Workers' Party of Korea
Encyclopedia
The Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) is the ruling Communist party
of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), commonly known as North Korea. It is also called the Korean Workers' Party (KWP). The WPK has been the ruling party in the DPRK since its foundation and has had as its leaders, Kim Il-sung
(1912–1994) and his son, Kim Jong-il
(beginning in 1997, when he officially took over as General Secretary). Kim Ki-Nam is the current Secretary of the Central Committee, as of October 2007.
, which was supposedly founded on October 17, 1926 and led by Kim Il-sung, then 14 years old. It is described in these sources as "the first genuine revolutionary communist organization in Korea." The Workers' Party of North Korea was formed on 29 August, 1946 from a merger between the Communist Party of North Korea and the New Democratic Party of Korea.
On June 30, 1949 the Workers Party of North Korea
and the Workers Party of South Korea
merged, forming the Workers' Party of Korea, at a congress in Pyongyang
. Both parties traced their origins to the Communist Party of Korea
. Kim Il-sung of the Workers Party of North Korea became the party Chairman and Pak Hon-yong
, who had been leader of the Workers Party of South Korea as well as the earlier Communist Party of Korea, and Alexei Ivanovich Hegay
becoming deputy chairmen.
However, official North Korean sources consider October 10, 1945 as the 'Party Foundation Day', citing a founding meeting of the 'North Korea Bureau of the Communist Party of Korea' founded under Soviet guidance. Foreign historians, however, dispute that date and claim that the meeting was in fact held on October 13. The party considers itself as a direct continuation of the North Korea Bureau and the Workers Party of North Korea, considering the two congresses of the Workers Party of North Korea as its own. This version of events can be seen as a move to downplay the importance of the communists from South Korea
, who were purged in the 1950s.
The first five years of the WPK's rule were dominated by the Korean War
. By October 1950 United Nations
forces had occupied most of the DPRK and the WPK leadership had to flee to China
. Many believe that if it had not been for Chinese intervention, the Korean communists would have been militarily defeated at that point. But in November, Chinese forces
entered the war and threw the U.N. forces back, retaking Pyongyang in December and Seoul in January 1951. In March U.N. forces retook Seoul, and the front was stabilised along what eventually became the permanent "Armistice Line" of 1953. The WPK was able to re-establish its rule north of this line.
Once the WPK was created there was a virtual parity between the four factions with the Yanan, Soviet and Domestic factions each having four representatives on the Politburo
with the Guerrilla faction having three.
In the early years of the party Kim Il-sung was the acknowledged leader, but he did not yet have absolute power since it was necessary to balance off the interests of the various factions. To eliminate any threats to his position, he first moved against individual leaders who were potential rivals. He drove from power Alexei Ivanovich Hegay (also known as Ho Ka-ai), leader of the Soviet faction, first demoting him during the Korean War in 1951 and then using him as a scapegoat for slow repairs of a water reservoir bombed by the Americans to drive him from power (and to an alleged suicide) in 1953. In part, it was possible for Kim to do this because the intervention of "Chinese People's Volunteers" in the war reduced the influence of both the USSR and the Soviet faction and allowed Kim Il-sung the room he needed to dispose of his main rival.
Kim Il-sung also attacked the leadership of the Yanan faction. When the North Koreans were driven to the Chinese border, Kim Il-sung needed a scapegoat to explain the military disaster and blamed Mu Chong, a leader of the Yanan faction and also a leader of the North Korean military. Mu Chong and a number of other military leaders were expelled from the party and Mu was forced to return to China where he spent the rest of his life. Kim Il-sung also removed Pak Il-u, the Minister of the Interior and reputedly the personal representative of Mao Zedong
.
The sacking of Hegay, Mu and Pak reduced the influence of the Chinese and Soviet factions, but Kim Il-sung could not yet launch an all out assault on these factions because he would risk the intervention of Moscow
and Beijing
when he was still dependent on their support.
drew to a close, he first moved against the Domestic faction. While the Soviet faction had the sponsorship of the Soviet Union and the Yanan faction was backed by China the Domestic faction had no external sponsor who would come to their aid and was therefore in the weakest position. With the end of the Korean War the usefulness of the Domestic faction in running guerilla and spy networks in South Korea came to an end. Former leaders of the Workers Party of South Korea were attacked at a December 1952 Central Committee meeting. In early 1953 rumours were spread that the "southerners" had been planning a coup. This led to the arrest and removal from power of Pak Hon-yong
(who was foreign minister at the time) and Yi Sung Yop the minister of "state control" who was charged with "spying on behalf of the United States
".
In August 1953, following the signing of the armistice
that suspended the Korean War, Yi and eleven other leaders of the domestic faction were subjected to a show trial
on charges of planning a military coup and sentenced to death. In 1955, Pak Hon Yong, the former leader of the WPSK and deputy chairman of the WPK, was put on trial on charges of having been a US agent since 1939, sabotage, assassination, and planning a coup. He was sentenced to death, although it is unclear if he was shot immediately or if his execution occurred some time in 1956.
The trials of Yi and Pak were accompanied by the arrest of other members and activists of the former SWPK with defendants being executed or sent to forced labour in the countryside. The domestic faction was virtually wiped out, though a few individual members who had personally allied themselves to Kim Il-sung remained in positions of influence for several more years.
was a bombshell with Nikita Khrushchev
's Secret Speech
denouncing Joseph Stalin
and the inauguration of destalinisation. Throughout the Soviet bloc domestic Communist parties inaugurated campaigns against personality cults
and the general secretaries
who modelled themselves after Stalin were deposed throughout Eastern Europe.
Kim Il-sung was summoned to Moscow
for six weeks in the summer of 1956 in order to receive a dressing down from Khrushchev, who wished to bring North Korea in line with the new orthodoxy. During Kim Il-sung's absence Pak Chang Ok
(the new leader of the Soviet faction after the suicide of Ho Ka Ai), Choe Chang Ik, and other leading members of the Yanan faction devised a plan to attack Kim Il-sung at the next plenum of the Central Committee and criticise him for not "correcting" his leadership methods, developing a personality cult, distorting the "Leninist principle of collective leadership" his "distortions of socialist legality" (i.e. using arbitrary arrest and executions) and use other Khrushchev-era criticisms of Stalinism
against Kim Il-sung's leadership.
Kim Il-sung became aware of the plan upon his return from Moscow and responded by delaying the plenum by almost a month and using the additional time to prepare by bribing and coercing Central Committee members and planning a stage-managed response. When the plenum finally opened on August 30 Choe Chang-ik made a speech attacking Kim Il-sung for concentrating the power of the party and the state in his own hands as well as criticising the party line on industrialisation which ignored widespread starvation among the North Korean people. Yun Kong Hum attacked Kim Il-sung for creating a "police regime". Kim Il-sung's supporters heckled and berated the speakers rendering them almost inaudible and destroying their ability to persuade members. Kim Il-sung's supporters accused the opposition of being "anti-Party" and moved to expel Yun from the party. Kim Il-sung, in response, neutralised the attack on him by promising to inaugurate changes and moderate the regime, promises which were never kept. The majority in the committee voted to support Kim Il-sung and also voted in favour of repressing the opposition expelling Choe and Pak from the Central Committee.
