Communism in the DPRK

35.3.6: Communism in the DPRK

Following the idea of Juche or self-reliance, North Korea remains one of the most isolated countries in the world, where an authoritarian political system has resulted in the destruction of the economy, complete control of the society, and extreme violations of human rights.

Learning Objective

Describe how Communism looks in the DPRK today

Key Points

  • Following the Korean War, North Korea emphasized the ideology of Juche (self-reliance) to distinguish itself from both the Soviet Union and China. Recovery from the war was quick but reconstruction of the country depended on extensive Chinese and Soviet assistance. North Korea, like all the postwar communist states, undertook massive state investment in heavy industry, state infrastructure, and military strength, neglecting the production of consumer goods.
  • As late as the 1970s, North Korea’s gross domestic product (GDP) per capita was estimated to be equivalent to South Korea’s. By 1972, all children from age 5 to 16 were enrolled in school and over 200 universities and specialized colleges had been established. By the early 1980s, 60–70% of the population was urbanized.
  • In the 1970s, expansion of North Korea’s economy, with the accompanying rise in living standards, came to an end. North Korea’s desire to lessen its dependence on aid from China and the Soviet Union prompted the expansion of its military power, and the government believed massive expenditures could be covered by foreign borrowing and increased sales of its mineral wealth on the international market. However, following the world 1973 oil crisis, the state began to default in 1974 and halted almost all repayments in 1985.
  • Gorbachev’s reforms and diplomatic initiatives, the Chinese economic reforms starting in 1979, and the collapse of the Eastern Bloc from 1989 to 1991 increased North Korea’s isolation. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 deprived North Korea of its main source of economic aid, leaving China as the isolated regime’s only major ally. Without the Soviet aid, North Korea’s economy went into a free-fall.
  • Kim Il-sung died from a sudden heart attack in 1994. His son, Kim Jong-il, became the chairman of the National Defense Commission and thus North Korea’s de facto head of state in 1997. Meanwhile, the economy was in steep decline. In 1990-1995, foreign trade was cut in half, with the loss of subsidized Soviet oil particularly keenly felt. The crisis came to a head in 1995 with widespread flooding that destroyed crops and infrastructure, leading to a massive famine that lasted until 1998. Normalization of the relations with the West that began in the late 1990s failed and North Korea continued to develop its nuclear program.
  • International organizations have assessed human rights violations in North Korea as belonging to a category of their own, with no parallel in the contemporary world. North Koreans have been referred to as “some of the world’s most brutalized people” and a special UN commission has reported numerous cases of crimes against humanity.

Key Terms

Sunshine Policy
The foreign policy of South Korea towards North Korea from 1998 to 2008. Since its articulation by South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, the policy resulted in greater political contact between the two states and some historic moments in inter-Korean relations, including two Korean summit meetings in Pyongyang (June 2000 and October 2007), several high-profile business ventures, and brief meetings of family members separated by the Korean War.
August Faction Incident
A 1956 attempted removal of Kim Il-sung from power by leading North Korean figures from the Soviet-Korean faction and the Yan’an faction, with support from the Soviet Union and China.
Juche
The official state ideology of North Korea, described by the regime as Kim Il-sung’s “contribution to national and international thought.” It claims that an individual is “the master of his destiny.” In practical terms, it calls for the economic self-reliance of North Korea.

 

North Korea after the Korean War

Following the 1956 August Faction Incident (an attempted removal of Kim Il-sung from power), Kim Il-sung successfully resisted efforts by the Soviet Union and China to depose him in favor of pro-Soviet Korean officials or the pro-Chinese Yan’an faction. The last Chinese troops withdrew from the country in 1958, but North Korea remained closely aligned with China and the Soviet Union and the Sino-Soviet split allowed Kim to play the powers off each other. At the same time, North Korea emphasized the ideology of Juche (self-reliance) to distinguish itself from both the Soviet Union and China.

Recovery from the war was quick — by 1957 industrial production reached 1949 levels — but reconstruction of the country depended on extensive Chinese and Soviet assistance. Koreans with experience in Japanese industries also played a significant part. Land was collectivized between 1953 and 1958. Resistance appears to have been minimal as landlords were eliminated by earlier reforms or during the war.

North Korea, like all the postwar communist states, undertook massive state investment in heavy industry, state infrastructure and military strength, neglecting the production of consumer goods. The country was placed on a semi-war footing, with equal emphasis being given to the civilian and military economies. At a special party conference in 1966, members of the leadership who opposed the military build-up were removed. Industry was fully nationalized by 1959. Taxation on agricultural income was abolished in 1966.As late as the 1970s, North Korea’s GDP per capita was estimated to be equivalent to South Korea’s. By 1972, all children from age 5 to 16 were enrolled in school and more than 200 universities and specialized colleges had been established. By the early 1980s, 60–70% of the population was urbanized.

