North Korean Policy Elites - Defense Technical Information Center

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isk escape from the hermit kingdom. 3 And at least one true hero, Ahn Chol, has gone back and forth to bring pictures of tragic North Korea to the outside world. 4 In this light, continuing to communicate with North Koreans, and to find ways of refining our effort, is a worthy endeavor. This paper contributes to the consideration of potential North Korean audiences, effective messages, and tactics to overcome the barriers to communication. B. REMOTE, PECULIAR, AND MISERABLE Reference to the works of Lewis Carroll is the best way to begin any analysis of North Korea, as Kongdan Oh and Ralph C. Hassig do in the title of their excellent 2000 book: North Korea: Through the Looking Glass. 5 Everyone knows the story. Stepping through the looking glass, Alice soon finds that she needs a mirror to read the title of an epic poem, YKCOWREBBAJ. Then she encounters living chessmen, talking flowers, and the Red Queen, to whom she explains that she has lost her way. “All the ways about here belong to me” retorts the queen! 6 So it is with North Korea. Oh and Hassig call it “remote and peculiar” and it is, one should add, miserable. 7 And all the ways about there belong to Kim Jong-il! As one ponders just how to reach the isolated people of North Korea, it is important to bear in mind just how bizarre and perfectly totalitarian the place is. “Never before has there been such a country,” argues Sin Sang-ok, a South Korean movie director abducted and held by Kim Jong-il. 8 Although North Korea is sometimes dubbed “Stalinist” or “communist,” no “ist” really applies because it is truly unique. Indeed, Kim Il-sung and his son, Kim Jong-il, have achieved a level of social control and personal adulation that would make Stalin weep. Moreover, North Korea’s ideology is Juche, not communism - Marxism has been removed from the constitution and the charter of the Korean Workers’ Party. Juche is commonly translated as self-reliance, but it is a singular Korean blend of nationalism, socialism, Confucianism, and just plain authoritarianism, all twisted around to legitimize the absolute rule of the Kim dynasty. 3 “Some 15,000 N., Korean Soldiers Go AWOL in 2001-2002,” Seoul Yonhap, September 26, 2003, FBIS translation KPP20030926000088; “249 N. Koreans Enter S. Korea via South’s Diplomatic Missions,” Seoul, Yonhap, October 9, 2003, FBIS translation KPP20031009000012. 4 Gripping video taken by Ahn Chol is featured in Children of the Secret State, broadcast on the Discovery Times Channel, August 19, 2003. 5 Oh, Kongdan & Ralph C. Hassig, North Korea: Through the Looking Glass, Washington: Brookings Institution Press, 2000, hereafter cited as Oh & Hassig. 6 Carroll, Lewis, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, New York, Bantam Books, 1998, pp. 113-125. 7 Oh & Hassig p. xiv. 8 Sin Sang-ok, “ROK Movie Director Sends ‘Open Letter” to President Kim Tae-chung,” Seoul, Wolgan Choson, October 1, 2001, FBIS translation KPP20010924000017, pp. 138-156. Hereafter cited as Sin Sang-ok. V-2
The Kims rule with a heavy dose of mysticism. The late Kim Il-sung remains president for eternity - Kim Jong-il rules as Chairman of the National Defense Committee. Born in a Soviet refugee camp, Kim Jong-il claims to have been born at the foot of Mount Paektu, the traditional birthplace of the Korean people. Deer from that mountain wander his Pyongyang palace grounds, and only wood gathered from Mount Paektu can cook his food. Speculation is rife about which son Kim Jong-il will name as successor, and when, 9 but there is no doubt he will try to install a third generation Kim at the helm. Kim is revered as the dear leader, great general, and even matchless hero who rules the world with great virtue. But a Nodong Sinmun editorial shows that all bounds have been broken with regard to glorification of Kim Jong-il: We shall believe in and follow General Kim Chong-il, the peoples’ leader who has taken over the magnificent achievements of Juche ideology as a god...We shall live our life, trusting the great general as god. That is the banner of our eternal victory. 10 Newspapers and books are replete with passages such as: The great leader, Comrade Kim Chong-il, has pointed out the following: “Today, the heavy and honorable duty of further developing the country’s communications is presented before us. 11 The Dear Leader is credited with authoring thousands of articles on Juche, and he dispenses advice on weighty matters of state, as well as on everything else from the design of uniforms for Pyongyang’s (female) traffic police to the proper feeding of the rhinoceros at the capital’s zoo. North Korea is a leader-dominant state like no other. C. NORTH KOREAN SOCIETY All this matters for the consideration of potential North Korean audiences. With such absolute and total power, the Kim’s have literally redrawn social structures in North Korea. 9 Speculation has recently been revived by yet another report that Kim Jong-il is ill, coinciding with Kim Jong-nam returning from abroad. “Kim Chong-il Enters Hospital To Receive Emergency Treatment for Serious Liver Disease: Will the Kim Dynasty Collapse Finally?”, Tokyo Shukan Bunshun, January 22, 2004, p. 28-31, FBIS translation JPP20040116000057; Ko Sung-il, “Shukan Bunshun - Rumors of Chairman Kim Chong-il Having a Liver Trouble,” Seoul Yonhap, January 15, 2004, as translated and re-titled by FBIS KPP2004011600007. 10 Kentaro Isomura, “Interpretation of the ‘New Order’ in North Korean Leadership; Mr. Kim Chong-il Is Now a ‘God’,” Tokyo AERA, March 10, 1997, FBIS document FTS19970521000883. 11 Yi Pyong-ch’un, “DPRK Ministry Reports Progress in Mobile Telecommunications Network Construction Nationwide,” Pyongyang Nodong Sinmun, September 14, 2003, FBIS translation KPP20030924000114, p.3. The bolding represents how such a passage would appear in a North Korean newspaper. Hereafter cited as Telecommunications Progress. V-3
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INSTITUTE FOR DEFENSE ANALYSES Nort
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INSTITUTE FOR DEFENSE ANALYSES IDA
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CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY & INTROD
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To write accurately about North Kor
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technocrats, provincial and county
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PREFACE This paper will examine in
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ABBREVIATIONS AGI CCSKA COMSEC DoD
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information streams, and from him t
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within the hands of a few individua
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and whether or not he will embarras
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to the lowest-levels of the KPA. As
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strengthening of all armed forces,
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esearch institutes and “think tan
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The primary missions of the Reconna
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communication that generally fall o
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of the State Security Department or
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maintaining strict control over the
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agencies in the ROK and Japan began
