine forever in the history of our party and country!"]] |
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On 28 September 2010 a Central Committee plenum (the first after 17 years) was held as well, renewing central authorities and appointing Kim Jong-un a vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission. |
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===Nationalism=== |
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On 6 June 2011 North Korean press publicized a Politburo enlarged meeting, the first of this kind since the 1980s. The meeting was almost entirely focused on Kim Jong-il's recent visit to the [[People's Republic of China]], adding further speculation on China's endorsement of Kim Jong-il's succession as well as signalling the DPRK's increasing interest for Chinese economic reforms. |
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{{see also|Korean nationalism}} |
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[[Karl Marx]] and [[Friedrich Engels]] did not clarify the difference between state and law, focusing on class divisions within nations.{{sfn|Cheong|2000|p=139}} They argued that nation and law (as it existed then) would be overthrown and replaced by [[proletariat|proletarian rule]].{{sfn|Cheong|2000|p=139}} This was the mainstream view of Soviet theoreticians during the 1920s; however, with Stalin at the helm in 1929, it was under attack.{{sfn|Cheong|2000|p=140}} He criticized [[Nikolai Bukharin]]'s position that the proletariat was hostile to the [[Marx's theory of the state|inclinations of the state]], arguing that since the state (the Soviet Union) was in transition from [[Capitalist mode of production (Marxist theory)|capitalism]] to [[Socialism (Marxism)|socialism]] the relationship between the state and the proletariat was harmonious.{{sfn|Cheong|2000|p=140}} By 1936, Stalin argued that the state would still exist if the Soviet Union reached the [[communist mode of production]] if the socialist world was encircled by capitalist forces.{{sfn|Cheong|2000|p=140}} Kim Il Sung took this position to its logical conclusion, arguing that the state would exist after North Korea reached the communist mode of production until a future [[world revolution]].{{sfn|Cheong|2000|p=140}} As long as capitalism survived, even if the socialist world predominated, North Korea could still be threatened by the restoration of capitalism.{{sfn|Cheong|2000|p=141}} |
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==Political position== |
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The WPK is generally similar to other [[Communist parties|Communist Parties]] in the industrialized world,<ref name=Britannica>{{cite web|title=Political Party|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/467631/political-party/36674/The-single-party-in-the-developing-countries|work=Encyclopedia Britannica|publisher=Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.|accessdate=23 December 2011}}</ref> which occupy a [[Far-left politics|Far-left ]] position on the political spectrum.<ref name=March>{{cite journal|last=March|first=Luke|title=Contemporary Far Left Parties in Europe|journal=International Policy Analyis|year=2008|month=November|url=http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/id/ipa/05818.pdf|accessdate=23 December 2011}}</ref> According to conventional wisdom in the West, it is the most hardline and unreformed of the five current ruling Communist parties, and the closest thing to an old-style [[Stalinism|Stalinist]] party.<ref>Whelan, Charles. [http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/03/04/1046540182732.html North Korea: a living, breathing Stalinist state]. [[Sydney Morning Herald]], 2003-03-05.</ref> |
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The revival of the term "state" in the Soviet Union under Stalin led to the revival of "nation" in North Korea under Kim Il Sung.{{sfn|Cheong|2000|p=141}} Despite official assertions that the Soviet Union was based on "class" rather than "state", the latter was revived during the 1930s.{{sfn|Cheong|2000|p=141}} In 1955 Kim Il Sung expressed a similar view in his speech, "On Eliminating Dogmatism and Formalism and Establishing Juche in Ideological Work":{{sfn|Cheong|2000|p=141}} {{blockquote|What we are doing now is not a revolution in some foreign country but our Korean revolution. Therefore, every ideological action must benefit the Korean revolution. To fulfil the Korean revolution, one should be perfectly cognizant of the history of our national struggle, of Korea's geography, and our customs.{{sfn|Cheong|2000|p=141}}}} |
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However, professor [[Brian Reynolds Myers|B. R. Myers]] argues that the WPK is not a far-left or Communist party, but rather a [[Far-right politics|Far-right party]]. <ref name=Myers_Constitution /> Myers holds that the party has a platform of "race-based, paranoid nationalism that has nothing to do with Marxism-Leninism," making it more comparable to 1930's Japan than other Eastern-Bloc communist parties.<ref name=Myers_Constitution /> |
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From then on, he and the WPK stressed the roles of "revolutionary tradition" and Korea's cultural tradition in its revolution.{{sfn|Cheong|2000|p=141}} At party meetings, members and cadres learned about North Korea's national prestige and its coming rejuvenation.{{sfn|Cheong|2000|p=141}} Traditional customs were revived, to showcase Korean-ness.{{sfn|Cheong|2000|p=141}} By 1965, Kim Il Sung stated that if communists continued opposing [[Individualism|individuality]] and [[sovereign state|sovereignty]], the movement would be threatened by [[dogmatism]] and [[Revisionism (Marxism)|revisionism]].{{sfn|Cheong|2000|p=142}} He criticized those communists who, he believed, subscribed to "national [[nihilism]] by praising all things foreign and vilifying all things national" and tried to impose foreign models on their own country.{{sfn|Cheong|2000|p=142}} By the 1960s, ''Juche'' was a full-fledged ideology calling for a distinct path for North Korean socialist construction and non-interference in its affairs; however, a decade later it was defined as a system whose "fundamental principle was the realization of sovereignty".{{sfn|Cheong|2000|p=142}} |
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Although WPK theoreticians were initially hostile towards the term's "nation" and "nationalism" because of the influence of the Stalinist definition of "state", by the 1970s their definition was changed from [[Marxism and the National Question|"a stable, historically formed community of people based on common language, territory, economic life, and culture"]] to include "shared bloodline".{{sfn|Cheong|2000|p=142}} During the 1980s a common economic life was removed from the definition, with shared bloodline receiving increased emphasis.{{sfn|Cheong|2000|p=143}} With a democratic transition in South Korea and the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]], the WPK revised the meaning of nationalism.{{sfn|Cheong|2000|p=143}} Previously defined in Stalinist terms as a bourgeois weapon to exploit the workers, nationalism changed from a [[reactionary]] to a [[progressivism|progressive]] idea.{{sfn|Cheong|2000|p=143}} Kim Il Sung differentiated "nationalism" from what he called "genuine nationalism"; while genuine nationalism was a progressive idea, nationalism remained reactionary:{{sfn|Cheong|2000|p=143}} |
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==Structure== |
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{{blockquote|True nationalism (genuine nationalism) is similar to [[patriotism]]. Only a genuine patriot can become a devoted and true [[Proletarian internationalism|internationalist]]. In this sense, when I say communist, at the same time, I mean nationalist and internationalist.{{sfn|Cheong|2000|p=143}}}} |
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{{See also|Politics of North Korea}} |
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As apparent from the history of the WPK, the formal structure of the party has little relevance to the actual system of government in the DPRK. In theory, the national party congress is the supreme party organ. The party congress approves reports of the party organs, adopts basic party policies and tactics, and elects members to the WPK [[Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea|Central Committee]] and the Central Auditing Committee. In practice, the members of all these bodies are chosen by Kim Jong-il and his few trusted lieutenants, and in any case they exercise no real power. Technically, the WPK is a coequal member with two other [[Political parties in North Korea|parties]] in the [[Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland]], but the WPK holds all but a very few seats in the government and all candidates run unopposed and are elected unanimously. |
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====Allegations of xenophobia and racism==== |
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In September 1992, the WPK had 160 Central Committee members and 143 Central Committee alternate (candidate) members. The Central Committee meets at least once every six months, although no meeting at all was held between December 1993 and September 2010. Article 24 of the party rules stipulates that the Central Committee elects the [[General Secretary]] of the party, members of the Political Bureau Presidium (or the Standing Committee), members of the Political Bureau (or [[Politburo]]), secretaries, members of the Central Military Commission, and members of the Central Inspection Committee. A party congress was supposed to be convened every five years, but none has been held since the Sixth Party Congress of October 1980; in 2010 the Party Rules were amended deleting that clause. |
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{{see also|Korean ethnic nationalism}} |
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{{quote box|width=25em|align=right|bgcolor=ivory|quote=Whatever the name and however elaborate his claim, Kim's ''Juche'' idea is nothing more than xenophobic nationalism that has little relevance to communism.|source=— [[Suh Dae-sook|Dae-Sook Suh]], author of ''Kim Il Sung: The North Korean Leader''{{sfn|Suh|1988|p=313}}}} |
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During the 1960s the WPK began forcing ethnic Koreans to divorce their European spouses (who were primarily from the [[Eastern Bloc]]), with a high-ranking WPK official calling the marriages "a crime against the Korean race" and [[Eastern Bloc]] embassies in the country beginning to accuse the regime of [[fascism]].{{sfn|Becker|2005|p=66}} In May 1963, a Soviet diplomat described Kim Il Sung's political circle as a "political [[Gestapo]]".{{sfn|Becker|2005|p=66}} Similar remarks were made by other Eastern Bloc officials in North Korea, with the East German ambassador calling the policy "Goebbelsian" (a reference to [[Joseph Goebbels]], [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler's]] [[Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda|minister of propaganda]]).{{sfn|Becker|2005|p=66}} Although this was said during a [[Nadir#Figurative usage|nadir]] in relations between North Korea and the Eastern Bloc, it illustrated a perception of racism in Kim Il Sung's policies.{{sfn|Becker|2005|p=66}} |
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As in most Soviet-style party states, membership of the WPK is essential for any DPRK citizen who aspires to a post of any seniority in any government, management, educational or cultural institution, since all these bodies act as "conveyor belts" for party rule over all aspects of DPRK life and effectively creates a [[nomenklatura]] within society. All senior military officers must also be WPK members. |
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In his book ''[[The Cleanest Race]]'' (2010), [[Brian Reynolds Myers]] dismisses the idea that ''Juche'' is North Korea's leading ideology. He views its public exaltation as designed to deceive foreigners; it exists to be praised rather than followed.{{sfn|Rank|2012}} Myers writes that ''Juche'' is a sham ideology, developed to extol Kim Il Sung as a political thinker comparable to [[Mao Zedong]].{{sfn|Marshall|2010}} According to Myers, North Korean [[military-first policy]], racism and xenophobia (exemplified by race-based incidents such as the attempted lynching of [[Afro-Cuban|black Cuban]] diplomats and [[forced abortion]]s for North Korean women pregnant with [[Han Chinese|ethnic Chinese]] children) indicate a base in [[far-right]] politics (inherited from [[Imperial Japan]] during its colonial occupation of Korea) rather than the [[Far-left politics|far-left]].{{sfn|Rank|2012}}{{sfn|Hitchens|2010}} |
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Since the 2010 3rd Party Conference, the party also has a Central Auditing Commission. |
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==Governance== |
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===Party Congresses=== |
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{{See also|Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea}} |
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*1st Congress (Inaugural Congress), 28–30 August 1946. |
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*2nd Congress, 27–30 March 1948. |
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*3rd Congress, 23–29 April 1956. |
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*4th Congress, 11–18 September 1961. |
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*5th Congress, 2–13 November 1970. |
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*6th Congress, 10–14 October 1980. |
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=== |
===Great Leader=== |
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North Korea considers [[human]]ity the driving force of history. "Popular masses are placed in the centre of everything, and the leader in the centre of the masses".{{sfn|Lee|2004|p=4}} Traditional [[Marxism]] considers [[Historical materialism|class struggle the driving force of historical progress]]. However, Marxism also sees class struggle as eventually coming to an end, when class distinctions begin to disappear in a [[communist]] society.{{sfn|Marx|Engels|1906|pp=46–47}} From this point on, humanity can begin to "more and more consciously, make his own history" as human society ceases to be driven by social forces such as class struggle, but instead becomes "the result of his own free actions."{{sfn|Engels|1892|pp=81–82}} |
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*1st Conference, 3–6 March 1958. |
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*2nd Conference, 5–10 October 1966. |
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*3rd Conference, 28 September 2010. |
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''Juche'' is an anthropocentric ideology in which "man is the master of everything and decides everything".{{sfn|Lee|2004|p=4}} Similar to Marxist–Leninist thought, ''Juche'' believes that history is law-governed but only man drives progress: "the popular masses are the drivers of history".{{sfn|Lee|2004|p=5}} From the perspective of ''Juche'', the struggle for humanity as a whole to make their own history is restrained by the ruling classes in class society.{{sfn|Kim Jong Il|1982|pp=2–3}} Additionally, only the working class can overcome these restraints and achieve a society where humanity can independently and creatively make their own history.{{sfn|Kim Jong Il|1982|p=27}} ''Juche'' is in line with [[historical materialism]], viewing mankind's ability to drive their own history as the culmination of a long-term historical process, whose foundations were laid by capitalism's ushering in of the working class, and thus ''Juche'' is unique to the [[Socialism|socialist]] era.{{sfn|Kim Jong Il|1982|p=71}} However, for the masses to succeed they need a [[Great Leader (concept)|Great Leader]].{{sfn|Lee|2004|p=5}} Marxism–Leninism argues that the people will lead, on the basis of their relationship to production. In North Korea a singular Great Leader is considered essential, and this helped Kim Il Sung establish a one-person [[autocracy]].{{sfn|Lee|2004|p=6}} |
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===WPK Central Committee leadership (September 2010)<ref>[http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2010/201009/news29/20100929-07ee.html2]</ref> === |
