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The Judicial and Administrative Structure in North Korea*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 February 2009
Extract
A knowledge of judicial and administrative structure plays a vital part in understanding the government and politics of any society. In a Communist society, the administrative apparatus plays an important role, not only in controlling the society but also in implementing Party and government directives. To fully understand the government and politics of North Korea, it may prove helpful to investigate the administrative structure by which the North Korean leaders control the society and remain in power. After a decade and a half of political rule, these North Korean leaders are faced with constant social changes and rising pressures from below. The relations between political power and political institutions, between political ideal and social reality, between the formulation and implementation of policy, have in fact been a major ideological concern for North Korea's administrators, a preoccupation they share with the leaders of other Communist societies. The amount of information made available about the North Korean judicial and administrative system has been scanty at best. This article therefore is exploratory and not definitive in nature. By utilising the materials that are available this article attempts to present North Korean views and attitudes about law and administration, and to describe the institutional framework in which the legal and administrative apparatus functions; at the same time it also attempts to examine the Soviet and Communist Chinese impact on the development of North Korea's administrative system.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © The China Quarterly 1963
References
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