#6: Remembering Kim Jong Il

Kim Jong Il's central legacy to the DPRK would have to be Songun. The doctrine unveiled after the death of Kim Il Song which declares the military as the highest priority for the North Korean economic and state apparatus. Songun literally translates to "military first," and as an ideological concept, now has been elevated to a similar status as Juche  (self-reliance) in North Korean Society.

This policy now pervades every line of thought in North Korean politics. Some examples would be Songun's role in re-unification of the peninsula:
 
"The reunification movement will make more dynamic progress this year thanks to the ever-victorious Songun politics and the firm determination of the fellow countrymen to open the gate to national reunification without fail."

Another article lauds Pyongyang's growth (via the Taedong River) as evidence of the Songun policy's success in advancing North Korean society. The first sentence equates North Korea with Songun:

"In the revolutionary grand march to open the gate to great prosperity lots of structures have been built demonstrating a new civilization of Songun Korea."

Also, this same article was published on December 8, 2011, 9 days before the Supreme Commander's demise. Still living, Kim Jong Il represents the culmination of the DPRK's prosperity and growth by means the Songun ideology. He is also presumably responsible for bringing North Korea into the Songun era which Jo Hyang Son, the author, mentions multiple times.

"Taedonggang Combined Fruit Farm was built in a few years as a leading fruit producer of the world and one of the 11 famous views in the Songun era."

"They say: A new civilization offers itself in Korea in the Songun era along with the Taedong River."

"Today the Taedong River is a symbol not only of beauty and abundance, but of great prosperity and a new civilization in the Songun era."

Perhaps it is easiest to say that Kim Jong Il's legacy will be Songun politics and the integration of Songun's role into daily life. More importantly however, is the impact that his reign has exerted and will continue to exert on the people of North Korea. While I understand the lack of civil society (which the Songun politic idealizes) to underscore an inequality in the power distribution of a state, will the state, or even more unlikely, will Kim Jong Un be the head of the DPRK that supports and encourages civil society. Could there already be a "people first" movement in the workings of the North Korean proletariat? Perhaps Kim Jong Il's Songun legacy will not be influential and persist in the developement of greater military might and a more malignant foreign policy but instead Songun could represent the beginning of the end of the DPRK. Perhaps Songun will become a line in the sand for the youth and begin a period of reform, and in the not-to-distant future come to represent the end of the oppressive DPRK and the beginning of a "people first" era.

Here is Rodong Sinmun's commemoration to Kim Jong Il's life:

Kim Jong Il Will Always Live in Hearts of Koreans and World Progressives

Today in Pyongyang there will be held a ceremony bidding last farewell to the bier of great leader Kim Jong Il.

The revolutionary career of Kim Jong Il was one of a great successor who set an example of the times in materializing ideas of the preceding leader and accomplishing his cause.

It was the noble life of a peerless patriot who carved out a rosy future of Kim Il Sung's Korea through his tireless dedication to the country and its people and an immortal life of a world political elder and an outstanding leader who steered the cause of human independence and the cause of socialism to victory.

Kim Jong Il always lives in the hearts of the Korean people and army and humankind with the great revolutionary idea indicating the road ahead of the times and history.

It was thanks to his revolutionary idea, Songun idea that the servicepersons and people of the DPRK could firmly maintain the lifeline of the Juche revolution despite the worst trials and demonstrate the dignity of the country as an invincible political and ideological power and a matchless military power before the world.

He always lives with the revolutionary cause of the popular masses and the socialist cause which make steady victories along the orbit of independence.

He provided the unbreakable single-minded unity of the party, army and people and a mainstay for defending the country and achieving its prosperity like a powerful war deterrent. This helped the DPRK win victory after victory in the fierce confrontation with the imperialist allied forces and the final victory of Korean-style socialism. This is the world-startling miracle and the great victory of Kim Jong Il's politics.

He is immortal thanks to the inseparable ties of kindred with the Korean people.
His love for the Korean people is shining as the warmest and devoted love of a father hard to find in human history.

Leader Kim Jong Il will always live in the hearts of the Korean people and progressive humankind of the world and he will find himself at all times among the participants in the general onward march advancing full of confidence under the leadership of dear respected Kim Jong Un.

