Anarchism and Kropotkin: Another Source of North Korean Revolutionary Cultural History

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to deconstruct KimIlSungism, namely Chuch’e ideology by analyzing different ideological sources chronologically. I penetrate the revolutionary genealogy of North Korean revolutionaries with their strict deeds against Japanese imperialism, and demonstrate their genuine ideological communication, which would be a cultural key to enter contemporary North Korean social system. I argue mostly new points different from previous studies on North Korea. At first, North Korean socialism historically started from anarchism in the 1880s, not Marxism-Leninism. Second, the inherent turning point in North Korean socialism was the re-emergence of two heroes, An Jung Gŭn and Sin Ch’ae Ho. Third, North Korean socialism actually stemmed from indigenous idealism applied from Kropotkin’s anarcho-communism, and further re-developed Bakunin’s violent revolution theory. Fourth, the impetus and center of the North Korean revolutionary movement was the Koreans exiled and displaced in China, not the Soviet. Fifth, the debris of anarchistic revolutionaries still remains in North Korea, for instance, a slogan from Ŭiyŏlttan and anarchistic characteristics of the Ch’ŏllima Movement. As a result, North Korea might still be a bicameral society between Kropotkin’s anarcho-communism and Bakunin’s violent anarchism, not a unilateral one as is the prevailing view.