Economic Decline

In the 1970s, expansion of North Korea’s economy, with the accompanying rise in living standards, came to an end. North Korea’s desire to lessen its dependence on aid from China and the Soviet Union prompted the expansion of its military power, and the government believed massive expenditures could be covered by foreign borrowing and increased sales of its mineral wealth on the international market. North Korea invested heavily in its mining industries and purchased a large quantity of mineral extraction infrastructure from abroad. However, following the world 1973 oil crisis, international prices of many of North Korea’s native minerals fell, leaving the country with large debts, inability to pay them off, and an extensive network of social welfare benefits. The state began to default in 1974 and halted almost all repayments in 1985. Consequently, it was also unable to invest further in Western technology.

In 1984, Kim visited Moscow during a grand tour of the USSR where he met Soviet leader Konstantin Chernenko. Soviet involvement in the North Korean economy increased, with bilateral trade reaching its peak at $2.8 billion in 1988. In 1986, Kim met the incoming Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and received a pledge of support. However, Gorbachev’s reforms and diplomatic initiatives, the Chinese economic reforms starting in 1979, and the collapse of the Eastern Bloc from 1989 to 1991 increased North Korea’s isolation. The leadership in Pyongyang responded by proclaiming that the collapse of the Eastern Bloc demonstrated the correctness of the policy of Juche. Simultaneously, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 deprived North Korea of its main source of economic aid, leaving China as the isolated regime’s only major ally. Without the Soviet aid, North Korea’s economy went into a free-fall.

Kim Jong-il’s Era

Kim Il-sung died from a sudden heart attack in 1994. His son, Kim Jong-il, who had already assumed key positions in the government, succeeded as General-Secretary of the Korean Workers’ Party. At that time, North Korea had no secretary-general in the party nor a president. Although a new constitution appeared to end the war-time political system, it did not completely terminate the transitional military rule. Rather, it legitimized and institutionalized military rule by making the National Defense Commission (NDC) the most important state organization and its chairman the highest authority. After three years of consolidating his power, Kim Jong-il became Chairman of the NDC in 1997 and thus North Korea’s de facto head of state.

Meanwhile, the economy was in steep decline. In 1990-1995, foreign trade was cut in half, with the loss of subsidized Soviet oil particularly keenly felt. The crisis came to a head in 1995 with widespread flooding that destroyed crops and infrastructure, leading to a famine that lasted until 1998. The North Korean government and its centrally planned system proved too inflexible to effectively curtail the disaster. Estimates of the death toll vary widely. Out of a total population of approximately 22 million, somewhere between 240,000 and 3.5 million North Koreans died from starvation or hunger-related illnesses, with deaths peaking in 1997. Recent research suggests that the likely number of excess deaths between 1993 and 2000 was about 330,000.

In the late 1990s, North Korea began making attempts at normalizing relations with the West and continuously renegotiating disarmament deals with U.S. officials in exchange for economic aid. At the same time, South Korea began to engage with the North as part of its Sunshine Policy. The international environment changed with the election of U.S. president George W. Bush in 2001. His administration rejected South Korea’s Sunshine Policy and the U.S. government treated North Korea as a rogue state, while North Korea redoubled its efforts to acquire nuclear weapons. In 2006, North Korea announced it had conducted its first nuclear weapons test.

The Juche Tower in Pyongyang is dedicated to the Juche ideology, photo by Martyn Williams.

The Juche Tower in Pyongyang is dedicated to the Juche ideology, photo by Martyn Williams. Juche’s core tenets are economic self-sufficiency, military self-reliance, and an independent foreign policy. The roots of Juche were made up of a complex mixture of factors, including the cult of personality centered on Kim Il-sung, the conflict with pro-Soviet and pro-Chinese dissenters, and Korea’s centuries-long struggle for independence.

In August 2009, former President Bill Clinton met with Kim Jong-il to secure the release of two American journalists who were sentenced for entering the country illegally. Barack Obama’s position towards North Korea was to resist making deals with North Korea for the sake of defusing tension, a policy known as “strategic patience.”

Current Situation

In 2011, the supreme leader of North Korea Kim Jong-il died from a heart attack. His youngest son Kim Jong-un was announced as his successor. Over the following years, North Korea continued to develop its nuclear arsenal despite international condemnation. Notable tests were performed in 2013 and 2016 and UN sanctions have tightened. At the 7th Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea in 2016, Kim Jong-Un further consolidated his control and power within the Workers’ Party of Korea and the country.