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====Members of the Presidium of the Politburo==== |
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*[[Kim Jong-il]] - the General Secretary of WPK († 17 December 2011) |
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*[[Kim Yong-nam]] |
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*[[Choe Yong-rim]] |
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*[[Jo Myong-Rok]] († 6 November 2010) |
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*[[Ri Yong-ho]] |
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This theory makes the Great Leader an [[Absolute monarchy|absolute]], [[supreme leader]].{{sfn|Lee|2004|p=7}} The [[working class]] thinks not for itself, but through the Great Leader;{{sfn|Lee|2004|p=7}} he is the mastermind of the working class and its only legitimate representative.{{sfn|Lee|2004|p=7}} Class struggle can only be realized through the Great Leader; difficult tasks in general (and revolutionary changes in particular) can only be introduced through—and by—him.{{sfn|Lee|2004|p=7}} Thus, in historical development the Great Leader is the leading force of the working class;{{sfn|Lee|2004|p=7}} he is a flawless, incorruptible human being who never makes mistakes, is always benevolent and rules for the benefit of the masses (working class).{{sfn|Lee|2004|p=8}} For the Great Leader system to function, a unitary ideology must be in place;{{sfn|Lee|2004|p=9}} in North Korea, this is known as the [[Ten Principles for the Establishment of a Monolithic Ideological System|Monolithic Ideological System]].{{sfn|Lee|2004|p=9}} |
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====Members of the Politburo==== |
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*[[Kim Yong-chun]] |
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*[[Jon Pyong-ho]] |
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*[[Kim Kuk-thae]] |
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*[[Kim Ki-nam]] |
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*[[Choe Thae-bok]] |
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*[[Yang Hyong-sop]] |
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*[[Kang Sok-ju]] |
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*[[Pyon Yong-rip]] |
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*[[Ri Yong-mu]] |
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*[[Ju Sang-song]] |
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*[[Hong Sok-hyong]] |
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==== |
====Kim dynasty==== |
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{{main|Kim dynasty (North Korea)}} |
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*[[Kim Yang-gon]] |
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The Kim dynasty began with Kim Il Sung, the first leader of the WPK and North Korea.{{sfn|Becker|2005|p=44}} The official ideology is that the North Korean system functions "well" because it was established by Kim Il Sung, whose successors follow his [[bloodline]].{{sfn|Lankov|2007|p=29}} Every child is educated in "the revolutionary history of the Great Leader" and "the revolutionary history of the Dear Leader" (Kim Jong Il).{{sfn|Lankov|2007|p=29}} Kim Il Sung's first choice as successor was [[Kim Yong-ju]], his brother, but he later decided to appoint his son Kim Jong Il instead; this decision was formalized at the 6th Congress.{{sfn|Lee|1982|p=442}} Kim Jong Il appointed his youngest son, [[Kim Jong Un]], as his successor at the 3rd WPK Conference in 2010, and his son succeeded him in early 2011.{{sfn|Gause|2013|pp=30–32}} Because of the familial succession and the appointment of family members to high office, the Kim family has been called a dynasty and a [[royal family]].{{sfn|Lankov|2014}} [[Suh Dae-sook|Dae-Sook Suh]], the author of ''Kim Il Sung: The North Korean Leader'', notes that "What he [Kim Il Sung] has built in the North, however, resembles more a political system to accommodate his personal rule than a communist or socialist state in Korea. It is not the political system he built that will survive him; it is his son [Kim Jong Il], whom he has designated heir, who will succeed his reign."{{sfn|Suh|1988|p=xviii}} The ruling Kim family has been described as the head of a ''de facto'' absolute monarchy{{sfn|Kihl|Kim|2006|p=56}}{{sfn|Scalapino|Lee|1972|p=689}}{{sfn|Choy|1984|p=117}} or "hereditary dictatorship".{{sfn|Sheridan|2007}} |
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*[[Kim Yong-il]] |
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*[[Pak To-chun]] |
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*[[Choe Ryong-hae]] |
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*[[Jang Song-thaek]] |
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*[[Ju Kyu-chang]] |
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*[[Ri Thae-nam]] |
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*[[Kim Rak-hui]] |
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*[[Thae Jong-su]] |
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*[[Kim Phyong-hae]] |
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*[[U Tong-chuk]] |
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*[[Kim Jong-gak]] |
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*[[Pak Jong-sun]] |
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*[[Kim Chang-sop]] |
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*[[Mun Kyong-dok]] |
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===Monolithic Ideological System=== |
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====WPK Secretariat of the Central Committee==== |
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{{main|Ten Principles for the Establishment of a Monolithic Ideological System}} |
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*[[Kim Jong-il]] |
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The Ten Principles for the Establishment of a Monolithic Ideological System are a set of ten principles and 65 clauses which establish standards for governance and guide the behaviours of the people of North Korea.{{sfn|Min|2008}} The Ten Principles have come to supersede the [[Constitution of North Korea|national constitution]] or edicts by the Workers' Party, and in practice serve as the supreme law of the country.{{sfn|Yonhap News Agency|2013}}{{sfn|Lim|2008|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=dY_izSoFGRQC&pg=PA66 66]}}{{sfn|Green|2012}} |
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*[[Kim Ki-nam]] |
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*[[Choe Thae-bok]] |
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*[[Choe Ryong-hae]] |
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*[[Mun Kyong-dok]] |
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*[[Pak To-chun]] |
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*[[Kim Yong-il]] |
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*[[Kim Yang-gon]] |
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*[[Kim Phyong-hae]] |
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*[[Thae Jong-su]] |
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*[[Hong Sok-hyong]] |
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===Songbun=== |
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====Other Members and Alternate Members<ref>[http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2010/201009/news28/20100928-27ee.html]</ref>==== |
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{{main|Songbun}} |
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===Composition of the WPK Central Committee leadership (2006–2010)<ref>[http://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/ruwiki/129852]</ref> === |
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{{quote box|quote=Tomatoes, which are completely red to the core, are considered worthy Communists; apples, which are red only on the surface, are considered to need ideological improvement; and grapes are completely hopeless.|source=— The three main classifications in North Korean society (core, wavering, and hostile), are metaphorically described as tomatoes, apples, and grapes, respectively.{{sfn|Hunter|1999|pp=3–11}}|align=right|width=300px}} |
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====Member of the Presidium of the Politburo==== |
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*[[Kim Jong-il]] – WPK General Secretary (deceased) |
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Songbun is the name given to the [[caste system]] established on 30 May 1957 by the WPK Politburo when it adopted the resolution, "On the Transformation of the Struggle with Counter-Revolutionary Elements into an All-People All-Party Movement" (also known as the 30 May Resolution).{{sfn|Lankov|2007|p=66}} This led to a purge in North Korean society in which every individual was checked for his or her allegiance to the party and its leader.{{sfn|Lankov|2007|p=67}} The purge began in earnest in 1959, when the WPK established a new supervisory body headed by Kim Il Sung's brother, Kim Yong-ju.{{sfn|Lankov|2007|p=67}} The people of North Korea were divided into three "forces" (hostile, neutral or friendly),{{sfn|Lankov|2007|p=67}} and the force in which a person was classified was hereditary.{{sfn|Lankov|2007|p=67}} Hostile forces cannot live near Pyongyang (the country's capital) or other major cities, or near North Korea's border with other countries.{{sfn|Lankov|2007|p=67}} Songbun affects access to educational and employment opportunities and, particularly, eligibility to join the WPK.{{sfn|Hunter|1999|pp=3–11}} However, its importance has diminished with the fall of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe and the collapse of the North Korean economy (and the [[Economy of North Korea#Food distribution system|Public Distribution System]]) during the 1990s.{{sfn|Lankov|2012}} |
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====Members of the Politburo==== |
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*[[Kim Yong-ju]] – an honorary deputy Chairman of the Presidium of the [[Supreme People's Assembly|SPA]] of the DPRK |
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*[[Pak Sep-tcheul]] – an honorary deputy Chairman of the Presidium of the SPA of the DPRK |
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*[[Han Sen-ren]] – Secretary of the Central Committee of WPK, Chairman of the Budget Commission of the SPA of the DPRK |
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*[[Kim Yong-nam]] – Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly (SPA) of the DPRK |
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*[[Ke Eun-tae]] – WPK Secretary of the Central Committee |
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*[[Ten Ben-ho]] – WPK Secretary of the Central Committee |
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==Organization== |
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====Alternate members in the Politburo==== |
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*[[Choe Thae-bok]] – President of the SPA of the North Korea, Secretary of the Central Committee of WPK |
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*[[Choe Yong-rim]] – Secretary of the Presidium of the SPA of the DPRK |
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*[[Sek Hong-chen]] |
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*[[Yang Hyong-sop]] – deputy Chairman of the Presidium of the SPA of the DPRK |
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*[[Kim Tcheul-man]] |
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*[[Hon Sen-it]] |
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=== |
===Central organization=== |
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[[File:Headquarters of Workers' Party of Korea 02.jpg|thumb|The headquarters of the [[Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea|WPK Central Committee]] and hence the party]] |
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*Kim Jong-il |
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*Ke Eun-tae |
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*Han Sen-ren |
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*[[Kim Guk-tae]] |
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*[[Kim Dune-rin]] |
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*Ten Ben-ho |
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*Choe Thae-bok |
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*[[Kim Ki-nam]] |
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*[[Ten Ha-tcheul]] |
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The [[National meetings of the Workers' Party of Korea|Congress]] is the party's highest body and convenes on an irregular basis.{{sfn|Gause|2011|p=147}} According to the [[Rules of the Workers' Party of Korea|party rules]], the Central Committee can convene a congress if it gives the rest of the party at least a six months' notice.{{sfn|Gause|2011|p=147}} The party rules give the Congress seven responsibilities:{{sfn|Gause|2011|p=147}} |
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==Symbol== |
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# Electing the [[Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea|Central Committee]] |
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The Party's symbol is an adaptation of the communist hammer and sickle, but with a traditional Korean calligraphy brush used for writing, symbolizing the "working intellectual".<ref>[http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/kp%7D.html Korean Workers Party], [[Flags of the World]]</ref> |
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# Electing the [[Central Auditing Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea|Central Auditing Commission]] |
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# Electing the [[General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea|General Secretary]] |
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# Examining the report of the outgoing Central Committee |
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# Examining the report of the outgoing Central Auditing Commission |
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# Discussing and enacting party policies |
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# Revising the party rules and making amendments to these |
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In between WPK national meetings, the Central Committee is the highest decision-making institution.{{sfn|National Institute for Unification Education|2014|p=64}} The Central Auditing Commission is responsible for supervising the party's finances and works separately from the Central Committee.{{sfn|Korean Central News Agency|2016}} The Central Committee elects the composition of several bodies to carry out its work. The 1st Plenary Session of a newly elected central committee elects the [[Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea|Central Military Commission]] (CMC), the [[Secretariat of the Workers' Party of Korea|Secretariat]], the [[Politburo of the Workers' Party of Korea|Politburo]], the [[Presidium of the Politburo of the Workers' Party of Korea|Presidium]], and the [[Central Auditing Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea|Central Auditing Commission]].{{sfn|Rules of the Workers' Party of Korea|loc=article 3, section 24}}{{sfn|National Institute for Unification Education|2014|p=66−67}} The Politburo exercises the functions and powers of the Central Committee when a plenum is not in session.{{sfn|Buzo|1999|p=30}} The Presidium is the party's highest decision-making organ when the Politburo, the Central Committee, the Conference of Representatives and the Congress are not in session.{{sfn|Kim Nam-Sik|1982|p=140}} It was established at the 6th National Congress in 1980.{{sfn|Kim Nam-Sik|1982|p=140}} The CMC is the highest decision-making institution on military affairs within the party and controls the operations of the [[Korean People's Army]].{{sfn|Rules of the Workers' Party of Korea|loc=article 46}} The WPK General Secretary is by right Chairman of the CMC. Meanwhile, the Secretariat is the top implementation body and is headed by the WPK General Secretary and consists of several secretaries who normally head Central Committee departments, commissions, publications, and other organizations under it.{{sfn|Madden|2017}} The Central Auditing Commission resolves disciplinary issues involving party members. Investigative subjects range from graft to anti-party and [[counter-revolutionary]] activities, generally encompassing all party rules violations.{{sfn|Rules of the Workers' Party of Korea|loc=article 3, section 28}} |
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==See also== |
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* [[Index of Korea-related articles]] |
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A first plenum of the Central Committee also elects the heads of departments, bureaus, and other institutions to pursue its work.{{sfn|Gause|2013|p=35}}{{sfn|Gause|2013|p=36}} The WPK currently has more than 15 Central Committee departments.{{sfn|Gause|2013|p=36}} Through these departments it controls several mass organisations and newspapers, such as ''[[Rodong Sinmun]]'' for instance.{{sfn|Gause|2013|p=36}} The [[Korean People's Army]] (KPA) is, according to the WPK rules, the "revolutionary armed power of the Workers' Party of Korea which inherited revolutionary traditions."{{sfn|National Institute for Unification Education|2014|p=55}} The leading organ within the KPA is the [[General Political Bureau of the Korean People's Army|General Political Bureau]] (GPB), which according to the WPK rules is defined "as an executive organ of the KPA Party Committee and is therefore entitled to the same authority as that of the Central Committee in conducting its activities."{{sfn|National Institute for Unification Education|2014|p=69}} The GPB controls the party apparatus and every political officer within the KPA.{{sfn|National Institute for Unification Education|2014|p=69}} |
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===Lower-level organization=== |
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[[File:WPK Pin.png|thumb|[[Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il badges|Kim Il Sung badge]] with the WPK emblem]] |
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The WPK has local organizations for the three levels of local North Korean government: (1) provinces and province-level municipalities, (2) special city, ordinary cities and urban districts, and (3) rural counties and villages.{{sfn|Cha|Hwang|2009|p=202}} North Korea has nine provinces, each with a provincial party committee; their composition is decided by the WPK.{{sfn|Cha|Hwang|2009|p=202}} |
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The WPK has two types of membership: regular and probationary.{{sfn|Cha|Hwang|2009|p=193}} Membership is open to those 18 years of age and older and is granted after the submission of an application (endorsed by two parties' members with at least two years in good standing) to a cell.{{sfn|Cha|Hwang|2009|p=193}} The application is acted on by the cell's plenary session, and an affirmative decision is subject to ratification by a county-level party committee.{{sfn|Cha|Hwang|2009|p=193}} After an application is approved a mandatory one-year probationary period may be waived under unspecified "special circumstances", allowing the candidate to become a full member.{{sfn|Cha|Hwang|2009|p=193}} Recruitment is under the direction of the Organization and Guidance Department and its local branches.{{sfn|Cha|Hwang|2009|p=193}} |
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The WPK claimed a membership of more than three million in 1988, a significant increase from the two million members announced in 1976; the increase may have resulted from the Three Revolutions Team Movement mobilization drive.{{sfn|Cha|Hwang|2009|p=209}} At the time, 12 percent of the population held party membership, an abnormally large number for a communist country and a figure only comparable to [[Socialist Republic of Romania|Romania]].{{sfn|Lankov|Kwak|Cho|2016|pp=193-214, 309-310}} Later figures have not been made publicly available,{{sfn|Cha|Hwang|2009|p=209}} but membership today is estimated at 6.5 million.{{sfn|Na|2021}} |
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North Korean society is divided into three classes: industrial workers, peasants, and ''samuwon'' ([[intelligentsia]] and [[petite bourgeoisie]]).{{sfn|Cha|Hwang|2009|p=209}} Since 1948, industrial workers have constituted the largest percentage of party members, followed by peasants and ''samuwon''.{{sfn|Cha|Hwang|2009|p=209}} Beginning in the 1970s, when North Korea's population reached the 50-per cent-urban mark, the composition of the party's groups changed; more people working in state-owned enterprises were party members, and the number of members in agricultural cooperatives decreased.{{sfn|Cha|Hwang|2009|p=210}} |
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==Symbols== |
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The emblem of the WPK is an adaptation of the communist [[hammer and sickle]], with a traditional [[Korean calligraphy]] brush. The symbols represent the three classes in Korean society, as described by the WPK: the industrial workers (hammer), the peasants (sickle), and the ''samuwon'' (ink brush). The ''samuwon'' class consists of clerks, small traders, bureaucrats, professors, and writers. This class is unique to North Korean [[class analysis]] and was conceptualized to increase education and literacy among the country's population.{{sfn|Cumings|2005|pp=404–405}} |
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== Electoral history == |
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=== Supreme People's Assembly elections === |
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{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center" |
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! Election |
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! Party leader |
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! Seats |
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! +/– |
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! Position |
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|- |
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| [[1948 North Korean parliamentary election|1948]] |
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| rowspan="9" | [[Kim Il Sung]] |
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| {{Composition bar|157|572|{{party color|Workers' Party of Korea}}}} |
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| {{increase}} 157 |
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| {{increase}} 1st |
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|- |
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| [[1957 North Korean parliamentary election|1957]] |
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| {{Composition bar|178|215|{{party color|Workers' Party of Korea}}}} |
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| {{increase}} 21 |
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| {{steady}} 1st |
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|- |
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| [[1962 North Korean parliamentary election|1962]] |
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| {{Composition bar|371|383|{{party color|Workers' Party of Korea}}}} |
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| {{increase}} 193 |
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| {{steady}} 1st |
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|- |
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| [[1967 North Korean parliamentary election|1967]] |
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| {{Composition bar|288|457|{{party color|Workers' Party of Korea}}}} |
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| {{decrease}} 83 |
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| {{steady}} 1st |
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|- |
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| [[1972 North Korean parliamentary election|1972]] |
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| {{Composition bar|127|541|{{party color|Workers' Party of Korea}}}} |
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| {{decrease}} 161 |
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| {{steady}} 1st |
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|- |
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| [[1977 North Korean parliamentary election|1977]] |
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| colspan = "3" | {{Data missing|date=August 2022}} |
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|- |
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| [[1982 North Korean parliamentary election|1982]] |
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| colspan = "3" | {{Data missing|date=August 2022}} |
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|- |
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| [[1986 North Korean parliamentary election|1986]] |
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| colspan = "3" | {{Data missing|date=August 2022}} |
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|- |
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| [[1990 North Korean parliamentary election|1990]] |
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| {{Composition bar|601|687|{{party color|Workers' Party of Korea}}}} |
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| |
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| {{steady}} 1st |
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|- |
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| [[1998 North Korean parliamentary election|1998]] |
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| rowspan="3" | [[Kim Jong Il]] |
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| {{Composition bar|594|687|{{party color|Workers' Party of Korea}}}} |
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| {{decrease}} 7 |
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| {{steady}} 1st |
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|- |
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| [[2003 North Korean parliamentary election|2003]] |
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| colspan = "3" | {{Data missing|date=August 2022}} |
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|- |
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| [[2009 North Korean parliamentary election|2009]] |
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| {{Composition bar|606|687|{{party color|Workers' Party of Korea}}}} |
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| |
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| {{steady}} 1st |
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|- |
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| [[2014 North Korean parliamentary election|2014]] |
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| rowspan="2" | [[Kim Jong Un]] |
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| {{Composition bar|607|687|{{party color|Workers' Party of Korea}}}} |
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| {{increase}} 1 |
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| {{steady}} 1st |
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|- |
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| [[2019 North Korean parliamentary election|2019]] |
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| colspan = "3" | {{Data missing|date=August 2022}} |
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|} |
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== See also == |
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{{Portal|North Korea|Politics}} |
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* [[Elections in North Korea]] |
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* [[Politics of North Korea]] |
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* [[List of political parties in North Korea]] |
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== Notes == |
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{{Reflist|group=n}} |
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{{notelist}} |
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==References== |
==References== |
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===Citations=== |
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{{Reflist}} |
{{Reflist}} |
||
== |
=== Sources === |
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* {{ko icon}} [http://www.kcna.co.jp/today-rodong/rodong.htm Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the WPK] |
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* (English) [http://www.kcna.co.jp/index-e.htm Korean Central News Agency] |
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== |
==== Books ==== |
||
{{refbegin|30em}} |
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* ''From Stalin to Kim Il-sung: The Formation of North Korea 1945–1960'' by [[Andrei Lankov]], Hurst & Company, 2002. ISBN 1-85065-563-4 |
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* {{cite book |author-link=Jasper Becker|last=Becker |first=Jasper |title=Rogue Regime : Kim Jong Il and the Looming Threat of North Korea |url=https://archive.org/details/rogueregimekimjo00beck|url-access=registration|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2005 |isbn=978-0198038108}} |
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* ''[http://www.north-korea-books.com/servlet/the-80/KIM-IL-SUNG-ON/Detail "On the Building of the Workers' Party of Korea"]'' by Kim Il Sung, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Pyongyang, softcover, 371 pages |
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* {{cite book |last=Buzo |first=Adrian |title=The Guerilla Dynasty: Politics and Leadership in North Korea |publisher=[[I.B. Tauris]] |year=1999 |isbn=978-1860644146}} |
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* {{cite book |author-link1=Victor Cha|last1=Cha |first1=Victor |last2=Hwang |first2=Balbina |editor-last=Worden |editor-first=Robert |title=North Korea: a Country Study |publisher=[[Federal Research Division]]. [[Library of Congress]] |year=2009 |chapter=Government and Politics |isbn=978-1598044683 |edition=5th |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/northkoreacountr0000unse}} |
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* {{cite book|last=Cumings |first=Bruce |title=Korea's Place in the Sun: A Modern History|location=New York |publisher=W.W. Norton and Company |year=2005 |edition=2nd}} |
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* {{cite book |last1=Engels |first1=Friedrich |title=Socialism, Utopian and Scientific |year=1892 |orig-year=1880 |publisher=S. Sonnenschein |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kQRBAQAAMAAJ |language=en}} |
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* {{cite book |last1=Frank |first1=Rüdiger |last2=Hoare |first2=Jim |last3=Köllner |first3=Patrick |last4=Pares |first4=Susan |title=Korea 2011: Politics, Economy and Society |date=25 August 2011 |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |isbn=978-90-04-21935-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d-R5DwAAQBAJ |language=en}} |
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* {{cite book |last1=Frank |first1=Rüdiger |last2=Hoare |first2=Jim |last3=Köllner |first3=Patrick |last4=Pares |first4=Susan |year=2013 |title=North Korea in 2012: Domestic Politics, the Economy and Social Issues |pages=41–72 |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |isbn = 9789004262973 |url = https://www.academia.edu/4478846 |url-status=dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151017111605/http://www.academia.edu/4478846/Framing_the_Globalisation_Debate_in_Korean_Higher_Education |archive-date = 17 October 2015 }} |
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* {{cite book |last=Gause |first=Ken E. |title=North Korea Under Kim Chong-il: Power, Politics, and Prospects for Change |publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]] |year=2011 |isbn=978-0313381751}} |
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* {{cite book |last=Gause |first=Ken |chapter=The Role and Influence of the Party Apparatus|editor1=Park, Kyung-ae |editor2=Snyder, Scott |title=North Korea in Transition: Politics, Economy, and Society |publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]] |year=2013 |isbn=978-1442218123 |pages=19–46}} |
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* {{cite book |last=Hunter |first=Helen-Louise|year=1999|title=Kim Il-song's North Korea|publisher=[[Praeger Publishers|Praeger]]|isbn= 978-0275962968}} |
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* {{cite book |last1=Kihl |first1=Young Whan |last2=Kim |first2=Hong Nack |title=North Korea: The Politics of Regime Survival |date=2006 |publisher=M.E. Sharpe |location=Armonk, New York |isbn=978-0-7656-1638-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=byQlkWsPFm8C |edition=1st |language=en}} |
