North Korea under Kim Jong Il

Sung Chull Kim

Description

North Korea has long been a country of mystique, both provoking two nuclear crises and receiving aid from the international community and South Korea in more recent times. North Korea under Kim Jong Il examines how internal changes in North Korea since the early 1970s have structured that nation's apparently provocative nuclear diplomacy and recent economic reform measures. To understand these changes, author Sung Chull Kim uncovers relatively unknown internal aspects of the country under Kim Jong Il's leadership. His account, based on a thorough examination of primary sources, traces the origins, consolidation, and dissonance of North Korea's systemic identity. He reveals how official and unofficial developments in the domains of North Korea's politics, ideology, economics, and intellectual-cultural affairs have brought about system-wide duality, particularly between socialist principles embedded in the official ideology and economic institutions.

Tables and Figures
Abbreviations
Note on Romanization

Preface

1. Introduction: A Conceptual Frame for Systemic Changes

        Emergence of the Systemic Identity of North Korea
        Embodiment of the System: Functional Differentiation
        Systemic Dissonance and Major Conjunctures
        Requirement for Systemic Viability: Openness
        Tour of the Book

2. Kim Jong Il: The Political Man and His Leadership Character

        The Shaping of a Political Personality
        The Political Man's Road to Succession
        Active-Negative Leadership Character
        Implications for Systemic Changes

3. The Party's Strengthening Discipline and Weakening Efficiency

        Kim Il Sung's Legacy: From a Mass Party to an Institutionalized Party
        Kim Jong Il and Organizational Changes
        Party-Life Criticism as a Disciplinary Instrument
        The Declining Efficiency of the Party
        Dual Implications

4. Military-First Politics and Changes in Party-Military Relations

        Power Dynamics and Party-Military Relations
        Military-First Politics under Kim Jong Il
        Institutional Differentiation between the Party and the Military
        Relevance to Kim Jong Il's Management Style

5. Chuch'e in Transformation

        Chuch'e and Power Succession
        Socialism in Historical Development
        Estrangement from Marxism-Leninism
        On Capitalism and Opening Up
        Reflections on Chuch'e: With Special Reference to Systemic Identity

6. The Fluctuation of Economic Institutions and the Emergence of Entrepreneurship

        Institutions of Economic Management: Traditions and Their Dislocation
        Increased Local Latitude
        The Emergence of Private Entrepreneurs
        Informal Transition of Property Rights
        Implications for Systemic Dissonance

7. The Changing Roles of Intellectuals

        Socialist Transformation and Persecution of Intellectuals
        Socialist Mobilization and Changes in the Class Status of Intellectuals
        Kim Jong Il's Rise and His Mobilization of Intellectuals
        The Perceived "Internal Enemy" in Times of Decaying Socialism
        Facilitation of the "Skip-Over Strategy"

8. Conclusion: Dilemmas of Opening Up

        Special Features of Systemic Dissonance
        Defiance in 2002

Appendix
Notes
Bibligraphy
Index

Sujets

• Korea
• History of Asia
• Corée

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 16 février 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791480939
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