The DPRK officially describes itself as a self-reliant socialist state and formally holds elections. The unicameral Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA) is the highest organ of state authority and holds the legislative power. Its 687 members are elected every five years by universal suffrage. Deputies formally elect the President, the vice presidents, and members of the Presidium and take part in the constitutionally appointed activities of the legislature: passing laws, establishing domestic and foreign policies, appointing members of the cabinet, reviewing and approving the state economic plan, among others. The SPA itself cannot initiate any legislation independently of party or state organs. It is unknown whether it has ever criticized or amended bills placed before it, and the elections are based around a single list of candidates who stand without opposition.

Executive power is vested in the Cabinet of North Korea, which is headed by Premier Pak Pong-ju. The Premier represents the government and functions independently. His authority extends over two vice premiers, 30 ministers, two cabinet commission chairmen, the cabinet chief secretary, the president of the Central Bank, the director of the Central Statistics Bureau, and the president of the Academy of Sciences. A 31st ministry, the Ministry of People’s Armed Forces, is under the jurisdiction of the National Defense Commission.

Critics regard North Korea as a totalitarian dictatorship. Various outlets have called it Stalinist, particularly noting the elaborate cult of personality around Kim Il-sung and his family. The Workers’ Party of Korea, led by a member of the ruling family, holds power in the state and leads the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland. North Korea is the country with the highest number of military and paramilitary personnel, with a total of 9,495,000 active, reserve, and paramilitary personnel. Its active duty army of 1.21 million is the fourth largest in the world, after China, the U.S., and India. North Korea is an atheist state with no official religion and where public display of religion is discouraged.

The North Korean government exercises control over many aspects of the nation’s culture, and this control is used to perpetuate a cult of personality surrounding Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il. Kim Il-sung is still officially revered as the nation’s “Eternal President.” Several landmarks in North Korea are named for Kim Il-sung, including Kim Il-sung University, Kim Il-sung Stadium, and Kim Il-sung Square. Defectors have been quoted as saying that North Korean schools deify both father and son. The extent of the cult of personality surrounding Kim Jong-il and Kim Il-sung was demonstrated in 2012, when a 14-year-old North Korean schoolgirl drowned while attempting to rescue portraits of the two from a flood.

North Koreans bowing in front of statues of Kim Il-sung (left) and Kim Jong-il, April 2012, photo by J.A. de Roo.

North Koreans bowing in front of statues of Kim Il-sung (left) and Kim Jong-il, April 2012, photo by J.A. de Roo. The North Korean government exercises control over many aspects of the nation’s culture, and this control is used to perpetuate a cult of personality surrounding Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il. While visiting North Korea in 1979, journalist Bradley Martin wrote that nearly all music, art, and sculpture that he observed glorified “Great Leader” Kim Il-sung, whose personality cult was then being extended to his son, “Dear Leader” Kim Jong-il. Martin reported that there is even widespread belief that Kim Il-sung “created the world” and Kim Jong-il could “control the weather.”

Human Rights Violations

International organizations have assessed human rights violations in North Korea as belonging to a category of their own, with no parallel in the contemporary world. North Koreans have been referred to as “some of the world’s most brutalized people” by Human Rights Watch because of the severe restrictions placed on their political and economic freedoms. The North Korean population is strictly managed by the state and all aspects of daily life are subordinated to party and state planning. Employment is managed by the party on the basis of political reliability and travel is tightly controlled by the Ministry of People’s Security. Amnesty International reports of severe restrictions on the freedom of association, expression and movement, arbitrary detention, torture and other ill-treatment resulting in death, and executions. North Korea applies capital punishment, including public executions. Human rights organizations estimate that 1,193 executions had been carried out in the country as of 2009.

In 2013, the United Nations Human Rights Council established the Commission of Inquiry on human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. The Commission is mandated to investigate the systematic, widespread, and grave violations of human rights in North Korea. The Commission dealt with matters relating to crimes against humanity on the basis of definitions set out by customary international criminal law and in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The 2014 Report by the commission concluded, “the body of testimony and other information [the Commission] received establishes that crimes against humanity have been committed in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, pursuant to policies established at the highest level of the State… These crimes against humanity entail extermination, murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions and other sexual violence, persecution on political, religious, racial and gender grounds, the forcible transfer of populations, the enforced disappearance of persons and the inhumane act of knowingly causing prolonged starvation. The commission further finds that crimes against humanity are ongoing in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea because the policies, institutions and patterns of impunity that lie at their heart remain in place.” Additionally, the commission found that crimes against humanity have been committed against starving populations, particularly during the 1990s, and against persons from other countries who were systematically abducted or denied repatriation in order to gain labor and other skills.

Attributions