Hostname: page-component-68945f75b7-s56hc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-06T05:07:42.215Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Interest Groups in North Korean Politics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 March 2016

Patrick McEachern
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

North Korea is often characterized as some form of highly centralized rule: totalitarian, posttotalitarian, corporatist, or personalistic. This article argues that much of the confusion around understanding North Korea's actions stems from misplaced models. Much of the current thinking on North Korea's politics does not account for the limited institutional plurality in the system. The article documents how the state's political institutions have changed since the country's founding and highlights the formal and informal roles of each major bureaucracy today. The Korean Workers Party and the role of Juche have declined, but the National Defense Commission and “military-first politics” have not taken their place as reigning supreme. Rather the interaction between the Korean Workers Party, military, and cabinet helps explain and moderate policy outcomes.

Keywords

North KoreaDPRKinstitutionsinterest groupspluralismcabinetNDCKWP
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of East Asian Studies , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , August 2008 , pp. 235 - 258
Copyright
Copyright © East Asia Institute 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

For helpful comments, I would like to thank Mark Gasiorowski, Bill Clark, Wonik Kim, Andrew Scobell, John Merrill, Robert Rauchhaus, this journal's editor, and two anonymous reviewers.Google Scholar

The views expressed in the article are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of the US Department of State or the US government.Google Scholar

1. Oh, Kongdan and Hassig, Ralph C., North Korea Through the Looking Glass (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2000), p. 4.Google Scholar

2. Kim, Samuel S., “Introduction: A Systems Analysis,” in Kim, Samuel, ed., The North Korean System in the Post–Cold War Era (New York: Palgrave, 2001), pp. 12, 22.Google Scholar

3. Scobell, Andrew, Kim Jong Il and North Korea: The Leader and the System (Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, 2006), p. vi.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4. Kim, Hak Joon, North and South Korea: Internal Politics and External Relations Since 1988 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006), p. 150.Google Scholar

5. Neumann, Sigmund, Permanent Revolution: The Total State in a World at War (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1942); Arendt, Hannah, The Origins of Totalitarianism (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1950); Neumann, Franz, The Democratic and the Authoritarian State (Glencoe, IL: Free Press, 1957).Google Scholar

6. Linz, Juan, Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2000).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7. Oh, and Hassig, , North Korea Through the Looking Glass, pp. 39–40.Google Scholar

8. Skilling, H. Gordon and Griffiths, Franklyn, Interest Groups in Soviet Politics (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1971); Gleason, Abbott, Totalitarianism: The Inner History of the Cold War (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995).Google Scholar

9. Chehabi, Houchang and Linz, Juan, Sultanistic Regimes (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998); Geddes, Barbara, Paradigms and Sand Castles (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2003).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

10. Molina, Oscar and Rhodes, Martin, “Corporatism: The Past, Present, and Future of a Concept,” Annual Review of Political Science 5 (June 2002): 305–331.Google Scholar

11. Cumings, Bruce, “Corporatism in North Korea,” Journal of Korean Studies 4 (1982/83): 269–294; Cumings, Bruce, Korea's Place in the Sun: A Modern History (New York: W. W. Norton, 1997).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12. Hough's original formulation of Soviet politics also connects elite differences with different interests of the masses. I exclude this here, since I do not see a parallel in North Korea.Google Scholar

13. Hough, Jerry, The Soviet Union and Social Science Theory (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1977).Google Scholar

14. Linz, Juan and Stepan, Alfred, Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation: Southern Europe, South America, and Post-Communist Europe (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996); Goldfarb, Jeffrey, “Posttotalitarian Politics: Ideology Ends Again,” Social Research 57, no. 3 (1990): 533–554; Thompson, Mark, “To Shoot or Not to Shoot: Posttotalitarianism in China and Eastern Europe,” Comparative Politics 34, no. 1 (2001): 63–83.Google Scholar

15. For a related argument that Stalinism died in North Korea with Kim Il Sung, noting increased information inflows, marketization, limited entrepreneurship, relaxation of law enforcement, and a changed social hierarchy, see Lankov, Andrei, “The Natural Death of North Korean Stalinism,” Asia Policy 1 (January 2006): 95–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

16. Armstrong, Charles, “The Nature, Origins, and Development of the North Korean State,” in Kim, , The North Korean System, pp. 43–53.Google Scholar

17. Kim, Hak Joon, North and South Korea, p. 68.Google Scholar

18. Buzo, Adrian, The Guerilla Dynasty: Politics and Leadership in North Korea (London: I. B. Tauris, 1999), pp. 16–52; Koh, Byung Chul, “North Korea's Foreign Policymaking Process,” in Park, Jae Kyu, ed., The Foreign Relations of North Korea: New Perspectives (Boulder: Westview Press, 1987), pp. 49–55.Google Scholar

