History of North Korea

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History of korea
Prehistoric Korea
Antiquity
Proto-three realms
Time of the Three Kingdoms
Northern and Southern states
Later three realms
States of imperial unity
Colonial times
Division of Korea

The history of North Korea deals with the political, social and economic developments in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea , which was proclaimed in 1948 north of the 38th parallel on the Korean peninsula . The history of North Korea and the history of South Korea as a whole correspond to the history of Korea since the end of World War II .

Establishment of a "workers and farmers state"

After the Second World War came to an end in 1945 with the surrender of Japan , the Chosen Province , which corresponded to the area of Korea , which had been incorporated and colonized by the Japanese Empire since 1910, was divided into two zones of occupation by the victorious powers along the 38th parallel . The south was occupied by American troops and the north came under the control of the Red Army .

The Soviet Union had a strategic interest in building a well-meaning Korean state. This should serve as a buffer against Japan. The Korean Peninsula was seen as a possible base of operations for an attack on the Soviet Union. Aside from Japan and Russia having a history of conflicting history, this concern reinforced the understanding that Japan became an ally of the United States soon after its surrender. The most powerful representative of the Soviet Union in occupied Korea was Colonel General Terenti F. Shtykow , but the official head of the Soviet Civil Administration formed on October 3, 1945 was Major General Andrei A. Romanenko .

In the following, an economic and state system based on Marxist-Leninist ideas was established in North Korea . The Soviet Union - its policy was determined by its dictator Josef Stalin , who remained in power until his death in 1953 - had a decisive influence on this structure; as in the rest of the Eastern Bloc , where they installed communist-ruled satellite states after the end of the Second World War.

The situation differed from that in the Eastern European countries under Soviet occupation in that there was no unified Communist Party that already had ties to Moscow. A Korean Communist Party was founded in 1925, but it was disbanded in 1928 on the instructions of the Comintern because of ongoing wing fighting and faction formation . After that there were only a few communist groups that were mainly active in the south of the country. In the north, the communists initially played no role. The Soviet occupying power was looking for other allies. The initial aim was to build the nationalist Cho Man-sik , who was considered the most influential political figure in North Korea, into a new strong man. It soon became clear, however, that the differences between the nationalist and the socialist occupying power were too great.

At the end of 1945, a strong immigration movement of ethnic Koreans from the Soviet Union (especially from the Central Asian Soviet Republics) began, which strengthened the communist groups in the north. The state authorities in the Soviet Union particularly advocated the relocation of “politically educated” Koreans. On October 13, 1945, the "North Korean Office of the Communist Party of Korea" was formed as a section of the All-Korean Communist Party (based in Seoul ), and Kim Il-sung was appointed chairman in December .

The tutelage by the Soviet Union and the looming installation of a socialist state in the north soon led to conflicts. This led to anti-communist student protests in the cities of Sinŭiju and Hamhŭng , which were violently suppressed. Early on, terrorist attacks on Kim Il-sung and other North Korean communists were organized from South Korea with the support of refugees from the north, none of which were successful. The resistance of the locals against the communists remained subdued. In the south of the country, on the other hand, a left partisan movement developed in opposition to the state power that was being established. The partisans in the south were supported by the north. The Political College, founded in September 1947 in Kandon , a suburb of Pyongyang, was used to train underground workers in the south.

The flag of the state party PDAK with hammer, sickle and brush

In February 1946, the People's Provisional Committee was formed, headed by Kim Il-sung. In the spring, the North Korean section of the CP split off and formed its own “Communist Party of North Korea”, which on July 29 unified with the left-wing “New People's Party” to form the “Labor Party of North Korea”. Kim Du-bong became the first general secretary . After the North Korean section split off, the South Korean communists also united with other left-wing parties to form the Nam-joseon-rodong party (South Joseon Labor Party). In the period that followed, the American occupation forces increased their pressure on the communist underground movement. Leading party members were arrested, the rest fled to the north, from where underground work continued in the south. In June 1949, both parties united to form the " Labor Party of Korea, " which was chaired by Kim Il-sung. In addition, a “ National United Front ” was formed with the “ Korean Democratic Party ” and the “ Chondoist Ch'ŏngu Party ” .

In 1946 the country's economic transformation began. In the spring a land reform was carried out and in the late summer the nationalization of the industrial enterprises began.

Active and passive women's suffrage was guaranteed under Allied administration in the Gender Equality Act , which was introduced on July 30, 1946. On November 3, 1946, elections were held for the so-called People's Committees, the local administrative bodies. There was only the option of voting for or against the united front. Officially, 97 percent of the votes cast went to the united front. The 1st Congress of People's Committees determined the first North Korean government under Kim Il-sung on February 17, 1947 and elected the North Korean People's Committee as a kind of parliament .

