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The Antinomies of North Korean Foreign Policy and Juche Thought, 1953-1967

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The Antinomies of North Korean Foreign Policy and Juche Thought, 1953-1967 Solidarity and Self-Reliance: The Antinomies of North Korean Foreign Policy and Juche Thought, 1953-1967 by James Frederick Person BA in History and Fine Arts, May 1998, The George Washington University MA in History, May 2001, Moscow State University A Dissertation submitted to The Faculty of The Columbian College of Arts and Sciences Of the George Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 19, 2013 Dissertation directed by Gregg Andrew Brazinsky Associate Professor of History and International Affairs Kirk Wayne Larsen Associate Professor of History, Brigham Young University The Columbian College of Arts and Sciences of the George Washington University certifies that James Frederick Person has passed the Final Examination for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy as of March 26, 2013. This is the final and approved form of the dissertation. Solidarity and Self-Reliance: The Antinomies of North Korean Foreign Policy and Juche Thought, 1953-1967 Dissertation Research Committee: Gregg A. Brazinsky, Associate Professor of History and International Affairs, Dissertation Co-Director Kirk W. Larsen, Associate Professor of History, Brigham Young University, Dissertation Co-Director Edward McCord, Associate Professor of History and International Affairs, Committee Member Jisoo Kim, Assistant Professor of History and International Affairs, Committee Member ii © Copyright 2013 by James F. Person All rights reserved iii Acknowledgements The author wishes to acknowledge numerous individuals, especially Gregg Brazinsky, Kirk Larsen, and Charles Armstrong, who were extremely patient and generous with their time and advice. The author is also grateful to Jooeun Kim, Jongdae Shin, Kihljae Ryoo, Jounyung Sun, Jae-kyu Park, Christian Ostermann, Charles Kraus, Edward McCord, Zhihua Shen, Yafeng Xia, Gary Goldberg, James Hershberg, Hope Harrison, Hazel Smith, Mitch Lerner, Seukryule Hong, Sangyoon Ma, Bernd Schaefer, Daqing Yang, Jisoo Kim, and Andrei Lankov. The Department of History, the Sigur Center for Asian Studies, and the Korea Foundation all generously supported the author with travel grants and language training during his research. iv Abstract of Dissertation Solidarity and Self-Reliance: The Antinomies of North Korean Foreign Policy and Juche Thought, 1953-1967 This dissertation identifies the pragmatic origins of North Korea’s political ideology, Juche Thought, and the development of its three practical applications (Jaju, Jarip, Jarip) from 1953 to 1967. During this period, Juche Thought evolved from an amorphous idea of independence and self-reliance, into a complete set of practical policy applications designed to limit the influence of North Korea’s putative allies on political and economic developments. Finally, Juche was transformed into a tool for suppressing pluralism in the DPRK and eliminating foreign influences. This is the first work to fully explicate this transformative process by using newly available evidence from the archives of North Korea’s former communist allies, published North Korean speeches, and the existing literature. By shedding new light on the evolution of Juche and each of its three practical applications between 1953 and 1967, we can understand why North Korean leaders, driven by their postcolonial revolutionary nationalism, felt they could no longer operate exclusively within the limiting confines of the international socialist system, with its own vertical power structure that placed North Korea in a subservient position to Moscow and Beijing. An analysis of this critical period also enables us to understand how the DPRK was transformed into a repressive dictatorship, with Kim Il Sung employing Juche as a tool to suppress pluralism inside the DPRK, and to resist socialist imperialist intrusion. v Table of Contents Acknowledgements iv Abstract of Dissertation v Introduction 1 Chapter One: Juche 24 Chapter Two: Self-Reliance in Politics (Jaju) 86 Chapter Three: Self-Reliance in Economics (Jarip) 127 Chapter Four: Self-Reliance in National Defense (Jawi) 168 Chapter Five: The Monolithic Ideological System (Yuil sasang chaegye) 204 Conclusion 237 Bibliography 246 vi Introduction The year 1967 was a watershed in the political, ideological, and diplomatic history of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK or North Korea). Following the purge of the so-called Gapsan faction at the May 4-8 Fifteenth Plenum of ruling Korean Workers’ Party (KWP)’s Fourth Central Committee (CC), North Korean leader Kim Il Sung’s authority became unassailable. Kim established Yuil sasang chaegye, the monolithic ideological system, which transformed Juche [Chuch’e] Thought, once