Several leaders of the Yunan faction fled to China to escape the purges that followed the August plenum while supporters of the Soviet faction and Yanan faction were rounded up. Though Kim Tu Bong, the leader of the Yanan faction and nominal President of North Korea was not directly involved in the attempt on Kim he was ultimately purged in 1958 accused of being the "mastermind" of the plot. Kim Tu Bong "disappeared" after his removal from power and likely was either executed or died in prison.
In September 1956 a joint Soviet-Chinese delegation went to Pyongyang to "instruct" Kim Il-sung to cease any purge and reinstate the leaders of the Yanan and Soviet factions. A second plenum of the Central Committee, held on September 23, 1956, officially pardoned the leaders of the August opposition attempt and rehabilitated them but in 1957 the purges resumed and by 1958 the Yanan faction had ceased to exist. Members of the Soviet faction, meanwhile, facing increased harassment, decided to return to the Soviet Union in increasing numbers. By 1961 the only faction left was Kim Il-sung's own guerrilla faction along with members who had joined the WPK under Kim Il-sung's leadership and were loyal to him. In the 1961 Central Committee there were only two members of the Soviet faction, three members of the Yanan faction and three members of the Domestic faction left out of a total Central Committee membership of 68. These individuals were personally loyal to Kim Il-sung and were trusted by him; however, by the late 1960s, even these individuals were almost all purged.
One likely reason for the failure of the Soviet and Yanan factions to depose Kim Il-sung was the nationalist view by younger members of the party who had joined since 1950 that the members of these factions were "foreigners" influenced by alien powers while Kim Il-sung was seen as a true Korean.
and all agriculture was collectivised on the Soviet model, and the party controlled this command economy at every level. All other political organisation was suppressed and civil society
was extinguished. A pervasive political police apparatus suppressed all dissent
. Even at this stage there was a personality cult of Kim Il-sung, but it was usually assumed in the west that the DPRK was a Soviet satellite like Poland
or East Germany
though, in reality, this had stopped being the case after 1956.
The Sino-Soviet split
helped Kim Il-sung take the Workers' Party of Korea on an independent path between Moscow and Beijing. The party and Kim Il-sung in particular were wary of de-stalinization
and of Khrushchev's reforms. In the late 1950s, the DPRK began to increasingly emulate the People's Republic of China
(PRC) launching its own version of the Great Leap Forward
calling it the Chollima movement. The press did not mention the Sino-Soviet split at first. In 1961, Kim Il-sung signed a treaty of friendship and mutual cooperation with Zhou Enlai
and then proceeded to sign a similar treaty with the Soviet Union. After 1962 and particularly after the Twenty-Second CPSU Party Congress in which Soviet leaders criticised Chinese leaders, the WPK began to side openly with the PRC not only on issues such as the personality cult and anti-revisionism but also against Khrushchev's theory of peaceful coexistence
. Editorials began to appear in the press openly criticising the Soviet position and defending the Chinese and obliquely attacking Khrushchev. The WPK supported the PRC during its conflict
with India
in 1962 and denounced the USSR's "capitulation" in the Cuban missile crisis
.
The Soviet Union responded by cutting off all aid to the DPRK, seriously damaging North Korea's industry and military capability. PRC did not have the resources to replace the Soviet aid, and after 1965 was embroiled in the chaos of the Cultural Revolution
. Events in PRC shocked the WPK leadership and caused it to distance itself from PRC and criticise Mao's "dogmatism" and recklessness, even accusing the Chinese of adopting the "Trotskyist theory of permanent revolution
", a serious heresy in the Communist world. The Chinese Red Guards
began to attack Kim Il-sung and Korean domestic and foreign policy. After 1965, North Korea took a neutral stand in the Sino-Soviet conflict, backing away from its previous uncritical support of PRC.
Although Kim Il-sung's regime emulated some of the slogans of the Mao Zedong
's Cultural Revolution
, Kim Il-sung remained wary of Chinese domination, and never applied anything like the Cultural Revolution in North Korea. In the same year DPRK forces captured the U.S.S. Pueblo
, an American spy ship, showing that Kim Il-sung was running his own version of the Cold War
, independent of Soviet or Chinese tutelage.
program of national self-reliance in order to diminish the influence of the USSR and China over domestic North Korean affairs. The program was officially launched in June 1966 (after the state visit of the Soviet Foreign Minister) as the program of national self-determination and Communist and Workers' Parties' non-interference. By the late 1960s, the North Korean media was hailing the juche ideology as being superior to Leninism and other foreign ideologies and "burning loyalty" to the "Great Leader" became a major ideological theme (the term "Great Leader" was first used in the early 1960s) and took the Stalinistic practice of the personality cult to new levels.
With the removal of the other factions, Kim Il-sung became the supreme leader of the DPRK. By 1960, Kim Il-sung had purged virtually all the members of the Yanan, Domestic and Soviet factions through show trials, intimidation, and encouraging Soviet Koreans to return to the USSR, leaving the party to be dominated by his guerrilla comrades as well as young technocrats who had joined the party after its founding and were loyal to Kim Il-sung.
In 1972 the DPRK adopted a new constitution, under which an executive presidency was created, and Kim Il-sung became President as well as the WPK's General Secretary. Thereafter Kim Il-sung's personality cult reached heights that made even Stalin and Mao appear modest by comparison. Kim Il-sung was credited with personal direction of every supposed achievement of the regime, his biography was rewritten to make him the founder and leader of the WPK from its inception, and a new ideology of Kim Il-sung's creation, Juche or self-reliance, replaced Marxism-Leninism
as the regime's official ideology. All other WPK leaders remained completely anonymous, although Kim Il-sung's power in fact depended on the control of the Korean People's Army
and the security forces by his loyal agent, Defence Minister Oh Jin-wu. Kim Jong-il explains in Socialism of Our Country is Socialism of Our Style as the Embodiment of the Juche Idea, a speech made to the central committee
of the WPK on December 27, 1990 the divorce with Marxism-Leninism. "We could not literally accept the Marxist theory which had been advanced on the premises of the socio-historic conditions of the developed European capitalist countries, or the Leninist theory presented in the situation of Russia where capitalism was developed to the second grade. We had had to find a solution to every problem arising in the revolution ... from the standpoint of Juche".
The practical effect of Juche was to seal the DPRK off from virtually all foreign trade, except to a limited extent with China and the Soviet Union. But the economic reforms of Deng Xiaoping
in China after 1978 meant that trade with the undeveloped centrally-planned economy of the DPRK held decreasing interest for China, while the fall of communism in the Soviet Union in 1991 completed the DPRK's isolation. This, added to the continuing high level of expenditure on armaments, led to a steadily mounting economic crisis from the 1980s onwards.
had been groomed to become his father's successor for a long time. In 1964 he was appointed Central Committee member, then promoted to Politburo member and designated successor to Kim Il-sung in 1974 by a Central Committee plenum. In 1980 the WPK Congress elevated Kim Jong-il to senior positions and publicized his status as heir apparent
. Until then it seemed likely that Kim's successor would be either Oh Jin-wu or Prime Minister Kim Il (not related to Kim Il-sung). In fact it seems that Kim Il-sung had always planned that his son would succeed him, and had been advancing him within the Army (the real source of power in the DPRK) since 1974. Kim Il was removed from office in 1976 and died in 1984, and Oh remained loyal to the Kim family. Well before Kim Il-sung's death in 1994, Kim Jong-il had become the day-to-day ruler of the country, and had promoted his own followers to key positions in the Army. Kim Jong-il's accession was followed by a round of purges in the WPK, in which some of his father's old followers were removed from office.
