The Korean Central History Museum ( Korean : 조선중앙력사박물관 ) is a museum located in Pyongyang , North Korea . The museum is located at the north end of Kim Il-sung Square . It contains displays on Korean history from primitive society to the modern age.
120-536: The museum was established on 1 December 1945 by Kim Il Sung . It was located on Moran Hill . During the Korean War , most of the museum's collections were hidden, and the original museum building was destroyed by the US troops. The museum was rebuilt on Kim Il-sung Square in 1960 (or 1977). In 1998, the museum was commemorated on a series of postage stamps. In a 2014 speech, Kim Jong Un stated that he wanted to set
240-677: A Supreme People's Assembly . The Democratic People's Republic of Korea was proclaimed on 9 September 1948, with Kim as the Soviet-designated premier. On 12 October, the Soviet Union recognized Kim's government as the sovereign government of the entire peninsula, including the south. The Communist Party merged with the New People's Party of Korea to form the Workers' Party of North Korea, with Kim as vice-chairman. In 1949,
360-541: A puppet government . In 1935, Kim became a member of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army , a guerrilla group led by the CCP. Kim was appointed the same year to serve as political commissar for the 3rd detachment of the second division, consisting of around 160 soldiers. Here Kim met the man who would become his mentor as a communist, Wei Zhengmin, Kim's immediate superior officer, who at
480-415: A Socialist education." Local and regional farming autarkies in many areas of Africa and Southeast Asia were displaced by European colonial administrations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, who sought to push smallholder villages into larger plantations that, while less productive, they could more easily control. The self-sufficient communities and societies ended by colonialism were later cited as
600-579: A closed economy that prohibited outside trade and focused on centralized distribution of goods produced in localized farms and workshops. A hierarchy of bureaucrats oversaw the distribution of these resources from central depots, including a massive one located in the Forbidden City . That depot was, at the time, the largest logistical base in the world. The Incan Empire also maintained a system of society-wide autarky based on community levies of specific goods and "supply on command". In some areas of
720-702: A communist leader for the Soviet-occupied territories and Beria met Kim several times before recommending him to Stalin. Kim arrived in the Korean port of Wonsan on 19 September 1945 after 26 years in exile. According to Leonid Vassin, an officer with the Soviet MVD , Kim was essentially "created from zero". For one, his Korean was marginal at best; he only had eight years of formal education, all of it in Chinese. He needed considerable coaching to read
840-544: A contributing factor to the eventual Bronze Age Collapse when multiple crises hit those systems at once. After that collapse, the ideal of autarkeia formed a part of emerging Greek political culture, emphasizing economic self-sufficiency and local self-rule. The populist Chinese philosophy of Agriculturalism , prominent in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, supported egalitarian, self-sufficient societies as an antidote to rampant war and corruption. During
960-490: A five-year national economic plan (akin to Soviet Union's five-year plans ) to establish a command economy , with all industry owned by the state and all agriculture collectivized . The economy was focused on heavy industry and arms production. By the 1960s, North Korea enjoyed a standard of living which was higher than the standard of living in the South, which was fraught with political instability and economic crises . In
1080-551: A glass coffin for viewing purposes. His head rests on a traditional Korean pillow and he is covered by the flag of the Workers' Party of Korea. Newsreel video of the funeral at Pyongyang was broadcast on several networks and can now be found on various websites. Kim Il Sung's most notable contribution to political theory is his conceptualization of the Juche idea, originally described as a variant of Marxism–Leninism . In his writings, Kim engaged with Karl Marx's metaphor that religion
1200-401: A key raw material . Some countries have a policy of autarky with respect to foodstuffs (as South Korea ), and water for national-security reasons. Autarky can result from economic isolation or from external circumstances in which a state or other entity reverts to localized production when it lacks currency or excess production to trade with the outside world. The word autarky is from
1320-418: A key part of alter-globalization efforts. The Cochabamba Water War had Bolivians successfully oppose the privatization of their water system to keep the resource in public hands. Today, national economic autarkies are relatively rare. A commonly-cited example is North Korea , based on the government ideology of Juche ( self-reliance ), which is concerned with maintaining its domestic localized economy in
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#17327661601211440-554: A level unheard of anywhere else, either in past or present times, let alone in a country which calls itself socialist." He further claimed that "the leadership of the Communist Party of China has betrayed [the working people]. In Korea, too, we can say that the leadership of the Korean Workers' Party is wallowing in the same waters" and claimed that Kim Il Sung was begging for aid from other countries, especially among
1560-515: A member of the pro-Japanese and anti-communist Minsaengdan. A purge resulted: over 1,000 Koreans were expelled from the CCP, including Kim (who was arrested in late 1933 and exonerated in early 1934), and 500 were killed. Kim Il Sung's memoirs – and those of the guerrillas who fought alongside him – cite Kim's seizing and burning the suspect files of the Purge Committee as key to solidifying his leadership. After
1680-437: A new offensive, retaking Seoul and advanced north once again halting at a point just north of the 38th Parallel . After a series of offensives and counter-offensives by both sides, followed by a grueling period of largely static trench warfare that lasted from the summer of 1951 to July 1953, the front was stabilized along what eventually became the permanent " Armistice Line " of 27 July 1953. Over 2.5 million people died during
1800-488: A number of reforms. Over 50% of the arable land was redistributed, an 8-hour work day was proclaimed and all heavy industry was to be nationalized . There were improvements in the health of the population after he nationalized healthcare and made it available to all citizens. Archival material suggests that North Korea's decision to invade South Korea was Kim's initiative, not a Soviet one. Evidence suggests that Soviet intelligence , through its espionage sources in