North Korea under Kim Jong Il
North Korea under Kim Jong Il
From Consolidation to Systemic Dissonance
Sung Chull Kim
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
2006 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kim, Sung Chull, 1956-
North Korea under Kim Jong Il : from consolidation to systemic dissonance / Sung Chull Kim. p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-7914-6927-9 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-7914-6927-1 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-7914-6928-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-7914-6928-X (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Korea (North)-Politics and government. 2. Kim, Ch ng-il, 1942-. 3. Korea (North)-Foreign relations. 4. National security-Korea (North). 5. Political leadership-Korea (North). I. Title.
JQ1729.5.A58K555 2007 951.9304 3-dc22
2006001295
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Tables and Figures
Abbreviations
Note on Romanization
Preface
1. Introduction: A Conceptual Frame for Systemic Changes
Emergence of the Systemic Identity of North Korea
Embodiment of the System: Functional Differentiation
Systemic Dissonance and Major Conjunctures
Requirement for Systemic Viability: Openness
Tour of the Book
2. Kim Jong Il: The Political Man and His Leadership Character
The Shaping of a Political Personality
The Political Man s Road to Succession
Active-Negative Leadership Character
Implications for Systemic Changes
3. The Party s Strengthening Discipline and Weakening Efficiency
Kim Il Sung s Legacy: From a Mass Party to an Institutionalized Party
Kim Jong Il and Organizational Changes
Party-Life Criticism as a Disciplinary Instrument
The Declining Efficiency of the Party
Dual Implications
4. Military-First Politics and Changes in Party-Military Relations
Power Dynamics and Party-Military Relations
Military-First Politics under Kim Jong Il
Institutional Differentiation between the Party and the Military
Relevance to Kim Jong Il s Management Style
5. Chuch e in Transformation
Chuch e and Power Succession
Socialism in Historical Development
Estrangement from Marxism-Leninism
On Capitalism and Opening Up
Reflections on Chuch e: With Special Reference to Systemic Identity
6. The Fluctuation of Economic Institutions and the Emergence of Entrepreneurship
Institutions of Economic Management: Traditions and Their Dislocation
Increased Local Latitude
The Emergence of Private Entrepreneurs
Informal Transition of Property Rights
Implications for Systemic Dissonance
7. The Changing Roles of Intellectuals
Socialist Transformation and Persecution of Intellectuals
Socialist Mobilization and Changes in the Class Status of Intellectuals
Kim Jong Il s Rise and His Mobilization of Intellectuals
The Perceived Internal Enemy in Times of Decaying Socialism
Facilitation of the Skip-Over Strategy
8. Conclusion: Dilemmas of Opening Up
Special Features of Systemic Dissonance
Defiance in 2002
Appendix
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Tables and Figures
Table 1.1 Trends of Oil Imports and Energy Consumption, 1980-2002
Table 1.2. Grain Imports and International Assistance, 1989-98
Figure 5.1. Development of Mode of Production: Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il s Scheme
Figure 5.2. Authority Relations in the Sociopolitical Organism
Table 6.1. Types of Property Rights Transitions
Table 8.1. Degradation of Systemic Identity
Abbreviations
ADB
Asian Development Bank
CC
Central Committee
CCP
Chinese Communist Party
CoCom
Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls
DPRK
Democratic People s Republic of Korea
IMF
International Monetary Fund
KAPF
Korean Artists Proletarian Federation
KCB
Korean Central Broadcast (of North Korea)
KCIA
Korea Central Intelligence Agency (of South Korea)
KCNA
Korea Central News Agency (of North Korea)
KEDO
Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization
KINU
Korea Institute for National Unification
KPA
Korean People s Army
LWR
light-water reactor
NDC
National Defense Commission
PRC
People s Republic of China
PSM
People s Safety Ministry
SCH
Safety Commanding Headquarters (in KPA)
SPA
Supreme People s Assembly
SSA
State Security Agency
SYL
Socialist Youth League
WPK
Workers Party of Korea
Note on Romanization
In the romanization of titles of Korean sources and names of Koreans, this book adopts the McCune-Reischauer system, with the exception of commonly used spellings such as Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. In the ordering of given and family names, I have given Korean and Japanese names with the family name first and then the given name: for example, Pak H n-y ng and Wada Haruki. However, names of Koreans who have written in English are cited in their Westernized form: for instance, Dae-Sook Suh and Byung Chul Koh.
Preface
It would be inappropriate to attribute North Korea s nuclear diplomacy renewed in October 2002-and supported by the missile test in July 2006-either to the dictatorship of Kim Jong Il or to American sanctions alone. With regard to North Korea, there exists a huge intellectual gap between understanding the country s diplomatic behavior patterns, on the one hand, and the individual leader factor or the international factor, on the other hand. The goal of this book is to fill this gap through a close examination of the transformation of the North Korean system under Kim Jong Il.
Change in a system is not a simple product of stimuli-responses; rather, it stems from a host of differentiations within the system and of interactions between the system and its environment. North Korea in the past three decades of Kim Jong Il s active engagement in politics, dating back to 1973, has experienced significant changes in its systemic identity, which had been based on the three reference points-socialist principles, anti-imperialism, and the anti-Japanese guerrilla tradition. The country s socialist principles mostly eroded, and both its diplomatic and its provocative approaches to the United States, the primary enemy, proved vain and deviated from the North s original identity. Military-first politics constituted Kim Jong Il s response to the situation, and it replaced the anti-Japanese guerrilla tradition that had worked in the consolidation of monolithic power centered on the father-to-son succession. The second nuclear crisis that erupted in 2002 must be a consequence of the dilemma that had been confronting the North Korean system, over which Kim Jong Il had exerted his personal influence to effect a transformation. Covering chiefly the three decades from 1973 to 2002, this book explores the submerged elements of the system.
This work was conceived four years ago, when I was a visiting professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2002-03. My experiences there were encouraging, and I would especially like to thank, of the many who helped me, Edward Friedman, Mark Beissinger, and Michael Barnett, who provided me with a warm environment in which I could concentrate on the research. Also, Edward Reed of the Center for East Asian Studies at the university facilitated my stay in various ways. Because my interest in socialist systems, including North Korea, dates back more than two decades, I am indebted to many teachers, colleagues, and friends. Chun In Young, Lee On-jook, and the late Rhee Yong Pil introduced me to critical approaches to Marxist and other social thought and international relations during my school days at Seoul National University. The scholarly leadership of the former presidents of the Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU), Lee Byoung-yong and Jeong Se-hyun, led me to a pool of information on North Korea and related issues. In writing the book, I have been grateful to old colleagues at KINU for their moral support and encouragement, and I apologize that space limitations prevent me from naming each of them.
In completing this manuscript, I have benefited from the critical comments and invaluable suggestions in detail made by my longtime teacher Dorothy J. Solinger and old friends such as Park Jong-chul, Lee Kyo-duk, Park Hyeong-jung, Kim Philo, and Chon Hyun-joon. T. J. Cheng read each of the chapters and made very useful comments for the clarification of my analysis. Dae-Sook Suh read the entire manuscript and then provided me with extremely valuable suggestions about how to tighten the argument and clarify various facts. Bruce Cumings s insights encouraged my writing on this topic. Several discussions with Wada Haruki enriched my ideas on the transformation of the North Korean system, especially the military-first politics. Talks with Kang In-duck, who worked in intelligence on North Korea and later served as minister in the Kim Dae-jung administration, provided me with information on the clandestine country in the early 1970s. In proposing the conceptual outlines of this work, Kenneth Bailey inspired me, particularly with regard to the notions of systems theory in general and of Niklas Luhmann in particular. My longtime teacher and friend David Easton not only taught me about systems theory but also shared with me his insights on this work. I am indebted to the International Society for Systems Sciences, where I have enjoyed the scholarly culture of creativity and learned from mentors such as James G. Miller and Ilya Prigogin