Despite the almighty status and power of the WPK, it has not functioned normally since Kim Il-sung's death. A party congress has not been held since the sixth party congress in 1980. According to the Party Rules, a party congress is supposed to be held every five years. The plenum of the Central Committee has not been held since the 21st Plenum in December 1993. The plenum, which has the right to elect the General Secretary, was not held even when Kim Jong-il became the party's general secretary in October 1997. Instead Kim Jong-il was endorsed by both the Central Committee and the Central Military Commission on ground of petitions and letters from lower organizations. For the first time in the history of North Korea's Communist Party, a plenum also was not held before the first session of newly-elected SPAs. It is also suspected that Secretariat and Politburo meetings have not been held since Kim Il-sung's death (the last known Politburo meeting before 2010 was held in 1994). It is likely that not one organization within the party is fulfilling its decision-making function, and thus that the party is not working properly as a system.
was appointed chief secretary of the Pyongyang
Party Committee filling a 9-year vacancy.
On 26 June 2010 the Party Politburo called the 3rd Party Conference for early September; after an unexplained delay, the Conference was held on 28 September; it re-elected Kim Jong-il as Party General Secretary, renewed the Party Central Committee with Kim Jong-il's son Kim Jong-un as member, and adopted new Party Rules which eliminated the clause that a party congress must be convened every 5 years, increased the power of the Central Military Commission and inserted a praise to Kim Jong-il in the preface.
On 28 September 2010 a Central Committee plenum (the first after 17 years) was held as well, renewing central authorities and appointing Kim Jong-un a vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission.
On 6 June 2011 North Korean press publicized a Politburo enlarged meeting, the first of this kind since the 1980s. The meeting was almost entirely focused on Kim Jong-il's recent visit to the People's Republic of China
, adding further speculation on China's endorsement of Kim Jong-il's succession as well as signalling the DPRK's increasing interest for Chinese economic reforms.
and the Central Auditing Committee. In practice, the members of all these bodies are chosen by Kim Jong-il and his few trusted lieutenants, and in any case they exercise no real power. Technically, the WPK is a coequal member with two other parties in the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland
, but the WPK holds all but a very few seats in the government and all candidates run unopposed and are elected unanimously.
In September 1992, the WPK had 160 Central Committee members and 143 Central Committee alternate (candidate) members. The Central Committee meets at least once every six months, although no meeting at all was held between December 1993 and September 2010. Article 24 of the party rules stipulates that the Central Committee elects the General Secretary
of the party, members of the Political Bureau Presidium (or the Standing Committee), members of the Political Bureau (or Politburo
), secretaries, members of the Central Military Commission, and members of the Central Inspection Committee. A party congress was supposed to be convened every five years, but none has been held since the Sixth Party Congress of October 1980; in 2010 the Party Rules were amended deleting that clause.
As in most Soviet-style party states, membership of the WPK is essential for any DPRK citizen who aspires to a post of any seniority in any government, management, educational or cultural institution, since all these bodies act as "conveyor belts" for party rule over all aspects of DPRK life and effectively creates a nomenklatura
within society. All senior military officers must also be WPK members.
Since the 2010 3rd Party Conference, the party also has a Central Auditing Commission.
Communist party
A political party described as a Communist party includes those that advocate the application of the social principles of communism through a communist form of government...
of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), commonly known as North Korea. It is also called the Korean Workers' Party (KWP). The WPK has been the ruling party in the DPRK since its foundation and has had as its leaders, Kim Il-sung
Kim Il-sung
Kim Il-sung was a Korean communist politician who led the Democratic People's Republic of Korea from its founding in 1948 until his death in 1994. He held the posts of Prime Minister from 1948 to 1972 and President from 1972 to his death...
(1912–1994) and his son, Kim Jong-il
Kim Jong-il
Kim Jong-il, also written as Kim Jong Il, birth name Yuri Irsenovich Kim born 16 February 1941 or 16 February 1942 , is the Supreme Leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea...
(beginning in 1997, when he officially took over as General Secretary). Kim Ki-Nam is the current Secretary of the Central Committee, as of October 2007.
Foundation of the party
According to North Korean sources, the origins of the Workers' Party of Korea can be traced to the Down-With-Imperialism UnionDown-With-Imperialism Union
The Down-With-Imperialism Union, or DIU, was founded on October 17, 1926 by Kim Il-sung, in Huadian City, Jilin Province, China, in order to fight against Japanese imperialism and promote Marxism–Leninism. It is considered by North Korea to be the roots and foundation of its ruling party, the...
, which was supposedly founded on October 17, 1926 and led by Kim Il-sung, then 14 years old. It is described in these sources as "the first genuine revolutionary communist organization in Korea." The Workers' Party of North Korea was formed on 29 August, 1946 from a merger between the Communist Party of North Korea and the New Democratic Party of Korea.
On June 30, 1949 the Workers Party of North Korea
Workers Party of North Korea
The Workers Party of North Korea was a communist party in North Korea, a predecessor of the current Workers Party of Korea. It was founded at a congress on August 28–30, 1946, by the merger of the North Korea Bureau of the Communist Party of Korea and the New People's Party. Kim Tu-bong, the...
and the Workers Party of South Korea
Workers Party of South Korea
The Workers Party of South Korea was a communist party in South Korea from 1946 to 1949. It was founded on November 23, 1946 through the merger of the Communist Party of South Korea, New People's Party of South Korea and a fraction of the People's Party of Korea...
merged, forming the Workers' Party of Korea, at a congress in Pyongyang
Pyongyang
Pyongyang is the capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, commonly known as North Korea, and the largest city in the country. Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River and, according to preliminary results from the 2008 population census, has a population of 3,255,388. The city was...
. Both parties traced their origins to the Communist Party of Korea
Communist Party of Korea
Communist Party of Korea was a communist party in Korea. It was founded during a secret meeting in Seoul in 1925. The Japanese colonial regime had banned communist parties under the Peace Preservation Law , so the party had to operate in a clandestine manner...
. Kim Il-sung of the Workers Party of North Korea became the party Chairman and Pak Hon-yong
Pak Hon-yong
Pak Hon-yong was a Korean independence activist, politician, philosopher and Communist activist. One of the main leaders of the Korean communist movement during Japan's colonial rule . his nickname was Ijung.During the Japanese occupation of Korea, he tried to organize the Korean Communist Party...
, who had been leader of the Workers Party of South Korea as well as the earlier Communist Party of Korea, and Alexei Ivanovich Hegay
Alexei Ivanovich Hegay
Alexei Ivanovich Hegay was a Soviet political operative in North Korea and leader of the Soviet Korean faction within the early political structure of North Korea...
becoming deputy chairmen.
However, official North Korean sources consider October 10, 1945 as the 'Party Foundation Day', citing a founding meeting of the 'North Korea Bureau of the Communist Party of Korea' founded under Soviet guidance. Foreign historians, however, dispute that date and claim that the meeting was in fact held on October 13. The party considers itself as a direct continuation of the North Korea Bureau and the Workers Party of North Korea, considering the two congresses of the Workers Party of North Korea as its own. This version of events can be seen as a move to downplay the importance of the communists from South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
, who were purged in the 1950s.