1920-777: A part of Kim's vast network of abusive penal and forced labor institutions , were fenced and heavily guarded colonies which were located in mountainous areas of the country, where prisoners were forced to perform back-breaking labor such as logging, mining, and picking crops. Most of the prisoners were incarcerated in these camps for their entire lives, and inside the camps, their living and working conditions were usually deadly. For example, prisoners were nearly starved to death, they were denied medical care, they were denied proper housing and clothes, they were subjected to sexual violence, they were regularly mistreated, and they were tortured and executed by guards. Despite his opposition to de-Stalinization, Kim never officially severed relations with
2040-526: A particular movement views as hostile. Conservative , centrist and nationalist movements have also adopted autarky, generally on a more limited scale, to develop a particular industry , to gain independence from other national entities or to preserve part of an existing social order . Proponents of autarky have argued for national self-sufficiency to reduce foreign economic, political and cultural influences, as well as to promote international peace. Economists are generally supportive of free trade . There
2160-543: A prominent early leader of the Korean resistance , Kim Kyung-cheon . The Soviet officer Grigory Mekler , who worked with Kim during the Soviet occupation , said that Kim took this name from a former commander who had died. However, historian Andrei Lankov has argued that this is unlikely to be true. Several witnesses knew Kim before and after his time in the Soviet Union, including his superior, Zhou Baozhong , who dismissed
2280-419: A similar agenda can join the struggle and that "even a religionist ... must be enrolled in our ranks without hesitation." Kim Il Sung married twice. His first wife, Kim Jong Suk (1917–1949), gave birth to two sons and one daughter before her death in childbirth during the delivery of a stillborn girl. Kim Jong Il was his oldest son. The other son ( Kim Man-il , or Shaura Kim) of this marriage died in 1947 in
2400-502: A society based on communalism , Rojava's government and constitution emphasize economic self-sufficiency directed by neighborhood and village councils. Rojavan society and economics are influenced by Bookchin's ideas, including the emphasis on local and regional self governance. Under changes made in 2012 property and business belong to those who live in or use it towards these goals, while infrastructure, land and major resources are commons run by local and regional councils. Bookchin however
2520-603: A special unit known as the 88th Separate Rifle Brigade , which belonged to the Soviet Red Army . Kim's immediate superior was Zhou Baozhong . Kim became a Major in the Soviet Red Army and served in it until the end of World War II in 1945. The Soviet Union declared war on Japan on 8 August 1945, and the Red Army entered Pyongyang on 24 August 1945. Stalin had instructed Lavrentiy Beria to recommend
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#17327661601212640-683: A speech (which the MVD prepared for him) at a Communist Party congress three days after he arrived. In December 1945, the Soviets installed Kim as first secretary of the North Korean Branch Bureau of the Communist Party of Korea . Originally, the Soviets preferred Cho Man-sik to lead a popular front government, but Cho refused to support a UN-backed trusteeship and clashed with Kim. General Terentii Shtykov , who led
2760-608: A spontaneous violent uprising in eastern Manchuria arose in which peasants attacked some local villages in the name of resisting "Japanese aggression". The authorities easily suppressed this impromptu uprising. Because of the attack, the Japanese began to plan an occupation of Manchuria. In a speech Kim allegedly made before a meeting of Young Communist League delegates on 20 May 1931 in Yenchi County in Manchuria, he warned
2880-637: A swimming accident. A daughter, Kim Kyong-hui , was born in 1946. Autarky Autarky is the characteristic of self-sufficiency , usually applied to societies, communities, states, and their economic systems . Autarky as an ideology or economic approach has been attempted by a range of political ideologies and movements, particularly leftist ones like African socialism , mutualism , war communism , communalism , swadeshi , syndicalism (especially anarcho-syndicalism ), and left-wing populism , generally in an effort to build alternative economic structures or to control resources against structures
3000-570: A ten-day mourning period was declared by Kim Jong Il. His funeral was scheduled to be held on 17 July 1994 in Pyongyang but was delayed until 19 July. It was attended by hundreds of thousands of people who were flown into the city from all over North Korea. Kim Il Sung's body was placed in a public mausoleum at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun , where his preserved and embalmed body lies under
3120-483: A useful example by African anarchists in the late 20th century. Communist movements embraced or dismissed autarky as a goal at different times. In her survey of anarchism in the late 1800s, Voltairine De Cleyre summarized the autarkic goals of early anarchist socialists and communists as "small, independent, self-resourceful, freely-operating communes". In particular, Peter Kropotkin advocated local and regional autarky integrating agriculture and industry, instead of
3240-426: Is a broad consensus among economists that protectionism has a negative effect on economic growth and economic welfare, while free trade and the reduction of trade barriers has a positive effect on economic growth and economic stability . Autarky may be a policy of a state or some other type of entity when it seeks to be self-sufficient as a whole, but it also can be limited to a narrow field such as possession of
3360-533: Is another practice of Kim Il Sung which persists to the present day. Kim Il Sung planned these operations to seize persons who could be used to support North Korea's overseas intelligence operations, or those who had technical skills to maintain the socialist state's economic infrastructure in farms, construction, hospitals, and heavy industry. According to the Korean War Abductees Family Union (KWAFU), those abducted by North Korea after
3480-546: Is estimated to include more than 200,000 people. The vast majority of disappearances occurred or were linked to the Korean War, but hundreds of South Koreans and Japanese people were abducted between the 1960s and 1980s. A number of South Koreans and nationals of the People's Republic of China have also been apparently abducted in the 2000s and 2010s. At least 100,000 people remain disappeared. The Constitution of North Korea