19. Se Yoo, Hee, “Change and Continuity in North Korea's Foreign Policy,” in Kim, Dough Joong, ed., Foreign Relations of North Korea During Kim Il Sung's Last Days (Seoul: Sejong Institute, 1994).Google Scholar

20. Haggard, Stephan and Noland, Marcus, Famine in North Korea: Markets, Aid, and Reform (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007).Google Scholar

21. Ahn, Byung-joon, “The Man Who Would Be Kim,” Foreign Affairs 73, no. 6 (November–December 1994): 94–108; de Mesquita, Bruce Bueno and Mo, Jongryn, North Korean Economic Reform and Political Stability (Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution, 1996); Eberstadt, Nicholas, The End of North Korea (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1999).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

22. Koh, Byung Chol, “‘Military-First Politics’ and Building a ‘Powerful and Prosperous Nation’ in North Korea,” Nautilus Policy Forum Online 05-32A, April 14, 2005.Google Scholar

23. Choi, Jinwook, “Changing Relations Between Party, Military, and Government in North Korea and Their Impact on Policy Direction,” APARC Working Paper (Stanford, CA: Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, 1999).Google Scholar

24. Kim, Sung Chull, North Korea Under Kim Jong Il: From Consolidation to Systemic Dissonance (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2006), pp. 95–98.Google Scholar

25. Kim, Hak Joon, North and South Korea, pp. 108–109.Google Scholar

26. Yonhap News Agency, North Korea Handbook (London: M. E. Sharpe, 2003), pp. 98–104.Google Scholar

27. Lintner, Bertil, “The North Korea Enigma: Sons and Heirs,” Asia Times, August 18, 2006, www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/HH18Dg01.html.Google Scholar

28. An, Tai Sung, North Korea: A Political Handbook (Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1983), p. 52.Google Scholar

29. Mansourov, Alexandre, “Inside North Korea's Black Box: Reversing the Optics,” in Oh, Kongdan and Hassig, Ralph C., eds., North Korean Policy Elites, IDA Paper P-3903 (Alexandria, VA: Institute for Defense Analysis, 2004), p. 45.Google Scholar

30. Chung, In Moon, and Kim, Yongho, “The Future of the North Korean System,” in Kim, , The North Korean System, p. 236; Yonhap, North Korea Handbook, p. 189.Google Scholar

31. Kim, Hak Joon, North and South Korea, pp. 90–112; Kim, , The North Korean System, p. 16.Google Scholar

32. Suh, Dae-Sook, “New Political Leadership,” in Kim, , The North Korean System, pp. 79–81.Google Scholar

33. Oh, and Hassig, , North Korea Through the Looking Glass, pp. 119–120.Google Scholar

34. Yonhap, , North Korea Handbook, p. 93.Google Scholar

35. For debates surrounding North Korea's economic reform, see Ahn, Choong-yong, Eberstadt, Nicholas, and Young-sun, Lee, A New International Engagement Framework for North Korea? Contending Perspectives (Washington, DC: Korea Economic Institute, 2005); Frank, Ruediger, “Economic Reforms in North Korea (1998–2004): Systemic Restrictions, Quantitative Analysis, Ideological Background,” Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy 10, no. 3 (2005): 278–311; Kim, Young Yoon and Choi, Soo-young, Understanding North Korea's Economic Reforms (Seoul: Center for the North Korean Economy, Korea Institute for National Unification, 2005); Haggard, and Noland, , Famine in North Korea, 2007.Google Scholar

36. Barghoorn, Frederick C., “The Security Police,” in Skilling, H. Gordon and Griffiths, Franklyn, eds., Interest Groups in Soviet Politics (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1971).Google Scholar

37. Mansourov, , “Inside North Korea's Black Box,” pp. 46–47.Google Scholar

38. Bermudez, Joseph S. Jr., The Armed Forces of North Korea (London: I. B. Tauris, 2001).Google Scholar

39. Kim, Hak Joon, North and South Korea, p. 87.Google Scholar

40. Carlin, Robert and Wit, Joel, North Korean Reform, Adelphi Paper No. 382 (London: International Institute for Strategic Studies, 2006).Google Scholar

41. Ibid. Google Scholar

42. Kim, and Choi, , Understanding North Korea's Economic Reforms. Google Scholar

43. Lim, Wonhyuk, “North Korea's Economic Futures: Internal and External Dimensions,” CNAPS Working Paper (Washington, DC: Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies, 2005), www.brookings.edu/fp/cnaps/events/lim_20051102.pdf.Google Scholar

44. Snyder, Scott, “Negotiating Regime Survival in the Face of System Crisis,” in Kim, , The North Korean System, p. 174.Google Scholar

45. Kim, Sung Chull, North Korea Under Kim Jong Il, pp. 100–101.Google Scholar