Geopolitical Obstacles to the DPRK's Development Strategy in a Historical Perspective

Abstract

This article will engage in a brief survey of the geopolitical impediments to development in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). One cannot comprehend the present without understanding the thread which runs from the past to the present. Even a perfunctory knowledge of regional geography will highlight that the DPRK lies at the intersection of China–Russia–Japan and US interests. The central issues in the DPRK's developmental strategy are (1) state/regime survival and (2) resource allocation. In its earliest days the administration of Kim Il Sung was bedevilled by two alternative factions within the Workers Party: the Irkutsk faction beholden to the patronage of the USSR, which opted for and lost a leadership struggle in 1955, and the Yan'an faction of Chinese-oriented veterans. Once Kim Il Sung's power was consolidated, the primary adversary was and remains the United States and its ally Japan. Cumulatively both of these historical experiences have resulted in a total distortion of resource allocation; in the first instance because of the need to establish an independent identity, mooting the juche concept as its focus; and in the second, because of military expenditure of Herculean proportions. Reportedly 25 to 30 per cent of the population is either in the Korean People's Army or the Red Militia.