The first five years of the WPK's rule were dominated by the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
. By October 1950 United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
forces had occupied most of the DPRK and the WPK leadership had to flee to China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
. Many believe that if it had not been for Chinese intervention, the Korean communists would have been militarily defeated at that point. But in November, Chinese forces
People's Liberation Army
The People's Liberation Army is the unified military organization of all land, sea, strategic missile and air forces of the People's Republic of China. The PLA was established on August 1, 1927 — celebrated annually as "PLA Day" — as the military arm of the Communist Party of China...
entered the war and threw the U.N. forces back, retaking Pyongyang in December and Seoul in January 1951. In March U.N. forces retook Seoul, and the front was stabilised along what eventually became the permanent "Armistice Line" of 1953. The WPK was able to re-establish its rule north of this line.
Factions in the WPK
As the Workers' Party of Korea, and its two founding parties, had emerged through a series of mergers, it contained various competing factions. At the time of its foundation, the party was made up of four factions, the Soviet Koreans faction, the Domestic faction, the Yanan (or Chinese) faction and the Guerrilla faction.- The Soviet Koreans, led first by Alexei Ivanovich HegayAlexei Ivanovich HegayAlexei Ivanovich Hegay was a Soviet political operative in North Korea and leader of the Soviet Korean faction within the early political structure of North Korea...
and then by Pak Chang OkPak Chang OkPak Chang Ok was a North Korean official and was General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea).Pak was a leader of the Soviet Korean faction of the party, with members being mainly ethnic Koreans born in Russia, after the suicide of their first leader, Alexei Ivanovich Hegay...
were made up of waves of ethnic Koreans who were born or raised in Russia after their families moved there starting in the 1870s. Some of them had returned to Korea covertly as Communist operatives in the twenties and thirties but most were members of the Red ArmyRed ArmyThe Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
or civilians who were stationed in North Korea following World War IIWorld War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
to help the Red Army establish a Soviet satellite. Many came as translators or as Russian language instructors. - The Domestic faction, led by Pak Hon-yongPak Hon-yongPak Hon-yong was a Korean independence activist, politician, philosopher and Communist activist. One of the main leaders of the Korean communist movement during Japan's colonial rule . his nickname was Ijung.During the Japanese occupation of Korea, he tried to organize the Korean Communist Party...
were Korean Communists who never left the country but engaged in a struggle against the Japanese occupation. Many members of the domestic faction had spent time in Japanese military prisons as a result of their activities. - The Yanan factionYenan groupThe Yanan faction were a group of pro-China communists in the North Korean government after the division of Korea following World War II. The group were involved in a power struggle with pro-Soviet factions but Kim Il Sung was eventually able to defeat both factions and dominate the North Korean...
, led first by Mu Chong and then by Kim Tu-bongKim Tu-bongKim Tu-bong was a Korean linguist and politician. He formed the New People's Party. After the New People's Party merged into the Workers Party of North Korea in 1946, he became Chairman of the Workers Party. He was the first head of state of North Korea from 1948 to 1957...
and Choe Chang-ik, were those Korean exiles who had lived in China's ShaanxiShaanxi' is a province in the central part of Mainland China, and it includes portions of the Loess Plateau on the middle reaches of the Yellow River in addition to the Qinling Mountains across the southern part of this province...
province and joined the Communist Party of ChinaCommunist Party of ChinaThe Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China...
whose regional headquarters were at Yan'anYan'anYan'an , is a prefecture-level city in the Shanbei region of Shaanxi province in China, administering several counties, including Zhidan County , which served as the Chinese communist capital before the city of Yan'an proper took that role....
. They had formed their own party, the North-Chinese League for the Independence of Korea, and when they returned to North Korea from exile they formed the New People's Party which merged with the North Korean Bureau to form the Workers Party of North Korea. Many members of the Yanan faction had fought in the Chinese 8th and New 4th Armies and thus had close relations with Mao ZedongMao ZedongMao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
. - The Guerrilla faction, led by Kim Il-sungKim Il-sungKim Il-sung was a Korean communist politician who led the Democratic People's Republic of Korea from its founding in 1948 until his death in 1994. He held the posts of Prime Minister from 1948 to 1972 and President from 1972 to his death...
, was made up of former Korean guerillas who had been active in ManchuriaManchuriaManchuria is a historical name given to a large geographic region in northeast Asia. Depending on the definition of its extent, Manchuria usually falls entirely within the People's Republic of China, or is sometimes divided between China and Russia. The region is commonly referred to as Northeast...
after it was occupied by Japan in 1931. Many in this group ended up fleeing Manchuria, as their armed resistance was suppressed, and moved to the Soviet Union where many of them, including Kim, were drafted into the Red ArmyRed ArmyThe Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
.
Once the WPK was created there was a virtual parity between the four factions with the Yanan, Soviet and Domestic factions each having four representatives on the Politburo
Politburo
Politburo , literally "Political Bureau [of the Central Committee]," is the executive committee for a number of communist political parties.-Marxist-Leninist states:...
with the Guerrilla faction having three.
In the early years of the party Kim Il-sung was the acknowledged leader, but he did not yet have absolute power since it was necessary to balance off the interests of the various factions. To eliminate any threats to his position, he first moved against individual leaders who were potential rivals. He drove from power Alexei Ivanovich Hegay (also known as Ho Ka-ai), leader of the Soviet faction, first demoting him during the Korean War in 1951 and then using him as a scapegoat for slow repairs of a water reservoir bombed by the Americans to drive him from power (and to an alleged suicide) in 1953. In part, it was possible for Kim to do this because the intervention of "Chinese People's Volunteers" in the war reduced the influence of both the USSR and the Soviet faction and allowed Kim Il-sung the room he needed to dispose of his main rival.
Kim Il-sung also attacked the leadership of the Yanan faction. When the North Koreans were driven to the Chinese border, Kim Il-sung needed a scapegoat to explain the military disaster and blamed Mu Chong, a leader of the Yanan faction and also a leader of the North Korean military. Mu Chong and a number of other military leaders were expelled from the party and Mu was forced to return to China where he spent the rest of his life. Kim Il-sung also removed Pak Il-u, the Minister of the Interior and reputedly the personal representative of Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
.
The sacking of Hegay, Mu and Pak reduced the influence of the Chinese and Soviet factions, but Kim Il-sung could not yet launch an all out assault on these factions because he would risk the intervention of Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
and Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
when he was still dependent on their support.
Purge of the "Domestic faction"
As the Korean WarKorean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
drew to a close, he first moved against the Domestic faction. While the Soviet faction had the sponsorship of the Soviet Union and the Yanan faction was backed by China the Domestic faction had no external sponsor who would come to their aid and was therefore in the weakest position. With the end of the Korean War the usefulness of the Domestic faction in running guerilla and spy networks in South Korea came to an end. Former leaders of the Workers Party of South Korea were attacked at a December 1952 Central Committee meeting. In early 1953 rumours were spread that the "southerners" had been planning a coup. This led to the arrest and removal from power of Pak Hon-yong
Pak Hon-yong
Pak Hon-yong was a Korean independence activist, politician, philosopher and Communist activist. One of the main leaders of the Korean communist movement during Japan's colonial rule . his nickname was Ijung.During the Japanese occupation of Korea, he tried to organize the Korean Communist Party...
