North Korea HISTORICAL SETTING
Turtle-serpent, an imaginary guardian, as depicted in a
fresco on the north wall, rear chamber, Kangso Big Tomb. The
seventh-century tomb, in South P'yongan Province, was constructed
for the nobles of Koguryo, The mural demonstrates the artistic
and architectural skills typical of that period.
Tourists lining up to see Kim Il Sung's birthplace at
Mangyngdae District, P'yongyang
Courtesy Tracy Woodward
PRIOR TO THE NATIONAL DIVISION of the Korean Peninsula in
1945, Korea was home to a people with a unitary existence, ethnic
and linguistic homogeneity, and a historic bond of
exclusionism (see Glossary)
towards outsiders--a result of its history of
invasion, influence, and fighting over its territory by larger
and more powerful neighbors. This legacy continues to influence
the contemporary Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK, or
North Korea).
There are other parallels between Korea's past and presentday North Korea. The traditions of Confucianism and a bureaucracy
administered from the top-down and from the center continue to
hold sway. Further, just as there was relative stability for more
than two millennia on the Korean Peninsula, there has been
relative stability in North Korea since Kim Il Sung came to power
in 1946. As Confucian doctrine perpetuated the authority of the
family system and the importance of education, so too were these
elements paramount in Kim Il Sung's North Korea. Politics remain
personalistic, and Kim has surrounded himself with a core of
revolutionary leaders (now aging), whose loyalty dates back to
their days of guerrilla resistance against the Japanese in
Manchuria. Kim's
chuch'e (see Glossary)
ideology also has
its roots in the self-reliant philosophy of the Hermit Kingdom
(as Korea was called by Westerners), and Korea's history of
exclusionism also held particular appeal to a people emerging
from the period of Japanese colonial domination (1910-45).
Data as of June 1993
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