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* {{cite book |last=Kim|first=Jong-il |title=On the Juche Idea |date=1982 |publisher=[[Foreign Languages Publishing House (North Korea)|Foreign Languages Publishing House]] |location=Pyongyang |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8Zv6jwEACAAJ |language=en|ref={{Harvid|Kim Jong Il|1982}}}} |
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* {{cite book |last=Kwak |first=Tae-Hwan |title=North Korea's Foreign Policy Under Kim Jong Il: New Perspectives |publisher=[[Ashgate Publishing]] |year=2009 |isbn=978-0754677390}} |
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* {{cite book |author-link=Andrei Lankov|last=Lankov|first=Andrei|year=2002 |title=From Stalin to Kim Il Song: The Formation of North Korea, 1945–1960|publisher=[[C. Hurst & Co. Publishers]]|isbn=978-1850655633}} |
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* {{cite book |author-link=Andrei Lankov|last=Lankov|first=Andrei|year=2007 |title=North of the DMZ: Essays on Daily Life in North Korea |publisher=[[McFarland & Company]] |isbn=978-0786451418}} |
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* {{cite book |last=Lim |first=Jae-Cheon |title=Kim Jong-il's Leadership of North Korea|publisher=Routledge |location=Oxfordshire |year=2008 |isbn=9780203884720|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dY_izSoFGRQC|access-date=20 January 2014}} |
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* {{cite book |author-link=Brian Reynolds Myers|last=Myers |first=Brian |title=[[The Cleanest Race: How North Koreans See Themselves and Why it Matters]] |publisher=[[Melville House Publishing]] |year=2011 |isbn=978-1933633916}} |
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* {{cite book |last1=Oh |first1=Kong Dan |last2=Hassig |first2=Ralph |year=2000 |title=North Korea Through the Looking Glass |publisher=[[Brookings Institution Press]] |isbn=978-0815764366 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/northkoreathroug00kong}} |
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* {{cite book |last1=Marx |first1=Karl |last2=Engels |first2=Friedrich |title=Manifesto of the Communist Party |year=1906 |orig-year=1848 |publisher=C.H. Kerr |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s2iEeCJAlusC |language=en}} |
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* {{cite book |last1=Scalapino |first1=Robert A. |last2=Lee |first2=Chong-Sik |title=Volume 2 of Communism in Korea: The Society |date=1972 |publisher=University of California Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IiyHzQEACAAJ |language=en}} |
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* {{cite book |last1=Seth |first1=Michael J. |title=A Concise History of Modern Korea: From the Late Nineteenth Century to the Present |date=18 December 2019 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=9781538129050}} |
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* {{cite book |last1=So |first1=Chae-Jong |last2=Suh |first2=Jae-Jung |year=2013 |title=Origins of North Korea's Juche: Colonialism, War, and Development |publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]] |isbn=978-0739176580}} |
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* {{cite book |last=Suh |first=Dae-sook |year=1988 |title=Kim Il Sung: The North Korean Leader |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |isbn=978-0231065733 |edition=1st |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/00book729884}} |
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* {{cite book |title=Understanding North Korea 2014 |url=http://www.unikorea.go.kr/eng_unikorea/publications_data/understandingNK/ |publisher=Research and Development Division, National Institute for Unification Education, [[Ministry of Unification]] |date=2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171014034410/http://www.unikorea.go.kr/eng_unikorea/publications_data/understandingNK/ |archive-date=14 October 2017 |ref={{harvid|National Institute for Unification Education|2014}}}} |
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{{refend}} |
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==== Journal articles ==== |
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{{refbegin|30em}} |
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* {{cite journal |last1=Cheong |first1=Seong-Chang |year=2000 |title=Stalinism and Kimilsungism: A Comparative Analysis of Ideology and Power |journal=Asian Perspective |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=133–161 |doi=10.1353/apr.2000.0039 |url=http://www2.law.columbia.edu/course_00S_L9436_001/North%20Korea%20materials/240105-Cheong.pdf |access-date=15 March 2014 |archive-date=17 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161017044810/http://www2.law.columbia.edu/course_00S_L9436_001/North%20Korea%20materials/240105-Cheong.pdf |url-status=dead }} |
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* {{cite news |last1=Choi |first1=Brent |last2=Hibbitts |first2=Mi Jeong |year= 2010 |title=North Korea's Succession May Go Smoothly After All |pages=1–5 |publisher=Center for U.S.–Korea Policy. The Asian Foundation |url = http://asiafoundation.org/resources/pdfs/ChoiHibbittsNKSuccession.pdf}} |
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* {{cite book |last1=Choy |first1=Bong-youn |title=A History of the Korean Reunification Movement: Its Issues and Prospects |date=1984 |publisher=Research Committee on Korean Reunification, Institute of International Studies, Bradley University |location=Peoria, Illinois }} |
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* {{cite journal |last1=David-West |first1=Alzo |title=North Korea and the Opinion of Fascism: A Case of Mistaken Identity |journal=North Korean Review |date=2012 |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=105–116 |doi=10.3172/NKR.8.1.105 |jstor=43910295 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43910295}} |
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* {{cite web |last=Frank |first=Ruediger |title=The North Korean Parliamentary Session and Budget Report 2018: Cautious Optimism for the Summit Year |url=https://www.38north.org/2018/04/rfrank041918/ |publisher=U.S.-Korea Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies |work=[[38 North]] |date=19 April 2018 |access-date=22 April 2018}} |
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* {{cite journal |last1=Kim |first1=Nam-Sik |date=Spring–Summer 1982 |title=North Korea's Power Structure and Foreign Relations: an Analysis of the Sixth Congress of the KWP |journal=The Journal of East Asian Affairs |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=125–151 |jstor=23253510|ref={{Harvid|Kim Nam-Sik|1982}}}} |
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* {{cite journal|last1=Lankov|first1=Andrei Nikolaevich|last2=Kwak|first2=In-ok|last3=Cho|first3=Choong-Bin|title=The Organizational Life: Daily Surveillance and Daily Resistance in North Korea|journal=Journal of East Asian Studies|volume=12|issue=2|year=2016|pages=193–214|issn=1598-2408|doi=10.1017/S1598240800007839|doi-access=free}} |
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* {{cite journal |last1=Lee |first1=Chong-sik |date= May 1982 |title= Evolution of the Korean Workers' Party and the Rise of Kim Chŏng-il |journal=[[Asian Survey]] |volume=22 |issue=5 |pages=434–448 |doi=10.2307/2643871|jstor=2643871}} |
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* {{cite journal |last1=Lee |first1=Grace |year=2003 |title= The Political Philosophy of Juche |journal=Stanford Journal of East Asian Affairs |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=105–111 |url=http://www.stanford.edu/group/sjeaa/journal3/korea1.pdf}} |
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* {{cite news |last1=Lee |first1=Kyo Duk |year=2004 |title=The successor theory of North Korea |pages=1–52 |publisher=Korean Institute for National Reunification |url=http://www.kinu.or.kr/eng/pub/pub_02_01.jsp?page=8&field=&text=&order=&dir=&mode=list&bid=DATA05&ses=&category= |isbn=898479225X |newspaper='Peaceful Utilization of the DMZ' as a National Strategy}} |
|||
* {{cite journal|author-last=Yoon |author-first=Dae-kyu |date=2003 |title=The Constitution of North Korea: Its Changes and Implications |url=https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com.ph/&httpsredir=1&article=1934&context=ilj&sei-redir=1 |journal=Fordham International Law Journal |volume=27 |issue=4 |pages=1289–1305}} |
|||
{{refend}} |
|||
==== Government publications ==== |
|||
{{refbegin|30em}} |
|||
* {{cite web|last=Kim|first=Jong-un|title=Closing Speech to the 6th Conference of WPK Cell Secretaries|date=7 April 2021|website=National Committee of North Korea|url=https://www.ncnk.org/node/2142|access-date=11 August 2021}} |
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* {{cite web |title=Executive Order – Blocking Property of the Government of North Korea and the Workers' Party of Korea, and Prohibiting Certain Transactions with Respect to North Korea |url=https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/03/16/executive-order-blocking-property-government-north-korea-and-workers |publisher=[[The White House]] |access-date=14 November 2021 |language=en |date=16 March 2016 |ref={{harvid|The White House|2016}}}} |
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* {{cite web|script-title=ko:조선로동당규약|trans-title=[[Rules of the Workers' Party of Korea]]|url=http://www.voanews.com/MediaAssets2/english/2011_01/WPKCharter28SEP10.pdf|date=2010|language=ko|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170622234608/https://www.voanews.com/MediaAssets2/english/2011_01/WPKCharter28SEP10.pdf|archive-date=22 June 2017|url-status=dead|ref={{harvid|Rules of the Workers' Party of Korea}}}} |
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{{refend}} |
|||
==== News and magazine articles ==== |
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{{refbegin|30em}} |
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* {{cite news|title=4th Party Conference of WPK Held|url=http://www.rodong.rep.kp/InterEn/index.php|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130218222954/http://www.rodong.rep.kp/InterEn/index.php?strPageID=SF01_02_01&newsID=2012-04-12-0006|url-status=dead|work=[[Rodong Sinmun]]|date=12 April 2012|archive-date = 18 February 2013|ref={{harvid|Rodong Sinmun|2012}}}} |
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* {{cite news|last=Chen|first=Zhi|title=DPRK's ruling party to convene conference in April|work=[[Xinhua]]|date=20 February 2012|url=http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-02/20/c_131419697.htm|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140108212525/http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-02/20/c_131419697.htm|archive-date=8 January 2014}} |
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* {{cite news |last=Hitchens |first=Christopher |title=A Nation of Racist Dwarfs |author-link=Christopher Hitchens |url=http://www.slate.com/id/2243112/ |date=1 February 2010 |access-date=23 December 2012 |work=Fighting Words |publisher=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]]}} |
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* {{cite news |last=Koko |first= B. J. |title=N. Korea creates 'first secretary' post in revised party rules |url=https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20210601004700325 |work=[[Yonhap News Agency]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210601050923/https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20210601004700325 |archive-date=1 June 2021 |language=en |date=1 June 2021}} |
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* {{cite web|last=Lankov|first=Andrei|author-link=Andrei Lankov|url=http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/ML03Dg01.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111203025732/http://atimes.com/atimes/Korea/ML03Dg01.html|url-status=unfit|archive-date=3 December 2011|title=North Korea's new class system|publisher=[[Asia Times]]|date=3 December 2012|access-date=18 March 2014}} |
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* {{cite web | last = Lankov | first = Andrei | author-link = Andrei Lankov | url = http://www.nknews.org/2014/01/the-family-feuds-of-the-kim-dynasty/ | publisher = [[NK News]] | title = The family feuds of the Kim dynasty | access-date = 18 March 2014 | date = 15 January 2014}} |
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* {{cite web |last=Lankov |first=Andrei |author-mask=3 |title=Where is North Korea Heading? Major Political Rule Changes May Tell Us |url=https://www.nknews.org/2021/06/where-is-north-korea-heading-major-political-rule-changes-may-tell-us/ |website=[[NK News]] |date=24 June 2021 |access-date=7 August 2022 }} |
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* {{cite web |last=Marshall |first=Colin |url=http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2010/04/immersion-in-propaganda-racebased-nationalism-and-the-unfigureoutable-vortex-of-juche-thought-colin-.html |title=Immersion in propaganda, race-based nationalism and the un-figure-outable vortex of Juche Thought: Colin Marshall talks to B.R. Myers, author of The Cleanest Race: How North Koreans See Themselves and Why it Matters |publisher=[[3 Quarks Daily]] |date=12 April 2010 |access-date=13 April 2010}} |
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* {{cite news |last1=McCurry |first1=Justin |title=Kim Jong-un, 'great successor' poised to lead North Korea |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/dec/19/kim-jong-un-north-korea-leader |access-date=19 June 2022 |work=The Guardian |date=19 December 2011a |language=en}} |
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* {{cite news |last1=McCurry |first1=Justin |title=Kim Jong-un declared 'supreme leader' in North Korea |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/dec/29/kim-jong-un-supreme-leader-north-korea |access-date=19 June 2022 |work=The Guardian |date=29 December 2011b |language=en}} |
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* {{cite web|last=Min|first=Namgung|title=Kim Jong Il's Ten Principles: Restricting the People|url=http://www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?cataId=nk00400&num=4162|publisher=[[Daily NK]]|date=13 October 2008|access-date=20 January 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140408033900/http://www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?cataId=nk00400&num=4162|archive-date=8 April 2014|url-status=dead}} |
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* {{cite news |last=Na |first=Hye-yoon |script-title=ko:北, 당원 대폭 늘었나{{nbsp}}... 당 대회 참석수로 '650만 명' 추정 |trans-title=Has party membership surged in the north? Estimated attendance of '6.5 million' at party convention |url=https://www.news1.kr/articles/?4172242 |access-date=5 November 2021 |work=News1 Korea |date=6 January 2021 |language=ko}} |
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* {{cite news |title=New Party Central Auditing Commission inaugurated |url=http://naenara.com.kp/en/order/pytimes/?page=Politics&no=22047 |work=[[Korean Central News Agency]] |via=The Pyongyang Times |date=10 May 2016 |access-date=4 June 2022 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160514103323/http://naenara.com.kp/en/order/pytimes/?page=Politics&no=22047 |archive-date=14 May 2016 |language=en |ref={{harvid|Korean Central News Agency|2016}}}} |
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* {{cite news|title=North Korea leader Kim becomes chairman of ruling Workers' Party: NHK|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-congress-kim-idUSKCN0Y015Y|date=9 May 2016|work=Reuters|access-date=6 January 2020|language=en|ref={{harvid|Reuters|2016}}}} |
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* {{cite news |title=North Korea's Kim Jong-un named 'marshal' |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18881524 |date=18 July 2012 |access-date=18 July 2012|url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120718074405/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18881524 |archive-date=18 July 2012 |work=[[BBC News]] |ref={{harvid|BBC News|2012}}}} |
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* {{cite news |title=North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un given new title in symbolic move aimed at bolstering his authority |url=https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/11/north-koreas-leader-kim-jong-un-given-new-title-in-symbolic-move.html |access-date=4 June 2022 |work=AP News |via=CNBC |date=11 January 2021 |language=en |ref={{harvid|AP News|2021}}}} |