3600-533: Is prohibited. 39°01′15″N 125°45′17″E / 39.020701°N 125.754646°E / 39.020701; 125.754646 This article related to a museum in North Korea is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Kim Il Sung Kim Il Sung ( / k ɪ m ɪ l ˈ s ʌ ŋ , - ˈ s ʊ ŋ / ; Korean : 김일성 , Korean pronunciation: [kimils͈ʌŋ] ; born Kim Sung Ju ; 15 April 1912 – 8 July 1994)
3720-442: Is the opium of the people . He did so both in the context of responding to his comrades who objected to working with religious groups (Chonbulygo and Chondoism , respectively). In the first instance, Kim replies that a person is "mistaken" if he or she believes Marx's proposition regarding "opium of the people" can be applied in all instances, explaining that if a religion "prays for dealing out divine punishment to Japan and blessing
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3840-523: The songbun , a caste system in which the North Korean people were divided into three groups. Each person was classified as belonging to the "core", "wavering", or "hostile" class, based on his or her political, social, and economic background—this caste system persists today. Songbun was used to decide all aspects of a person's existence in North Korean society, including access to education, housing, employment, food rationing, ability to join
3960-469: The Ancient Greek word Greek : αὐτάρκεια , which means "self-sufficiency" (derived from αὐτο-, "self", and ἀρκέω, "to suffice"). In Stoicism the concept of autarky represents independence from anything external, including independence from personal relationships, so as to immune one from vagaries of fortune. The Stoic sage is autarkic by being dependent only on his own virtue . In Epicureanism
4080-471: The Black Panther Party moved away from orthodox communist internationalism towards " intercommunalism ", a term coined by Huey P. Newton , "to retain a grasp on the local when the rest of radical thought seemed to be moving global". Intercommunalism drew from left-wing autarkic projects like free medical clinics and breakfast programs, "explicitly articulated as attempts to fill a void left by
4200-706: The Black Plague , initially as a reaction to the impact of the epidemic and later as a way for communes and city states to maintain power against the nobility. There is considerable debate about how autarkic cultures that resisted the spread of early capitalism were. Golden Age pirate communities have been dubbed both heavily autarkic societies where "the marauders...lived in small, self-contained democracies" and as an "anti-autarky" due to their dependence on raiding. While rarer among imperial states, some autarkies did occur during specific time periods. The Ming dynasty , during its earlier, more isolationist period, kept
4320-515: The Bourse de travail , socialist canteens and food assistance. These played a major role in securing workers' loyalty and building those parties into increasingly powerful institutions (especially in Europe) throughout the late 19th and early 20th-centuries. Through these cooperatives, "workers bought Socialist bread and Socialist shoes, drank Socialist beer, arranged for Socialist vacations and obtained
4440-565: The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) – the Communist Party of Korea had been founded in 1925, but had been thrown out of the Communist International in the early 1930s for being too nationalist. He joined various anti-Japanese guerrilla groups in northern China. Feelings against the Japanese ran high in Manchuria, but as of May 1930 the Japanese had not yet occupied Manchuria. On 30 May 1930,
4560-578: The Civil Rights Movement , such as in the case of the Montgomery Bus Boycott . Boycotters set up their own self-sufficient system of cheap or free transit to allow black residents to get to work and avoid using the then-segregated public systems in a successful effort to bring political pressure. Autarkic efforts for food sovereignty also formed part of the civil rights movement. In the late 60s activist Fannie Lou Hamer
4680-740: The Clinton administration over its nuclear program. To the astonishment of the United States and the International Atomic Energy Agency , Kim agreed to halt his nuclear research program and seemed to be embarking upon a new opening to the West. Shortly before noon on 7 July 1994, Kim Il Sung collapsed from a heart attack at his residence in Hyangsan , North Pyongan . After the heart attack, Kim Jong Il ordered
4800-552: The Late Roman Empire , some rebellions and communities pursued autarky as a reaction both to upheaval and to counter imperial power. A prominent example is the Bacaude , who repeatedly rebelled against the empire and "formed self-governing communities" with their own internal economy and coinage. Medieval communes combined an attempt at overall economic self-sufficiency through the use of common lands and resources with
4920-647: The Mangyongdae neighborhood of Pyongyang. Kim was reportedly born in the small village of Mangyungbong (then called Namni) near Pyongyang on 15 April 1912. According to a 1964 semi-official biography of Kim, he was born in his mother's home in Chingjong, and later grew up in Mangyungbong. According to Kim, his family was always a step away from poverty. Kim said that he was raised by a very active Presbyterian Christian family. His maternal grandfather
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5040-616: The March First Movement , a member of the anti-communist terrorist group the White Shirts Society attempted to assassinate Kim by lobbing a grenade at his podium. However, Soviet military officer Yakov Novichenko grabbed the grenade and absorbed the blast with his body, leaving Kim and other bystanders unharmed. To solidify his control, Kim established the Korean People's Army (KPA), aligned with
5160-674: The New Economic Policy . However, while the Soviet government during the latter period encouraged international trade, it also permitted and even encouraged local autarkies in many peasant villages. Sometimes leftist groups clashed over autarkic projects. During the Spanish Civil War , the anarcho-syndicalist CNT and the socialist UGT had created economic cooperatives in the Levante that they claimed were "managing
5280-486: The Soviet Union . By the 1960s, North Korea had a slightly higher standard of living than the South, which was suffering from political chaos and economic crises. The situation was reversed in the 1970s, as a newly stable South Korea became an economic powerhouse which was fueled by Japanese and American investment, military aid and internal economic development, while North Korea stagnated and then declined during
5400-557: The Spanish economy recovered the levels of 1935 launching into the Spanish Miracle . In the latter half of the 20th century economists, especially in wealthier countries, backed the emerging Washington consensus , overwhelmingly endorsing free trade while discouraging autarkic and socialist policies. These economists asserted that protectionism has a negative effect on economic growth and economic welfare while free trade and