(who was foreign minister at the time) and Yi Sung Yop the minister of "state control" who was charged with "spying on behalf of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
".
In August 1953, following the signing of the armistice
Armistice
An armistice is a situation in a war where the warring parties agree to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, but may be just a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace...
that suspended the Korean War, Yi and eleven other leaders of the domestic faction were subjected to a show trial
Show trial
The term show trial is a pejorative description of a type of highly public trial in which there is a strong connotation that the judicial authorities have already determined the guilt of the defendant. The actual trial has as its only goal to present the accusation and the verdict to the public as...
on charges of planning a military coup and sentenced to death. In 1955, Pak Hon Yong, the former leader of the WPSK and deputy chairman of the WPK, was put on trial on charges of having been a US agent since 1939, sabotage, assassination, and planning a coup. He was sentenced to death, although it is unclear if he was shot immediately or if his execution occurred some time in 1956.
The trials of Yi and Pak were accompanied by the arrest of other members and activists of the former SWPK with defendants being executed or sent to forced labour in the countryside. The domestic faction was virtually wiped out, though a few individual members who had personally allied themselves to Kim Il-sung remained in positions of influence for several more years.
The "August Incident" and aftermath
Kim Il-sung sent out preliminary signals in late 1955 and early 1956 that he was preparing to move against the Yanan and Soviet factions. The Twentieth Party Congress of the Soviet Communist PartyCommunist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...
was a bombshell with Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
's Secret Speech
On the Personality Cult and its Consequences
On the Personality Cult and its Consequences was a report, critical of Joseph Stalin, made to the Twentieth Party Congress on February 25, 1956 by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. It is more commonly known as the Secret Speech or the Khrushchev Report...
denouncing Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
and the inauguration of destalinisation. Throughout the Soviet bloc domestic Communist parties inaugurated campaigns against personality cults
Cult of personality
A cult of personality arises when an individual uses mass media, propaganda, or other methods, to create an idealized and heroic public image, often through unquestioning flattery and praise. Cults of personality are usually associated with dictatorships...
and the general secretaries
General secretary
-International intergovernmental organizations:-International nongovernmental organizations:-Sports governing bodies:...
who modelled themselves after Stalin were deposed throughout Eastern Europe.
Kim Il-sung was summoned to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
for six weeks in the summer of 1956 in order to receive a dressing down from Khrushchev, who wished to bring North Korea in line with the new orthodoxy. During Kim Il-sung's absence Pak Chang Ok
Pak Chang Ok
Pak Chang Ok was a North Korean official and was General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea).Pak was a leader of the Soviet Korean faction of the party, with members being mainly ethnic Koreans born in Russia, after the suicide of their first leader, Alexei Ivanovich Hegay...
(the new leader of the Soviet faction after the suicide of Ho Ka Ai), Choe Chang Ik, and other leading members of the Yanan faction devised a plan to attack Kim Il-sung at the next plenum of the Central Committee and criticise him for not "correcting" his leadership methods, developing a personality cult, distorting the "Leninist principle of collective leadership" his "distortions of socialist legality" (i.e. using arbitrary arrest and executions) and use other Khrushchev-era criticisms of Stalinism
Stalinism
Stalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...
against Kim Il-sung's leadership.
Kim Il-sung became aware of the plan upon his return from Moscow and responded by delaying the plenum by almost a month and using the additional time to prepare by bribing and coercing Central Committee members and planning a stage-managed response. When the plenum finally opened on August 30 Choe Chang-ik made a speech attacking Kim Il-sung for concentrating the power of the party and the state in his own hands as well as criticising the party line on industrialisation which ignored widespread starvation among the North Korean people. Yun Kong Hum attacked Kim Il-sung for creating a "police regime". Kim Il-sung's supporters heckled and berated the speakers rendering them almost inaudible and destroying their ability to persuade members. Kim Il-sung's supporters accused the opposition of being "anti-Party" and moved to expel Yun from the party. Kim Il-sung, in response, neutralised the attack on him by promising to inaugurate changes and moderate the regime, promises which were never kept. The majority in the committee voted to support Kim Il-sung and also voted in favour of repressing the opposition expelling Choe and Pak from the Central Committee.
Several leaders of the Yunan faction fled to China to escape the purges that followed the August plenum while supporters of the Soviet faction and Yanan faction were rounded up. Though Kim Tu Bong, the leader of the Yanan faction and nominal President of North Korea was not directly involved in the attempt on Kim he was ultimately purged in 1958 accused of being the "mastermind" of the plot. Kim Tu Bong "disappeared" after his removal from power and likely was either executed or died in prison.
In September 1956 a joint Soviet-Chinese delegation went to Pyongyang to "instruct" Kim Il-sung to cease any purge and reinstate the leaders of the Yanan and Soviet factions. A second plenum of the Central Committee, held on September 23, 1956, officially pardoned the leaders of the August opposition attempt and rehabilitated them but in 1957 the purges resumed and by 1958 the Yanan faction had ceased to exist. Members of the Soviet faction, meanwhile, facing increased harassment, decided to return to the Soviet Union in increasing numbers. By 1961 the only faction left was Kim Il-sung's own guerrilla faction along with members who had joined the WPK under Kim Il-sung's leadership and were loyal to him. In the 1961 Central Committee there were only two members of the Soviet faction, three members of the Yanan faction and three members of the Domestic faction left out of a total Central Committee membership of 68. These individuals were personally loyal to Kim Il-sung and were trusted by him; however, by the late 1960s, even these individuals were almost all purged.
One likely reason for the failure of the Soviet and Yanan factions to depose Kim Il-sung was the nationalist view by younger members of the party who had joined since 1950 that the members of these factions were "foreigners" influenced by alien powers while Kim Il-sung was seen as a true Korean.
Sino-Soviet Split and North Korea
Until the 1960s the regime in the DPRK was seen as an orthodox Communist one-party state, with power residing in the Communist Party. All industry was nationalisedNationalization
Nationalisation, also spelled nationalization, is the process of taking an industry or assets into government ownership by a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to private assets, but may also mean assets owned by lower levels of government, such as municipalities, being...
and all agriculture was collectivised on the Soviet model, and the party controlled this command economy at every level. All other political organisation was suppressed and civil society
Civil society
Civil society is composed of the totality of many voluntary social relationships, civic and social organizations, and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society, as distinct from the force-backed structures of a state , the commercial institutions of the market, and private criminal...
was extinguished. A pervasive political police apparatus suppressed all dissent
Dissent
Dissent is a sentiment or philosophy of non-agreement or opposition to a prevailing idea or an entity...
. Even at this stage there was a personality cult of Kim Il-sung, but it was usually assumed in the west that the DPRK was a Soviet satellite like Poland
People's Republic of Poland
The People's Republic of Poland was the official name of Poland from 1952 to 1990. Although the Soviet Union took control of the country immediately after the liberation from Nazi Germany in 1944, the name of the state was not changed until eight years later...
or East Germany
German Democratic Republic
The German Democratic Republic , informally called East Germany by West Germany and other countries, was a socialist state established in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including East Berlin of the Allied-occupied capital city...
though, in reality, this had stopped being the case after 1956.
