[칼럼] Korea Story 10 - Foreign Affairs and National Security 2 by Atty Jeong-kee Kim

(NewsKorea=Seoul) Digital News Team = Korea Story  10 - <Foreign Affairs and National Security 2  by Atty Jeong-kee Kim>

● North Korea’s One-Man Leadership System and State Social Control System

North Korea's one-man leadership system has persisted through three generations: Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, and Kim Jong-un. Many experts in South Korea and the West predicted that North Korea would experience significant political and social turmoil upon the deaths of Kim Il-sung in 1994 and Kim Jong-il in 2011, potentially leading to immediate intervention by China and the US. Contrary to these predictions, both Kim Jong-il and Kim Jong-un successfully assumed power without any difficulty, and it is expected that future successions will follow suit.

Why do such speculative analyses and predictions repeatedly fail? The fundamental reason is that both the general public and self-proclaimed North Korea experts have a limited understanding and insight into the true nature of the North Korean regime. Ignorant media outlets contribute to the problem by spreading these misguided views. Without recognizing that the North Korean regime functions as a form of communist monarchy, it is impossible to approach the situation with proper perspective. There are many reasons why North Korea’s one-man leadership system is unlikely to collapse easily, contrary to our hopes.

First, North Korea is governed by the legitimacy of the "Baekdu bloodline" and China's approval. 

When we look at North Korea as a dynastic country, we see the Joseon Dynasty. As was the case with the Joseon Dynasty, the most important thing for North Korea as a dynastic state is legitimacy. When Kim Il-sung founded North Korea, he systematically purged those who had been his allies during the country's establishment, excluding a few partisans. He removed Southern Workers' Party leader Pak Heon-young, the Chinese Yan'an faction leaders Kim Du-bong and Mu Jeong, and the Soviet faction leader Heo Gai.

Following these purges, Kim Il-sung solidified the one-man leadership system, with the Juche ideology and the deification of the leader at its core. This framework bestowed legitimacy upon the Baekdu bloodline. As a result, North Korean citizens are indoctrinated from birth to death, and make loyalty to the leader as a "Father". This loyalty exceeds even the devotion that Joseon Dynasty subjects felt toward their king. When Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il passed away, the outpouring of grief and wailing from the North Korean people was not mere theatrics but a genuine expression (albeit a result of indoctrination).

Additionally, China's approval of North Korea's successors, akin to the way the Ming and Qing dynasties endorsed the Joseon rulers, ensures political stability and provides unwavering economic support. This further fortifies the regime's legitimacy, and makes it nearly impregnable.

Second, North Korea is a nation ruled by fear.
When you look at North Korea as a communist state, it resembles the Soviet Union during Stalin's era. Just as Stalin did, Kim Il-sung chose a totalitarian rule that dominates both the mind and body. It’s no exaggeration to say that the regime sustains itself through complete surveillance of the power elites and thorough control of the population. 

How is this achieved through state social control mechanisms?

First of all, there is the Workers' Party of North Korea. Naturally, Kim Jong-un holds the highest rank as Chairman. Among the many departments, there is the Organization and Guidance Department, which is more powerful than the combined influence of South Korea's Presidential Personnel Office, the Office of Civil Affairs, and the Board of Audit and Inspection. It effectively controls the power elites by exercising authority over appointments, inspections, and supervision of the party, military, and government, including public security agencies. Additionally, at the lowest level of the Workers' Party of North Korea, there are tens of thousands of organizations called "party cells." These cells are nominally responsible for encouraging party members to adhere to the party's ideology and policies, but in reality, they function to control the general population.

Next, there is the State Affairs Commission, with Kim Jong-un again at the top as Chairman. Under the SAC, there is the Ministry of State Security, which can be compared to South Korea’s National Intelligence Service. However, the MSS has a unique mission to protect the regime and operates like a secret police force with over 100,000 personnel, similar to the Reich Security Main Office created by Hitler in Germany. The MSS oversees ideological surveillance and purges of North Korea's elite, identifying and eliminating so-called anti-party, anti-regime, and counter-revolutionary elements. It possesses the authority to arrest and imprison individuals in political prison camps or execute them without any legal procedures. The MSS also conducts overseas intelligence gathering and operations, supports contacts and negotiations with South Korea, and monitors the ideological tendencies of the populace. The fact that anyone arrested on suspicion of wrongdoing is unlikely to escape political punishment instills fear in the people, effectively controlling them through terror. Additionally, there is the Ministry of People's Security under the State Affairs Commission, which is equivalent to the police force in South Korea. In addition to maintaining public order, it identifies and eliminates "impure elements" among the population through classification, and rigorously monitors and controls residents by tracking their movements.
In this way, North Korea secures legitimacy through Juche ideology and the cult of personality. Through its politics of fear, the regime maintains an organized and thorough state-social control over both the ruling elites and the general population. This totalitarian, dynastic, and communist iron-fisted rule makes a citizen revolution virtually impossible, and any potential coup is likely to be suppressed either preemptively or at an early stage, rendering such events highly unlikely.

In this way, North Korea secures its legitimacy through Juche ideology and idolization, and practices a reign of terror while maintaining totalitarian, dynastic, and communist control through systematic and tight state and social control over North Korea's ruling elite as well as the general population. They rule with an iron fist, but a civil revolution is impossible and a pro-War coup d'état is also not feasible because it is suppressed in advance or at an early stage.

☆ Author:  Atty Jeong-kee Kim ☆

● Education
- Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, Summa Cum Laude, State University of New York at Stony Brook
-  Doctor of Jurisprudence, Marquette University Law School
- Senior Executive Program, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
- Research Scholar in North Korean Studies, Peking University

● Experience
- Consul General of the Republic of Korea in Shanghai
- Commissioner General for the Korean Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai Expo
- CEO, Asia-Pacific Local Government Network for Economic and Social Development (CityNet)
- Secretary General, World Smart Sustainable Cities Organization(WeGO)
- Law Clerk, Milwaukee Circuit Court, USA
- Senior Attorney-at-Law, Dr & Aju LLC
- Distinguished Visiting Professor, World Economy Research Institute, Nanjing University
- Research Professor, Institute of Oriental Studies, Peking University
- Distinguished Professor, Graduate School of Political Science, Kookmin University
- Chair Professor, Graduate School of Business, Dongguk University
- First President of Soongsil Cyber University

● Publications
- Georo English Studies Series for College Students [10 volumes] (Georo Publishing)
- I Challenge the Possibility of One Percent (Chosun Ilbo)
- The Art of Negotiation (Cheongnyonneongsin Publishing)
- Korea and the World (Chekmidum Publishing)