5520-526: The United States defense force 's presence in the region, which it considered imperialist , having seized the American ship USS Pueblo in 1968. This was part of an infiltration and subversion campaign to reunify the peninsula under North Korea's rule. Kim outlived his allies, Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong , by over four and almost two decades, respectively, and remained in power during
5640-889: The Yalu River late in 1950. At the outset of the war in June and July, North Korean forces captured Seoul and occupied most of the South, save for a small section of territory in the southeast region of the South that was called the Pusan Perimeter . But in September, the North Koreans were driven back by the US-led counterattack that started with the UN landing in Incheon , followed by a combined South Korean-US-UN offensive from
5760-446: The antebellum South , the enslaved and free black populations forged self-sufficient economies in an effort to avoid reliance on the larger economy controlled by the planter aristocracy . In eastern North Carolina maroon communities, often based in swampy areas, used a combination of agriculture and fishing to forge a "hidden economy" and secure survival. The relative self-reliance of these maritime African-American populations provided
5880-638: The personality cult which was built around him, he was a significant guerrilla leader. Despite the United Nations ' plans to conduct nationwide elections in Korea, on 15 August 1948, the US-occupied south proclaimed the Republic of Korea , which claimed sovereignty over all of Korea. In response, the Soviets held elections of their own in their northern occupation zone on 25 August 1948 for
6000-567: The populist backlash to the exploitations of free trade in the late 19th-century and in many early utopian socialist movements. Mutual aid societies like the Grange and Sovereigns of Industry attempted to set up self-sufficient economies (with varying degrees of success) in an effort to be less dependent on what they saw as an exploitative economic system and to generate more power to push for reforms. Early socialist movements used these autarkic efforts to build their base with institutions like
6120-579: The 1956 August faction incident , Kim Il Sung successfully resisted Soviet and Chinese efforts to depose him in favor of pro-Soviet Koreans or Koreans who belonged to the pro-Chinese Yan'an faction. The last Chinese troops withdrew from the country in October 1958, which is the consensus as the latest date when North Korea became effectively independent, though some scholars believe that the 1956 August incident demonstrated North Korea's independence. During his rise and his consolidation of power, Kim created
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#17327661601216240-524: The 1970s, Kim developed a calcinosis growth on the right side of the back of his neck. It was long believed that its close proximity to his brain and spinal cord made it inoperable. However, Juan Reinaldo Sánchez, a defected bodyguard for Fidel Castro who met Kim in 1986 wrote later that it was Kim's own paranoia that prevented it from being operated on. Because of its unappealing nature, North Korean reporters and photographers were required to photograph Kim while standing slightly to his left in order to hide
6360-720: The 1980s. The practical effect of Juche was to cut the country off from virtually all foreign trade in order to make it entirely self-reliant . The economic reforms of Deng Xiaoping in China from 1979 onward meant that trade with the moribund economy of North Korea held decreasing interest for China. The Revolutions of 1989 in Eastern Europe and the dissolution of the Soviet Union , from 1989 to 1992, completed North Korea's virtual isolation. These events led to mounting economic difficulties because Kim refused to issue any economic or political reforms. As he aged, starting in
6480-408: The Communist Party, and he recruited a cadre of guerrillas and former soldiers who had gained combat experience in battles against the Japanese and later against Nationalist Chinese troops. Using Soviet advisers and equipment, Kim constructed a large army skilled in infiltration tactics and guerrilla warfare. Prior to Kim's invasion of the South in 1950, which triggered the Korean War, Stalin equipped
6600-514: The Eastern Bloc and non-aligned countries like Yugoslavia . As a result, relations between North Korea and Albania would remain cold and tense right up until Hoxha's death in 1985. Although a resolute anti-communist, Zaire 's Mobutu Sese Seko was also heavily influenced by Kim's style of rule. The North Korean government's practice of abducting foreign nationals, such as South Koreans , Japanese , Chinese , Thais , and Romanians ,
6720-796: The Japanese, completely ignoring the assistance of the Chinese People's Volunteers . In addition, Li stated that in the process of agricultural collectivization, grain was being forcibly confiscated from the peasants, leading to "at least 300 suicides" and he also stated that Kim made nearly all major policy decisions and appointments himself. Li reported that over 30,000 people were in prison for completely unjust and arbitrary reasons which were as trivial as not printing Kim Il Sung's portrait on sufficient quality paper or using newspapers with his picture to wrap parcels. Grain confiscation and tax collection were also conducted with force, which consisted of violence, beatings, and threats of imprisonment. During
6840-500: The KPA with modern, Soviet-built medium tanks, trucks, artillery, and small arms. Kim also formed an air force, equipped at first with Soviet-built propeller-driven fighters and attack aircraft. Later, North Korean pilot candidates were sent to the Soviet Union and China to train in MiG-15 jet aircraft at secret bases. Several sources claim the name "Kim Il Sung" had previously been used by
6960-483: The Korean Central History Museum as a base standard for history museums around the world. In 2015, the museum claimed 10 million visitors since its opening in 1945. The museum contains 10,500 square meters of exhibition space divided into 19 rooms. The collection contains around 100,000 relics and artefacts. The museum is opened to foreigners and tourists, and taking photos inside the museum
7080-522: The Korean Communist Party, was purged and executed in 1955. Choe Chang-ik appears to have been purged as well. Yi Sang-Cho, North Korea's ambassador to the Soviet Union and a critic of Kim who defected to the Soviet Union in 1956, was declared a factionalist and a traitor. The 1955 Juche speech , which stressed Korean independence, debuted in the context of Kim's power struggle against leaders such as Pak, who had Soviet backing. This