The Sino-Soviet split
Sino-Soviet split
In political science, the term Sino–Soviet split denotes the worsening of political and ideologic relations between the People's Republic of China and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics during the Cold War...
helped Kim Il-sung take the Workers' Party of Korea on an independent path between Moscow and Beijing. The party and Kim Il-sung in particular were wary of de-stalinization
De-Stalinization
De-Stalinization refers to the process of eliminating the cult of personality, Stalinist political system and the Gulag labour-camp system created by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Stalin was succeeded by a collective leadership after his death in March 1953...
and of Khrushchev's reforms. In the late 1950s, the DPRK began to increasingly emulate the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
(PRC) launching its own version of the Great Leap Forward
Great Leap Forward
The Great Leap Forward of the People's Republic of China was an economic and social campaign of the Communist Party of China , reflected in planning decisions from 1958 to 1961, which aimed to use China's vast population to rapidly transform the country from an agrarian economy into a modern...
calling it the Chollima movement. The press did not mention the Sino-Soviet split at first. In 1961, Kim Il-sung signed a treaty of friendship and mutual cooperation with Zhou Enlai
Zhou Enlai
Zhou Enlai was the first Premier of the People's Republic of China, serving from October 1949 until his death in January 1976...
and then proceeded to sign a similar treaty with the Soviet Union. After 1962 and particularly after the Twenty-Second CPSU Party Congress in which Soviet leaders criticised Chinese leaders, the WPK began to side openly with the PRC not only on issues such as the personality cult and anti-revisionism but also against Khrushchev's theory of peaceful coexistence
Peaceful coexistence
Peaceful coexistence was a theory developed and applied by the Soviet Union at various points during the Cold War in the context of its ostensibly Marxist–Leninist foreign policy and was adopted by Soviet-influenced "Communist states" that they could peacefully coexist with the capitalist bloc...
. Editorials began to appear in the press openly criticising the Soviet position and defending the Chinese and obliquely attacking Khrushchev. The WPK supported the PRC during its conflict
Sino-Indian War
The Sino-Indian War , also known as the Sino-Indian Border Conflict , was a war between China and India that occurred in 1962. A disputed Himalayan border was the main pretext for war, but other issues played a role. There had been a series of violent border incidents after the 1959 Tibetan...
with India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
in 1962 and denounced the USSR's "capitulation" in the Cuban missile crisis
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation among the Soviet Union, Cuba and the United States in October 1962, during the Cold War...
.
The Soviet Union responded by cutting off all aid to the DPRK, seriously damaging North Korea's industry and military capability. PRC did not have the resources to replace the Soviet aid, and after 1965 was embroiled in the chaos of the Cultural Revolution
Cultural Revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...
. Events in PRC shocked the WPK leadership and caused it to distance itself from PRC and criticise Mao's "dogmatism" and recklessness, even accusing the Chinese of adopting the "Trotskyist theory of permanent revolution
Permanent Revolution
Permanent revolution is a term within Marxist theory, established in usage by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels by at least 1850 but which has since become most closely associated with Leon Trotsky. The use of the term by different theorists is not identical...
", a serious heresy in the Communist world. The Chinese Red Guards
Red Guards (China)
Red Guards were a mass movement of civilians, mostly students and other young people in the People's Republic of China , who were mobilized by Mao Zedong in 1966 and 1967, during the Cultural Revolution.-Origins:...
began to attack Kim Il-sung and Korean domestic and foreign policy. After 1965, North Korea took a neutral stand in the Sino-Soviet conflict, backing away from its previous uncritical support of PRC.
Although Kim Il-sung's regime emulated some of the slogans of the Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
's Cultural Revolution
Cultural Revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...
, Kim Il-sung remained wary of Chinese domination, and never applied anything like the Cultural Revolution in North Korea. In the same year DPRK forces captured the U.S.S. Pueblo
USS Pueblo (AGER-2)
USS Pueblo is an American ELINT and SIGINT Banner-class technical research ship which was boarded and captured by North Korean forces on January 23, 1968, in what is known as the Pueblo incident or alternatively as the Pueblo crisis or the Pueblo affair. Occurring less than a week after President...
, an American spy ship, showing that Kim Il-sung was running his own version of the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, independent of Soviet or Chinese tutelage.
Juche and Kim Il-sung as supreme leader
After 1956, Kim Il-sung was no longer a Soviet puppet and the DPRK moved away from being a Soviet satellite or "people's democracy." Nor did he trust the Chinese due to their suspected support of the Yanan faction's move against Kim Il-sung. Rather, he pursued an independent policy and initiated his jucheJuche
Juche or Chuch'e is a Korean word usually translated as "self-reliance." In the Democratic People's Republic of Korea , "Juche" refers specifically to a political thesis of Kim Il-sung, the Juche Idea, that identifies the Korean masses as the masters of the country's development...
program of national self-reliance in order to diminish the influence of the USSR and China over domestic North Korean affairs. The program was officially launched in June 1966 (after the state visit of the Soviet Foreign Minister) as the program of national self-determination and Communist and Workers' Parties' non-interference. By the late 1960s, the North Korean media was hailing the juche ideology as being superior to Leninism and other foreign ideologies and "burning loyalty" to the "Great Leader" became a major ideological theme (the term "Great Leader" was first used in the early 1960s) and took the Stalinistic practice of the personality cult to new levels.
With the removal of the other factions, Kim Il-sung became the supreme leader of the DPRK. By 1960, Kim Il-sung had purged virtually all the members of the Yanan, Domestic and Soviet factions through show trials, intimidation, and encouraging Soviet Koreans to return to the USSR, leaving the party to be dominated by his guerrilla comrades as well as young technocrats who had joined the party after its founding and were loyal to Kim Il-sung.
In 1972 the DPRK adopted a new constitution, under which an executive presidency was created, and Kim Il-sung became President as well as the WPK's General Secretary. Thereafter Kim Il-sung's personality cult reached heights that made even Stalin and Mao appear modest by comparison. Kim Il-sung was credited with personal direction of every supposed achievement of the regime, his biography was rewritten to make him the founder and leader of the WPK from its inception, and a new ideology of Kim Il-sung's creation, Juche or self-reliance, replaced Marxism-Leninism
Marxism-Leninism
Marxism–Leninism is a communist ideology, officially based upon the theories of Marxism and Vladimir Lenin, that promotes the development and creation of a international communist society through the leadership of a vanguard party over a revolutionary socialist state that represents a dictatorship...
as the regime's official ideology. All other WPK leaders remained completely anonymous, although Kim Il-sung's power in fact depended on the control of the Korean People's Army
Korean People's Army
The Korean People's Army , also known as the Inmin Gun, are the military forces of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Kim Jong-il is the Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army and Chairman of the National Defence Commission...
and the security forces by his loyal agent, Defence Minister Oh Jin-wu. Kim Jong-il explains in Socialism of Our Country is Socialism of Our Style as the Embodiment of the Juche Idea, a speech made to the central committee
Central Committee
Central Committee was the common designation of a standing administrative body of communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, whether ruling or non-ruling in the twentieth century and of the surviving, mostly Trotskyist, states in the early twenty first. In such party organizations the...
of the WPK on December 27, 1990 the divorce with Marxism-Leninism. "We could not literally accept the Marxist theory which had been advanced on the premises of the socio-historic conditions of the developed European capitalist countries, or the Leninist theory presented in the situation of Russia where capitalism was developed to the second grade. We had had to find a solution to every problem arising in the revolution ... from the standpoint of Juche".
