North Korean Politics Research Articles

An Analysis on The North Korean Politics and Purges from the point of Power Struggle : Focused on The Continuities and Changes in The Backgrounds and Types of The Power Struggles

An Analysis on The North Korean Politics and Purges from the point of Power Struggle : Focused on The Continuities and Changes in The Backgrounds and Types of The Power Struggles

Chinese Firms’ Troubled Relationship with Market Transformation in North Korea

The coping strategies that small Chinese firms operating in North Korea have chosen involve insinuating themselves into North Korean political and social networks, and structuring their investments so as to minimize their exposure to North Korean infrastructure, workers, and institutions. As a result, it is unlikely that Chinese firms will be the main drivers of market transformation in North Korea.

1970년대 남ㆍ북한 정치체제로 본 영화사 비교 연구

1970년대 남ㆍ북한 정치체제로 본 영화사 비교 연구

Visual Framing of Kim Jong Un in a North Korean Newspaper, The Rodong Shinmun: Image Politics of North Korea

Visual Framing of Kim Jong Un in a North Korean Newspaper, The Rodong Shinmun: Image Politics of North Korea

Leader symbols and personality cult in North Korea: the leader state

The legitimacy of the North Korean is based solely on the leaders’ personal legitimacy, and is maintained by the indoctrination of people with symbols and the enactment of leadership cults in daily life. It can thus be dubbed a leader state. The frequency of symbols and the richness and scale of leader-symbol-making in North Korea are simply unrivalled. Furthermore, the personality cults of North Korean leaders are central to people’s daily activity, critically affecting their minds and emotions. Both symbols and cult activities are profoundly entrenched in the institutions and daily life, and if separated and cancelled, the North Korean would be transformed. This book analyses North Korea as a leader focusing on two elements, symbols and cult activities. It argues that these elements have been, and continue to be, the backbone of North Korea, shaping North Korean culture. To reveal the leader state character, the book specifically examines North Korea’s leadership cults, its use of symbols in these cults, and the nature of the symbolism involved. How has the North Korean developed the cult of the Kim Il Sung family? How does the use symbols to perpetuate this cult? How has the developed myths and rituals that sustain the cult in daily life? What images has propaganda manufactured? How does the state’s manipulation of symbols affect the symbolism that is assigned to the leader’s actions? In answering these questions, this book sheds new light on the strength and resilience of the North Korean state, and shows how it has been able to survive even the most difficult economic period of the mid-1990s. Leader Symbols and Personality Cult in North Korea will be essential reading for students and scholars of North Korea, Korean politics, Asian politics, political sociology and visual politics.

North Korean Political Dynamics of the Kim Jong-un Era

The political dynamics associated with the Kim Jong-un regime have taken a number of twists and turns since the beginning of the third generation leadership transition at the end of 2011. Beginning in 2010 at the Third Party Conference and carrying through the first two years of Kim Jong-un’s rule, the focus was on the revitalization of the Party apparatus. During this period, the purges of the high command began while at the same time the Party leadership bodies witnessed a dramatic growth in representation of military and security personnel. The fusing together of the military and Party leadership appeared to bring stability at the top echelons of the leadership structure — something the young leader would need as he worked to consolidate his power. The next phase of Kim Jong-un’s consolidation process began with the surprising purge and execution of Jang Song-taek at the end of 2013. On the surface, this move by Kim Jong-un appeared highly risky and premature. More recent disclosures suggest that Jang posed an existential threat to Kim’s ability to consolidate his power. Acting pragmatically and swiftly, Kim Jong-un removed the threat and began to transform the political dynamics inside the regime while at the same time assuming the role of the Control Tower. As a consequence, Kim’s personal apparatus has begun to grow and the Supreme Leader’s decision-making patterns and interaction with the inner circle of advisors has begun to reflect his evolving role within the regime. The Seventh Party Congress in May will likely serve as a coronation of the Kim Jong-un era.* But whether he will be able to fully consolidate his power remains to be seen.

Charisma in a Watery Frame: North Korean Narrative Topographies and the Tumen River

In this article, I address North Korea both in its latent stage and the reframing of its early political narratives to support the function and authority of its current government. These narratives of nationalistic and political struggle expand across geographic boundaries and are also bound by them—hence my focus on the Tumen River. Secondarily, I consider the reframing of riverine spaces within the terrain of Pyongyang's contemporary politics, and recent examples of reenactment for commemorative purposes of historically and politically important crossings of North Korea's northern rivers. Together, these analytic elements suggest the key position of rivers in both the bounding and unbounding of North Korean history, politics, ideology, and nationhood.