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* {{cite news |title=N. Korea declares Kim Jong-Un commander of military |url=https://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jJYCeXinUm40ybUlJzb4_aOAiSAQ?docId=CNG.abd2d9a288a1831892829dfc484f077e.6a1 |date=30 December 2011 |access-date=30 December 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140224223520/http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jJYCeXinUm40ybUlJzb4_aOAiSAQ?docId=CNG.abd2d9a288a1831892829dfc484f077e.6a1|archive-date=24 February 2014 |work=Agence France-Presse |ref={{SfnRef|AFP|2011}}}} |
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* {{cite news|title=N. Korea revises leadership ideology to legitimize rule of Kim Jong-un|url=http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/yonhap-news-agency/130812/n-korea-revises-leadership-ideology-legitimize-rule-kim-jong|agency=Yonhap News Agency|date=12 August 2013|access-date=20 January 2014|archive-date=10 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160610200123/http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/yonhap-news-agency/130812/n-korea-revises-leadership-ideology-legitimize-rule-kim-jong|url-status=dead|ref={{harvid|Yonhap News Agency|2013}}}} |
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* {{cite news|last=Oh|first=Grace|title=N. Korea executes leader's uncle for 'treason': KCNA|date=13 December 2013|agency=[[Yonhap News Agency]]|url=http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2013/12/13/12/0301000000AEN20131213002451315F.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180712123853/http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2013/12/13/12/0301000000AEN20131213002451315F.html|archive-date=12 July 2018}} |
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* {{cite news |last1=Seo |first1=Yoonjung |last2=Berlinger |first2=Joshua |title=Kim Jong Un gets new second-in-command in major changes to North Korea's ruling party |url=https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/02/asia/north-korea-new-position-intl-hnk/index.html |access-date=4 June 2022 |work=CNN |date=2 June 2021}} |
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* {{cite news|last=Sheridan|first=Michael|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2452356.ece|title=A tale of two dictatorships: The links between North Korea and Syria|date=16 September 2007|work=[[The Times]]|access-date=9 April 2010 | location=London}} |
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* {{Cite news |date=1 June 2021 |title=북한 노동당 규약 주요 개정 내용 |trans-title=Major revisions to North Korea's Workers' Party rules |work=[[Yonhap News Agency]] |url=https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20210601170100504 |access-date=13 August 2022 |ref={{harvid|Yonhap News Agency|2021}}}} |
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{{refend}} |
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==== Websites ==== |
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{{refbegin|30em}} |
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* {{cite web | title = 13 IMCWP Resolution, Let us jointly commemorate the Birth Centenary of the Great Leader comrade President Kim Il Sung as a Grand Political Festival of the World's Humankind | url = http://www.solidnet.org/13-international-meeting/13-imcwp-resolutions/2409-let-us-jointly-commemorate-the-birth-centenary-of-the-great-leader-comrade-president-kim-il-sung-as-a-grand-political-festival-of-the-worlds-humankind | publisher = Solidnet.org | date = 23 December 2011 | access-date = 15 March 2014 | archive-url = https://archive.today/20120911075812/http://www.solidnet.org/13-international-meeting/13-imcwp-resolutions/2409-let-us-jointly-commemorate-the-birth-centenary-of-the-great-leader-comrade-president-kim-il-sung-as-a-grand-political-festival-of-the-worlds-humankind | archive-date = 11 September 2012 | url-status = dead |ref={{harvid|Solidnet.org|2011}}}} |
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* {{cite web |title=13th IMCWP: An event of major importance |url=https://inter.kke.gr/News/news2011/2011-11-29-13imcwp/ |work=Communist Party of Greece |date=29 November 2011 |access-date=4 June 2022 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120108031809/https://inter.kke.gr/News/news2011/2011-11-29-13imcwp/ |archive-date=8 January 2012|language=en |ref={{harvid|KKE|2011}}}} |
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* {{cite web |last=Green |first=Christopher |title=Wrapped in a Fog: On the North Korean Constitution and the Ten Principles |url=http://sinonk.com/2012/06/05/chris-green-on-10-principles/ |website=Sino-NK |date=5 June 2012 |access-date=3 January 2016}} |
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* {{cite web |last=Madden |first=Michael |title = The Party Roundup: Preliminary Look at North Korea's October 7 Central Committee Plenum | url = http://www.38north.org/2017/10/mmadden101817/ | access-date = 18 October 2017 |publisher=[[38 North]] |date = 18 October 2017}} |
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* {{Cite web |last=Lee |first=Gee-dong |title=The Changing Status and Role of the North Korean Military |url=https://www.globalasia.org/v16no3/cover/the-changing-status-and-role-of-the-north-korean-military_gee-dong-lee |access-date=2023-06-25 |website=[[Global Asia]] |date = 3 September 2021 |language=en}} |
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* {{citation |last=Rank |first=Michael |url=http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/LD10Dg02.html |title=Lifting the cloak on North Korean secrecy: ''The Cleanest Race, How North Koreans See Themselves'' by B. R. Myers |date=10 April 2012 |access-date=13 December 2012 |publisher=Asia Times |type=Book review |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130112092300/http://atimes.com/atimes/Korea/LD10Dg02.html |archive-date=12 January 2013 |url-status=unfit}} |
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{{refend}} |
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== Further reading == |
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* {{cite book|translator1=Kim Yong-nam|translator2=Mun Myong-song|editor=Kim Ji-ho|title=Understanding Workers' Party of Korea|url=http://www.korean-books.com.kp/en/packages/xnps/download.pg.php?395#.pdf|year=2016|publisher=[[Foreign Languages Publishing House (North Korea)|Foreign Languages Publishing House]]|location=Pyongyang|isbn=978-9946-0-1468-5}} |
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== External links == |
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{{Commons category}} |
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* [http://www.rodong.rep.kp/en/ ''Rodong Sinmun''] – the official newspaper of the [[Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea|WPK Central Committee]] |
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* [http://www.naenara.com.kp/en/politics/?organization+1 Workers' Party of Korea] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201128164346/http://www.naenara.com.kp/en/politics/?organization+1 |date=28 November 2020 }} at [[Naenara]] |
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{{Clear}} |
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{{Workers' Party of Korea}} |
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[[Category: |
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[[bn:কোরিয়ার ওয়ার্কার্স পার্টি]] |
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[[es:Partido del Trabajo de Corea]] |
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[[eo:Korea Laborista Partio]] |
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[[fr:Parti du travail de Corée]] |
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[[gl:Partido dos Traballadores de Corea]] |
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[[ko:조선로동당]] |
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[[id:Partai Buruh Korea]] |
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[[it:Partito del Lavoro di Corea]] |
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[[he:מפלגת הפועלים של קוריאה הצפונית]] |
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[[ja:朝鮮労働党]] |
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[[pl:Partia Pracy Korei]] |
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[[pt:Partido dos Trabalhadores da Coreia]] |
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Revision as of 01:20, 18 May 2024
Workers' Party of Korea | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
North Korean name | |||||||
Chosŏn'gŭl | 조선로동당 | ||||||
Hancha | 朝鮮勞動黨 | ||||||
| |||||||
South Korean name | |||||||
Hangul | 북한노동당 | ||||||
Hanja | 北韓勞動黨 | ||||||
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The Workers' Party of Korea (WPK)[a] is the sole ruling party of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, commonly known as North Korea. Founded in 1949 from a merger between the Workers' Party of North Korea and the Workers' Party of South Korea, the WPK is the oldest active party in Korea. It also controls the Korean People's Army, North Korea's armed forces. The WPK is the largest party represented in the Supreme People's Assembly and coexists with two other legal parties that are completely subservient to the WPK[4] and must accept the WPK's "leading role" as a condition of their existence. The WPK is banned in the Republic of Korea (South Korea) under the National Security Act and is sanctioned by the United Nations, the European Union, Australia, and the United States.[5]
Officially, the WPK is a communist party guided by Kimilsungism–Kimjongilism, a synthesis of the ideas of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.[6][7] The party is committed to Juche, an ideology attributed to Kim Il Sung which promotes national independence and development through the efforts of the popular masses. Although Juche was originally presented as the Korean interpretation of Marxism–Leninism, the party now presents it as a freestanding philosophy. The WPK recognizes the ruling Kim family as the ultimate source of its political thought. The fourth party conference, held in 2012, amended the party rules to state that Kimilsungism–Kimjongilism was "the only guiding idea of the party".[8] Under Kim Jong Il, who governed as chairman of the National Defence Commission, communism was steadily removed from party and state documents in favor of Songun, or military-first politics. The military, rather than the working class, was established as the base of political power. However, his successor Kim Jong Un reversed this position in 2021, replacing Songun with "people-first politics" as the party's political method[9] and reasserting the party's commitment to communism.[6][7]
The WPK is organized according to the Monolithic Ideological System, conceived by Kim Yong-ju and Kim Jong Il. The highest body of the WPK is formally the party congress; however, before Kim Jong Un's tenure as party leader, a congress rarely occurred. Between 1980 and 2016, there were no congresses held. Although the WPK is organizationally similar to other communist parties, in practice it is far less institutionalized and informal politics plays a larger role than usual. Institutions such as the Central Committee, the Secretariat, the Central Military Commission (CMC), the Politburo and the Politburo's Presidium have much less power than what is formally bestowed on them by the party rules. Kim Jong Un is the current party leader, serving as General Secretary of the WPK.
History
Founding and early years (1945–1953)
On 13 October 1945, the North Korean Bureau of the Communist Party of Korea (NKB–CPK) was established,[10] with Kim Yong-bom as its first chairman.[11] However, the NKB–CPK remained subordinate to the CPK Central Committee, which was headquartered in Seoul and headed by Pak Hon-yong.[12] Two months later, at the 3rd Plenum of the NKB, Kim Yong-bom was replaced by Kim Il Sung, an event which was probably orchestrated by the Soviet Union.[13] The North Korean Bureau became the Communist Party of North Korea in spring 1946, with Kim Il Sung being elected its chairman.[14] On 22 July 1946, Soviet authorities in North Korea established the United Democratic National Front, a popular front led by the Communist Party of North Korea.[15] The Communist Party of North Korea soon merged with the New People's Party of Korea, a party primarily composed of communists from China.[15] A special commission of the two parties ratified the merger on 28 July 1946, and it became official the following day.[16] One month later (28–30 August 1946), the party held its founding congress, establishing the Workers' Party of North Korea (WPNK).[16] The congress elected the former leader of the New People's Party of Korea Kim Tu-bong as the first WPNK chairman, with Kim Il Sung its appointed deputy chairman.[16] However, despite his formal downgrade in the party's hierarchy, Kim Il Sung remained its leader.[17]
Party control increased throughout the country after the congress.[18] From 27 to 30 March 1948, the WPNK convened its 2nd Congress.[19] While Kim Tu-bong was still the party's formal head, Kim Il Sung presented the main report to the congress.[20] In it he claimed that North Korea was "a base of democracy", in contrast to South Korea, which he believed to be dictatorial.[20] On 28 April 1948 a special session of the Supreme People's Assembly approved the constitution proposed and written by WPNK cadres, which led to the official establishment of an independent North Korea.[21] It did not call for the establishment of an independent North Korea, but for a unified Korea under a communist government; the capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) would be Seoul, not Pyongyang.[22] Kim Il Sung was the appointed head of government of the new state, with Kim Tu-bong heading the legislative branch.[23] A year later on 24 June 1949, the Workers' Party of Korea was created with the merger of the WPNK and the Workers' Party of South Korea.[24]
Kim Il Sung was not the most ardent supporter of a military reunification of Korea; that role was played by the South Korean communists, headed by Pak Hon-yong.[25] After several meetings between Kim Il Sung and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, North Korea invaded South Korea on 25 June 1950, thus beginning the Korean War.[26] With American intervention in the war the DPRK nearly collapsed, but it was saved by Chinese intervention in the conflict.[26] The war had the effect of weakening Soviet influence over Kim Il Sung and the WPK.[27] Around this time, the main fault lines in early WPK politics were created. Four factions formed: the domestic faction (WPK cadres who had remained in Korea during Japanese rule), the Soviet faction (Koreans from the Soviet Union), the Yan'an faction (Koreans from China) and the guerrilla faction (Kim Il Sung's personal faction).[27] However, Kim Il Sung would be unable to further strengthen his position until the end of the war.[27]
Kim Il Sung's consolidation of power (1953–1980)
Relations worsened between the WPK and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) when Stalin's successor, Nikita Khrushchev, began pursuing a policy of de-Stalinization.[28] During the Sino–Soviet conflict, an ideological conflict between the CPSU and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Kim Il Sung manoeuvred between the two socialist superpowers; by doing so, he weakened their influence on the WPK.[28] By 1962 Kim Il Sung and the WPK favored the CCP over the CPSU in the ideological struggle, and "for a few years North Korea almost unconditionally supported the Chinese position on all important issues."[28] The primary conflict between the WPK and the CPSU during this period was that Kim Il Sung did not support the denunciation of Stalinism, the creation of a collective leadership, and the theory of peaceful coexistence between the capitalist and socialist worlds.[28] Kim Il Sung believed peaceful coexistence to be synonymous with capitulation and knew that de-Stalinization in North Korea would effectively end his unlimited power over the WPK.[28] The result of the souring of relations between the CPSU and the WPK was that the Soviet Union discontinued aid to North Korea.[29] China was meanwhile unwilling to increase its aid, and, as a result, several industries in North Korea were on the brink of disaster.[29] Mao Zedong began the Cultural Revolution shortly thereafter, an event criticized by the WPK as "left-wing opportunism" and a manifestation of the "Trotskyist theory of a permanent revolution."[29] Relations between the CPSU and the CCP stabilized during the 1960s, with the WPK making it clear it would remain neutral in the Sino–Soviet conflict,[29] thus resulting in the 1966 launch of the Juche program aimed at national self-determination at all levels. This, in turn, strengthened Kim Il Sung's position in the WPK.[29]