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The Guard and Security Commands, wh
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eports that are funneled up through
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Complicating the entire “Kim-cent
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Within the military, this dynamic c
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him that all significant orders and
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Until the 1990s, the electronic med
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II. THE NORTH KOREAN LEADERSHIP: SY
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TABLES 1. Key Family Members in the
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The factional struggles in North Ko
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A. INTRODUCTION By definition, a to
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C. THE TECHNOLOGY OF POWER A Party
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document control bureaus in each mi
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Originally implemented in 1994 and
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Table II-1. Key Family Members in t
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of associates who trace their relat
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September 9, 2003, showed a change
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Chart II-2: Secretariat 5. Kye Ung-
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Members 1. Yi Ul-sul 4. Yi Yong-mu
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Table II-6. Kim Chong-il’s Princi
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Table II-7. Kim Chong-il’s Person
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chance to unfold. In terms of syste
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domestic policy arena, the split is
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At the second echelon of power, Kim
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D. FLOW OF INFORMATION George Kenna
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about things that affect their care
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(ID) and External Liaison (ELD) dep
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For the rest of the North Korean le
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the focus for not only a significan
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At the 11 th Supreme People’s Ass
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There is little doubt that one of t
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decision-making process. Moreover,
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III. THE WELL-INFORMED CADRE RALPH
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY DEFINITIONS AND A
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greater access to first-hand inform
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The first question addressed by thi
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But this lack of enthusiasm is prob
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as the 1950s. 16 The security organ
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Another way to look at divisions wi
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Because the Kim regime governs acco
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guess is that anyone who rises in t
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But even though the media serve as
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Newspapers The DPRK’s premier new
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motivation in its readers through m
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Page 2: • Kim Jong-suk’s develo
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This selection of news items presen
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in the wake of the U.S. propaganda
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the general audience in a two-step
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also countries surrounding the Kore
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that the war in Iraq was “a test
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and transform us internally through
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eceived with little thought and has
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outside world than the ordinary wor
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cognitive dissonance, particular ca
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IV. INSIDE NORTH KOREA’S BLACK BO
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The North Korean
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A. BETTER, MERRIER, MORE HOPEFUL LI
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In contrast, the optimists believe
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to the throne. The State Council us
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1976-1977, 4 and in 1986-1987 (see
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Bulgarian Trade Unions, after which
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Second, the principal objective of
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southward expansion, and, last but
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controlling some of North Korea’s
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also against the second-tier family
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Kim Sung-ae, who is Kim Il Sung’s
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Page 196 and 197: Bearing in mind Kim Jong Il’s rec
Page 198 and 199: Table IV-2. Composition of the Nort
Page 200 and 201: Cabinet Posts 10 th SPA 11 th SPA R
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Page 206 and 207: Table IV-7. Regional Origins of Top
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Page 212 and 213: Table IV-11. The North-South “Han
Page 214 and 215: Song Sok Hwan Vice-Minister Cha Sun
Page 216 and 217: Table IV-13. Korean-American “Int
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Page 223: APPENDIX B TONGIL STREET FREE MARKE
Page 227: V. REACHING INTO NORTH KOREA DAVID
Page 231 and 232: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY North Korea is no
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Page 238 and 239: Society is divided into three broad
Page 240 and 241: contradictions.” 17 This makes se
Page 242 and 243: Internet is not specifically mentio
Page 244 and 245: led to a training program for young
Page 246 and 247: North Korea’s exports from legiti
Page 248 and 249: een the biggest buyers of ivory ove
Page 250 and 251: worker who travels throughout North
Page 252 and 253: If we want to reach into North Kore
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Page 256 and 257: Although the future of cellular tel
Page 258 and 259: There are a host of other things on
Page 261 and 262: Each of the five papers in this col
Page 263 and 264: promotions) and punishments (e.g.,
Page 265 and 266: although presumably all calls are m
Page 267 and 268: cultural rules.” Given the “str
Page 269: Speaking of Kim, whom does he consu
Page 273: Terms of Reference: North Korean Po
Page 277 and 278: Joseph S. Bermudez Jr. is an intern
Page 279: APPENDIX C ASIAN VIEWS OF NORTH KOR
Page 282 and 283: In any case, the reforms provide a
Page 284 and 285: View from Seoul The single most imp
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