Beyond the criticism of assimilation: rethinking the politics of ethno-national education in postwar Japan

This study analyzes Japanese and Korean ethno-national (minzoku-kokumin) education in postwar Japan. During a period of political unrest in Japan (1945–1955), some of the Korean residents and Japanese worked together to overcome the culture of Imperial Japan and its assimilative education. They also regarded themselves as people colonized by the United States, and pursued a political-cultural movement for their liberation and independence from American imperialism. The Koreans in Japan rejected compulsory education in the Japanese language. As a result, since 1956, Korean schools (Chōsengakkō), funded and supported by North Korea, were founded all across Japan. Their ethno-national education was in fact incorporated into North Korean politics, and has been considered in many studies as having overcome Japanese assimilation and ethnic inequalities. Such a view was a result of many academic Zainichi Korean studies that come from an “insider's perspective” to criticize Japanese colonialism and discrimination. In order to go beyond this insider's view, I focus on the political alliance between Zainichi Koreans and the Japanese people in their pursuit of ethno-national education. Since 2010, the Japanese state funding for Korean schools has become a major controversy in Japan. By tracing the historical background, this article intends to explain why this political issue has arisen. The ultimate purpose of this article is to suggest an ethical perspective to resolve the current political conflict regarding Korean schools in Japan.

The Politics of Foreign Aid in North Korea

This study aims to elucidate the nature of foreign aid in failed states through a case study of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Based on an in-depth analysis of political economy and internal politics in North Korea, I explain why foreign assistance has failed (and was doomed to fail) to support sustainable development and significantly improve humanitarian challenges in the country. In addition, focusing on the problems caused by donors, I examine humanitarian aid to North Korea since 1995 and conclude that it has been politicized, having been largely driven by non-humanitarian, political goals?more specifically, the strategic/diplomatic purposes of donors?and thus has exacerbated the problem of aid ineffectiveness.

Measuring Pro-North Korean sentiment in South Korea during the Kim Jong-il Era

This study analyzes recent claims regarding positive sentiment towards North Korea among South Koreans using cross-sectional public opinion data from the 2004 and 2006 waves of the Asian Barometer. Pro-North Korean sentiments are proposed to be highest among those who feel a stronger sense of common ancestry and language with North Koreans, the wealthy, the younger, those who trust NGOs, those in Seoul and those in the southwest region. I use ordered logistical regression to test hypotheses derived from these propositions. I find support for the southwest hypothesis, though the percentage of South Koreans with these sentiments is actually very low. The results have important implications for relations on the Korean Peninsula and the study of North Korean politics.

New approaches to North Korean politics after reunification: The search for a common Korean identity

Whilst most of the literature focusing on the Korean peninsula has concentrated on how to achieve unification through confidence-building measures, dialogues, negotiation and diplomacy, little attention has been paid to how a unified Korean identity, a core component of any potential reunification scheme could develop and be sustained. The paper addresses this gap by: (1) defining what national identity is, and how Korean identities have been formed, (2) outlining how both South and North Korea have understood and used the concept of national identity, (3) suggesting possible grounds on which the two Koreas could build a new, common national identity.

Review Essay: Going Beyond by First Going Within: New Approaches to North Korean Politics and Security

Review Essay: Going Beyond by First Going Within: New Approaches to North Korean Politics and Security

Elite Volatility and Change in North Korean Politics: 1997–2010

This paper analyzes the change in the composition of the North Korean elite from 1997–2010. It examines 256 public appearances by Kim Jong Il that were reported as an ‘inspection,’ ‘field guidance’ or ‘on-the-spot guidance’ visits. In particular, the paper examines 30 mentioned individuals who accompanied Kim Jong Il at least five times from 1997 to 2010 on these inspection tours. It finds that there was a great deal of volatility and change from 1999–2004 followed by a period of stability. Further, there was a shift away from a conservative perspective to a more moderate and pragmatic perspective surrounding the ‘Dear Leader.’ This has continued under the current leader, Kim Jong Un. The implications of this shift are discussed.

Erich Fromm and North Korea: Social Psychology and the Political Regime

This paper addresses the problem of social psychology and the political regime in North Korea through the sociopsychological theory of humanist psychoanalyst Erich Fromm. Since humanist psychoanalysis has not been systematically applied in academic discussion on North Korean politics and society, the author outlines Fromm’s neo-Marxist/neo-Freudian perspective in conjunction with observations on eroding totalitarianism and patricentrism, group narcissism and anxiety, official ideology, internalized authority and women, the revolutionary façade, and dream analysis as a relevant component of a social psychology of North Korea.