The practical effect of Juche was to seal the DPRK off from virtually all foreign trade, except to a limited extent with China and the Soviet Union. But the economic reforms of Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping was a Chinese politician, statesman, and diplomat. As leader of the Communist Party of China, Deng was a reformer who led China towards a market economy...
in China after 1978 meant that trade with the undeveloped centrally-planned economy of the DPRK held decreasing interest for China, while the fall of communism in the Soviet Union in 1991 completed the DPRK's isolation. This, added to the continuing high level of expenditure on armaments, led to a steadily mounting economic crisis from the 1980s onwards.
The rise of Kim Jong-il
Kim Jong-ilKim Jong-il
Kim Jong-il, also written as Kim Jong Il, birth name Yuri Irsenovich Kim born 16 February 1941 or 16 February 1942 , is the Supreme Leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea...
had been groomed to become his father's successor for a long time. In 1964 he was appointed Central Committee member, then promoted to Politburo member and designated successor to Kim Il-sung in 1974 by a Central Committee plenum. In 1980 the WPK Congress elevated Kim Jong-il to senior positions and publicized his status as heir apparent
Heir apparent
An heir apparent or heiress apparent is a person who is first in line of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting, except by a change in the rules of succession....
. Until then it seemed likely that Kim's successor would be either Oh Jin-wu or Prime Minister Kim Il (not related to Kim Il-sung). In fact it seems that Kim Il-sung had always planned that his son would succeed him, and had been advancing him within the Army (the real source of power in the DPRK) since 1974. Kim Il was removed from office in 1976 and died in 1984, and Oh remained loyal to the Kim family. Well before Kim Il-sung's death in 1994, Kim Jong-il had become the day-to-day ruler of the country, and had promoted his own followers to key positions in the Army. Kim Jong-il's accession was followed by a round of purges in the WPK, in which some of his father's old followers were removed from office.
Despite the almighty status and power of the WPK, it has not functioned normally since Kim Il-sung's death. A party congress has not been held since the sixth party congress in 1980. According to the Party Rules, a party congress is supposed to be held every five years. The plenum of the Central Committee has not been held since the 21st Plenum in December 1993. The plenum, which has the right to elect the General Secretary, was not held even when Kim Jong-il became the party's general secretary in October 1997. Instead Kim Jong-il was endorsed by both the Central Committee and the Central Military Commission on ground of petitions and letters from lower organizations. For the first time in the history of North Korea's Communist Party, a plenum also was not held before the first session of newly-elected SPAs. It is also suspected that Secretariat and Politburo meetings have not been held since Kim Il-sung's death (the last known Politburo meeting before 2010 was held in 1994). It is likely that not one organization within the party is fulfilling its decision-making function, and thus that the party is not working properly as a system.
The 2010 Party Conference
The Party was given new prominence starting from 2007–2008: in 2007 the Administration Department was re-established with Chang Song-taek as director, and in 2009 Choe Yong-rimChoe Yong-rim
Choe Yong-rim is the Premier of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea since May 2011 and Workers' Party of Korea central committee presidium member since September 2010., KCNA, 29 September 2010.Choe is described by the New York Times as a "KWP insider" and a...
was appointed chief secretary of the Pyongyang
Pyongyang
Pyongyang is the capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, commonly known as North Korea, and the largest city in the country. Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River and, according to preliminary results from the 2008 population census, has a population of 3,255,388. The city was...
Party Committee filling a 9-year vacancy.
On 26 June 2010 the Party Politburo called the 3rd Party Conference for early September; after an unexplained delay, the Conference was held on 28 September; it re-elected Kim Jong-il as Party General Secretary, renewed the Party Central Committee with Kim Jong-il's son Kim Jong-un as member, and adopted new Party Rules which eliminated the clause that a party congress must be convened every 5 years, increased the power of the Central Military Commission and inserted a praise to Kim Jong-il in the preface.
On 28 September 2010 a Central Committee plenum (the first after 17 years) was held as well, renewing central authorities and appointing Kim Jong-un a vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission.
On 6 June 2011 North Korean press publicized a Politburo enlarged meeting, the first of this kind since the 1980s. The meeting was almost entirely focused on Kim Jong-il's recent visit to the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
, adding further speculation on China's endorsement of Kim Jong-il's succession as well as signalling the DPRK's increasing interest for Chinese economic reforms.
Structure
As apparent from the history of the WPK, the formal structure of the party has little relevance to the actual system of government in the DPRK. In theory, the national party congress is the supreme party organ. The party congress approves reports of the party organs, adopts basic party policies and tactics, and elects members to the WPK Central CommitteeCentral Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea
The Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea is the leadership body of the Workers' Party of Korea. According to Party rules, the Central Committee directs the Party work between the Party Congresses...
and the Central Auditing Committee. In practice, the members of all these bodies are chosen by Kim Jong-il and his few trusted lieutenants, and in any case they exercise no real power. Technically, the WPK is a coequal member with two other parties in the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland
Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland
The Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland, formed on 22 July 1946, is a North Korean united front led by the Workers' Party of Korea. It was initially called the North Korean Fatherland United Democratic Front...
, but the WPK holds all but a very few seats in the government and all candidates run unopposed and are elected unanimously.
In September 1992, the WPK had 160 Central Committee members and 143 Central Committee alternate (candidate) members. The Central Committee meets at least once every six months, although no meeting at all was held between December 1993 and September 2010. Article 24 of the party rules stipulates that the Central Committee elects the General Secretary
General Secretary
The office of general secretary is staffed by the chief officer of:*The General Secretariat for Macedonia and Thrace, a government agency for the Greek regions of Macedonia and Thrace...
of the party, members of the Political Bureau Presidium (or the Standing Committee), members of the Political Bureau (or Politburo
Politburo
Politburo , literally "Political Bureau [of the Central Committee]," is the executive committee for a number of communist political parties.-Marxist-Leninist states:...
), secretaries, members of the Central Military Commission, and members of the Central Inspection Committee. A party congress was supposed to be convened every five years, but none has been held since the Sixth Party Congress of October 1980; in 2010 the Party Rules were amended deleting that clause.
As in most Soviet-style party states, membership of the WPK is essential for any DPRK citizen who aspires to a post of any seniority in any government, management, educational or cultural institution, since all these bodies act as "conveyor belts" for party rule over all aspects of DPRK life and effectively creates a nomenklatura
Nomenklatura
The nomenklatura were a category of people within the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries who held various key administrative positions in all spheres of those countries' activity: government, industry, agriculture, education, etc., whose positions were granted only with approval by the...
within society. All senior military officers must also be WPK members.
Since the 2010 3rd Party Conference, the party also has a Central Auditing Commission.
Party Congresses
- 1st Congress (Inaugural Congress), 28–30 August 1946.
- 2nd Congress, 27–30 March 1948.
- 3rd Congress, 23–29 April 1956.
- 4th Congress, 11–18 September 1961.
- 5th Congress, 2–13 November 1970.
- 6th Congress, 10–14 October 1980.
Party Conferences
- 1st Conference, 3–6 March 1958.
- 2nd Conference, 5–10 October 1966.
- 3rd Conference, 28 September 2010.