Thanks to Rodong Sinmun: http://www.rodong.rep.kp/InterEn/index.php?strPageID=SF01_02_01&newsID=2011-12-28-0001&chAction=L

#5 Update: Condolences for Kim Jong Il

I don't want to make a habit of this but there must be some follow-up to my post about Kim Jong Il's condolence letters. I have found a multitude of information concerning Kim Jong Il's funeral and associated miscellany, albeit not from Rodong Sinmun. The wikipedia article offers a comprehensive documentation of the reaction of heads of state and I suggest that if you are interested to start here. The list of states, organizations, and parties is a large one indeed.  Following many of these reports to their source material unfortunately does not reveal more details as to the motive

Here I am amending an error that I made concerning the Vietnamese President. Truong Tan Sang did send a letter of condolence which I found here:

"Vietnamese President:
The DPRK National Defence Commission received a message of condolences from Truong Tan Sang, president of Vietnam and president of its National Defence and Security Council, on Tuesday as regards the demise of leader Kim Jong Il.
The message said:
I, on behalf of the State of Vietnam and the National Defence and Security Council of Vietnam, express deepest condolences to the DPRK National Defence Commission and the fraternal Korean people.
Comrade Kim Jong Il is the great leader of the Korean people.
His demise is untold great loss to the Korean party, state and people and the Vietnamese party, state and people lost their close friend and comrade.
We are convinced that the fraternal Korean people will overcome sorrow and display strength to break through difficulties and continuously achieve the shining victories in the cause of construction and development of the state under the leadership of the Workers' Party of Korea.
We are sure that the friendly and cooperative relations between Vietnam and the DPRK would continue to develop in the interests of the two peoples and regional and global peace, stability and cooperation."

Also this article in the Phnom Pehn Post dives into the rich relationship between Cambodia and North Korea.  The two countries share not only a diplomatic mission as evidenced by King Sihanouk in this passage.

"Sihanouk himself penned a number of musical scores and lyrics in 1970 celebrating the “friendship and fraternity” between Cambodia and North Korea. The compositions included Homage of Khmers to Marshal Kim Il-Sung  and Korea and Cambodia Are Revolutionary Comrades-in-Arms."

I am disappointed that despite leaving the Rodong Sinmun for information concerning Kim Jong Il's death, such similarly created content exists across the web. The authors of the Phnom Pehn Post article stand alone in their. I applaud Bridget Di Certo and Vong Sokheng for diving into the relationship between these two men and their representative countries.

#4: Kimjongilia Festival

Early today the Rodong Sinmun website updated its layout.  It is certainly an improvement on what previously existed. Now a visitor can see many articles in the categories: Supreme Leaders Activities', In DPRK, Inter-Korean, and International. I hope that the changes stick and that maybe the next layout update of their website will bring the look of Rodong Sinmun into this decade. I hope the changes stick. Besides that I am beside myself in anticipation for this event. Here is article from Rodong Sinmun:

16th Kimjongilia Festival to Be Held in Pyongyang

The 16th Kimjongilia Festival will take place significantly in Pyongyang on the occasion of the Day of the Shining Star.

Attending the festival, to be opened at the Kimilsungia-Kimjongilia Exhibition in mid-February 2012, will be armed forces organs, ministries and national institutions, overseas compatriots' organizations including Chongryon (General Association of Korean Residents in Japan), working people, school youth and children and foreigners.

During the festival there will be shows of immortal flower and visits to Kimilsungia-Kimjongilia greenhouses in localities.

The festival will serve as that of wishing immortality and paying highest respects of the Korean army and people and the world's progressives to leader Kim Jong Il.

#3: Condolences for Kim Jong Il

While sorting out the old news in the archives I uncovered a treasure of foreign contact with North Korea as a result of the Supreme Leader's passing on December 17, 2011. Kim Jong Il's death, as I see it, was a chance for friends of the regime to re-assert their political ties and for those nations, who have the most to lose if the political accession of Kim Jong Un went/goes awry, to reinforce the status quo as the most likely source of stability with the DPRK.  

There are a number of articles here dealing with the international reaction to Kim Jong Il's passing. Predictably, the bordering nations of Russia, Japan, and China have offered their condolences whereas any mention of  South Korea seems to be missing. Also to no surprise are the Latin American nations Cuba and Venezuela  standing in solidarity with their communist brethren. A notable exception is an official letter from the Vietnam. Syria's Bashar Al-Assad sends best wishes for the Kim Jong Un's future, perhaps a nod for the any nuclear technologythat made it his way during Kim Jong Il's tenure as chief N. Korean nuclear scientist.The remaining few are a mixed bag. Why Uganda's President  Museveni, Equatorial Guinea's Mbasogo, Sudan's President Ahmad Al－Bashir, Cambodia's King Norodom Sihamoni and Mongolian Head of State Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj all felt the need to support North Korea in its time of transition and mourning escapes me. And of course there is 39th US President Jimmy Carter.

For the domestic take on Kim Jong Il's passing the letters Rodong Sinmun published from the Worker's Party of Korea can be read here.