The police and military apparatus developed parallel to the gradual development of the state and unity party structures. As early as 1946, the first divisions of a North Korean army were formed under Soviet command. Similar to the procedure in the Soviet occupation zone and later GDR (see Barracked People's Police ), the army in North Korea was also built up in camouflage: the first units were officially subordinate to the police or the railway administration. The early days of the North Korean Navy officially acted as the coast guard. By February 8, 1948, the day the north made the existence of its army public, the armed forces were so developed that they posed a significant threat to the south. The police and security service were also formed in 1946. At the Provisional People's Committee there was a "security office" with a "Political State Protection Department" to combat " counter-revolutionaries ". Pan Hak-syo became the head of the State Security Department .

In late autumn 1947 the drafting of a constitution was officially announced, which seemed to seal the early proclamation of an independent North Korean state. The constitution was drafted in Moscow and finally approved by Stalin . On August 25, 1948, elections were held for the Supreme People's Assembly, which on September 8 approved the constitution. A day later, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea was proclaimed.

The Republic of Korea had previously been proclaimed on August 15 in Seoul . Both regimes did not recognize each other and saw themselves as the only legitimate successors of the Korean Empire .

Reign of Kim Il-sung (1948–1994)

Korean War

American bombing in Wonsan , 1951

North Korean troops crossed the border with the Republic of Korea on June 25, 1950. The aim of the attack was to integrate South Korea into the socialist People's Democratic Republic. At first, the north managed to advance rapidly and conquer almost the entire Korean peninsula. However, with the support of the UN and, above all, the USA, the advance was stopped and the troops of the South and its allies advanced as far as the Chinese border. China came to the aid of the north. In this now de facto American-Chinese conflict, the front finally stabilized close to the starting positions. On July 27, 1953, an armistice agreement was signed in P'anmunjŏm , which laid down a demarcation line that was slightly different from the pre-war situation. The war cemented the division of the country.

At the beginning of the war, North Korea had expected that the population of the South would take its side after the attack and that the South Korean state would collapse by itself. Although the northern troops were greeted with joy at first, this sympathy quickly faded when the North Koreans carried out a land reform in the occupied territories and the occupation forces began to terrorize and kill those who refused to submit to the dictatorial regime. At a convention of the Korean Labor Party during the war, Kim Il-sung blamed the commander of the 2nd North Korean Army, Kim Mu-jong, for the apparent failure of the campaign of conquest. Kim Mu-jong was dishonorably discharged from the army and immigrated to China.

The consolidation of sole rule

In the 1950s, Kim Il-sung worked to consolidate his undisputed leadership position in state and party. Up until then, the Labor Party of Korea consisted of various factions that had little sympathy for one another. Kim initially wanted to exclude the group of comrades who were inclined to the People's Republic of China (the so-called " Yan'an faction") from the party. This met with opposition from China and the USSR. Kim was threatened with his removal. He was able to maintain his position by making temporary concessions. The experience of the threat from the outside led to an intensification of Kim's isolationist efforts. In the following years, officials loyal to Beijing and Moscow were eliminated. This "purge" in the years from 1957 to 1962 strengthened Kim's position so that it was unchallenged at the beginning of the 1960s. In contrast to the purges in the Soviet Communist Party of the Stalin era, North Korea was relatively bloodless. Many party comrades were able to emigrate to China and the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, numerous members of the country's political elite were sentenced to death and executed during this period - sometimes in show trials. The allegations were usually constructed. Party comrades from the south were accused of spying for the South Korean government under Rhee Syng-man . On December 15, 1955, Secretary of State Pak Hon-yong was sentenced to death as an American spy. In 1956, Mu Chong , a former general in the Chinese army and chief of staff during the Korean War, was executed as a representative of the Yan'an group at the general headquarters of the combined forces of China and North Korea.

In 1958, further purges followed, which were directed against generally pro-Soviet cadres, such as Hŏ Ka-i , sympathizers of Khrushchev 's thaw policy and officials linked to China, such as Kim Du-bong . The purges evolved from a temporary phenomenon to a permanent phenomenon inherent in the system. In 1997 there was such a campaign against reform-minded members of the army and party cadres, including the Chairman of the Council of Ministers Kang Song-san .

As early as the mid-1960s, Kim Il Sung was referred to as the Great Leader in the North Korean media . Until then, the term leader had been reserved exclusively for Lenin and Stalin, both within North Korea and in the international communist movement in general .

