Songbun

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Songbun ( Korean : 성분), formally chulsin-songbun (Korean: 출신 성) is the system used in North Korea to divide the population into classes, which is used for social control and is compared with a caste system . Based on the political, social and economic background of the person or their direct ancestors and the behavior of their relatives, Songbun is used to determine whether a person is entrusted with social responsibility, where they can settle, what profession they can practice or even whether she is getting enough nutrition. Songbun affects access to education and employment opportunities and specifically determines whether a person is eligible to join the North Korean ruling party , the Party of Labor of Korea . The system was introduced in the late 1950s under state founder and dictator Kim Il-sung and is still in force. Under ruler Kim Jong-un , however, the system is said to have lost its importance.

history

The Politburo of the Party of Labor of Korea passed an ordinance in 1957 entitled "Transforming the Struggle with Counterrevolutionary Elements into an All-Party Movement of the People," which established the policies and programs for carrying out the first large-scale cleansing of North Korean society. A May 30 resolution established the basis for Songbun's socio-political classification of the entire North Korean population by dividing the entire citizenship into three different loyalty groups based on family background: "friendly or core", "neutral / fluctuating" and "hostile" forces.

description

There are three main classifications and around 50 sub-classifications. According to Kim Il-sung (1958), the loyal "core class" made up 25% of the North Korean population, the "fluctuating class" 55% and the "hostile class" 20%. Those who have an ancestral landowner, merchant, lawyer, or Christian are given very low status. The highest status is given to those who descended from participants in the resistance to the Japanese occupation during World War II and before World War II, as well as those who were factory workers, workers or peasants from 1950 onwards. The core class is made up of all high-ranking party cadres and their families. The fluctuating class is reserved for the average North Koreans, while the “hostile” class is made up of possible subversive elements (e.g. former landowners). According to CIA analyst Helen-Louise Hunter , the Communists were very successful in turning the pre-revolutionary social structure on its head, in which landowners and bureaucrats collaborating with the Japanese dominated society. Songbun is a term for it. In their view, the "preferred class" is 30% of the population, the "common people" are the middle 40%, and the "undesirable" are the bottom 30%.

The files of every North Korean from the age of 17 are kept by security officers and party cadres and updated every two years. In general, it's difficult to improve your songbun, but it can be downgraded for a number of reasons, such as: For example, because of a lack of political enthusiasm, because he marries someone of lower rank, or because he is convicted of a crime, political or otherwise, or because a family member has been convicted. Before the late 1960s, it was possible to hide the fact that a relative was in bad status. However, the ancestry of all citizens was thoroughly verified starting from a 1966 census. These investigations are believed to have been a response to the Chinese Cultural Revolution that began in 1966 . Kim Il-sung, who feared that Beijing would interfere in his country as well, be it by invading or supporting a coup (Chinese soldiers had previously been sent to Korea on "provocative incursions"), tried to protect its internal security by increasing the classification of its citizens. These investigations were repeated several times in the following years, for reasons ranging from suspicion of corruption during previous controls to the eradication of possible opposition.

US journalist Barbara Demick describes this “class structure” as an update of the inherited “caste system” that connects Confucianism and Stalinism . She states that having a bad family background is called "tainted blood" and that by law, that "tainted blood" lasts for three generations. She also claims that North Koreans will not be informed of their classification and that children can grow up without knowing their family status. Similarly, analyst Helen-Louise Hunter describes Songbun as "class background" and says that it is not officially published or well defined.

The North Korean government officially denies the system's existence. She claims that all citizens are equal and that she rejects any discrimination based on family background.

meaning

Since the collapse of the Eastern Bloc in the late 1980s to the early 1990s, the system is said to have decreased in importance. Before the collapse, the North Korean economy was heavily subsidized by the Eastern Bloc. With these funds, the government was able to provide material goods so that income could be generated through work in industry or bureaucracy. As a result, the ability to draw goods from the distribution system, decide where to live, what career to make, or how far to advance in society, all depended on your songbun, which made it the "single most important factor in that Determined the life of a North Korean ”. Before the collapse of the centralized system - which led to famine - the government had "almost complete control over an individual's life"; ergo, the only way to increase one's status or wealth was to advance through bureaucracy.

During the North Korean famine from 1994 to 1998 - when between 500,000 and 2.5 million people died - the Songbun system "often determined who got something to eat and who starved."