Truth be told these condolence letters seem bizarre. I was in Poland when Lech Kaczyński died and the outpouring for not only him but the 95 other people on board really struck me. There were tiny blurbs about everyone and what honors and achievments they had earned and some of the victims had their political lives detailed (and sometimes criticized.) Other nations leaders offered their condolences and shared their mutual successes and histories. In comparision, the Polish tragedy's news coverage really stikes me as an organic, emotional response to a national loss of identity, however the North Korean media reports are formulaic and personally I find them unconvincing. Here Hugo Chavez, "voiced the belief that the Korean people will surely achieve the prosperity of the country." Medvedev claimed these words as his own, "In Russia His Excellency Kim Jong Il is well known as the leader of a friendly state who did a lot for the strengthening and development of the traditional Russia-DPRK good neighborly relations." These passages are devoid of any real substance. There is nothing but vague ideas and formless relationships alluded to in these messages.


I found the North Korean responses to be the most convincing but still based in the broadest generalities, which lack any true substance by which I mean any criticism (good or bad) of any concrete policy, action, or fact of life. I'll leave you with Kenichi Ogami's condolence letter he wrote to Kim Jong Un:

We were planning various congratulatory meetings in the new year full of joy to mark the 70th birthday of the great General Secretary Kim Jong Il.

Juche idea followers of the world were expected to gather in Pyongyang, picturing to themselves 2012 in which the gate to a thriving nation would be opened.

I cannot repress sorrow, greatly shocked by the sad news that Kim Jong Il passed away.

He was very busy with the work to carry forward the revolutionary cause of Juche and make the DPRK a model of the world.

We suffered the sorrow of losing the general secretary too early as he traversed the road of revolution only for the sake of people, not caring for himself.

But he provided a sure guarantee for carrying forward the revolution generation after generation and achieving the final victory of the Juche cause.

We will in the future take the road of Juche forever together with respected Your Excellency Kim Jong Un, successor to the ideas of the great President Kim Il Sung and General Secretary Kim Jong Il.

We express deep condolences over the demise of Kim Jong Il.

 

#2: Sort of a statement of purpose (and whales)

So I'm beginning this blog with the intent of pursing a long time interest of mine, The Democratic People's Republic of Korea. My curiosity was born from the puppety mockery of Kim Jong Il in the movie Team America and from this humorous introduction to North Korea, my relationship has only deepened. When I discovered that there would be a daily English version of the paper, I realized that by reading this paper I would have the opportunity to gain real insight into the working of the North Korean state apparatus and maybe learn something about the people. Now I realize that this project deserves something more than just my perusing of news articles for some information and that an analysis of the content and a meditation on the themes and ideas within the paper could shed a new light on not only the problems and shortcomings of the DPRK and its people but also those of the my own nation and people.

Thanks to: http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/cetaceans/cetaceans/iwc/

I want to recognize that this is a developing interest for me. I am not a communist scholar, cetologist, or any sort of expert on anything. Somedays I feel like forming cogent sentences and stringing my thoughts together in paragraph form is a difficult task much less putting together details to analyze anything. So I want to encourage anyone who is more knowledgable than myself and wants to criticize or provide any criticism to get in touch because for me sharing information is one of the internet's best selling points.

Post #1: Inspects Construction Projects Undertaken by KPA

This story has been the headline for the past few days and the first sentence spells it all out:

"Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army Kim Jong Un, supreme leader of the Workers' Party of Korea, state and army, inspected various construction projects undertaken by KPA service personnel."

Thanks to http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/korea.html

I'm going to take it easy on this one. So here this article is about Kim Jong Un and what he does during the visit. Luckily the Political Report Team (what is that??) doesn't stop at his coming and goings but continues to spell out the leader's vision of the future:

"He called for constructing even a single building in such a way as to be impeccable in the distant future, regarding the WPK's Juche-based idea and theory of architectural beauty as a firm guiding principle."

As well as his architectural requirements for building aesthetics:

"He also underlined the need to thoroughly implement the Party's policy of putting architecture on a formative artistic basis and thus complete all the projects at the best level so that they may look like spectacular not only when viewed from distance but at close range."

 I find these recommendations innane, kind of like oversharing, but this attempt at micromanaging I find hard to even believe:

"He emphasized the need to build the Meat Shop in Hero Street in such a way as to provide the best conveniences to the customers as the shop will be frequented by them, adding that to this end it is necessary to thoroughly embody the serve-the-people spirit and kindness in the construction."

This is obviously the work of some planning committee but there is no mention of this group. It is as if all work that happens, happens through the Leader. They are dependent on him for every detail and every aspect of life. How could everyone in the DPRK be concerned with what Kim Jong Un thinks about their daily work? I sure wouldn't lose a bit of sleep over what facade Obama wanted me to cover my building with. This first post begins to reinforce the media's support of Kim Jong Un as a Supreme Leader.

Thanks to: http://www.rodong.rep.kp/InterEn/index.php?strPageID=SF01_02_01&newsID=2012-01-13-0007