North Korea Under Kim Jong II: From Consolidation to Systemic Dissonance

by Kim, Song Chull

• ISBN13: 9780791469286
• ISBN10: 079146928X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-06-01
• Publisher: State Univ of New York Pr

Summary

North Korea has long been a country of mystique, both provoking two nuclear crises and receiving aid from the international community and South Korea in more recent times. North Korea under Kim Jong Il examines how internal changes in North Korea since the early 1970s have structured that nation's apparently provocative nuclear diplomacy and recent economic reform measures. To understand these changes, author Sung Chull Kim uncovers relatively unknown internal aspects of the country under Kim Jong Il's leadership. His account, based on a thorough examination of primary sources, traces the origins, consolidation, and dissonance of North Korea's systemic identity. He reveals how official and unofficial developments in the domains of North Korea's politics, ideology, economics, and intellectual-cultural affairs have brought about systemwide duality, particularly between socialist principles embedded in the official ideology and economic institutions. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Sung Chull Kim is Associate Professor of Northeast Asian Studies at the Hiroshima Peace Institute in Japan

Table of Contents

Tables and Figures	p. vii
Abbreviations	p. ix
Note on Romanization	p. xi
Preface	p. xiii
Introduction: A Conceptual Frame for Systemic Changes	p. 1
Emergence of the Systemic Identity of North Korea	p. 3
Embodiment of the System: Functional Differentiation	p. 10
Systemic Dissonance and Major Conjunctures	p. 13
Requirement for Systemic Viability: Openness	p. 24
Tour of the Book	p. 26
Kim Jong Il: The Political Man and His Leadership Character	p. 29
The Shaping of a Political Personality	p. 31
The Political Man's Road to Succession	p. 41
Active-Negative Leadership Character	p. 45
Implications for Systemic Changes	p. 54
The Party's Strengthening Discipline and Weakening Efficiency	p. 57
Kim Il Sung's Legacy: From a Mass Party to an Institutionalized Party	p. 59
Kim Jong Il and Organizational Changes	p. 65
Party-Life Criticism as a Disciplinary Instrument	p. 69
The Declining Efficiency of the Party	p. 75
Dual Implications	p. 79
Military-First Politics and Changes in Party-Military Relations	p. 81
Power Dynamics and Party-Military Relations	p. 83
Military-First Politics under Kim Jong Il	p. 91
Institutional Differentiation between the Party and the Military	p. 96
Relevance to Kim Jong Il's Management Style	p. 101
Chuch'e in Transformation	p. 105
Chuch'e and Power Succession	p. 106
Socialism in Historical Development	p. 112
Estrangement from Marxism-Leninism	p. 121
On Capitalism and Opening Up	p. 130
Reflections on Chuch'e: With Special Reference to Systemic Identity	p. 135
The Fluctuation of Economic Institutions and the Emergence of Entrepreneurship	p. 137
Institutions of Economic Management: Traditions and Their Dislocation	p. 138
Increased Local Latitude	p. 147
The Emergence of Private Entrepreneurs	p. 150
Informal Transition of Property Rights	p. 157
Implications for Systemic Dissonance	p. 163
The Changing Roles of Intellectuals	p. 165
Socialist Transformation and Persecution of Intellectuals	p. 166
Socialist Mobilization and Changes in the Class Status of Intellectuals	p. 174
Kim Jong Il's Rise and His Mobilization of Intellectuals	p. 178
The Perceived "Internal Enemy" in Times of Decaying Socialism	p. 183
Facilitation of the "Skip-Over Strategy"	p. 186
Conclusion: Dilemmas of Opening Up	p. 193
Special Features of Systemic Dissonance	p. 193
Defiance in 2002	p. 199
Appendix	p. 207
Notes	p. 211
Bibliography	p. 251
Index	p. 267
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