Dear Comrade the Leader, Episode 333
Gaiden, changes in the political landscape of the Korean Peninsula centered on the former North Korean region after Kim Jeong-hwan resigned as general secretary
introduction
As of the date this report was written, in October 2018, about two years ago, General Secretary Kim Jeong-hwan, who had had a profound influence on the history of exchanges between North and South Korea and the situation in East Asia, retired.
Therefore, at this point in time when the actual unification of the two systems is getting closer day by day, the observation of the political landscape change and dynamics of the post-Kim Jeong-hwan system, the Hyun Young-suk system, and the former Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (the present northern administration) is the government under the current situation. It is an indispensable consideration for (the current South administration).
This report describes the political changes in the two regimes, domestic and foreign situations, and future predictions that have occurred in the two years since Kim Jung-hwan’s resignation as general secretary, focusing on party politics that started in North Korea.
In addition, the main significance is to speculate on the results of the 2nd Supreme People’s Assembly election and its expected impact.
Iron man voluntarily renounces divinity.
When it was announced that the first free democratic elections would be held in North Korea in 2015, just five years from the present time, that is, 2020, it is truly embarrassing not only for this researcher but also for most South Koreans, that is, the South Korean people and the government. it couldn’t be
Due to the victory in the North Manchurian War in 2014, Kim Jeong-hwan and Kim Jong-hwan were truly revered as gods in the North regardless of their will, and anyone can see the ‘god’ called General Kim and Joseon, a religious group that supports the god. Because it seemed clear that the Labor Party’s one-party, one-man dictatorship would last forever.
In the past and now, even in democratic countries, there are few catchphrases that stimulate the original worship of the subordinated classes as much as ‘a conquering monarch who defeated foreign powers and expanded our nation’s territory’. This is even more so in the case of the North, which is active within the institutional political sphere.
Moreover, unlike his father Kim Il-sung or half-brother Kim Jong-il, who attempted such deification but failed and is now treated as a rogue at the party level, General Secretary Kim Jung-hwan’s halo of ‘victory leader’ was a firm truth that can be verified anywhere in and outside North Korea. .
Until then, the sky would not have fallen from the perspective of a small number of supporters of absorption and unification in the South, led by the progressive ruling party, who did not give up hope that the North would one day collapse on its own due to the corruption of the leadership and its own contradictions that are common in dictatorship countries. it would not have been possible
Korea’s liberal political critics and scholars at the time gave a cynical reaction to the victory, saying, ‘The victory of the nation, the permanent defeat of democracy’. Let’s seek practical unification in a direction that makes progress as much as possible.”
However, immediately after that, as we all still remember, Kim Jung-hwan, the ‘comrades who came down from heaven and earth on a white horse on a white horse,’ Kim Jeong-hwan, gave up on his ‘divineity’.
In fact, five years later, there are still all sorts of speculations about why he chose such a century in a situation where stable life in power was guaranteed. Since it deviates from the point of this report, the description is omitted.
In any case, at a time when there was even talk of ‘I have an incurable disease and my life is short, so I am retiring to organize my life’, then General Secretary Kim held a press conference to acknowledge the invasion of South Korea and rebounded the political momentum thus gained by holding the first free election.
However, even with Kim Jung-hwan, the “god,” how did the members of the Workers’ Party of Korea, who can be called “priests” who serve the god, accept the sudden end of the one-party dictatorship that had lasted for 60 years?
Even now, four years after the declaration of the gradual reunification through one country, two systems, the reality is that the administrations of the two Koreas still lack each other in sharing secrets. It is a pity that we have no choice but to go through the information.
However, as detailed information will be given at the end of this report, the researcher was fortunate enough to meet some informant who was well versed in the internal affairs of the North Korean party and was able to obtain information on the situation at the time.
According to the source, surprisingly (if you dare to compare it to religion), there was little opposition to the sudden introduction of a democratic system among the members of the Standing Committee, department heads, and generals, who are the core of the Workers’ Party of Korea, which can be compared to bishops and cardinals. , on the contrary, it was heard that the opposition to the introduction of the democratic system was even stronger among ordinary priests and senior party members at the director level.
-Since the superiors have already enjoyed all the powers they would enjoy under the dictatorship, it is enough to retire to the back room and enjoy the rest of their lives while being treated as the founders of a unified country. It was a natural reaction because it was a warning to those who are relatively young and who would not have had little greed to enjoy vested interests while serving as the top people in the country where the rising sun is rising now that they should play the role of public servants rather than reigning over the people in the future.
(Excerpt from an interview with an informant)
However, the fact that there were no complaints, at least on the surface, despite such a sudden shock at the level of heaven and earth, is also evidence of what kind of status Kim occupied in the North inside, that is, to the Party members and the people right after the victory.
