Today North Korea is perhaps the world’s most closed country whose totalitarian political system is built on a family dynastic succession. Founded in 1948, the politics of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) or North Korea has been shaped by a constant interplay between the external security environment on the one hand, and political dynamics internal to its own history, culture, and society on the other hand. The Korean independence movement against Japanese colonialism (1910–1945), the division following the occupation by the American and Soviet forces, and the Korean War (1950–1953) are important historical experiences behind North Korean nation building. Despite predictions of the regime collapse, North Korea is one of the few remaining communist regimes after the end of the Cold War. With the cessation of Soviet aid in 1990, however, North Korea has suffered from a near-bankrupt national economy and despite the need for economic reform, has refused to contemplate significant opening. This self-imposed isolation still has not shielded the regime from a steady inflow of information from the outside world. Four major themes characterize post–Cold War North Korean politics. First, under the banner of the Military First (Songun) policy, Pyongyang’s nuclear program has become tied to the regime survival in the last twenty years. North Korea declared itself to be a nuclear power in 2005 and the international negotiations aimed at denuclearizing North Korea have yielded modest mixed results. Second, the ideology of Juche (self-reliance) has been a central theme in the domestic political process of building and consolidating the North Korean regime of a one-man rule since the Kim Il-Sung era. A third theme is the dilemma of North Korean economic reforms toward marketization. Pyongyang has tried a few measures of market economy to attract foreign investments, but remains extremely wary of the social and political ramifications of such steps. Fourth, in 2012 the future of North Korea is at a crossroads after the death of Kim Jong-Il in December 2011 and the generational succession to his young son Kim Jong-Un.
Today North Korea is perhaps the world’s most closed country whose totalitarian political system is built on a family dynastic succession. Founded in 1948, the politics of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) or North Korea has been shaped by a constant interplay between the external security environment on the one hand, and political dynamics internal to its own history, culture, and society on the other hand. The Korean independence movement against Japanese colonialism (1910–1945), the division following the occupation by the American and Soviet forces, and the Korean War (1950–1953) are important historical experiences behind North Korean nation building. Despite predictions of the regime collapse, North Korea is one of the few remaining communist regimes after the end of the Cold War. With the cessation of Soviet aid in 1990, however, North Korea has suffered from a near-bankrupt national economy and despite the need for economic reform, has refused to contemplate significant opening. This self-imposed isolation still has not shielded the regime from a steady inflow of information from the outside world. Four major themes characterize post–Cold War North Korean politics. First, under the banner of the Military First (Songun) policy, Pyongyang’s nuclear program has become tied to the regime survival in the last twenty years. North Korea declared itself to be a nuclear power in 2005 and the international negotiations aimed at denuclearizing North Korea have yielded modest mixed results. Second, the ideology of Juche (self-reliance) has been a central theme in the domestic political process of building and consolidating the North Korean regime of a one-man rule since the Kim Il-Sung era. A third theme is the dilemma of North Korean economic reforms toward marketization. Pyongyang has tried a few measures of market economy to attract foreign investments, but remains extremely wary of the social and political ramifications of such steps. Fourth, in 2012 the future of North Korea is at a crossroads after the death of Kim Jong-Il in December 2011 and the generational succession to his young son Kim Jong-Un.
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