Introduction

Introduction Travis Tanner (bio) All major Northeast Asian countries, as well as the United States, held elections or underwent leadership transitions in 2012 that will not only have an impact on their respective domestic political landscapes but also shape their foreign policy priorities in 2013 and beyond. For the Asia-Pacific as a whole, the leadership transitions of 2012 will have profound geopolitical consequences for years to come. In the United States, the re-election of President Barack Obama in November indicates that the U.S. policy of strategic rebalancing toward the Asia-Pacific will be largely sustained, despite budgetary pressures and domestic political challenges. In China, the 18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party convened in November and made a once-a-decade announcement of a new cohort of national leaders, with Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang being named to the highest positions on the Politburo Standing Committee. Likewise, both Japan and South Korea held major elections in December. Japan returned Shinzo Abe and the previously dominant Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to power following a few short years of rule by the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), while in South Korea, Park Guen-hye of the Saenuri Party was elected president, becoming the first woman democratically chosen to lead a Northeast Asian state. Earlier in 2012, Taiwan and Russia both held national elections. In Taiwan, incumbent president Ma Ying-jeou of the Kuomintang (KMT) was re-elected in January, likely indicating his rapprochement with mainland China will continue. In Russia, a controversial election in March returned the presidency to Vladimir Putin, despite large protests in Moscow similar to those following the December 2011 legislative elections. Finally, in the wake of Kim Jong-un's formal assumption of power in late 2011, North Korean politics continued to unfold during 2012 in ways little understood by the outside world. Recognizing that all these leadership changes were occurring within a relatively short window, the National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR), in partnership with the Henry M. Jackson Foundation and the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington, hosted an international conference on "Northeast Asia in Transition: [End Page 46] New Leadership, New Dynamics." The conference, which was held on November 13, 2012, at the University of Washington, featured a select group of experts who examined the political, economic, and social issues affecting Northeast Asia amid these leadership transitions. The conference was organized by NBR's Kenneth B. and Anne H.H. Pyle Center for Northeast Asian Studies. Named in honor of NBR's founding president and his wife, the Pyle Center conducts research and organizes events on Northeast Asia to advance the study of the complex dynamics and deep forces reshaping the region. The conference was also part of a series of events organized to celebrate the Henry M. Jackson centennial, the hundredth anniversary of Senator Jackson's birth. This roundtable features essays by three of the presenters, who were asked to examine the leadership transitions in Japan, China, and the Korean Peninsula and the associated implications for Northeast Asia. Yoichiro Sato (Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University) examines the shifting domestic political landscape that led to the LDP's return to power and how the new Abe government will likely address the challenges currently facing Japan. He notes that the new government is likely to adopt a more nationalistic stance, which could lead to escalating regional tensions and difficulties in managing the alliance with the United States. Ren Xiao (Fudan University) provides a lucid rundown of the outcomes of the 18th Party Congress and describes the implications of the new leadership configuration for China's relations with Japan, South Korea, and the United States. He warns leaders in China and the United States not to exaggerate each other's "unfriendly intentions" and recommends that both new governments explore areas for collaboration that will promote peace and benefit both nations. Sung-yoon Lee (Tufts University) gives an authoritative and insightful assessment of the "uniquely unique" North Korean leadership structure, pointing out its many flaws and weaknesses. He argues that Kim Jong-un's youth and inexperience make the regime vulnerable and that President Obama and President Park Geun...

North Korea: beyond charismatic politics

This original, pathbreaking study of North Korea’s political history and culture sheds invaluable light on a country long cloaked in impenetrable mystery for the West. Leading scholars Heonik Kwon and Byung-Ho Chung begin by tracing Kim Il Sung’s rise to power during the Cold War. They show how his successor sponsored the production of revolutionary art to unleash a public political culture that would consolidate Kim’s charismatic power and his own hereditary authority. The result was a legacy of performative politics and symbolic power that sustains North Korean leaders’ sovereignty to this day. In defiance of the instability to which so many revolutionary states eventually succumb, the durability of charismatic politics in North Korea defines its exceptional place in modern history. Kwon and Chung make an innovative contribution to comparative socialism and postsocialism as well as to the anthropology of the state. Their unique work is essential for all readers interested in understanding North Korea and East Asia writ large, the role of art in society, and the possibilities of political culture.

Антиракетные дебаты: две тенденции в экспертном сообществе

The goal of the present research is to demonstrate the main, significant componentry of the North Korean political and economic system, as well as to educe the most important factors which currently maintain its relative stability and may undergo serious tests in any version of transformation of the present totalitarian, command-and-control regime closed from the outer world.

Soviet Policy toward the North Korean Politics: 1945-1948

Soviet Policy toward the North Korean Politics: 1945-1948

North Korea's Policy Process: Assessing Institutional Policy Preferences

Abstract I argue that North Korean politics is becoming pluralized. Policy outcomes are increasingly shaped by the interaction of the Cabinet, party, and military. Systematic content analysis of domestic articles and speeches suggests that policy preferences vary by institution. Second-echelon divisions are observable and help to shape policy more than has been previously argued.

Interest Groups in North Korean Politics

North Korea is often characterized as some form of highly centralized rule: totalitarian, posttotalitarian, corporatist, or personalistic. This article argues that much of the confusion around understanding North Korea's actions stems from misplaced models. Much of the current thinking on North Korea's politics does not account for the limited institutional plurality in the system. The article documents how the state's political institutions have changed since the country's founding and highlights the formal and informal roles of each major bureaucracy today. The Korean Workers Party and the role of Juche have declined, but the National Defense Commission and “military-first politics” have not taken their place as reigning supreme. Rather the interaction between the Korean Workers Party, military, and cabinet helps explain and moderate policy outcomes.