Beginning in the 1960s, Kim Il Sung's cult of personality reached new heights.[30] It had been no greater than Stalin's or Mao's until 1972, when his birthday on 15 April became the country's main public holiday and statues of him began to be built nationwide.[30] Kim became known as "Great Leader", the "Sun of the Nation", "The Iron All-Victorious General" and "Marshal of the All-Mighty Republic" in WPK and state publications; official propaganda stated that "burning loyalty to the leader" was one of the main characteristics of any Korean.[30]
Kim Il Sung and his guerilla faction had purged the WPK of its opposing factions during the 1950s and the 1960s, to the dismay of both the CCP and the CPSU.[27] The domestic faction was the first to go (in 1953–55), followed by the Yan'an faction in 1957–58 and the Soviet Koreans (along with anyone else deemed unfaithful to the WPK leadership) in the 1957–62 purge.[31] According to historian Andrei Lankov, "Kim Il Sung had become not only supreme but also the omnipotent ruler of North Korea—no longer merely 'first amongst equals, as had been the case in the late 1940s".[32] After purging his WPK opposition, Kim Il Sung consolidated his power base with nepotism and hereditary succession in the Kim family and the guerilla faction.[33] Beginning in the late 1980s, "a high (and increasing) proportion of North Korean high officials have been sons of high officials."[33] Since the 1960s, Kim Il Sung had appointed family members to positions of power.[34] By the early 1990s, a number of leading national offices were held by people in his family: Kang Song-san (Premier of the Administrative Council and member of the WPK Secretariat), Pak Song-chol (Vice President), Hwang Jang-yop and Kim Chung-rin (members of the WPK Secretariat), Kim Yong-sun (Head of the WPK International Department and member of the WPK Secretariat), Kang Hui-won (Secretary of the WPK Pyongyang Municipal Committee and Deputy Premier of the Administrative Council), Kim Tal-hyon (Minister of Foreign Trade), Kim Chan-ju (Minister of Agriculture and Deputy Chairman of the Administrative Council) and Yang Hyong-sop (President of the Academy of Social Sciences and chairman of the Supreme People's Assembly).[34] These individuals were appointed solely because of their ties to the Kim family, and presumably retain their positions as long as the Kim family controls the WPK and the country.[34] The reason for Kim's support of nepotism (his own and that of the guerrilla faction) can be explained by the fact that he did not want the party bureaucracy to threaten his—and his son's—rule as it did in other socialist states.[34]
It was first generally believed by foreign observers that Kim Il Sung was planning for his brother, Kim Yong-ju, to succeed him.[35] Kim Yong-ju's authority gradually increased, until he became co-chairman of the North-South Coordination Committee.[35] From late 1972 to the 6th WPK Congress, Kim Yong-ju became an increasingly remote figure in the regime. At the 6th Congress, he lost his Politburo and Central Committee seats,[35] and rumours that Kim Il Sung had begun grooming Kim Jong Il in 1966 were confirmed.[35] From 1974 to the 6th Congress, Kim Jong Il (called the "Party centre" by North Korean media) was the second most powerful man in North Korea.[35] His selection was criticized, with his father accused of creating a dynasty or turning North Korea into a feudal state.[36]
Kim Jong Il's rule (1980–2011)
With Kim Jong Il's official appointment as heir apparent at the 6th Congress, power became more centralized in the Kim family.[37] WPK officials began to speak openly about his succession, and beginning in 1981 he began to participate in (and lead) tours.[37] In 1982, he was made a Hero of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and wrote On the Juche Idea.[37] While foreign observers believed that Kim Jong Il's appointment would increase participation by the younger generation, in On the Juche Idea he made it clear that his leadership would not mark the beginning of a new generation of leaders.[38] The WPK could not address the crisis facing Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il's leadership at home and abroad, in part because of the gerontocracy at the highest level of the WPK and the state.[39]
With the death of O Jin-u on 25 February 1995, Kim Jong Il became the sole remaining living member of the Presidium (the highest body of the WPK when the Politburo and the Central Committee are not in session).[40] While no member list of the WPK Central Military Commission (CMC, the highest party organ on military affairs) was published from 1993 to 2010, there were clear signs of movement in the military hierarchy during 1995.[41] For the WPK's 50th anniversary, Kim Jong Il initiated a reshuffling of the CMC (and the military leadership in general) to appease the old guard and younger officials.[41] He did not reshuffle the WPK Central Committee or the government, however, during the 1990s the changes to its membership were caused mostly by its members dying of natural causes.[42]
Beginning in 1995, Kim Jong Il favoured the military over the WPK and the state.[42] Problems began to mount as an economic crisis, coupled with a famine in which at least half a million people died, weakened his control of the country.[43] Instead of recommending structural reforms, Kim began to criticize the WPK's lack of control over the economy, lambasting its local and provincial branches for their inability to implement central-level instructions.[44] At a speech celebrating the 50th anniversary of Kim Il Sung University, he said: "The reason why people are loyal to the instructions of the Central Committee is not because of party organizations and workers, but because of my authority."[44] Kim Jong Il said that his father had told him to avoid economics, claiming that it was better left to experts. After this speech, the WPK's responsibility to control the economy was given to the Administrative Council (the central government).[44] By late 1996 Kim Jong Il concluded that neither the WPK nor the central government could run the country, and began shifting control to the military.[45] A constitutional amendment in 1998 later redirected supreme state power in North Korea to the leadership of the military, rather than the WPK.[46]
On 8 July 1997, the three-year mourning period for Kim Il Sung ended.[47] Later that year, on 8 October, Kim Jong Il was appointed to the newly established office of General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea.[47] There was considerable discussion by foreign experts about why Kim Jong Il was appointed General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, instead of succeeding his father as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea.[47] In a clear breach of the WPK rules, Kim Jong Il was appointed WPK General Secretary in a joint announcement by the 6th Central Committee and the CMC rather than elected by a plenum of the Central Committee.[47] Although it was believed that Kim Jong Il would call a congress shortly after his appointment (to elect a new WPK leadership), he did not.[47] The WPK would not be revitalized organizationally until the 3rd Conference in 2010.[47] Until then, Kim Jong Il ruled as an autocrat;[47] only in WPK institutions considered important were new members and leaders appointed to take the place of dying officials.[47] The 10th Supreme People's Assembly convened on 5 September 1998, amended the North Korean constitution.[48] The amended constitution made the National Defense Commission (NDC), previously responsible for supervising the military, the highest state organ.[49] Although the new constitution gave the cabinet and the NDC more independence from WPK officials, it did not weaken the party.[50] Kim Jong Il remained WPK General Secretary, controlling the Organization and Guidance Department (OGD) and other institutions.[50] While the central WPK leadership composition was not renewed in a single stroke until 2010, the WPK retained its important role as a mass organization.[51]
On 26 June 2010, the Politburo announced that it was summoning delegates for the 3rd Conference,[51] with its official explanation of the need to "reflect the demands of the revolutionary development of the Party, which is facing critical changes in bringing about the strong and prosperous state and Juche development."[51] The conference met on 28 September, revising the party rules and electing (and dismissing) members of the Central Committee, the Secretariat, the Politburo, the Presidium and other bodies.[51] Kim Jong Un was confirmed as heir apparent;[52] Vice Marshal Ri Yong-ho and General Kim Kyong-hui (Kim Jong Il's sister) were appointed to leading positions in the Korean People's Army and the WPK to help him consolidate power.[53] The following year, on 17 December 2011, Kim Jong Il died.[54]
Kim Jong Un's rule (2011–present)
After Kim Jong Il's death, the North Korean elite consolidated Kim Jong Un's position; he was declared in charge of the country when the official report of his father's death was published on 19 December.[55] On 26 December 2011, the official newspaper Rodong Sinmun hailed him as supreme leader of the party and the state.[56] On 30 December a meeting of the Politburo officially appointed him Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army, after he was nominated for the position by Kim Jong Il in October 2011 (the anniversary of Kim Jong Il's becoming general secretary).[57] Despite the fact that he was not a Politburo member, Kim Jong Un was named to the unofficial position of the supreme leader of the Workers' Party of Korea.[58]
After celebrations for Kim Jong Il's 70th birth anniversary, the Politburo announced on 18 February the 4th Party Conference (which was scheduled for mid-April 2012, near the 100th birth anniversary of Kim Il Sung) "to glorify the sacred revolutionary life and feats of Kim Jong Il for all ages and accomplish the Juche cause, the Songun revolutionary cause, rallied close around Kim Jong Un".[59] Kim Jong Un was promoted to the rank of "Marshal of the Republic" in July 2012.[60] At the 4th Party Conference on 11 April, Kim Jong Il was declared Eternal General Secretary and Kim Jong Un was elected to the newly created post of First Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and the Presidium. The conference amended the party rules to say Kimilsungism–Kimjongilism "the only guiding idea of the party".[61][8] In December 2013, the party experienced its first open inner struggle in decades with the purge of Jang Song-thaek.[62]
The party has seen somewhat of a revival under Kim Jong Un, with more frequent meetings. There have been two conferences, after a gap of 44 years, and a congress between 2010 and 2016.[63] After staging a huge military parade in celebration of the party's 70th anniversary on 10 October 2015, the Politburo announced that its 7th Congress will be held on 6 May 2016 after a 36-year hiatus. The congress announced the first Five-Year Plan since the 1980s and gave Kim Jong Un the new title of chairman, which replaced the previous office of First Secretary.[64] In January 2021, the 8th WPK Congress was convened, where Kim Jong Un was given the title of general secretary, replacing the title of chairman.[65] The congress also marked the consolidation of WPK control over the army and a decrease in the army's power, with the number of military delegates in both the congress and the Politburo decreasing.[66] It was reported in June 2021 that the party set up the post of 'First Secretary', with speculation that Jo Yong-won[67] or Kim Tok Hun, the Premier of North Korea would fill the position.[68] Starting from 2021, Kim Jong Un has started reviving communism and communist terminology within the WPK, with the ideology being again written to the party rules.[6][69] He also increasingly replaced Songun with "people-first politics" in the party rules.[9]
Ideology
The WPK maintains a leftist image,[1] and normally sends a delegation to the International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties, where it has some support;[70] its 2011 resolution, "Let us jointly commemorate the Birth Centenary of the Great Leader comrade President Kim Il Sung as a Grand Political Festival of the World's Humankind", was signed by 30 of the 79 attending parties.[71] The WPK also sees itself as part of the worldwide leftist and socialist movements; during the Cold War, the WPK and North Korea had a policy of "exporting revolution", aiding leftist guerrillas worldwide. Additionally, its party rules say its ultimate aim is to "realize a communist society in which the people's ideals are fully realized" and further state it upholds "the revolutionary principles of Marxism–Leninism".[9] However, Brian Reynolds Myers, Jasper Becker, and Dae-Sook Suh argue that the WPK's ideology is xenophobic, racist, and nationalist.[1][72][73]
Juche
Relationship to Marxism–Leninism
Although the term "Juche" was first used in Kim Il Sung's speech (given in 1955), "On Eliminating Dogmatism and Formalism and Establishing Juche in Ideological Work", Juche as a coherent ideology did not develop until the 1960s.[74] Similar to Stalinism, it led to the development of an unofficial (later formalized) ideological system defending the central party leadership.[75] Until about 1972, Juche was called a "creative application" of Marxism–Leninism and "the Marxism–Leninism of today", and Kim Il Sung was hailed as "the greatest Marxist–Leninist of our time".[75] However, by 1976 Juche had become a separate ideology; Kim Jong Il called it "a unique ideology, the contents and structures which cannot simply be described as Marxist–Leninist."[75]
At the 5th Congress, Juche was elevated to the same level as Marxism–Leninism.[76] It gained in prominence during the 1970s, and at the 6th Congress in 1980 it was recognized as the WPK's only ideology.[76] During the following decade, Juche transformed from practical to pure ideology.[76] On the Juche Idea, the primary text on Juche, was published in Kim Jong Il's name in 1982.[77] Juche is, according to this study, inexorably linked with Kim Il Sung and "represents the guiding idea of the Korean Revolution ... we are confronted with the honourable task of modelling the whole society on the Juche idea".[77] Kim Jong Il says in the work that Juche is not simply a creative application of Marxism–Leninism, but "a new era in the development of human history".[77] The WPK's break with basic Marxist–Leninist premises is spelt out clearly in the article, "Let Us March Under the Banner of Marxism–Leninism and the Juche Idea".[78]
Despite Juche's conception as a creative application of Marxism and Leninism,[79] some scholars argue it has little direct connection to them.[80] Policies may be explained without a Marxist or Leninist rationale, making the identification of specific influences from these ideologies difficult.[80] Some analysts say it is easier to connect Juche with nationalism, but not a unique form of nationalism. Although the WPK claims to be socialist-patriotic,[80] some analysts state its socialist patriotism would be more similar to bourgeois nationalism; the chief difference is that socialist patriotism is nationalism in a socialist state.[81] Juche developed as a reaction to foreign occupation, involvement and influence (primarily by the Chinese and Soviets) in North Korean affairs, and may be described "as a normal and healthy reaction of the Korean people to the deprivation they suffered under foreign domination."[82] However, there is nothing uniquely Marxist or Leninist in this reaction; the primary reason for its description as "communist" is that it occurred in a self-proclaimed socialist state.[82] The WPK (and the North Korean leadership in general) have not explained in detail how their policies are Marxist, Leninist or communist; Juche is defined as "Korean", and the others as "foreign".[83]
Basic tenets
You requested me to give a detailed explanation of the Juche idea. But there is no end to it. All the policies and lines of our party emanate from the Juche idea and they embody this idea.