7200-402: The Korean War. Chinese and Russian documents from that time reveal that Kim became increasingly desperate to establish a truce, since the likelihood that further fighting would successfully unify Korea under his rule became more remote with the UN and US presence. Kim also resented the Chinese taking over the majority of the fighting in his country, with Chinese forces stationed at the center of
7320-427: The Korean nation" then it is a "patriotic religion" and its believers are patriots. In the second, Kim states that Marx's metaphor "must not be construed radically and unilaterally" because Marx was warning against "the temptation of a religious mirage and not opposing believers in general." Because the communist movement in Korea was fighting a struggle for "national salvation" against Japan, Kim writes that anyone with
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#17327661601217440-543: The Pusan Perimeter. By October, UN forces had retaken Seoul and invaded the North to reunify the country under the South. On 19 October, US and South Korean troops captured P'yŏngyang, forcing Kim and his government to flee north, first to Sinuiju and eventually into Kanggye . On 25 October 1950, after sending various warnings of their intent to intervene if UN forces did not halt their advance, Chinese troops in
7560-703: The Soviet Union, and he did not take part in the Sino-Soviet split . After Khrushchev was replaced by Leonid Brezhnev in 1964, Kim's relations with the Soviet Union became closer. At the same time, Kim was increasingly alienated by Mao's unstable style of leadership, especially during the Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s. Kim in turn was denounced by Mao's Red Guards . At the same time, Kim reinstated relations with most of Eastern Europe's communist countries, primarily with Erich Honecker 's East Germany and Nicolae Ceaușescu 's Romania . Ceaușescu
7680-505: The Soviet occupation of northern Korea, supported Kim over Pak Hon-yong to lead the Provisional People's Committee for North Korea on 8 February 1946. As chairman of the committee, Kim was "the top Korean administrative leader in the North," though he was still de facto subordinate to General Shtykov until the Chinese intervention in the Korean War. On 1 March 1946, while giving a speech to commemorate an anniversary of
7800-482: The State is based on food supply. Only on the basis of a certain degree of autarky can the bolos enter into a network of exchange without being exploited". Widmer theorized that through "tactical autarky" such communes would be able to prevent the return of oppressive structures and a money economy. Autarkic efforts to counter the forcible privatization of public resources and maintain local self-sufficiency also formed
7920-591: The US government and British SIS , had obtained information on the limitations of US atomic bomb stockpiles as well as defense program cuts, leading Stalin to conclude that the Truman administration would not intervene in Korea. China acquiesced only reluctantly to the idea of Korean reunification after being told by Kim that Stalin had approved the action. The Chinese did not provide North Korea with direct military support (other than logistics channels) until United Nations troops, largely US forces, had nearly reached
8040-490: The United States, including connections with major companies like IBM and Coca-Cola . Economic self-sufficiency was pursued as a goal by some members of the Non-Aligned Movement , such as India under Jawaharlal Nehru and Tanzania , under the ideology of Ujamaa and Swadeshi . That was partly an effort to escape the economic domination of both the United States and the Soviet Union while modernizing
8160-437: The United States. Following the military stalemate in the Korean War , a ceasefire was signed in July 1953 . He was the third-longest serving non-royal head of state/government in the 20th century, in office for more than 45 years. Under his leadership, North Korea was established as a totalitarian socialist personalist dictatorship with a centrally planned economy . It had very close political and economic relations with
8280-439: The Workers' Party of North Korea merged with its southern counterpart to become the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) with Kim as party chairman . By 1949, Kim and the communists had consolidated their rule in North Korea. Around this time, Kim began promoting an intense personality cult . The first of many statues of him appeared, and he began calling himself "Great Leader". In February 1946, Kim Il Sung decided to introduce
8400-403: The age of 24, controlling a few hundred men in a group that came to be known as "Kim Il Sung's division". On 4 June 1937, he led 200 guerrillas in a raid on Poch'onbo , destroying the local government offices and setting fire to a Japanese police station and post office. The success of the raid demonstrated Kim's talents as a military leader. Even more significant than the military success itself
8520-567: The armed forces as well as the supreme commandership of the country's now million-man strong military force, the Korean People's Army – to his son in 1991 and 1993. So far, the elder Kim – even though he is dead – has remained the country's president and the chairman of the Party's Central Military Commission , the party's organization that has supreme supervision and authority over military matters. In early 1994, Kim began investing in nuclear power to offset energy shortages brought on by economic problems. This
8640-489: The basis for a strongly abolitionist political culture that made increasingly radical demands after the start of the Civil War . Due to tense relations with some Union commanders and political factions during and after that war, these communities "focused their organizing efforts on developing their own institutions, their own sense of self-reliance, and their own political strength". Autarkic ambitions can also be seen in
8760-509: The behest of large landowners, destroying roughly 119 labor chambers, 107 cooperatives and 83 peasant offices that year alone. Nazi Germany under economics minister Hjalmar Schacht , and later Walther Funk , still pursued major international trade, albeit under a different system, to escape the terms of the Treaty of Versailles , satisfy business elites and prepare for war. The regime would continue to conduct trade, including with countries like
8880-467: The book Surprise, Kill, Vanish , which further expounded that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) once concluded that Kim Il Sung was a blackmailed imposter operated by the Soviet Union. The dossier titled "The Identity of Kim Il Sung" ascribed the leader's true identity to Kim Song-ju, an orphaned child caught stealing money from a classmate who killed his classmate to avoid embarrassment. The dossier alleges Soviet intelligence officers identified
9000-496: The claim of a "second" Kim in his diaries. Historian Bruce Cumings pointed out that Japanese officers from the Kwantung Army have attested to his fame as a resistance figure. On August 12, 2009, Yonhap News Agency revealed that U.S. Army Military Government in Korea had already acknowledged that Kim Il Sung was in fact pretended by his nephew Kim Song-ju. In 2019, investigative journalist Annie Jacobsen published
9120-785: The concept of autarky represents having the fewest possible requirements for living a life of pleasure, free of pain ( aponia ). Lexico , whose content is provided by the same publisher as that of the Oxford English Dictionary , says that autarky is a variant spelling of and pronounced the same as autarchy and that autarchy is another term for autocracy . Early state societies that can be regarded as autarkic include nomadic pastoralism and palace economy , though over time these tend towards becoming less self-sufficient and more interconnected. The late Bronze Age , for example, saw formerly self-sufficient palace economies rely more heavily on trade, which may have been
9240-526: The concept's history from black nationalism , Ujamaa , African-American socialism and the civil rights movement , is Cooperation Jackson , a movement aimed at creating a self-sufficient black working class economy in Jackson, Mississippi . The movement has aimed to secure land and build self-sufficient cooperatives and workplaces "to democratically transform the political economy of the city" and push back against gentrification. Cooperation Jackson also saw
9360-467: The countries' infrastructure. In the case of Francoist Spain , it was both the effect of international sanctions after the Spanish Civil War (1939) and the Second World War and the totalitarian nationalist ideology of Falange . Post-war famine and misery lasted longer than in war-ravaged Europe. It was not until the capitalist reforms of 1950s with the approach to the United States that
9480-421: The delegates against such unplanned uprisings as the 30 May 1930 uprising in eastern Manchuria. Four months later, on 18 September 1931, the " Mukden Incident " occurred, in which a relatively weak dynamite explosive charge went off near a Japanese railroad in the town of Mukden in Manchuria. Although no damage occurred, the Japanese used the incident as an excuse to send armed forces into Manchuria and to appoint
9600-410: The destruction of the suspect files and the rehabilitation of suspects, those who had fled the purge rallied around Kim. As historian Suzy Kim summarizes, Kim Il Sung "emerged from the purge as a definitive leader, not only for the bold move but also for his compassion." In 1935, Kim took the name Kim Il Sung , meaning "Kim become the sun". Kim was appointed commander of the 6th division in 1937, at
9720-528: The economic life of the region independent of the government". But communist factions responded by cracking down on these cooperatives in an attempt to place economic control back in the hands of the central government. Some right-wing totalitarian governments have claimed autarky as a goal, developing national industry and imposing high tariffs but have crushed other autarkic movements and often engaged in extensive outside economic activity. In 1921, Italian fascists attacked existing left-wing autarkic projects at
9840-409: The ensuing years, Kim established himself as an independent leader of international communism . In 1956, he joined Mao in the " anti-revisionist " camp, which did not accept Nikita Khrushchev 's program of de-Stalinization , yet he did not become a Maoist himself. At the same time, he consolidated his power over the Korean communist movement . Rival leaders were eliminated. Pak Hon-yong , leader of
9960-573: The face of its isolation. However, even North Korea has extensive trade with Russia , China , Syria , Iran , Vietnam , India and many countries in Europe and Africa. North Korea had to import food during a widespread famine in the 1990s . Some would consider a modern example at a societal level is Rojava , the autonomous northern region of Syria . Despite a key alliance with the United States, supporters consider them largely cut off from international trade, facing multiple enemies, and striving for
10080-435: The failure of the federal government to provide resources as basic as food to black communities". In Murray Bookchin 's Communalist ideal, he wrote that in a more liberated future "every community would approximate local or regional autarky". The influential 1983 anarchist book bolo'bolo , by Hans Widmer , advocated the use of autarky among its utopian anti-capitalist communes (known as bolos ), asserting "the power of
10200-612: The far-right with measures ranging from economic pressure to outright violence. After World War II, Autonomist efforts in Europe embraced local autarkic projects in an effort to craft anti-authoritarian left-wing spaces, especially influencing the social center and squatters ' rights movements. Such efforts remain a common feature of Autonomist and anarchist movements on the continent today. The Micropolis social centre in Greece, for example, has gyms, restaurants, bars, meeting space and free distribution of food and resources. Around 1970,
10320-483: The front line, and the Korean People's Army being mostly restricted to the coastal flanks of the front. With the end of the Korean War, despite the failure to unify Korea under his rule, Kim Il Sung proclaimed the war a victory in the sense that he had remained in power in the north. However, the three-year war left North Korea devastated, and Kim immediately embarked on a large reconstruction effort. He launched
10440-543: The government. The North Korean ambassador to the USSR, Li Sangjo , a member of the Yan'an faction , reported that it had become a criminal offense to so much as write on Kim's picture in a newspaper and that he had been elevated to the status of Marx , Lenin , Mao , and Stalin in the communist pantheon. He also charged Kim with rewriting history so it would appear as if his guerrilla faction had single-handedly liberated Korea from
10560-400: The growth from official photographs and newsreels. Hiding the growth became increasingly difficult as the growth reached the size of a baseball by the late 1980s. To ensure a full succession of leadership to his son and designated successor Kim Jong Il, Kim turned over his chairmanship of North Korea's National Defense Commission – the body mainly responsible for control of
10680-483: The international division of labor. His work repeatedly held up communities "that needed neither aid or protection from without" as a more resilient model. Some socialist communities like Charles Fourier 's phalansteries strove for self-sufficiency. The early USSR in the Russian Civil War strove for a self-sufficient economy with war communism , but later pursued international trade vigorously under
10800-671: The leadership in South Korea. These efforts culminated in an attempt to storm the Blue House and assassinate President Park Chung Hee . North Korean troops thus took a much more aggressive stance toward US forces in and around South Korea, engaging US Army troops in fire-fights along the Demilitarized Zone . The 1968 capture of the crew of the spy ship USS Pueblo was a part of this campaign. Albania 's Enver Hoxha (another independent-minded communist leader)