When the centralized system collapsed, the importance of the songbun declined. Capitalism was "rediscovered" to survive, and the average North Korean now derives most of their income from the private sector. As these private markets established themselves, being part of the enemy class was instead more beneficial, as they were not as dependent on the government as those with the better songbun. Military service has lost its popularity; earlier, after seven to ten years of service, a North Korean could hope to become a simple bureaucrat, but now it's more profitable to get involved in the private sector. Songbun is still important to members of the government elite, but for the majority of North Koreans, personal wealth has become more important than Songbun when it comes to defining one's place in society.

A prominent example of Songbun is Ko Yong-hi , the mother of current leader Kim Jong-un. Ko was in Osaka ( Japan born), which would make them an enemy class because of their Korean-Japanese heritage; her grandfather also worked in a sewing factory for the Japanese imperial army . Before an internal propaganda film was released, after the rise of Kim Jong-un, there were three attempts to establish a personality cult around Ko, in a style similar to that of Kang Pan-sŏk , the mother of Kim Il-sung, and Kim Jong-suk , the mother of Kim Jong-il and Kim Il-sung's first wife. These attempts were discontinued after Kim Jong-il's 2008 stroke. Building a personality cult around Ko runs into the problem of her poor songbun, as publicizing her identity would undermine the pure bloodline of the Kim dynasty. Ko's real name or other personal details have not been publicly disclosed (her ancestry could be determined as she worked for Mansudae Art Troupe, a musical group in Pyongyang), so she is known as the "Mother of Korea" or "Great Mother" , and the recent propaganda film named its main character "Lee Eun-mi". The complications of Ko's Songbun were such that after Kim Jong-il's death, her personal information, including her name, became state secrets. While Songbun is usually passed down from the father, Ko's background is one of the "lowest possible status grades" for a North Korean.

Quote

"Tomatoes that are red through and through are considered worthy communists, apples that are only red on the surface are considered ideologically improvable, and grapes are completely hopeless."

- The three main groups (core, fickle and hostile) are metaphorically described as tomatoes, apples and grapes, respectively.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b North Korea's rigid caste system. July 31, 2016, accessed March 17, 2020 .
  2. ^ A b Matthew McGrath: Marked for Life: Songbun, North Korea's Social Classification System. In: NK News. June 7, 2012, Retrieved March 17, 2020 (American English).
  3. ↑ Ask a North Korean: What is the 'songbun' system like under Kim Jong Un? In: NK News. September 5, 2019, accessed March 17, 2020 (American English).
  4. ^ A b Andrei Lankow : The Repressive System And The Political Control In North Korea. Severnaia Koreia: vchera i segodnia (North Korea: Yesterday and Today) . In: Vostochnaia literatura . Moscow 1995, p. without page indication .
  5. ↑ Kim Yong-gu: North Korean Residents' Songbun , pp. 70-75
  6. ^ Robert Collins: Marked for Life: Songbun, North Korea's Social Classification System . Ed .: Committee for Human Rights in North Korea. June 6, 2012 ( Online [PDF]).
  7. ^ A Look at North Korean Society. In: Tiny Book Review. Retrieved March 17, 2020 .
  8. ^ Helen-Louise Hunter: Kim Il-song's North Korea , Praeger, Westport, Connecticut, 1999, pp. 4-5.
  9. ^ Helen-Louise Hunter: Kim Il-song's North Korea . Ed .: Praeger. Westport, Connecticut, London 1999, ISBN 0-275-96296-2 , pp. 3-11, 31-33 (preface by Stephen J. Solarz).
  10. ↑ BR Myers: The Cleanest Race: How North Koreans See Themselves and Why It Matters . Melville House Publishing, Hoboken, NJ 2010, ISBN 978-1-933633-91-6 ( online ).
  11. ↑ Helen-Louise Hunter: Kim Il-song's North Korea , Praeger, Westport, Connecticut, 1999, pp. 3, 6.
  12. ↑ a b North Korea's new class system. Retrieved March 17, 2020 (American English).
  13. ^ Brian H. Hook: Opinion | The Parasites Feeding on North Koreans. In: The New York Times . November 24, 2017, accessed March 17, 2020 .
  14. ^ A b c Ko Young Ki, Manager, Tokyo Branch: Happy Birthday, Koh Young Hee. In: Daily NK. June 26, 2012, Retrieved March 17, 2020 (American English).
  15. ↑ Cho Jong Ik: 'Great Mother' Revealed to the World. In: Daily NK. June 30, 2012, Retrieved March 17, 2020 (American English).