— Kim Il Sung, when asked by a Japanese interviewer to define Juche[84]
Juche's primary objective for North Korea is political, economic and military independence.[85] Kim Il Sung, in his "Let Us Defend the Revolutionary Spirit of Independence, Self-reliance, and Self-defense More Thoroughly in All Fields of State Activities" speech to the Supreme People's Assembly in 1967, summarized Juche:[85]
The government of the republic will implement with all consistency the line of independence, self-sustenance, and self-defence to consolidate the political independence of the country (chaju), build up more solidly the foundations of an independent national economy capable of insuring the complete unification, independence, and prosperity of our nation (charip) and increasing the country's defence capabilities, so as to safeguard the security of the fatherland reliably by our own force (chawi), by splendidly embodying our Party's idea of Juche in all fields."[86]
The principle of political independence known as chaju is one of Juche's central tenets.[87] Juche stresses equality and mutual respect among nations, asserting that every state has the right to self-determination.[87] In practice, the beliefs in self-determination and equal sovereignty have turned North Korea into a perceived "hermit kingdom".[87] As interpreted by the WPK, yielding to foreign pressure or intervention would violate chaju and threaten the country's ability to defend its sovereignty.[87] This may explain why Kim Jong Il believed that the Korean revolution would fail if North Korea became dependent on a foreign entity.[87] In relations with fellow socialist countries China and the Soviet Union Kim Il Sung urged cooperation, mutual support and dependence, acknowledging that it was important for North Korea to learn from other countries.[87] Despite this, he abhorred the idea that North Korea could (or should) depend on the two nations and did not want to dogmatically follow their example.[87] Kim Il Sung said that the WPK needed to "resolutely repudiate the tendency to swallow things of others undigested or imitate them mechanically", attributing the success of North Korea on the WPK's independence in implementing policies.[87] To ensure North Korean independence, official pronouncements stressed the need for the people to unite under the WPK and the Great Leader.[87]
Economic independence (charip) is seen as the material basis of chaju.[87] One of Kim Il Sung's greatest fears involved North Korean dependence on foreign aid; he believed it would threaten the country's ability to develop socialism, which only a state with a strong, independent economy could do.[87] Charip emphasizes an independent national economy based on heavy industry; this sector, in theory, would then drive the rest of the economy.[87] Kim Jong Il said:[88]
Building an independent national economy means building an economy which is free from dependence on others and which stands on its own feet, an economy which serves one's own people and develops on the strength of the resources of one's own country and by the efforts of one's people.[88]
Kim Il Sung considered military independence (chawi) crucial.[88] Acknowledging that North Korea might need military support in a war against imperialist enemies, he emphasized a domestic response and summed up the party's (and state's) attitude towards military confrontation: "We do not want war, nor are we afraid of it, nor do we beg peace from the imperialists."[88]
According to Juche, because of his consciousness man has ultimate control over himself and the ability to change the world.[89] This differs from classical Marxism, which believes that humans depend on their relationship to the means of production more than on themselves.[90] The Juche view of a revolution led by a Great Leader, rather than a group of knowledgeable revolutionaries, is a break from Lenin's concept of a vanguard party.[90]
Nationalism
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels did not clarify the difference between state and law, focusing on class divisions within nations.[75] They argued that nation and law (as it existed then) would be overthrown and replaced by proletarian rule.[75] This was the mainstream view of Soviet theoreticians during the 1920s; however, with Stalin at the helm in 1929, it was under attack.[91] He criticized Nikolai Bukharin's position that the proletariat was hostile to the inclinations of the state, arguing that since the state (the Soviet Union) was in transition from capitalism to socialism the relationship between the state and the proletariat was harmonious.[91] By 1936, Stalin argued that the state would still exist if the Soviet Union reached the communist mode of production if the socialist world was encircled by capitalist forces.[91] Kim Il Sung took this position to its logical conclusion, arguing that the state would exist after North Korea reached the communist mode of production until a future world revolution.[91] As long as capitalism survived, even if the socialist world predominated, North Korea could still be threatened by the restoration of capitalism.[92]
The revival of the term "state" in the Soviet Union under Stalin led to the revival of "nation" in North Korea under Kim Il Sung.[92] Despite official assertions that the Soviet Union was based on "class" rather than "state", the latter was revived during the 1930s.[92] In 1955 Kim Il Sung expressed a similar view in his speech, "On Eliminating Dogmatism and Formalism and Establishing Juche in Ideological Work":[92]
What we are doing now is not a revolution in some foreign country but our Korean revolution. Therefore, every ideological action must benefit the Korean revolution. To fulfil the Korean revolution, one should be perfectly cognizant of the history of our national struggle, of Korea's geography, and our customs.[92]
From then on, he and the WPK stressed the roles of "revolutionary tradition" and Korea's cultural tradition in its revolution.[92] At party meetings, members and cadres learned about North Korea's national prestige and its coming rejuvenation.[92] Traditional customs were revived, to showcase Korean-ness.[92] By 1965, Kim Il Sung stated that if communists continued opposing individuality and sovereignty, the movement would be threatened by dogmatism and revisionism.[93] He criticized those communists who, he believed, subscribed to "national nihilism by praising all things foreign and vilifying all things national" and tried to impose foreign models on their own country.[93] By the 1960s, Juche was a full-fledged ideology calling for a distinct path for North Korean socialist construction and non-interference in its affairs; however, a decade later it was defined as a system whose "fundamental principle was the realization of sovereignty".[93]
Although WPK theoreticians were initially hostile towards the term's "nation" and "nationalism" because of the influence of the Stalinist definition of "state", by the 1970s their definition was changed from "a stable, historically formed community of people based on common language, territory, economic life, and culture" to include "shared bloodline".[93] During the 1980s a common economic life was removed from the definition, with shared bloodline receiving increased emphasis.[94] With a democratic transition in South Korea and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the WPK revised the meaning of nationalism.[94] Previously defined in Stalinist terms as a bourgeois weapon to exploit the workers, nationalism changed from a reactionary to a progressive idea.[94] Kim Il Sung differentiated "nationalism" from what he called "genuine nationalism"; while genuine nationalism was a progressive idea, nationalism remained reactionary:[94]
True nationalism (genuine nationalism) is similar to patriotism. Only a genuine patriot can become a devoted and true internationalist. In this sense, when I say communist, at the same time, I mean nationalist and internationalist.[94]
Allegations of xenophobia and racism
Whatever the name and however elaborate his claim, Kim's Juche idea is nothing more than xenophobic nationalism that has little relevance to communism.
— Dae-Sook Suh, author of Kim Il Sung: The North Korean Leader[3]
During the 1960s the WPK began forcing ethnic Koreans to divorce their European spouses (who were primarily from the Eastern Bloc), with a high-ranking WPK official calling the marriages "a crime against the Korean race" and Eastern Bloc embassies in the country beginning to accuse the regime of fascism.[72] In May 1963, a Soviet diplomat described Kim Il Sung's political circle as a "political Gestapo".[72] Similar remarks were made by other Eastern Bloc officials in North Korea, with the East German ambassador calling the policy "Goebbelsian" (a reference to Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's minister of propaganda).[72] Although this was said during a nadir in relations between North Korea and the Eastern Bloc, it illustrated a perception of racism in Kim Il Sung's policies.[72]
In his book The Cleanest Race (2010), Brian Reynolds Myers dismisses the idea that Juche is North Korea's leading ideology. He views its public exaltation as designed to deceive foreigners; it exists to be praised rather than followed.[95] Myers writes that Juche is a sham ideology, developed to extol Kim Il Sung as a political thinker comparable to Mao Zedong.[96] According to Myers, North Korean military-first policy, racism and xenophobia (exemplified by race-based incidents such as the attempted lynching of black Cuban diplomats and forced abortions for North Korean women pregnant with ethnic Chinese children) indicate a base in far-right politics (inherited from Imperial Japan during its colonial occupation of Korea) rather than the far-left.[95][97]
Governance
Great Leader
North Korea considers humanity the driving force of history. "Popular masses are placed in the centre of everything, and the leader in the centre of the masses".[98] Traditional Marxism considers class struggle the driving force of historical progress. However, Marxism also sees class struggle as eventually coming to an end, when class distinctions begin to disappear in a communist society.[99] From this point on, humanity can begin to "more and more consciously, make his own history" as human society ceases to be driven by social forces such as class struggle, but instead becomes "the result of his own free actions."[100]
Juche is an anthropocentric ideology in which "man is the master of everything and decides everything".[98] Similar to Marxist–Leninist thought, Juche believes that history is law-governed but only man drives progress: "the popular masses are the drivers of history".[101] From the perspective of Juche, the struggle for humanity as a whole to make their own history is restrained by the ruling classes in class society.[102] Additionally, only the working class can overcome these restraints and achieve a society where humanity can independently and creatively make their own history.[103] Juche is in line with historical materialism, viewing mankind's ability to drive their own history as the culmination of a long-term historical process, whose foundations were laid by capitalism's ushering in of the working class, and thus Juche is unique to the socialist era.[104] However, for the masses to succeed they need a Great Leader.[101] Marxism–Leninism argues that the people will lead, on the basis of their relationship to production. In North Korea a singular Great Leader is considered essential, and this helped Kim Il Sung establish a one-person autocracy.[105]
This theory makes the Great Leader an absolute, supreme leader.[106] The working class thinks not for itself, but through the Great Leader;[106] he is the mastermind of the working class and its only legitimate representative.[106] Class struggle can only be realized through the Great Leader; difficult tasks in general (and revolutionary changes in particular) can only be introduced through—and by—him.[106] Thus, in historical development the Great Leader is the leading force of the working class;[106] he is a flawless, incorruptible human being who never makes mistakes, is always benevolent and rules for the benefit of the masses (working class).[107] For the Great Leader system to function, a unitary ideology must be in place;[108] in North Korea, this is known as the Monolithic Ideological System.[108]
Kim dynasty
The Kim dynasty began with Kim Il Sung, the first leader of the WPK and North Korea.[109] The official ideology is that the North Korean system functions "well" because it was established by Kim Il Sung, whose successors follow his bloodline.[110] Every child is educated in "the revolutionary history of the Great Leader" and "the revolutionary history of the Dear Leader" (Kim Jong Il).[110] Kim Il Sung's first choice as successor was Kim Yong-ju, his brother, but he later decided to appoint his son Kim Jong Il instead; this decision was formalized at the 6th Congress.[35] Kim Jong Il appointed his youngest son, Kim Jong Un, as his successor at the 3rd WPK Conference in 2010, and his son succeeded him in early 2011.[52] Because of the familial succession and the appointment of family members to high office, the Kim family has been called a dynasty and a royal family.[111] Dae-Sook Suh, the author of Kim Il Sung: The North Korean Leader, notes that "What he [Kim Il Sung] has built in the North, however, resembles more a political system to accommodate his personal rule than a communist or socialist state in Korea. It is not the political system he built that will survive him; it is his son [Kim Jong Il], whom he has designated heir, who will succeed his reign."[112] The ruling Kim family has been described as the head of a de facto absolute monarchy[113][114][115] or "hereditary dictatorship".[116]
Monolithic Ideological System
The Ten Principles for the Establishment of a Monolithic Ideological System are a set of ten principles and 65 clauses which establish standards for governance and guide the behaviours of the people of North Korea.[117] The Ten Principles have come to supersede the national constitution or edicts by the Workers' Party, and in practice serve as the supreme law of the country.[118][119][120]
Songbun
Tomatoes, which are completely red to the core, are considered worthy Communists; apples, which are red only on the surface, are considered to need ideological improvement; and grapes are completely hopeless.