10920-457: The most effective and popular Korean guerrilla leaders ever. He appeared on Japanese wanted lists as the "Tiger". The Japanese "Maeda Unit" was sent to hunt him in February 1940. Later in 1940, the Japanese kidnapped a woman named Kim Hye-sun, believed to have been Kim Il Sung's first wife. After using her as a hostage to try to convince the Korean guerrillas to surrender, she was killed. Kim
11040-584: The opportunity to blackmail Kim Song-ju into leading the North Korean Communist Party as a Soviet puppet under the name of the real war hero Kim-Il Sung, whom Stalin had disappeared. Jacobsen also writes that the CIA learned "specific instructions [were] given to the leaders of the regime that there should be no questions raised about Kim [Il Sung]'s identity." Historians generally accept the view that, while Kim's exploits were exaggerated by
11160-685: The reduction of trade barriers has a positive effect on economic growth and economic stability. But economists from many developing nations, or who came from Marxian traditions, endorsed more autarkic ideas including Import Substitution Industrialization and Dependency theory The work of Celso Furtado , Raul Prebisch and Samir Amin , especially Amin's semi-autarkic "autocentric" policies, proved influential in efforts by many countries in Latin America, Asia and Africa to stave off economic domination by developing more self-sufficient economies. Small-scale autarkies were sometimes used by
11280-516: The ruling party, and even where a person was allowed to live. Large numbers of people from the so-called hostile class, which included intellectuals, land owners, and former supporters of Japan's occupying government during World War II , were forcibly relocated to the country's isolated and impoverished northern provinces. When years of famine ravaged the country in the 1990s, those people who lived in its marginalized and remote communities were hardest hit. During his rule, North Korea's government
11400-570: The rumors, however, by making a series of public appearances. It has been argued, however, that the incident helped establish the order of succession – the first apparent patrilineal in a communist state – which eventually would occur upon Kim Il Sung's death in 1994. From about this time, North Korea encountered increasing economic difficulties. South Korea became an economic powerhouse fueled by Japanese and American investment, military aid, and internal economic development, while North Korea stagnated and then declined in
11520-493: The running of the government to him. The Kim family was supported by the army, due to Kim Il Sung's revolutionary record and the support of the veteran defense minister, O Chin-u . At the Sixth Party Congress in October 1980, Kim publicly designated his son as his successor. In 1986, a rumor spread that Kim had been assassinated, making the concern for Jong-il's ability to succeed his father actual. Kim dispelled
11640-583: The same period. Differences emerged between North Korea and the Soviet Union; chief among them was Kim Il Sung's philosophy of Juche , which focused on Korean nationalism and self-reliance . Despite this, the country received funds, subsidies and aid from the USSR and the Eastern Bloc until the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. The resulting loss of economic aid negatively affected North Korea's economy, contributing to widespread famine in 1994. During this period, North Korea also remained critical of
11760-450: The team of doctors who were constantly at his father's side to leave and arranged for the country's best doctors to be flown in from Pyongyang. After several hours, the doctors from Pyongyang arrived, but despite their efforts to save him, Kim Il Sung died at 02:00 am PST on 8 July 1994, aged 82. After the traditional Confucian mourning period, his death was declared 34 hours later. Kim Il Sung's death resulted in nationwide mourning and
11880-517: The terms of office of six South Korean Presidents and ten United States Presidents . Known as the Great Leader ( Suryong ), he established a far-reaching personality cult which dominates domestic politics in North Korea . At the 6th WPK Congress in 1980, his oldest son Kim Jong Il was elected to be a Presidium member and chosen to be his successor, thus establishing the Kim dynasty . Kim
12000-732: The thousands crossed the Yalu River and entered the war as allies of the KPA. There were nevertheless tensions between Kim and the Chinese government. Kim had been warned of the likelihood of an amphibious landing at Incheon, which was ignored. There was also a sense that the North Koreans had paid little in war compared to the Chinese who had fought for their country for decades against foes with better technology. The UN troops were forced to withdraw and Chinese troops retook P'yŏngyang in December and Seoul in January 1951. In March, UN forces began
12120-623: The time was chairman of the Political Committee of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army. Wei reported directly to Kang Sheng , a high-ranking party member close to Mao Zedong in Yan'an , until Wei's death on 8 March 1941. Kim's actions during the Minsaengdan incident helped solidify his leadership. The CCP operating in Manchuria had become suspicious that any Korean could secretly be
12240-554: The use of mutual defense pacts, neighborhood assemblies and organized militias to preserve local autonomy against the depredations of the local nobility. Many of these communes later became trading powers such as the Hanseatic League . In some cases, communal village economies maintained their own debt system as part of a self-sufficient economy and to avoid reliance on possibly hostile aristocratic or business interests. The trend toward "local self-sufficiency" increased after
12360-411: The war included 2,919 civil servants, 1,613 police, 190 judicial officers and lawyers, and 424 medical practitioners. In the hijacking and seizure of Korean Airlines flight YS-11 in 1969 by North Korean agents, the pilots and mechanics, and others with specialized skills, were the only ones never permitted to return to South Korea. The total number of foreign abductees and disappeared is still unknown but
12480-673: The youngest member of the Korean Communist Youth Association [ ko ] , an underground Marxist organization with fewer than twenty members. It was led by Hŏ So ( 허소 ; 許笑 ), who belonged to the South Manchurian Communist Youth Association [ ko ] . The police discovered the group three weeks after it formed in 1929, and jailed Kim for several months. Kim's formal education ended after his arrest and imprisonment. In 1931, Kim joined