Economic development after the Korean War

The economic development of North Korea after the war benefited greatly from the material support from China and especially from the Soviet Union. The three-year plan (1954–1956) repaired the damage caused by the war and brought industrial production back to pre-war levels. The following five-year plan (1957–1961) and the seven-year plan (1961–1967) brought further growth in production and the development of infrastructure . Until 1969, North Korea was economically superior to the South, which had been politically and economically unstable for a long time. By the late 1960s, however, the North Korean economy showed signs of stagnation similar to that of other Eastern Bloc countries . A decline in agricultural production and the shortage of consumer goods led to a decline in the economy, and immense military spending was an additional burden.

Political positioning between China and the Soviet Union

The Sino-Soviet rift that broke out in the 1950s over the further development of communism complicated the situation in North Korea. At first one navigated between the two neighboring great powers. The criticism of the Soviet leadership of Stalin, beginning with the XX. CPSU party congress in 1956, saw Kim Il-sung as a questioning of his own position. He also rejected the concept of "peaceful coexistence" propagated by the Soviet Union. In 1962 Kim took Mao Zedong's side and took over from him in particular the strict adherence to traditional ideas of communism and concepts of personality cult . The decisive factor for the break with the Soviet Union was its behavior in the Cuban Missile Crisis , which the North Koreans understood as defeatism . The Soviet Union then cut all aid to North Korea, which, along with Albania, became one of China's closest allies. China, caught in the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution , could not replace the USSR as a trading partner. Efforts to achieve independence from the Soviet Union in terms of military strategy put an additional strain on the North Korean economy, so that from 1965 Kim Il-sung again worked towards normalizing relations with the USSR.

isolation

The propagation of the Chuch'e ideology towards the end of the 1960s, which defined North Korea's self-sufficiency as the primary goal, appears to be a reaction to North Korea's increasingly isolated position. North Korean media celebrated Chuch'e as an ideology superior even to Marxism-Leninism, and Kim Il-sung was henceforth referred to as the Great Leader . The isolation of the country was intensified by the fact that the government felt compelled to keep the economic success of South Korea against the decline in the north a secret from the North Korean people. The collapse of the socialist camp further intensified the isolation. However, on September 17, 1991, North Korea became a member state of the United Nations together with South Korea .

Aggression and terrorism

The third tallest flagpole in the world near the inner-Korean border

The temporary break with Moscow led to a more aggressive attitude towards South Korea , since the moderating influence of the Soviet Union was no longer given. The government in Pyongyang in the south of the country wanted to support anti -government partisan groups based on the Vietnamese model. The most famous case of this subversive activity is the failed attempt to raid the Blue House in Seoul (the seat of the South Korean President) on January 21, 1968. 30 North Korean agents were killed, one escaped and one was caught.

Two days later, on January 23, 1968, the North Korean Navy hijacked the American spy ship USS Pueblo (AGER-2) from international waters. After a year of negotiations, the US was finally able to get the crew released. The pueblo is now on the banks of the Taedong Gang in Pyongyang and can be visited.

In the autumn of 1968 there was fighting between North and South Korean troops on the demarcation line after North Korean soldiers had advanced into the territory of the south.

On the birthday of the "Great Leader", April 15, 1969, an American reconnaissance plane was shot down over the Sea of ​​Japan, killing the entire crew.

There were regular kidnappings of South Koreans and Japanese to North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s, some of which have not returned to this day. It is believed that 3,832 people have been abducted to North Korea since the end of the Korean War, of whom 514, most of them fishermen, had not yet returned as of June 2010. In 1975 about a boat with 32 South Korean fishermen was kidnapped. The missing were pronounced dead. Only 20 years later did the south find out that they had been kidnapped and lived in the north. More than half of them are said to have died in the meantime. In 2007 the fisherman Choe U-kil managed to escape back to his South Korean homeland. The most spectacular kidnapping case, however, occurred in 1978. Shin Sang-ok , a South Korean director, and his ex-wife, actress Choi Eun-hee , were kidnapped separately in Hong Kong and taken to North Korea by ship. It was not until 1983 that they learned that she had suffered the same fate, and they met again in Pyongyang. In 1986 they managed to escape on a trip to Europe.

On October 9, 1983, three North Korean agents carried out an assassination attempt on a high-ranking South Korean government delegation in what was then the Burmese capital, Rangoon . President Chun Doo-hwan survived the attack. The foreign minister and the deputy foreign trade minister as well as 15 other South Koreans were killed.

In November 1987, the North Korean secret service dropped a bomb on a South Korean passenger plane that exploded over the Indian Ocean . 115 people died. The assassin Kim Hyon-hui was caught, another agent escaped arrest by suicide.