-The General Secretary Kim Jung-hwan ‘taught’ to complete the introduction of a democratic system and unification, so it should be done.
-Then, in a republic that is changing in the future, or furthermore, in a reunified country, how can I preserve or possibly increase my current power and status?
… … It was as if the fiery task of such a task had fallen to the members of the vested interests of the former North Korean regime, which was represented by the Workers’ Party of Korea.
And the researcher speculates that this psychology has become the basis of the political changes over the past four years, which will be described in earnest from below.
2. The overwhelming position of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the advancement of former Hakchongryon graduates, but at the same time, the ever-growing extremist nationalism, pro-conglomerate tendencies,
When it comes to North Korea’s democracy, or more precisely, attempts at regime change, the Hakchhongryon incident in the early 2000s cannot be left out.
At the time, this incident that caused the ‘request for expression of the position of Democratic Party leader Noh Yun-hyeon on Hakchongryun refugees’ in South Korea at that time also caused the North Korean people to collapse communism – introduction of democracy in an unprepared state – side effects and the collapse of the Soviet Union with a return to dictatorship. After that, it left only the failure of experiencing compression in three or four years at best, following the precedent that Russia had followed over the past 10 years.
And the free elections held in 2015, when the majority of people still remember the incompetence and failure of the Hakchongryon just 10 years ago, were practically only a slight incontinence to the one-party dictatorship of the Workers’ Party, and in reality the result was It was also the intention of General Secretary Kim himself to some extent to avoid sudden changes.
However, despite this, the prejudice or preconceived notion that many South Koreans still had toward the North – which is somewhat demeaning – the kids in the upper neighbourhood, like in the 80s, are Kim Jung-hwan’s kingdom, and neither know nor want democracy or anything like that. In contrast, the entry of the former Hakchongryon forces into the floor is one of the most noteworthy points in the 2015 election.
The Democratic Socialist Party of Korea (DPRK), a political party formed 10 years ago by the former Hakchongryon movement, who had been growing their power underground while desperate for their failures, finally secured influence in the institutional political sphere after the first free elections were held. ), the emergence of the Democratic Party for short.
As if proving that the voting tendency of the North side is no exception to the voting tendency that ‘city workers in their 20s and highly educated city workers are generally progressive,’ the Democratic Party of Korea is Through active exchanges and contacts with (that is, the South side), they succeeded in entering the parliament based on their main support for Gaeseong, where the general public had a strong desire for suffrage.
In addition, the constitution of the party stipulates that ‘based on the separation of powers and representative democracy, we guarantee the people’s wide political participation, and we walk the middle path between social democracy and social liberalism’. As it is also a party supported by it, it can be said that even at this point in time, it can be said to be the ‘North Korean party that receives the most support from the South Korean people’.
Also, in a sense that the majority of the members, including the delegates, were members of the former Hakchon-ryon movement who were still alive at that time, that is, ‘democratic fighters’, in a sense, I can’t help but feel déjà vu with the current Korean administration and the ruling party, elected in 2017. .
Perhaps that is why, although the current president and the ruling party were mostly informal in the early days of the administration, remarks expressing their liking for them were frequently published in the media.
Even progressive-leaning newspapers, including ‘The People’, insisted that the South should actively support the decline of the Workers’ Party of Korea and their advance in order to achieve true unification and ‘liberation of North Korea’. They also blatantly exported reports.
However, the stance the Minsa Party showed during the five years after the election and, as was evident in the North Korean opinion polls, revealed that some of the secretive expectations of some of the South’s progressive forces were in vain.
From the beginning of their election, the Minsa Party made clear its stance of ‘to cooperate with the Workers’ Party of Korea in the grand victory of the gradual establishment of democracy in the republic’, and consistently strengthened the Workers’ Party of Korea in the process of constitutional enactment following the agreement on the unification method. It was a disappointment to the progressive powers in the south, such as the Korean People’s Party.
In fact, this is close to the fundamental limit of the Democratic Party, no, the power that advocates democracy in the former North Korea before political engineering issues such as the number of seats or public opinion. This is because the ‘comrade leader’ Kim Jeong-hwan voluntarily gave up his power, not because he obtained it on his own.
To put it bluntly, it is a misjudgment made by the South Korean activist, who gained the people’s suffrage in a militant way to drive out the new military presidents, put them in a courtroom, and receive a death sentence, and the political forces that succeeded them, including the current ruling party, trying to apply the same rules to the North. can do.
-It’s as if Kim Jung-hwan brought his democracy. If you deny or criticize Kim Jeong-hwan, would it be said that it is a contradiction that can only occur because it is self-sufficient? Thanks to this, the person concerned is living a free retirement life, free from a sting in the back of the head, unlike the new military presidents of Korea after retirement. … .