Members of the Presidium of the Politburo
- Kim Jong-ilKim Jong-ilKim Jong-il, also written as Kim Jong Il, birth name Yuri Irsenovich Kim born 16 February 1941 or 16 February 1942 , is the Supreme Leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea...
- the General Secretary of WPK - Kim Yong-namKim Yong-namKim Yong-nam is the current North Korean Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, a position held since 1998. He was elected a member of the presidium of the politburo of the central committee of the Workers' Party of Korea in 2010.He was born in the Central District, Heijo ,...
- Choe Yong-rimChoe Yong-rimChoe Yong-rim is the Premier of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea since May 2011 and Workers' Party of Korea central committee presidium member since September 2010., KCNA, 29 September 2010.Choe is described by the New York Times as a "KWP insider" and a...
- Jo Myong-RokJo Myong-RokJo Myong-rok was a member of the North Korean military. He held the North Korean military rank Chasu . In 2009, he was appointed First Vice-Chairman of the National Defense Commission, Director of the Korean People's Army General Political Bureau...
(† 6 November 2010) - Ri Yong-hoRi Yong-hoVice Marshal Ri Yong-ho is a North Korean military officer, and member of the central presidium of the Workers' Party of Korea since September 2010....
Members of the Politburo
- Kim Yong-chunKim Yong-ChunKim Yong-Chun is a leader of the North Korean military. He holds the North Korean military rank Chasu, is Vice Chairman of the National Defense Commission of North Korea, and is chief of the general staff of the Korean People's Army.-Reference:...
- Jon Pyong-ho
- Kim Kuk-thae
- Kim Ki-nam
- Choe Thae-bokChoe Thae-bokChoe Thae-bok is a North Korean politician. He is a member of the Politburo and the Secretariat of the Workers' Party of Korea, and has been Chairman of the Supreme People's Assembly since September 1998...
- Yang Hyong-sopYang Hyong-sopYang Hyong-sop is a North Korean politician. He was elected chairman of the Supreme People's Assembly in 1983, and served until 1998...
- Kang Sok-juKang Sok-juKang Sok-ju is a North Korean diplomat and politician.Having obtained a Bachelor's degree in French from the University of International Affairs in Pyongyang, Kang began a diplomatic career. His first significant position was as the Korean Workers' Party's deputy director for international...
- Pyon Yong-rip
- Ri Yong-mu
- Ju Sang-song
- Hong Sok-hyong
Alternate members in the Politburo
- Kim Yang-gon
- Kim Yong-ilKim Yong-ilKim Yong-il was the Premier of North Korea from April, 2007 to June 7, 2010. He was elected as Premier by the 5th session of the 11th Supreme People's Assembly in April 2007, replacing Pak Pong-ju...
- Pak To-chun
- Choe Ryong-hae
- Jang Song-thaek
- Ju Kyu-chang
- Ri Thae-nam
- Kim Rak-hui
- Thae Jong-su
- Kim Phyong-hae
- U Tong-chuk
- Kim Jong-gakKim Jong-gakKim Jong-gak is a member of the North Korea military. He is currently member of the Politburo of the Workers' Party of Korea and first vice-director of the General Political Bureau of the Korean People's Army...
- Pak Jong-sun
- Kim Chang-sop
- Mun Kyong-dok
WPK Secretariat of the Central Committee
- Kim Jong-ilKim Jong-ilKim Jong-il, also written as Kim Jong Il, birth name Yuri Irsenovich Kim born 16 February 1941 or 16 February 1942 , is the Supreme Leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea...
- Kim Ki-nam
- Choe Thae-bokChoe Thae-bokChoe Thae-bok is a North Korean politician. He is a member of the Politburo and the Secretariat of the Workers' Party of Korea, and has been Chairman of the Supreme People's Assembly since September 1998...
- Choe Ryong-hae
- Mun Kyong-dok
- Pak To-chun
- Kim Yong-ilKim Yong-ilKim Yong-il was the Premier of North Korea from April, 2007 to June 7, 2010. He was elected as Premier by the 5th session of the 11th Supreme People's Assembly in April 2007, replacing Pak Pong-ju...
- Kim Yang-gon
- Kim Phyong-hae
- Thae Jong-su
- Hong Sok-hyong
Members of the Politburo
- Kim Yong-juKim Yong-juKim Yong-ju is a North Korean politician and the younger brother of the country's former supreme leader Kim Il-sung. He currently holds a ceremonial position as Honorary Vice President of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, North Korea's parliament.-Biography:Kim Yong-ju was born to...
- an honorary deputy Chairman of the Presidium of the SPASupreme People's AssemblyThe Supreme People's Assembly is the unicameral parliament of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea , commonly known as North Korea...
of the DPRK - Pak Sep-tcheul - an honorary deputy Chairman of the Presidium of the SPA of the DPRK
- Han Sen-ren - Secretary of the Central Committee of WPK, Chairman of the Budget Commission of the SPA of the DPRK
- Kim Yong-namKim Yong-namKim Yong-nam is the current North Korean Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, a position held since 1998. He was elected a member of the presidium of the politburo of the central committee of the Workers' Party of Korea in 2010.He was born in the Central District, Heijo ,...
- Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly (SPA) of the DPRK - Ke Eun-tae - WPK Secretary of the Central Committee
- Ten Ben-ho - WPK Secretary of the Central Committee
Alternate members in the Politburo
- Choe Thae-bokChoe Thae-bokChoe Thae-bok is a North Korean politician. He is a member of the Politburo and the Secretariat of the Workers' Party of Korea, and has been Chairman of the Supreme People's Assembly since September 1998...
- President of the SPA of the North Korea, Secretary of the Central Committee of WPK - Choe Yong-rimChoe Yong-rimChoe Yong-rim is the Premier of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea since May 2011 and Workers' Party of Korea central committee presidium member since September 2010., KCNA, 29 September 2010.Choe is described by the New York Times as a "KWP insider" and a...
- Secretary of the Presidium of the SPA of the DPRK - Sek Hong-chen
- Yang Hyong-sopYang Hyong-sopYang Hyong-sop is a North Korean politician. He was elected chairman of the Supreme People's Assembly in 1983, and served until 1998...
- deputy Chairman of the Presidium of the SPA of the DPRK - Kim Tcheul-man
- Hon Sen-it
Secretariat of the Central Committee of WPK
- Kim Jong-il
- Ke Eun-tae
- Han Sen-ren
- Kim Guk-tae
- Kim Dune-rin
- Ten Ben-ho
- Choe Thae-bok
- Kim Ki-nam
- Ten Ha-tcheul
Symbol
The Party's symbol is an adaptation of the communist hammer and sickle, but with a traditional Korean calligraphy brush used for writing, symbolizing the "working intellectual".External links
Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the WPK- (English) Korean Central News Agency
Further reading
- From Stalin to Kim Il-sung: The Formation of North Korea 1945–1960 by Andrei LankovAndrei LankovAndrei Nikolaevich Lankov is a Russian scholar of Asia and a specialist in Korean studies. He completed his undergraduate and graduate studies at Leningrad State University in 1986 and 1989, respectively; He also attended Pyongyang's Kim Il-sung University in 1985...
, Hurst & Company, 2002. ISBN 1-85065-563-4 - "On the Building of the Workers' Party of Korea" by Kim Il Sung, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Pyongyang, softcover, 371 pages