North Korea’s emphasis on improving the people’s quality of life, light industry and agriculture in the 2010 New Year’s Statement is, some experts believe, being governed by the need to promote Kim Jong Eun as a popular figure. According to this theory, the New Year’s Statement was worded to bring popular opinion on board with the idea of hereditary succession.
Cheong Seong Chang, a senior research fellow with the Sejong Institute, points out in “Sejong Comment,’ a regular academic publication from the Institute published this month on the 5th, that the while the phrase “Military-first” was mentioned no less than 33 times in the 2009 New Year’s Statement, it only cropped up 15 times this year, whereas “light industry” and “agriculture” were all but non-existent in 2009, but came up 9 and 11 times respectively this year.
Cheong believes that this shows North Korea’s leadership is moving towards the final stage of heredity, “People’s nomination.” That is, making Kim Jong Eun seem a worthy and respectable leader.
As part of this, North Korea is known to be paying salaries of up to 5,000 won to workers and one-off bonuses peaking at 150,000 won to farmers, all after confiscating market capital by redenominating the North Korean won at the end of November. Many see such measures as short-lived and populist actions designed to gain the support of blue-collar workers.
According to Cheong, “Since North Korea has decided that this year is to be the ‘year to open the door of the strong and prosperous state,’ the North Korean leadership cannot afford to stick to the line of sacrificing light industry and agriculture for the military-industrial complex.”
He went on, “North Korea’s leadership seems to have no other alternative than to pursue improving the people’s quality of life as this year’s major project. They need to garner the support of the people, which is a basic requirement for implementing the next stage of Kim Jong Eun’s succession, ‘nomination from the bottom’.”
He explained that North Korea did not mention the successor, Kim Jong Eun, directly in this year’s New Year’s Statement, but, “North Korea is claiming that the 150- and 100-Day Battles, the mass mobilizations of 2009 said to have been directed by Kim Jong Eun himself, were ‘the most memorable battles in this great upsurge in our history.’”
In addition, he commented that North Korea was making a spectacle of ‘Day of the Sun’ (Kim Il Sung’s birthday) and ‘May Day’ celebration events, which were also said to have been managed by Kim Jong Eun himself, in order to indirectly praise Kim Jong Eun’s leadership.
Cheong also hypothesized that, “Recent major political shifts like the disappearance of phrases like ‘self-revitalization” from this year’s Statement and the possibility of revision to ‘economic construction in the Military-first age’ might be related to the growing influence of Kim Jong Eun’s associates.”
He also added, “Some within North Korea argue that the currency swap conducted on November 30th was lead by Kim Jong Eun’s team as well. We should not lose sight of the possibility that the succession process for Kim Jong Eun, who studied abroad, might be influencing recent changes in North Korea’s domestic and foreign policies.”
