How communist is North Korea? From the birth to the death of Marxist ideas of human rights
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12240229 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jay Song (0000-0003-4964-677X, University of Oxford, corresponding author), Jiyoung Song (0000-0002-7157-8198) |
| Year | 2010 |
| Volume | 23 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 561-587 |
| Publication date | 2010-12-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Cambridge Review of International Affairs (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0955-7571 • E-ISSN: 1474-449X |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/09557571.2010.523821 |
| OpenAlex | W2094816540 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 4 |
This article focuses on the Marxist characteristics of North Korea in its interpretation of human rights. The author's main argument is that many Marxist features pre-existed in Korea. Complying with Marxist orthodoxy, North Korea is fundamentally hostile to the notion of human rights in capitalist society, which existed in the pre-modern Donghak (Eastern Learning) ideology. Rights are strictly contingent upon one's class status in North Korea. However, the peasants' rebellion in pre-modern Korea was based on class consciousness against the ruling class. The supremacy of collective interests sees individual claims for human rights as selfish egoism, which was prevalent in Confucian ethics. The prioritization of subsistence rights and material welfare over civil and political rights was also the foremost important duty of the benevolent Confucian king. Finally, unlike Marx's reluctant use of the language of 'duties', rights are the offspring of citizens' duties in North Korean human rights discourse. Notes 1 All interviews with North Korean defectors quoted here were confidentially recorded, without full real names, for reasons of privacy and security. Interview with K00 on 5 November 2008, Seoul. 2 Reports can be found in Korean at , accessed 9 November 2009. 3 Take note of the differences between 'class' and 'stratum'. The national census actually referred to 'stratum' (kyech'ung) instead of 'class' (kyekup): the latter implies the Marxist notion of the revolutionary antagonism between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat whereas the former simply distinguishes social status according to a person's family background, profession or loyalty to the party and the leader, as well as property ownership. 4 Interviews with K00 and J00 on 18 November 2008 and 25 November 2008, Seoul. 5 The People's Korea, , accessed 10 April 2008. 6 Each of the three Soviet constitutions (1918, 1936 and 1977) and each of four PRC constitutions (1954, 1975, 1978 and 1982) contained such a provision. For analysis of Soviet constitutional rights see Unger (Citation1981). For analysis of Chinese constitutional rights see Nathan (Citation1986). 7 The Ch'ollima movement is a long-term mass movement for enhancing rapid economic construction and achieving socialism in North Korea. According to Kim Il Sung, the Ch'ollima movement is 'one of the communist ideological programmes to make people actively participate in socialist construction and communist progressive movements to make people achieve popular heroism for socialism' (Kim Il Sung 1968/1983, 261). The Ch'ollima movement was initiated by Kim Il Sung in December 1956. The slogan had a mythical symbol 'Ch'ollima', which means a horse leaping 1,000-ri (approximately 250 miles): 'Let us run with the spirit of riding Ch'ollima.' It was jointly coordinated with the Three Revolutions (Ideological, Technological and Cultural) that were also taking place in order to improve the country's material conditions. The movement has been comprehensively implemented in almost every field: industry, agriculture, construction, health, science and education since then, and still continues. 8 Cumings (Citation2005). He confirms this argument at the talk at the London School of Economics and Political Science on 23 October 2009. 9 Ch'ongsanni is a small village in South Pyong'an province where North Korea's agricultural policy in the late 1940s was successful after the Land Reform. According to Kim Il Sung, there were only 120 houses in Ch'ongsanni but 40 of them were receiving newspapers and everyone who was of school age was going to school. Furthermore, almost every house owned livestock such as cows, pigs or chickens, and no one starved even at the hardest time of the year, which was usually June. The 'Ch'ongsanni method' refers to the ways people live in Ch'ongsanni. 10 Interview with P00 on 6 November 2008, Kyunggi, South Korea
Class conflict · Communism · Human rights · Ideology · Marxist philosophy · Political science · Politics · Proletariat · Sociology · Asian Industrial and Economic Development · International Relations and Foreign Policy · Korean Peninsula Historical and Political Studies · Law
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |