North Korea in the 1990s

Abstract

This article discusses the prospects for the future of North Korea after Kim Il Sung leaves the scene, and considers the tasks that will face his successors. The first task of the new leaders will be to restore the Korean Communist revolutionary tradition by placing the exaggerated claims by Kim and his guerrilla comrades in proper historical perspective. Second, Kim Jong Il, the heir-apparent, should adopt a system of collective leadership. Third, Kim Jong Il should reward the North Korean people for their toil, produce more consumer goods, and minimize political mobilization as a means to achieve economic goals—and all the while try to improve the North's economic image abroad. Last, the new leaders in the North should pursue unification of the peninsula not through terrorism or liberation of the South, but through a policy of reconciliation involving visits to the South, establishment of a liaison office in the South, domestic changes in the North, and a reevaluation of foreign-policy goals.