Around 200 people have been kidnapped to North Korea since the 1990s, mostly from the Chinese border provinces. It was mostly Chinese of Korean descent who were suspected of helping North Korean refugees. Pastor Kim Dong-shik from the USA was abducted from the Chinese city of Yanji in 2000 and reportedly died a year later in North Korea as a result of torture, malnutrition and illness.

Personality cult and clan rule

In 1972 North Korea adopted a new constitution under which Kim Il-sung was declared president. The cult around his person took from now on to previously unknown proportions. Since then he has been officially portrayed as the originator and central figure of the communist movement in Korea. Kim's family was also included, not only Kim Jong-il, his successor, but also his late wife Kim Jong-suk .

The dictatorship of the proletariat developed more and more towards the rule of a few family clans with the Kims family at its head. In addition to his son, Kim's third wife, Kim Song-ae , who held high positions in party and mass organizations, was also involved.

Kim Jong-il's reign (1994–2011)

Work in a rice field 1989

Kim Il-sung died in 1994. After a three-year state-ordered mourning period, his son Kim Jong-il took over the posts of Secretary General of the Labor Party of Korea and Chairman of the National Defense Commission . The post of President is still vacant, as Kim Il-sung is the Eternal President . Kim Jong-il was called the Beloved Leader , now a Great Leader like the Father.

The period since the collapse of the socialist bloc has been characterized in North Korea by a relatively uncompromising adherence to the status quo . This can be seen both in economic policy and in foreign and defense policy, which continues to focus on isolation. The reason for this is the assumption of the North Korean leadership that a deviation from the previous line, a softening of the Stalinist regime, would inevitably lead to its overthrow, which could be observed in the former Eastern European brother states.

Economic crisis and famine

The collapse of the Eastern Bloc had fatal consequences for the North Korean economy. According to a study by the German armed forces on peak oil, z. B. the influx of cheap oil from the Soviet Union, which among other things led to the failure of 80% of all agricultural machinery. Despite the increase in the percentage of people employed in agriculture from 25% to 36%, the harvest fell by 60%. The result was great famine . During this time, up to two and a half million people, a good tenth of the total population of North Korea, will have starved to death. According to estimates of the Food and Agriculture Organization (Engl. Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO) are chronically malnourished eight million people in North Korea today. A 2004 study by the World Food Program found that 37% of all children were chronically malnourished. The food situation has been worsening again since the beginning of 2007. Despite a promise of 400,000 tons of rice from South Korea after the closure of the Nyŏngbyŏn nuclear facility , Kim admitted in August 2007 that there were problems with supplying the population with food.

Temporary relaxation between north and south

In 2000, Kim Dae-jung's success in relaxation between North and South Korea became apparent as part of the sunshine policy . For some time it was possible to visit family members who had been separated for decades due to the Korean division. It was agreed to renew the traffic connections between the two countries, which were previously out of service. South Korean tourists were subsequently able to visit the Kŭmgang Mountains until 2008, when a South Korean woman was shot dead by a North Korean soldier under circumstances that were not fully clarified . South Korean companies have been producing in North Korean special economic zones ( Kaesŏng industrial region ) since 2003 . The teams of North and South Korea marched together at the Olympic Games in the same year. Finally, the two heads of state even held the first summit in Pyongyang.

Another cooling of the relationship

Under the South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, however, the relationship between the two countries cooled noticeably. Lee had already announced during the election campaign that he would pursue a tougher foreign policy line against Pyongyang. North Korea finally announced that it would close its borders to the south on December 1, 2008. This measure mainly affects trips by South Koreans to the tourist areas of North Korea near the border. This was preceded by actions by South Korean non-governmental organizations, which had thrown thousands of leaflets over North Korea with the help of balloons. It contained information about Kim Jong-il's health and family relationships. Both topics are considered taboos in North Korea. The North Korean leadership was correspondingly angry and accused South Korea of ​​pursuing hostile policies.

On August 22, 2009, high-ranking representatives of the two governments held talks again for the first time in almost two years. A six-person delegation from North Korea traveled to Seoul on the occasion of the funeral of Kim Dae-jung, who had recently passed away. The North Korean intelligence chief Kim Yang-kon, the head of the delegation, discussed bilateral issues with the South Korean reunification minister, Hyun In-taek. President Lee Myung-bak then received the delegation for first talks with representatives of North Korea since the beginning of his term in office.

A new low in relations with South Korea was the sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan on March 26, 2010, in which 46 people were killed. The ship sank near Baengnyeongdo Island after an explosion. Baengnyeongdo is part of South Korea, but lies off the North Korean coast. The sea border between the two Korean states is controversial. A committee of experts made up of representatives from South Korea, the USA and other Western countries came to the conclusion that the ship was allegedly sunk by a North Korean torpedo. North Korea denied being involved in the incident.