(Excerpt from an interview with an informant)
However, despite this, some scholars and journalists, including the institute’s informants, are putting their hopes in the Minsadang.
The Minsa Party’s decision to ‘acknowledge Kim Jung-hwan’s contribution to the introduction of democracy in North Korea’ is, conversely, a proof that they are developing sufficient authority as a national political party, breaking away from the immaturity and impatience of the previous Hakchongryon days.
Criticism of Kim Jung-hwan may be refreshing in the short term only from the perspective of the progressives in Korea, but Vito and his wife, who are the figures who make and symbolize the present North Korean society from start to finish, are engrossed in ideology and depend on foreign (south) forces for democracy. It is nothing more than a repetition of past mistakes that failed to achieve the introduction.
In addition, from the director of the Anti-Corruption Investigation Bureau Ri Kyung-soo, who has emerged as a saint of the Workers’ Party of Korea by assisting General Secretary Hyun Young-sook, he has been involved in the Hakchongryon for a while, and now he has expressed his position that ‘we will cooperate with the People’s Party to respond well in a time of change’. It is still too early to have a pessimistic view on the establishment of democracy in the former North Korea region, given that it is acting as a central point to lead my forward-looking forces.
Isn’t there a common saying, ‘Even a thousand miles starts with one step’ and ‘You can’t fill a bowl of rice’, regardless of the North and the South?
Rather, what the researcher would like to point out as the most worrying point in the current political landscape of the former North Korean region is the right-wing tendency of the ‘National First Party’, which has emerged as the primary opposition party, overtaking the second opposition Minsa Party.
As mentioned in this report, even in this 21st century, the age of advanced science and globalism, the right-wing forces based on nationalism and chauvinism are still, or rather, expanding their international influence day by day.
In addition, the ideological contribution of nationalism from its roots to the fruits of the war and victory in North Manchuria as a result of the planned buffering of North Korea in Yanbian Autonomous Prefecture for 20 years under the leadership of General Secretary Kim Jeong-hwan is inevitable. has acknowledged this.
The problem is that the nationalism sparked in this way was a political resource that made Yanbian’s incorporation into North Korea, the almost adventurous free elections held by General Secretary Kim Jeong-hwan immediately after, and the policy of promoting inter-Korean unification, at the same time, a significant side effect to the South and the North and the entire Korean Peninsula immediately after that. that left behind
And the researcher can boldly assert that the entry into the floor of the Supreme People’s Assembly of the National First Party (hereafter referred to as the National Party) and establishment of the position of the No.
-Dear patriotic people! Our true patriotic national party, the National First Party, has made ‘expulsion of foreign workers’ as the first pledge of the election for representatives of this time, ‘Let’s cooperate with the Workers’ Party of Korea to follow the instructions of the General Secretary in a more unconcerned way’!
Although there are many words about the predecessors and leadership of these stinky, extreme nationalist elements of the neo-Juche ideology, the current orthodoxy is that the members of the former Juche system who were active at the same time as the Hakchongryon movement but gave up resistance and were incorporated into the Workers’ Party system. It is appropriate to view that
However, more consideration is needed on the composition of the general party members, not the leadership. According to various analyzes and opinion polls, the class that supports the National First Party’s advance is youth unemployment, which has become common in all advanced countries in the 21st century, economic difficulties due to polarization, etc. The current orthodoxy is that it is an Internet-based youthful social dissatisfaction force that has grown extreme and cynical because of this.
Ironically, this has already been shown in South Korean and Korean politics, and this researcher proposes to conduct a separate, in-depth study on the tendencies and classifications of these Internet communities and their influence on institutional politics.
Returning to the original topic, there is one more point to note besides the entry of the Nationalist Party into the House of Representatives. The Nationalist Party, which shares the same nationalist tendencies, but has a significant difference in regional basis, coincidentally with the Nationalist Party, which is unexpectedly treated as the same on some agendas. It should be noted that a minority party that clashes quite often.
They are a minority party called ‘Descendants of Goguryeo’, a regional-based political party founded by Governor Lee Seop-gi of Yanbian based in Yanbian Autonomous Prefecture, which was incorporated into North Korean society after the North Manchurian War.
#writer’s words
Originally, I was going to finish this week until the end of this episode, but… … It’s a hot day, so my body sags and management vacation overlaps, so when I write several episodes at once, it’s not fun at all and I don’t like it.
If it had been the main series, I would have given priority to the promise with the readers and kept the series 5 days a week even if I was not satisfied with the quality.
The remaining episodes of this episode, the change in North Korea’s political landscape, are likely to be uploaded next week, and I’m currently writing the Kim Jung-hwan Wiki-style side story that many people have requested, so I hope for your understanding… … .
Recommendations and comments are always the driving force of the author!!!