Suryong’s Direct Rule and the Political Regime in North Korea under Kim Jong IL

Abstract

The political in North Korea has been characterized as a Dominant Party-State System. Since mid-1980s, however, its political has displayed two interesting aspects. Formally, broad System has been maintained; in practice, however, Workers' Party of Korea, Korean People's Army, and government have come to acquire respectively different and considerably strengthened roles. Under this new regime, Kim Jong Il (Suryong) directly rules over party, government, and military. Meanwhile, political-ideological base, military base, and economic base are administered respectively by party, army, and government. Interestingly, while power of party still overwhelms that of military and government, party's means of influence has changed from giving direct orders to providing provisions or encouraging policy outlines. Key words: North Korea, Communist parties, East Asian politics Introduction The political in Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK or North Korea) has experienced significant changes since death of its longstanding leader, Kim Il Sung, in 1994. No plenary meeting of party's Central Committee (PCC), highest leadership body of North Korea, has been held since December 1993. In addition, two significant political institutions, presidency and Central People's Committee (CPC), were abolished by constitutional revision that took place in 1998. Specifically, abolishment of CPC weakened consulting channel between Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and government. These changes, in turn, reinforced roles of cabinet and Korean People's Army (KPA), both previously controlled by WPK. In other words, under rule of Kim Jong Il, the cabinet responsibility system on which administrative-economic apparatus is concentrated, is actively operating, and politics, or Songun policy, has become central theme of North Korean politics. This makes KPA driving force of economic development and national security. Previous literature on political in North Korea has shown different findings regarding Suryong (great leader) system, Suryong's direct rule, party-government relations and party-military relations in eras of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. Specifically, most studies are divided into two perspectives regarding core issue of socialist political systems, party control. Some scholars argue that similar to era of Kim Il Sung's rule, WPK under Kim Jong Il exercises guidance and leadership over government and KPA. This is so even though he has bolstered status of KPA and autonomy of cabinet.1 Meanwhile, other scholars point out that because of development of military-first politics and cabinet responsibility system, previous relations among party, government, and KPA have significantly changed, or at very least, formerly direct control WPK once had has been weakened during Kim Jong Il era.2 If so, why were previous studies on socialist political systems concentrated on relations between communist party, government, and military? According to Schurmann's seminal study,3 socialist political systems, especially Chinese communist in 1960s, can be analyzed by focusing on hierarchical structure among Chinese Communist Party, People's Liberation Army, and government. That is, power structure in socialist countries is characterized by communistparty dominant pattern within a strict power triangle that consists of communist party, government, and military.4 Thus, Schurmann's study implies that for analysis of socialist political systems, we need to scrutinize identity of supreme power and its relations with other actors. In this regard, North Korea is not so different from other socialist political systems. …