Past Posts ▶ [Walking with Reporter Ahn Jeong-sik and Pyongyang] Can North Korea, North Korea, the country of Kim Il-sung, reform and open?
In ①, the question was posed,'Will North Korea open up for reform?'
To learn more about this topic, in this article, we will look at the peculiarities of the North Korean regime.
● In
order to find out the peculiarities of the North Korean regime, the
Korean Workers Party, the party of the Kim Il-sung family, let's
start with socialism in general.
A party in socialism has a different meaning than a party in a democratic state.
In the case of the Republic of Korea, as of 2021, the Democratic Party in power is the ruling party, but the Democratic Party is not the Republic of Korea.
The Republic of Korea is the sum of not only the ruling party, but also other political forces such as the opposition party and various social systems.
But in a socialist country, the party is the state itself.
In terms of North Korea, the Korean Workers' Party is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or North Korea.
Therefore, the every step of the Korean Workers Party is a very important criterion for grasping the movement of North Korea.
By the way, in North Korea, the Korean Workers' Party is the party of the Kim Il-sung family.
The Chosun Labor Party cannot be explained except for the family of Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, and Kim Jong-un.
Let's take a look at a part of the preface of the Party Code (revised in 2016), which is the basic framework for the operation of the Korean Workers' Party.
"The Korean Workers' Party is a great Kim Il-sung-Kim Jong-ilist party."
"The great Comrades Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il have genius foreknowledge, extraordinary leadership, indomitable will, and passionate love for the people (…) and are excellent ideological and theorists, outstanding leaders, and benevolent parents of the people."
"My dear Comrade Kim Jong-un is a great leader of the Korean Workers' Party and the Korean people who strengthened and developed the Korean Workers' Party into the party of the great Comrades Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il, and led the Juche Revolution to the final victory."
●
As you can see from the phrase
of the dynasty dictatorship of North Korea
, the Korean Workers' Party is a party of the Kim Il-sung family, and as the Korean Workers' Party is North Korea, North Korea is the country of the Kim Il-sung family.
How to grasp the system of North Korea is somewhat different depending on the scholars, but it is not too difficult to see it as a combination of totalitarianism and sultanism (Sultan is the supreme ruler of Islam, that is, the concept of a king). It means that this is the remaining dictatorship.
Dictatorship is dictatorship, but it is not just dictatorship, but a feudal system in which the supreme leader is supported like a king like the Joseon Dynasty and Goryeo Dynasty remains.
Looking at the reality of North Korea, the Kim Il-sung family is exercising more absolute power than the king of the feudal era.
Statues and mosaic murals of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il have been erected throughout North Korea, and it is natural for residents to worship on important days.
It is common for North Koreans to wear badges with the faces of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il, and North Korean Chosun Joongang TV broadcasts daily after the national anthem (a North Korean anthem different from South Korea) with'General Kim Il-sung's song' and'General Kim Jong-il's song'. Start.
Criticism of the Kim Il-sung family in North Korea cannot be imagined, and all literary works, movies, songs, publications, and even textbooks for children to learn, cannot be made without praise of the Kim Il-sung family.
North Korea became the kingdom of Kim Il-sung, saying that you should not see, hear, or speak unless it is Kim Il-sung's thought.
Children and adolescents who do not know the world's situation and are exposed only to education instilled by the North Korean authorities enthusiastically cheer and sometimes even shed tears whenever the general secretary of the Labor Party Kim Jong-un appears. It makes it possible to guess whether it is being done.
This idolization is because Kim Jong-il or Kim Jong-un, who succeeded in power through hereditary succession, continued to idolize their predecessors in order to further strengthen their power.
In a system where the legitimacy of power does not come from the support of the people, but from the Baekdu bloodline, the so-called descendant of Kim Il-sung, the idolization of the Kim Il-sung family was an essential work for Kim Jong-il and Kim Jong-un to solidify their power.
As the work of absolute worship of the Kim Il-Sung family continued, there was no other political faction in North Korea.
Forming another faction is like an anti-party or anti-state act, and it has become a task that you and your family must be prepared for death.
● Idolization in China and Vietnam As it is not a big problem,
there have been some movements to idolize Mao Zedong in China, but idolization was not a big problem as leaders were replaced with people other than blood relatives.
In addition, after Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, the CCP formed a collective leadership system in which multiple ruling elites and factions share power, enabling the division of power and checks between factions within the party.
These divisions of power and checks served as the basis for pursuing various reforms within the Communist Party, and the platform for promoting democracy within the Chinese-style party, such as public recommendation and direct voting when selecting and selecting executives, was made by secret ballots. Done.
There are criticisms that the party reform is retreating, such as the retreat of President Xi Jinping's power and the removal of the term limit for the President of the State after President Xi Jinping took office.However, the basis of the Chinese Communist Party's response to the changing environment and promoting reform and opening up Many experts say that the party reform was in place.
In Vietnam, since Ho Chi Minh, the founder of the Communist Party of Vietnam and a symbol of national liberation, emphasized the collective leadership system and did not tolerate individual worship, there was no place for idolatry from the beginning.
● Idolization intensified due
to the inheritance However, in the case of North Korea,
as the succession of
power is passed down to the children, the idolization is getting deeper and it is difficult to dream of forming a faction within the party or reforming the party.
The problem is that in a system where leaders are idolized, internal reforms and exchanges with the outside are not easy.
This is because the moment when external information is freely circulated through contact with the outside world, the fictional idolization of the Kim Il-sung family loses its place.
The most important task of the so-called'North Korean Democratization Movement' groups hoping for the overthrow of the Kim Jong-un regime is to introduce external information into North Korea, and the reason North Korea is extremely sensitive to the inflow of external information is that it is the North Korean regime. Because of the perception that it is absolutely dangerous.
The current dictatorship of idolatry of the Kim Il-sung family is extremely vulnerable to external information, and the moment it leaves its closed nature, its existence is at stake.
● Reform and Openness, Controlled by the Thought of the Supreme Leader In
the current North Korean system, where democracy within the party cannot operate at all, the only person who can speak powerfully about reform and openness is the Supreme Leader.
This means that reform and openness may progress somewhat according to the opinions of the top leaders, but reform and openness may retreat if the top leaders change their minds.
However, there is a limit to the range of reforms and openings that the Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un, Secretary General Kim Jong-un, can choose in the hereditary dictatorship of North Korea.
As long as you don't intend to let go of power, the most important thing for General Secretary Kim Jong-un is that reform and opening up should not undermine the power of both you and your Baekdu lineage.
In the next article, I will look at the maximum amount of reform and opening up that North Korea can choose.
(Photo = Chosun Joongang TV, Yonhap News)