All North Koreans are subject to a life according to the “reminiscences” and “sayings” of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, and the Party’s “Ten Principles for the Establishment of the One-Ideology System.” Oversight of one’s adherence to these hallowed principles is by the organization to which one belongs, be it the Chosun Workers’ Party or some other labor group, and comes mostly in the form of self-and group-criticism among members, carried out at so-called “regular evaluation meetings”.
These weekly “regular evaluation meetings”, which are aimed at pointing out any “wrongdoings” in each member of the gathering, were established in April of 1974 when Kim Jong Il introduced the “Party’s Ten Principles for the Establishment of the One-Ideology System’ and decreed a system of thrice weekly and weekly “regular evaluation meetings.”
However, since the mass famine that struck the country in the 1990s, these “regular evaluation meetings” have become little more than mere rituals, unable to fulfil their political role of strengthening loyalty to the Party.
For example, the “regular evaluation meetings” of those organizations under the Union of Democratic Women, which is mainly comprised of housewives, in particular have become ordinary gatherings without a trace of their former function. To women for whom the heavy burden of feeding their families is quite enough, a “regular evaluation meeting” is a time-consuming luxury they can ill-afford.
Members of the Union of Democratic Women have transformed these “regular evaluation meetings” into gatherings for chatting. It often takes at least 30 minutes before everyone arrives at the meeting, and even after that, the main subjects of discussion revolve around one another’s families. The seemingly endless barrage of chatter only ends when the chairwoman of the organization, who is responsible for the presence of all members, convenes the meeting.
Once under way, each member, one by one, is supposed to stand up before the audience and reads whatever mandatory “criticism” she has written about herself and another member of the organization. The chairwoman should record all that has been said in her log, which must be sent to the upper echelons for review at regular intervals.
Unlike soldiers, students, and workers who live as part of a larger group, housewives tend to be alone at home for long periods, and thus have fewer subjects to critique. Nevertheless, they must attend the weekly evaluation meetings, even if it means fabricating stories. Pointing out the wrongdoings of another member is not optional; it is an absolute must.
In the 1990s, the form of “regular evaluation meetings” for housewives was modified from the traditional one whereby each member presented her criticisms in front of the audience to one in which each member wrote her criticisms on a “regular evaluation meeting note” and gave it to the chairwoman. The chairwoman would then transcribe the contents to the log.
But such changes were inadequate, and in the 2000s, “regular evaluation meetings” started to be conducted over the phone. This was usually practised on the premise that housewives were too busy to attend the regular meeting, and thus had no choice but to phone in their criticisms.
Kim, a 38-year old North Korean defector who arrived in South Korea in March 2010, said of the meetings, “They were extremely inconvenient and uncomfortable for housewives. When I couldn’t attend the meetings due to work or was short on time selling products, I used to report to the chairwoman over the phone.”
Some housewives just handed in their “regular evaluation meeting note” through neighbors who were able to attend the meetings, she recalled.
The upper bureaucracy does not change its policy according to life on the ground, of course, and housewives already know that raising questions about a defunct gathering will only bring down some sort of political retaliation. Thus, a clever and convenient way of handling the system has been built.
Of course, chairwomen are no exception to the economic hardships faced by the members of the Union of Democratic Women, and so the regular evaluation meetings are a burden to all those involved. And, without a strict enforcer, obviously the regulations are loosely adhered to. The possibility of a ‘fervent’ follower of the Party blowing the whistle to the upper hierarchy is unimaginable; such a member would surely be ostracized wherever she went.