12600-577: Was the leader of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) from 1949 to 1994 (titled as chairman from 1949 to 1966 and as general secretary after 1966). Coming to power after the end of Japanese rule over Korea in 1945 following Japan's surrender in World War II , he authorized the invasion of South Korea in 1950, triggering an intervention in defense of South Korea by the United Nations led by
12720-553: Was a North Korean politician, revolutionary, and military leader. He founded the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, commonly known as North Korea , which he led as Supreme Leader from its establishment in 1948 until his death in 1994. Afterwards, he was succeeded by his son Kim Jong Il and was declared Eternal President . He held the posts of the Premier from 1948 to 1972 and President from 1972 to 1994. He
12840-515: Was a Protestant minister , and his father had gone to a missionary school and he was also an elder in the Presbyterian Church. According to an official North Korean government account, Kim's family participated in anti-Japanese activities and fled to Manchuria in 1920. Like most Korean families, they resented the Japanese occupation of the Korean peninsula (which had begun on 29 August 1910). Japanese repression of Korean opposition
12960-411: Was a fierce enemy of the country and Kim Il Sung, writing in June 1977 that "genuine Marxist-Leninists " will understand that the "ideology which is guiding the Korean Workers' Party and the Communist Party of China ... is revisionist " and later that month he added that "in Pyongyang, I believe that even Tito will be astonished at the proportions of the cult of his host [Kim Il sung], which has reached
13080-501: Was appointed commander of the 2nd operational region for the 1st Army, but by the end of 1940 he was the only 1st Army leader still alive. Pursued by Japanese troops, in late 1940, Kim and a dozen of his fighters escaped by crossing the Amur River into the Soviet Union. Kim was sent to a camp at Vyatskoye near Khabarovsk , where the Soviets retrained the Korean communist guerrillas. In August 1942, Kim and his army were assigned to
13200-680: Was born Kim Song Ju to father Kim Hyong Jik and mother Kang Pan Suk . Kim had two younger brothers, Kim Chul Ju [ ko ] and Kim Yong-ju . Kim Chul Ju died while fighting the Japanese and Kim Yong-ju came to be involved in the North Korean government; he was considered as an heir to his brother before he fell out of favor. Kim's family, part of the Jeonju Kim clan , is said to have originated in Jeonju , North Jeolla Province . In 1860, his great-grandfather, Kim Ŭngu, settled in
13320-432: Was concerned about the effects of isolationist autarky in respect to the closing off of a community and therefore always stressed the need for a balance between localism and globalism. An example of a small, but true autarky is North Sentinel Island , whose native inhabitants refuse all contact with outsiders and live completely self-sufficient lives. An example of a contemporary effort at localized autarky, incorporating
13440-399: Was harsh, resulting in the arrest and detention of more than 52,000 Korean citizens in 1912 alone. This repression had forced many Korean families to flee the Korean peninsula, and settle in Manchuria. Nevertheless, Kim's parents, especially his mother, played a role in the anti-Japanese struggle that was sweeping the peninsula. Their exact involvement – whether their cause
13560-490: Was heavily influenced by Kim's ideology, and the personality cult which grew around him in Romania was very similar to that of Kim. In the 1960s, Kim became impressed with the efforts of North Vietnamese Leader Ho Chi Minh to reunify Vietnam through guerrilla warfare and thought that something similar might be possible in Korea. Infiltration and subversion efforts were thus greatly stepped up against US forces and
13680-518: Was little noticed at the time until state media started talking about it in 1963. Kim developed the policy and ideology of Juche in opposition to the idea of North Korea as a satellite state of China or the Soviet Union. Kim transformed North Korea into what Wonjun Song and Joseph Wright consider a personalist dictatorship, where power was centralized in Kim personally. Kim Il Sung's cult of personality had initially been criticized by some members of
13800-595: Was missionary, nationalist, or both – is unclear. North Korean government sources credit Kim with founding the Down-with-Imperialism Union in 1926. He attended Whasung Military Academy in 1926, but found the academy's training methods outdated and quit it in 1927. He then attended Yuwen Middle School in China 's Jilin province until 1930, when he rejected the feudal traditions of older-generation Koreans and became interested in communist ideologies. Seventeen-year-old Kim became
13920-545: Was one of the founders of the Freedom Farms Cooperative , an effort to redistribute economic power and build self-sufficiency in Black communities. "When you've got 400 quarts of greens and gumbo soup canned for the winter, nobody can push you around or tell you what to say or do," Hamer summarized as the rationale for the cooperative. The efforts were extensively targeted by segregationist authorities and
14040-592: Was proclaimed on December 27, 1972, which created the position of the President of North Korea . Kim gave up his former Premier of the Cabinet position, which he had held since 1948, and became instead president, after the 1972 North Korean parliamentary election . On 14 April 1975, North Korea discontinued most formal use of its traditional units and adopted the metric system . In 1980, he decided that his son Kim Jong Il would succeed him, and increasingly delegated
14160-418: Was responsible for widespread human rights abuses . Kim Il Sung punished real and perceived dissent through purges which included public executions and enforced disappearances . Not only dissenters but their entire extended families were punished by being reduced to the lowest songbun rank, and many of them were also incarcerated in a secret system of political prison camps. These camps or kwanliso ,
14280-478: Was the first of many "nuclear crises" . On 19 May 1994, Kim ordered spent fuel to be unloaded from the already disputed nuclear research facility in Yongbyon . Despite repeated chiding from Western nations, Kim continued to conduct nuclear research and carry on with the uranium enrichment program. In June 1994, former US President Jimmy Carter traveled to Pyongyang in an effort to persuade Kim to negotiate with
14400-499: Was the political coordination and organization between the guerrillas and the Korean Fatherland Restoration Association, an anti-Japanese united front group based in Manchuria. These accomplishments would grant Kim some measure of fame among Chinese guerrillas, and North Korean biographies would later exploit it as a great victory for Korea. For their part, the Japanese regarded Kim as one of
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