On November 23, 2010, North Korea shelled the inhabited South Korean island of Yeonpyeong with more than 100 shells , killing two South Korean soldiers and two South Korean civilians. There had been no military provocation of this magnitude since the end of the Korean War.

North Korea's nuclear weapons program

Since the 2000 Summer Olympics, North Korea has often been in the spotlight of the world because of the dispute over its nuclear weapons program . According to its own information, North Korea has several ready-to-use nuclear bombs. An ICBM of the type " Taepodong-2 " which is currently under development in North Korea should be able to reach the west coast of the USA equipped with a nuclear warhead.

According to its own information, North Korea successfully carried out an underground nuclear test for the first time on October 9, 2006. Measurements by Russian and South Korean experts confirmed the report that an explosion had been carried out. However, it has not yet been fully clarified whether it was a nuclear or a conventional demolition. On October 10, 2006, South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted a North Korean government official: "We hope the situation will be resolved before an unfortunate incident occurs and we launch a nuclear missile," which is seen as an indirect threat.

Nyŏngbyŏn's 5 MW reactor

After the presumed test, however, there was movement in the so-called six -party talks, which had been practically inconclusive . North Korea announced that it would be willing to end its nuclear program for certain services, such as starting bilateral talks with the US and removing North Korea from the list of terrorist supporting states . As a result, further relaxation between North and South Korea was possible. In May 2007, for example, two one-off rail test runs were carried out on the rebuilt line between Kaesŏng in the north and Dorasan in the south. Since December of the same year, freight trains have been running there regularly connecting the companies in the Kaesŏng industrial region with South Korea. A second summit meeting between Kim and the South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun took place from October 2-4, 2007. The two politicians met again in Pyongyang; Kim Jong-il's return visit to Seoul , originally planned after the first summit , did not take place. In the end, both signed the decision to start negotiations on a peace treaty. This should replace the armistice agreement to end the Korean War of 1953.

In October 2007, North Korea began to destroy its nuclear facilities with American and other international experts. In return, North Korea has immediate access to economic aid and other aid measures for the impoverished population. After the cooling tower of the Nyŏngbyŏn nuclear reactor was blown up on June 27, 2008 , US President George W. Bush announced the lifting of trade sanctions and the prospect of North Korea being removed from the list of terrorist states. The deletion took place on October 11th.

North Korea launched a launcher on April 5, 2009 against international protests, allegedly intended to orbit the Kwangmyŏngsŏng 2 communications satellite, but the launch of a satellite has not been confirmed by any state except North Korea. Another nuclear test was conducted on May 25, 2009. According to Russian information, the explosive device had an explosive force of 20 kilotons . In addition to the nuclear test, several short-range missiles were fired.

Reign of Kim Jong-us (since 2011)

After Kim Jong-il's death on December 17, 2011, his youngest son, Kim Jong-un, succeeded his father as head of state.

In spring 2013, relations between North and South Korea reached a new low due to the North Korea crisis in 2013 . In June 2013, however, relations improved again.

In early December 2013, the deputy chairman of the National Defense Commission and Uncle Kim Jong-uns, Jang Song Thaek , was arrested and ousted. He was accused of high treason , bribery , gambling addiction , drug abuse , wasting money and selling off raw materials to the People's Republic of China . He was executed on December 12, 2013 . At the same time, Jang's widow and sister of Kim Jong-il, Kim Kyŏng-hŭi , remained unmolested by punitive measures and was accepted into the North Korean State Burial Committee .

In January 2014, Kim scheduled an “election” for the North Korean parliament on March 9, 2014 . 100% of the voters in the 687 electoral districts are said to have voted for the unrivaled candidates of the ruling party; the turnout was 99.97%. Due to the compulsory voting, the election was also counted as a census .

The Labor Party of Korea's first conference in 36 years was scheduled for May 6, 2016 . In August 2016, Thae Yong-ho , North Korea’s Deputy Ambassador to London , left for South Korea.

In February 2017, Kim Jong-was our half-brother Kim Jong-Nam on the Kuala Lumpur fatally poisoned . South Korean media speculated that the murder of Kim Jong-un was commissioned. Several suspects were arrested in Malaysia for this purpose .

As of August 2017, citizens of the United States are no longer allowed to enter North Korea following a decision by US President Donald Trump . This does not apply to US citizens who also have a foreign passport valid for North Korea .

Web links

Commons : History of North Korea  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

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