— The three main classifications in North Korean society (core, wavering, and hostile), are metaphorically described as tomatoes, apples, and grapes, respectively.[121]
Songbun is the name given to the caste system established on 30 May 1957 by the WPK Politburo when it adopted the resolution, "On the Transformation of the Struggle with Counter-Revolutionary Elements into an All-People All-Party Movement" (also known as the 30 May Resolution).[122] This led to a purge in North Korean society in which every individual was checked for his or her allegiance to the party and its leader.[123] The purge began in earnest in 1959, when the WPK established a new supervisory body headed by Kim Il Sung's brother, Kim Yong-ju.[123] The people of North Korea were divided into three "forces" (hostile, neutral or friendly),[123] and the force in which a person was classified was hereditary.[123] Hostile forces cannot live near Pyongyang (the country's capital) or other major cities, or near North Korea's border with other countries.[123] Songbun affects access to educational and employment opportunities and, particularly, eligibility to join the WPK.[121] However, its importance has diminished with the fall of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe and the collapse of the North Korean economy (and the Public Distribution System) during the 1990s.[124]
Organization
Central organization
The Congress is the party's highest body and convenes on an irregular basis.[125] According to the party rules, the Central Committee can convene a congress if it gives the rest of the party at least a six months' notice.[125] The party rules give the Congress seven responsibilities:[125]
- Electing the Central Committee
- Electing the Central Auditing Commission
- Electing the General Secretary
- Examining the report of the outgoing Central Committee
- Examining the report of the outgoing Central Auditing Commission
- Discussing and enacting party policies
- Revising the party rules and making amendments to these
In between WPK national meetings, the Central Committee is the highest decision-making institution.[126] The Central Auditing Commission is responsible for supervising the party's finances and works separately from the Central Committee.[127] The Central Committee elects the composition of several bodies to carry out its work. The 1st Plenary Session of a newly elected central committee elects the Central Military Commission (CMC), the Secretariat, the Politburo, the Presidium, and the Central Auditing Commission.[128][129] The Politburo exercises the functions and powers of the Central Committee when a plenum is not in session.[130] The Presidium is the party's highest decision-making organ when the Politburo, the Central Committee, the Conference of Representatives and the Congress are not in session.[131] It was established at the 6th National Congress in 1980.[131] The CMC is the highest decision-making institution on military affairs within the party and controls the operations of the Korean People's Army.[132] The WPK General Secretary is by right Chairman of the CMC. Meanwhile, the Secretariat is the top implementation body and is headed by the WPK General Secretary and consists of several secretaries who normally head Central Committee departments, commissions, publications, and other organizations under it.[133] The Central Auditing Commission resolves disciplinary issues involving party members. Investigative subjects range from graft to anti-party and counter-revolutionary activities, generally encompassing all party rules violations.[134]
A first plenum of the Central Committee also elects the heads of departments, bureaus, and other institutions to pursue its work.[135][136] The WPK currently has more than 15 Central Committee departments.[136] Through these departments it controls several mass organisations and newspapers, such as Rodong Sinmun for instance.[136] The Korean People's Army (KPA) is, according to the WPK rules, the "revolutionary armed power of the Workers' Party of Korea which inherited revolutionary traditions."[137] The leading organ within the KPA is the General Political Bureau (GPB), which according to the WPK rules is defined "as an executive organ of the KPA Party Committee and is therefore entitled to the same authority as that of the Central Committee in conducting its activities."[138] The GPB controls the party apparatus and every political officer within the KPA.[138]
Lower-level organization
The WPK has local organizations for the three levels of local North Korean government: (1) provinces and province-level municipalities, (2) special city, ordinary cities and urban districts, and (3) rural counties and villages.[139] North Korea has nine provinces, each with a provincial party committee; their composition is decided by the WPK.[139]
The WPK has two types of membership: regular and probationary.[140] Membership is open to those 18 years of age and older and is granted after the submission of an application (endorsed by two parties' members with at least two years in good standing) to a cell.[140] The application is acted on by the cell's plenary session, and an affirmative decision is subject to ratification by a county-level party committee.[140] After an application is approved a mandatory one-year probationary period may be waived under unspecified "special circumstances", allowing the candidate to become a full member.[140] Recruitment is under the direction of the Organization and Guidance Department and its local branches.[140]
The WPK claimed a membership of more than three million in 1988, a significant increase from the two million members announced in 1976; the increase may have resulted from the Three Revolutions Team Movement mobilization drive.[141] At the time, 12 percent of the population held party membership, an abnormally large number for a communist country and a figure only comparable to Romania.[142] Later figures have not been made publicly available,[141] but membership today is estimated at 6.5 million.[143]
North Korean society is divided into three classes: industrial workers, peasants, and samuwon (intelligentsia and petite bourgeoisie).[141] Since 1948, industrial workers have constituted the largest percentage of party members, followed by peasants and samuwon.[141] Beginning in the 1970s, when North Korea's population reached the 50-per cent-urban mark, the composition of the party's groups changed; more people working in state-owned enterprises were party members, and the number of members in agricultural cooperatives decreased.[144]
Symbols
The emblem of the WPK is an adaptation of the communist hammer and sickle, with a traditional Korean calligraphy brush. The symbols represent the three classes in Korean society, as described by the WPK: the industrial workers (hammer), the peasants (sickle), and the samuwon (ink brush). The samuwon class consists of clerks, small traders, bureaucrats, professors, and writers. This class is unique to North Korean class analysis and was conceptualized to increase education and literacy among the country's population.[145]
Electoral history
Supreme People's Assembly elections
Election | Party leader | Seats | +/– | Position |
---|---|---|---|---|
1948 | Kim Il Sung | 157 / 572
|
157 | 1st |
1957 | 178 / 215
|
21 | 1st | |
1962 | 371 / 383
|
193 | 1st | |
1967 | 288 / 457
|
83 | 1st | |
1972 | 127 / 541
|
161 | 1st | |
1977 | [data missing] | |||
1982 | [data missing] | |||
1986 | [data missing] | |||
1990 | 601 / 687
|
1st | ||
1998 | Kim Jong Il | 594 / 687
|
7 | 1st |
2003 | [data missing] | |||
2009 | 606 / 687
|
1st | ||
2014 | Kim Jong Un | 607 / 687
|
1 | 1st |
2019 | [data missing] |
See also
Notes
References
Citations
- ^ a b c d Myers 2011, pp. 9, 11–12.
- ^ Seth 2019, p. 159.
- ^ a b Suh 1988, p. 313.
- ^ Cha & Hwang 2009, p. 214.
- ^ The White House 2016.
- ^ a b c Kim 2021: "Our Party never expects that there will be any fortuitous opportunity for us in paving the road for our people and in realizing their great aim and ideals to build socialism and communism. ... When the hundreds of thousands of cell secretaries and officials across the Party unite its members firmly under the leadership of the Party Central Committee and give full play to their loyalty, patriotism and creative wisdom, our revolution will always emerge victorious in high spirits and the ideal of communism will surely come true."
- ^ a b Yonhap News Agency 2021: "The immediate aim of the Workers' Party of Korea is to build a prosperous and civilized socialist society in the northern half of the Republic and to realize the independent and democratic development of society on a nationwide scale, and the ultimate goal is to build a communist society in which the people's ideals are fully realized."
- ^ a b Frank et al. 2013, p. 45.
- ^ a b c Yonhap News Agency 2021.
- ^ Lankov 2002, p. 20.
- ^ Lankov 2002, p. 21.
- ^ Lankov 2002, p. 22.
- ^ Lankov 2002, pp. 21–22.
- ^ Lankov 2002, pp. 28–29.
- ^ a b Lankov 2002, p. 29.
- ^ a b c Lankov 2002, p. 31.
- ^ Lankov 2002, pp. 31–32.
- ^ Lankov 2002, pp. 33–40.
- ^ Lankov 2002, p. 40.
- ^ a b Lankov 2002, p. 42.
- ^ Lankov 2002, p. 44.
- ^ Lankov 2002, p. 45.
- ^ Lankov 2002, p. 47.
- ^ Suh 1988, p. 74.
- ^ Lankov 2002, p. 60.
- ^ a b Lankov 2002, p. 61.
- ^ a b c d Lankov 2002, p. 62.
- ^ a b c d e Lankov 2002, p. 65.
- ^ a b c d e Lankov 2002, p. 66.
- ^ a b c Lankov 2002, p. 70.
- ^ Lankov 2002, pp. 62–63.
- ^ Lankov 2002, p. 63.
- ^ a b Lankov 2002, p. 72.
- ^ a b c d Lankov 2002, p. 73.
- ^ a b c d e f Lee 1982, p. 442.
- ^ Lee 1982, p. 434.
- ^ a b c Buzo 1999, p. 105.
- ^ Buzo 1999, pp. 105–106.
- ^ Buzo 1999, p. 106.
- ^ Gause 2011, p. 7.
- ^ a b Gause 2011, p. 8.
- ^ a b Gause 2011, p. 11.
- ^ Gause 2011, pp. 11–13.
- ^ a b c Gause 2011, p. 13.
- ^ Gause 2011, p. 15.
- ^ Yoon 2003, p. 1301.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Gause 2011, p. 18.
- ^ Gause 2011, p. 22.
- ^ Gause 2011, p. 23.
- ^ a b Gause 2011, p. 24.
- ^ a b c d Gause 2013, p. 20.
- ^ a b Gause 2013, pp. 30–32.
- ^ Choi & Hibbitts 2010, p. 3.
- ^ Gause 2013, p. 19.
- ^ McCurry 2011a.
- ^ McCurry 2011b.
- ^ AFP 2011.
- ^ Frank et al. 2011, p. 50.
- ^ Chen 2012.
- ^ BBC News 2012.
- ^ Rodong Sinmun 2012.
- ^ Oh 2013.
- ^ Frank 2018.
- ^ Reuters 2016.
- ^ AP News 2021.
- ^ Lee 2021.
- ^ Koko 2021.
- ^ Seo & Berlinger 2021.
- ^ Lankov 2021.
- ^ KKE 2011.
- ^ Solidnet.org 2011.
- ^ a b c d e Becker 2005, p. 66.
- ^ Suh 1988, pp. 139, 313.
- ^ Cheong 2000, pp. 138–139.
- ^ a b c d e Cheong 2000, p. 139.
- ^ a b c So & Suh 2013, p. 107.
- ^ a b c Kwak 2009, p. 19.
- ^ Kwak 2009, p. 20.
- ^ Suh 1988, p. 302.
- ^ a b c Suh 1988, p. 309.
- ^ Suh 1988, pp. 309–310.
- ^ a b Suh 1988, p. 310.
- ^ Suh 1988, pp. 310–313.
- ^ Oh & Hassig 2000, p. 18.
- ^ a b Lee 2003, p. 105.
- ^ Lee 2003, pp. 105–106.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Lee 2003, p. 106.
- ^ a b c d Lee 2003, p. 107.
- ^ Lee 2003, p. 109.
- ^ a b Lee 2003, p. 111.
- ^ a b c d Cheong 2000, p. 140.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Cheong 2000, p. 141.
- ^ a b c d Cheong 2000, p. 142.
- ^ a b c d e Cheong 2000, p. 143.
- ^ a b Rank 2012.
- ^ Marshall 2010.
- ^ Hitchens 2010.
- ^ a b Lee 2004, p. 4.
- ^ Marx & Engels 1906, pp. 46–47.
- ^ Engels 1892, pp. 81–82.
- ^ a b Lee 2004, p. 5.
- ^ Kim Jong Il 1982, pp. 2–3.
- ^ Kim Jong Il 1982, p. 27.
- ^ Kim Jong Il 1982, p. 71.
- ^ Lee 2004, p. 6.
- ^ a b c d e Lee 2004, p. 7.
- ^ Lee 2004, p. 8.
- ^ a b Lee 2004, p. 9.
- ^ Becker 2005, p. 44.
- ^ a b Lankov 2007, p. 29.
- ^ Lankov 2014.
- ^ Suh 1988, p. xviii.
- ^ Kihl & Kim 2006, p. 56.
- ^ Scalapino & Lee 1972, p. 689.
- ^ Choy 1984, p. 117.
- ^ Sheridan 2007.
- ^ Min 2008.
- ^ Yonhap News Agency 2013.
- ^ Lim 2008, p. 66.
- ^ Green 2012.
- ^ a b Hunter 1999, pp. 3–11.
- ^ Lankov 2007, p. 66.
- ^ a b c d e Lankov 2007, p. 67.
- ^ Lankov 2012.
- ^ a b c Gause 2011, p. 147.
- ^ National Institute for Unification Education 2014, p. 64.
- ^ Korean Central News Agency 2016.
- ^ Rules of the Workers' Party of Korea, article 3, section 24.
- ^ National Institute for Unification Education 2014, p. 66−67.
- ^ Buzo 1999, p. 30.
- ^ a b Kim Nam-Sik 1982, p. 140.
- ^ Rules of the Workers' Party of Korea, article 46.
- ^ Madden 2017.
- ^ Rules of the Workers' Party of Korea, article 3, section 28.
- ^ Gause 2013, p. 35.
- ^ a b c Gause 2013, p. 36.
- ^ National Institute for Unification Education 2014, p. 55.
- ^ a b National Institute for Unification Education 2014, p. 69.
- ^ a b Cha & Hwang 2009, p. 202.
- ^ a b c d e Cha & Hwang 2009, p. 193.
- ^ a b c d Cha & Hwang 2009, p. 209.
- ^ Lankov, Kwak & Cho 2016, pp. 193–214, 309–310.
- ^ Na 2021.
- ^ Cha & Hwang 2009, p. 210.
- ^ Cumings 2005, pp. 404–405.
Sources
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{{citation}}
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Further reading
- Kim Ji-ho, ed. (2016). Understanding Workers' Party of Korea (PDF). Translated by Kim Yong-nam; Mun Myong-song. Pyongyang: Foreign Languages Publishing House. ISBN 978-9946-0-1468-5.
External links
- Rodong Sinmun – the official newspaper of the WPK Central Committee
- Workers' Party of Korea Archived 28 November 2020 at the Wayback Machine at Naenara