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대학생기자단/해외상생기자단

tors for NK's Regime Maintenance 2

Why Has North Korea Not Failed Yet? 2

 

Shinae Hong (shinae810@yahoo.com)

 

- Totalitarian Regime Type

 

What has kept North Korean regime from falling into popular revolt strongly correlates to its political regime type.  The DPRK is the totalitarian regime that is in stark contrast with partial or fully democratic nations, where, in the latter, the independent social groups could operate as a collective political rival. In totalitarian system, however, typically, the central government mobilizes the population to support the ideology of the state that could further inhibit the political opposition. Dire economic conditions and impending famine that subject the population to wide-scale starvation do not have any coercive effect on regime security as long as the regime continues to serve the interest of co-opt elites and defeat domestic dissent. Typically, Totalitarian systems are able to remain stable due largely to its abilities to: control information that it often used to direct agendas to benefit the locus of the regime: utilize ideology and personality cult, using it as a means to legitimize the interests of the leader and build popular support from their social components to follow the ideology of the state; to limit the basis or scale of any anti-regime activity by making people not to trust each other and preventing them from developing social network with one another.[1]  

 

               In such a system, the fear of those in power losing control over the populace is what drives the tightly held central government because “the totalitarian system produces a fabric so closely woven that if one strand breaks, the entire system will unravel sooner or later.”[2] The overly centralized The North Korean Woker’s Party utilizes the monolithic ideology known as “The 10 Point Principle” to justify the leader’s hold on power and direct popular interest to the support of the locus of the regime.[3]  The 10 Point Principle overrides the influence of the official State Constitution and serves as the “Ten Commandments” of all North Koreans’ political behavior.

 

The 10 Point Principle

1)      All society must be dyed with Kim Il-Sung’s revolutionary ideology,

2)      Kim Il- Sung must be upheld with unswerving loyalty,

3)      Kim Il-Sung’s authority must be made absolute,

4)      Kim Il-Sung’s revolutionary thought must be regarded as the people’s belief, and his instructions are their creed,

5)      The principle of unconditional loyalty must be observed in carrying out Kim Il-Sung’s instruction.

6)      The Party’s ideological unit and revolutionary solidarity, with Kim Il-Sung at the center, must be strengthened.

7)      Party members must emulate Kim Il-Sung and equip themselves with his Communist personality and revolutionary working methods.

8)      Party members must retain his political confidence in them with loyalty,

9)      The entire Party, nation and armed forces must establish strict discipline to behave uniformly under the monolithic leadership of Kim Il-Sung, and

10)  The revolutionary task initiated by Kim Il-Sung must be inherited and perfected generation after generation. (This principle, which in fact reigns over the constitution, is regarded as the most important norm contributing to the monolithic leadership of the Suryoung).[4]  

 

The 10 Point Principle emphasizes the robust idea of political loyalty to Kim Il-Sung and the rule of Kim Il-Sung governs entire system of North Korea. Regime legitimacy is built upon the personality cult of Kim Il-Sung. By the same token, the personality cult based regime legitimacy weakens the position of other potential political opponent. The central government does not tolerate private behavior inconsistent with official state ideology.  In practice, the North Korean government restricts free discussion and criticism against the government’s position by means of a self-monitoring system.[5]  Consequently, organized political opposition groups, or any manifestations of an independent civil society do not exist. Life in Pyongyang, is undeniably well politicized and regimented.  Citizens of North Korea are never allowed to have the simple freedom to make their own decisions and do not have access to the outside world.[6]  Most North Koreans living outside of Pyongyang have no conception of what daily life is like within the capital city because ‘travel certificates’ are required to enter the capital.  With exception of senior cadres and favored academics and artists, certificates are tightly controlled documents.[7] 

 

By often using these harsh measures, the political control in the totalitarian state appears to remain firmly in the hand of the Kim Jong Il regime. Ruthless public punishment for political dissent also inhibits North Koreans from forming a civil group against the government. Capital punishment and confiscation of assets are often used for “crimes against the government”, which might include attempted defection, slander of the Party or State, or listening to foreign broadcasts.[8] 



[1] Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism. Harvest Book. San Diego 1976.

[2] Kornai, János. The socialist system: the political economy of communism, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. 1992.

[3]See Federica M. Bunge and Andrea Matles Savada (eds). North Korea a Country Study. Library of Congress. Federal Research Division. DC.1994.

[4] “ A Handbook on North Korea” pp16-17.

[5] The government of North Korea allocates people the apartment based upon their work. North Koreans live there until they are reassigned to a different work unit. Hence, North Koreans inevitably have to live close to one another that create psychological monitor system within a community they belong. See “North Korea: The Paranoid Peninsula”pp.12-15.

[6] Ibid. pp.13.

[7] Ibid. pp.14.

[8] Kay Seok, “Put Human Rights First in North Korea,” Human Rights Watch, Sep.11,2004, The Observer press.