North Korea’s primary institutions of social control and socialization are neither the army nor the party but extra-governmental bodies such as Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth League and Korean Democratic Women’s Union, argued an expert in North Korean affairs.
Professor Lee On Juk presented on the 27th her paper entitled, “Characteristics and transformation of North Korea’s Institutions of Social Order: Focusing on the Social Standing of Extra-Governmental Organizations” at the Unification Studies Symposium (Part II) organized by the Institute for Unification Studies of Seoul National University for the first half of 2008.
In the paper, Professor Lee analyzed the development and transformation of Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth League and Korean Democratic Women’s Union, both of which are the nation’s largest extra-governmental and social organizations with membership about 5 million.
Professor Lee said at the symposium, “The nation’s economic hardship has bred a sense of hopelessness among young people in North Korea. They take less interest in the nation’s systematic ideological education.” The professor asserted that North Korean youths are less likely to be disciplined than ever before because they are under the influence of “‘liberal-bourgeois trends’” and the importance of politics, ideology and organization has been waned in North Korea over the years.
“Kim Jong Il’s leadership which is less charismatic than his father’s is closely associated with the rise of the undisciplined youth,” remarked Professor Lee.
The professor introduced the additional characteristics of today’s young people in North Korea.
▲ Rising importance of individuality and personal tastes.
▲ Rising importance of material prosperity.
▲ Changed view of occupation (which is directed by self-interest)
▲ Increased defiance
▲ Changed view of marriage
▲ Rise of non-socialist way of life.
At the symposium, the professor examined the lives of individual members of the aforementioned extra-governmental organizations and then offered the prospect of a change in North Korean society. Professor Lee pointed out that these organizations are important not only in that as they deal with females and youths and therefore are sensitive to social change but also in that they educate young people as members of society who will lead the nation.
During the first part of the Unification Studies Symposium, Professor Park Kyung Suk of Seoul National University presented her paper, “Population in North Korea: Economic Hardship and Famine of 1990s and Their Impact on Population Fluctuation.” Professor Park said, “North Korea’s famine and economic crisis is closely related to the size and structure of the nation’s population. This can be verified by the fact that the country’s mortality which had been decreased until the early 1990s increased to a greater extent after the mid 1990s.”
In addition, Park said, “The fertility rate has been decreased since the late 1980s, and this has to do with the decreased amount of food distribution and changes in women’s economic activities.”
“However, the change in population structure cannot be solely attributed to the economic crisis. That is because living conditions have been changed and new life style has been established accordingly,” Professor Park said. “In preparation for unification, more complete and accurate data should be used for studies on North Korea.”
