If you’re wondering why this is not labelled a day, it’s because reading week is a week long break that allows students to catch up on work and, theoretically, rest. Usually I wouldn’t even bother with a post for these, as I don’t believe I have ever written one in the past, but this time is a special case. This reading week I did get caught up on stuff, one of which was watching an online lecture for my East Asian Politics class. It is special because this was the first lecture for our North Korea unit. Yes, we talked about the DPRK in the last lecture but that was just Korean history in general. This lecture was about the Political Institution of the DPRK. Now I know that sounds boring but it’s really not. I came out of the lecture quite confused and I hope people here can help.

Side note: the DPRK is referred to as “North Korea” throughout all my lectures so it will be called that in these posts. If it is called “the DPRK” know that that is my own addition.

For every lecture we have to read an article before class, as the lecture material is based on whatever was assigned. This lecture was on this article: “The Evolution of the North Korean Socio-Political System 1945-1994” by Balázs Szalontai.

We began with setting the stage, is North Korea just a regular authoritarian regime? It has survived despite the blockade and growing tensions over its ICBMs and nuclear technology. It is a state that has mixed socialism, nationalism, and Confucianism. The ruling elites in the DPRK are different from China’s, China emphasizes the party as a leading role in society and the state. Fascism sees society as an organic core and the state as being the dominant position within society. The DPRK is different from fascism and China in that it emphasizes the leader over the party and state. The leader is like a god (yes, that was said in the lecture).

This pivots into decolonization and Kim Il Sung’s rise to power. August 8th 1945, the Soviet Union declares war on Japan, Manchukuo and others retreat. August 21st, the USSR was already occupying half of North Korea, by August 25th Pyongyang was theirs. The 38th parallel was drawn, with the Soviets occupying the north and the US military government occupying the South. Both powers agree to divide the peninsula along this arbitrary line, but did not have actual plans on the future of the peninsula as both had very different attitudes. The US considered Korea part of the Japanese empire and utilized the Japanese government to ensure the status quo remained in the South. The USSR viewed Korea as a colony that needed liberating rather than an enemy in war. They reached out to Koreans who resisted Japan and grassroots organizations that sprung up in regions to establish a new nation. The Soviets wanted a soviet friendly ally, not a satellite (unlike in Eastern Europe).

People’s Committees were created and both Nationalists and Socialists were encouraged to join. They were voluntary organizations in every region, of equal proportion. Post-liberation of 1945, the North Korean communists begin to establish a government under the guidance of the USSR. Many of the Soviets that were in the North were Korean themselves, most of the were members of the 88th Brigade (Northeast anti-Japanese united army). These Korean members were assigned as deputy commanders, advisors, regional defence officials, police and security commands of cities and provinces, and provided translation services. This was done to strengthen influence and maintain order. Kim Il Sung was part of the 88th brigade and was also a deputy commander.

So those organizations mentioned earlier would form the Joseon Worker’s Committee. This committee was separate from the Chinese and it became foundational to expanding political influence in North Korea. The foundation of the North Korean Workers’ Party was created 1945-6. It integrated other parties and social groups into a united front organization. On august 28th 1946, the North Korean Communist Party and New People’s Party merged together to form the NKWP. In 1948 the peninsula was divided by two different governments, the Republic of Korea was established on August 15th while the DPRK formed September 9th. This frustrated integration efforts.

Next we get to the purges. First was the purge of the Southern Faction of 1953. The Korean Workers’ Party was originally a coalition of communist groups. In 1953 the general secretary of the South was exiled and would join the workers party of the North. South Korean members were arrested and purged as thy were suspected of being US spies. Kim Il Sung was criticized for the failure of the Korean War so he needed a scapegoat, thus the Southern faction was blamed. In 1956 the Soviet and China factions would also be purged to get rid of rivalry and preserve the personality cult around Kim Il Sung. During the Sino-Soviet conflict the KWP refused to de-Stalinize (I think?) and Kim Il Sung opposed collective leadership or coexistence between capitalists and socialists. During the conflict the KMP remained neutral and as a result they created Juche ideology in 1946. It means subject ideology. The goal now was self determination.

Reorganization of the party happens with the Party Central Committee Chairman being replaced with the Central Committee General Secretary. Kim Il Sung would become the General Secretary in 1966. During the 15th General assembly the unique Juche ideology would be emphasized, and this unique ideology system is the ideology of the leader. In 1967 the Kapsan Operation Committee (co-founded by Kim Il Sung) was purged and destroyed. Kim Il Sung’s anti-Japanese guerrilla war was seen as the sole legitimate struggle. Kim Jong Il would succeed Kim Il Sung in 1994, this succession process took twenty years as it started in the 70s. This gave Kim Jong Il time to stabilize his rule both in the party and society.

