DPRK

The Democratic
Disadvantaged beginning
Peoples’
Republic of
Korea
Gabriel Abood
What comes to
mind when you
hear North Korea?

Marx or not Marx
• “Human beings are merely matters
in motion.”
• “The basis of the idea is that man is
the master of all things and the
decisive factor in everything.”
• “Socialism is based on the concept
of public ownership and regulation
of the means of production.
Production occurs for use, and the
law of value no longer directs
economic activity.”
• “Socialism is a bowl of rice.”
• “It is important to launch a mass and
society-wide struggle to drastically
increase the production of consumer
goods.”
Imperial Japan Reborn
• The North Korean view of the world included a nationaliist, ethnocentric element which occasionally resembled
racism. (Gabbroussenko 2015)
• “Keep your feet firmly planted on your own ground, but turn your eyes to the world. Redouble your effort
to make the world admire our great Party and Kim Il Sung’s Korea.” (Kim Chol Ung, 2013)
• “Koreans are homogenous, therefore they are filled with brotherly love,” Supreme Leader Kim Jong-il
• “Our nation has always considered its pure lineage to be of great importance,” a North Korean general told his
South Korean counterpart during a 2006 meeting to discuss realignment of the maritime border between the two
states. “Since ancient times our lands have been one of abundant natural beauty,” he said. “Not even one drop of
ink must be allowed.”
Black Market Dynasty
• The 2009 amendment to the North

Korean Constitution removed any
mention of communism in the
constitution and prioritized Juche and
Songun.
• The 2016 amendment had the preamble
revised to enshrine Kim Il-sung and
Kim Jong-il as the eternal leaders of
Juche Korea.
• After the famine in the 1990s, the
socialist food distributed ceased and
an informal economy was
established, which the government
largely overlooks.

Intermission
•T
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-kuOwUAHIQ&list=PLusfqkZihojZ-f4OXnB20304cHzw4wsgn&index=17
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra5ZNNTpf10
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkPz_hKs48U
•
Another Brick in
the Wall
• Article 43 of the North Korean constitution
states that “the State shall embody the
principles of socialist pedagogy so as to raise
the rising generation to be steadfast
revolutionaries who will fight for society and the
people, to be people of the new Juche type who
are acknowledgeable, morally sound and
physically healthy”
• Schoolchildren perform physical labor
• Middle School studies “Kim Jong-Un’s Revolutionary
Acts”, high school studies revolutionary philosophy,
and university students take courses titled
“Philosophy of the Juche ideology”, “History of
the Revolution” and “Juche Political Economy”
Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2
• Education is state-funded. The self-reported literacy rate is 100%, but UNESCO estimates 10%
literacy.
• Children go through one year of kindergarten, four years of primary education, six
years of secondary education, and then on to university.
• In 1988, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) reported that North Korea had 35,000 preprimary, 60,000 primary, 111,000
secondary, 23,000 college and university, and 4,000 other postsecondary teachers
• In his 1977 Theses on Socialist Education, Kim Il Sung described the components of
social education. In the Korean Children's Union and the
Socialist Patriotic Youth League, young people learn the nature of collective and
organizational life in North Korea. Some prepare for membership in the
Korean Workers' Party.
• Every university in North Korea has to receive a certain percentage (twenty to thirty) of
discharged Korean People's Army soldiers (served longer than three years) or workers
(employed longer than five years)
• According to a Korean-American scholar who visited the university in the early 1980s,
only one student is admitted out of every five or six applicants. An important criterion
for admission is senior middle school grades, although political criteria are also major
factors in selection. A person wishing to gain acceptance to any institution of higher
education has to be nominated by the local "college recommendation committee"

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• The 2009 amendment to the North

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