a pragmatic political strategy for limiting the influence of Pyongyang’s putative allies on the trajectory of political and economic developments into a tool of suppression to mandate ideological unity inside North Korea. Kim also utilized Juche Thought as an instrument to make the country impervious to foreign influences. These changes had a genuinely transformative effect on North Korea. With no remaining domestic opposition, Kim Il Sung firmly established a repressive dictatorship and fostered the further development of his cult of personality. Signs of this appeared almost immediately. The appellation suryeong, or supreme leader, a term that had typically been reserved for the late Soviet leaders Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin in the North Korean press, began to be regularly used for Kim, thus putting him on equal footing with the two legendary figures. In an extreme form of adulation, North Koreans began wearing lapel pins bearing the likeness of their leader. In an effort to make the country impervious to foreign influences and mandate ideological purity in North Korean society, Kim enforced nationwide bans on foreign (particularly Soviet) literature, music, 1 and art.1 Under the banner of Juche Thought, Kim also moved to shift his country’s foreign policy orientation away from Moscow and Beijing and the socialist camp. Juche’s hegemonic position after 1967 was not inevitable. Before being transformed into a monolithic ideological system in 1967, Juche Thought was not exclusively or even primarily a tool of exclusion and suppression; rather, it was a pragmatic manifestation of Kim Il Sung’s postcolonial desire for sovereignty and independence. The term Juche had long existed in an embryonic form. Korean nationalists had used the term at the start of the twentieth century,2 and as Bruce Cumings notes, “Kim [Il Sung]’s rhetoric rang with synonymous language” from the 1940s. Kim used a variety of terms translating roughly as self-reliance and independence,” including jajuseong (independence), minjok dongnip (national or ethnic independence), and jarip gyeongjae (economic independence).3 After a two-year domestic debate over development strategies (1953-1955), Juche Thought became more salient when Kim Il Sung delivered a speech in December 1955 criticizing the glorification of foreign cultures and the mechanical replication of foreign political practices. The speech served as an attempt to begin the process of psychological decolonization in Korea. Juche’s further development was influenced by a number of historical contingencies, and between 1955 and 1965, Juche Thought evolved, engendering three practical applications: Jaju (self- reliance in politics), Jarip (self-reliance in economics), and Jawi (self-reliance in national defense). By 1965, Juche had evolved into a complete set of practical policy applications. 1 Seong Hye-rang, Deungnamu jip:Seong Hyerang Jaseojeon (House of Wisteria: The Autobiography of Seong Hyerang) (Seoul: Jisiknara, 2000), pp. 312-314, cited in Jae-Chon Lim, Kim Jong Il’s Leadership of North Korea (New York: Routledge, 2009), p. 41 2 See Michael Robinson, “National Identity and the Thought of Sin Ch'ae-ho: Sadaejuüi and Chuch'e in History and Politics.” Journal of Korean Studies (1984): pp.121–142. 3 Bruce Cumings, Origins of the Korean War, Volume II: The Roaring of the Cataract, 1947-1950 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990), p. 313. 2 Juche Thought was transformed into the dominant discourse only in 1967 after Kim Il Sung’s efforts to reverse the country’s historic subservience to larger foreign states and create a strong and independent Korean nation repeatedly clashed with the preponderant influence of the Soviet Union and China and domestic challenges to Kim’s national security imperatives. Until this point, Juche Thought coexisted with, and even appropriated, the transnational ideology of international socialism for Kim Il Sung’s postcolonial revolutionary nationalist agenda.4 My dissertation is the first work to fully explicate the formative processes under which Juche Thought and its three practical applications (jaju, jarip, jawi) evolved between 1953 and 1967. By understanding the evolution of Juche and each of its three practical applications between 1953 and 1967, we can understand why North Korean leaders, driven by their postcolonial revolutionary nationalism, felt they could no longer operate exclusively within the limiting confines of the international socialist system, with its own vertical power structure that placed North Korea in a subservient position to Moscow and Beijing. An analysis of this critical period also enables us to understand how the DPRK was transformed into a repressive dictatorship, with Kim Il Sung employing Juche as a tool to suppress pluralism inside the DPRK, and to resist socialist imperialist
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