This is the part that had me fucked up: the Sǒngbun System. The solidification of rule was not just informed by the purges, but also by this population classification system. The Sǒngbun System came into effect in august of 1957 after the collectivization of agriculture and the nationalization of small private enterprises. This system was not to promote change, but to preserve structural inequality and hierarchy. It is based on political, social, and economic background of individuals. It is also based on your ancestors, if they messed up that also applies to you. There are three groups: core, wavering, and hostile. Then these three classes are divided further between special class, core class, basic masses, complex class, and hostile class. The special class is Kim Il Sung’s relatives and surviving guerrillas; the core class is loyal cadres of war and martyrs; the basic masses are ordinary workers, peasants, regular party members and lower ranked officials; the complex class consists of former intellectuals, small businessmen, and relatives of South Koreans; the hostile class is capitalists, former landowners, pro-Japanese and pro-USA collaborators, first party members, and ex-convicts.

Descendent of the complex and hostile classes are faced with major restriction and discrimination in education, housing, and employment. This was then compared to the Joseon dynasty due to the emphasis on hierarchy. It has to be said that this Sǒngbun system is different from Confucian tradition, the caste system, and race-based system. It is different because it can be arbitrarily changed by the state and is secretly managed, meaning that nobody knows their own status. If you are in a lower class then you cannot participate in voluntary or mandatory organizations. The Sǒngbun system was completed in 1970, along side the purges and Juche ideology; all these factors contributed to the stabilizing of the succession process. But I guess after the collapse of the USSR there is a bit of destabilization.

So Kim Jong Il’s succession began in the 70s and was elected as such in 1974. The 10 principles were mentioned but not listed, it was described as absolute loyalty and obedience to Kim Il Sung. After he died the party was weakened for a bit, but Kim Jong Il comes in with his military first policy. So at this point my professor starts to talk about party congress and how it had not been held for 36 years until 2016. The Central Committee General Meeting is supposed to be held every 6 months but was cancelled because Kim Jong Il did not trust the party, he only trusted the people’s army. Marxist-Leninism was the leading ideology, but an emphasis on Juche post-USSR collapse. Now the DPRK advocates a military first policy, so the military is the main force of Socialist construction.

Because of this the Central party was replaced with the National Defence Commission as the centre of state affairs. The Military commander is superior to the political commissioner of the military and manager of the organs, and enterprises were superior to the party secretary. Is this confusing? It is for me! Anyway there was a process of decentralization of state affairs, mainly in the lower levels units, this was due to the reorganization of the system. The economic line saw market expansion, utilization, relations with the South, and expansion of trade was tolerated and managed.

When Kim Jong Un becomes the first secretary and strengthens the party. At the 7th party convention in 2026 the party Chairman is reestablished as the alternative for the party 1st secretary. So now Kim Jong Un is the chairman and is seen as returning to the Kim Il Sung Era. The grand strategy for regime security is in response to internal and external challenges. Kim Jong Il’s rule was seen as practical and fairly flexible, while Kim Jong Un’s rule was and is dogmatic, hardlined, and rigid.

So that was the lecture. But I have one more thing to talk about. Since I have been struggling this semester and the work load has piled up too much, I decided to drop my research course. It is not because it is difficult, because I was getting the hang of things with both the guidance from Star and my professor. The next assignment due was the literature review which I was stressed about but not too much, but there is just too much work from my other classes plus the weirdness that comes from my work placement, that I had to make a choice: risk the grades of all my classes or drop this one to lighten the load and stay stable. I had to drop it or else I would’ve gone crazy. Will I get a refund? No, that time has swiftly passed, but I’m not pressed about that. I will still graduate next year, relatively on time (I was unable to take three courses in the spring so I have to take another spring semester in 2026, just an extra 2-3 months longer than I initially thought).

I will just have to take a methods course during my Masters, which is fine since I got a decent taste and I have those books that Star recommended. The only thing I worry about regarding my masters is my supervisor, 2 out of the 3 at the Uni I have to go to, that are related to my topic, had really REALLY bad takes on the Hunka situation (Nazi collaborator who was applauded in the Canadian Parliament), and the last one I have little info on. I am willing to bite the bullet and stomach being one of their students, but man this place sucks. If I could guarantee full funding from an out of province/country university then I would take it but I have no idea if I can do that. We’ll see, I do have a year to figure it out.