Setting the Context

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Bruce E. Bechtol
Keyword(s):  
North Korea ◽  
Abstract Knowledge ◽  
The Military ◽  
Vast Network

People often see North Korea as a threat to the region, yet few have even an abstract knowledge of the vast network of proliferation to volatile regions that North Korea has operated for many years. It is this network that the book addresses. Understanding the military capabilities North Korea has is key to addressing how it proliferates these capabilities, whom it proliferates these capabilities to, and how we can contain this proliferation. This book is unique because it addresses all this.

scholarly journals War and peace in liberated North Korea: Soviet military administration and the creation of North Korean police force in 1945

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Vasilii Lebedev
Keyword(s):  
North Korea ◽  
Political Orientation ◽  
Military Force ◽  
Political Struggle ◽  
Korean Society ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
The North ◽  
Military Administration ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
The Military

Abstract The North Korean police were arguably one of the most important organisations in liberated North Korea. It was instrumental in stabilising the North Korean society and eventually became one of the backbones for both the new North Korean regime and its military force. Scholars of different political orientation have attempted to reconstruct its early history leading to a set of views ranging from the “traditionalist” sovietisation concept to the more contemporary “revisionist” reconstruction that portrayed it as the cooperation of North Korean elites with the Soviet authorities in their bid for the control over the politics and the military, in which the Soviets merely played the supporting role. Drawing from the Soviet archival documents, this paper presents a third perspective, arguing that initially, the Soviet military administration in North Korea did not pursue any clear-cut political goals. On the contrary, the Soviet administration initially viewed North Koreans with distrust, making Soviets constantly conduct direct interventions to prevent North Korean radicals from using the police in their political struggle.

Bush Characterizes North Korea, Iran and Iraq as “Axis of Evil” Intensifying Debate Over Post-9/11 National Security Strategy

2002 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 2-27
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
National Security ◽  
North Korea ◽  
The United States ◽  
United States Congress ◽  
Security Strategy ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
The People ◽  
National Security Strategy ◽  
The Military

Next week I will go before Congress to lay out my priorities for the coming year. There will be no room for misunderstanding. The most basic commitment of our government will be the security of our country. We will win this war; we will protect our people; and we will work to renew the strength of our economy.Our first priority is the military. The highest calling to protect the people is to strengthen our military. And that will be the priority of the budget I submit to the United States Congress. Those who review our budget must understand that we're asking a lot of our men and women in uniform, and we'll be asking more of them in the future. In return, they deserve every resource, every weapon needed to achieve the final and full victory.

Defining the Nature and Future of the Party–Military Relations in North Korea

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 227-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jongseok Woo
Keyword(s):  
North Korea ◽  
Military Coup ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Political Role ◽  
Kim Jong Il ◽  
Military Control ◽  
Military Relations ◽  
The Military ◽  
Near Future

Since Kim Jong-il officially launched his Songun politics in 1998, conflicting assessments have generated two competing arguments regarding the political role of the Korean People’s Army (KPA). The military garrison state argument suggests that Songun politics brought about the decline of the party and political ascendance of the military, while the party’s army model argues that the KPA is still the party’s army and under the party’s firm control. This article suggests that the debate mischaracterizes the KPA’s political place in North Korea and that the military has not been a politically influential organ from the state-building to the current Kim Jong-un era. This article identifies two distinct patterns of military control mechanisms—namely partisan (1960s–1990s) and personalistic (1998–2008)—and argues that the different control methods have little to do with the KPA’s political strength or weakness. Rather, they merely reflect the dictator’s ruling method of choice for regime survival. The analysis illustrates that the current Kim Jong-un regime is more stable than many outside observers may estimate, and a military coup is highly unlikely in the near future.

Understanding North Korea's Economic Crisis

2002 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 69-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deok Ryong Yoon ◽  
Bradley O. Babson
Keyword(s):  
Capital Stock ◽  
North Korea ◽  
Economic Structure ◽  
Economic Downturn ◽  
Policy Reforms ◽  
Cooperative Network ◽  
State Planning ◽  
State Planning Commission ◽  
Current Economic Situation ◽  
The Military

This paper provides an overview of the current economic situation in North Korea and suggests some possible strategies for recovery, including ways of mobilizing financing and implementing essential market reforms. Throughout the 1990s, North Korea suffered a severe economic downturn after the abrupt collapse of the cooperative network of socialist countries. Because the needs of the military had been given first priority and foreign trade was limited, infrastructure and capital stock deteriorated. At present North Korea is in a poverty trap, and the plans of the State Planning Commission no longer work. In addition to the “official” economy, North Korea's overall economic structure includes economies run by the Workers Party, the military, and ordinary citizens (the informal market). Efforts to promote foreign investment and trade, combined with only small changes in this inefficient economic structure, are unlikely to succeed. North Korea's economic rehabilitation should begin with more market-oriented policy reforms and capital formation, but because the country is unable to design and implement economic reforms or to accumulate capital stock on its own, assistance must be sought from outside.

From Communist Internationalism to Human Rights: Gender, Violence and International Law in the Women's International Democratic Federation Mission to North Korea, 1951

2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 313-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
CELIA DONERT
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Cold War ◽  
International Law ◽  
North Korea ◽  
Third World ◽  
War Crimes ◽  
Gender Violence ◽  
International Organisations ◽  
The Third World ◽  
The Military

AbstractIn May 1951 the Women's International Democratic Federation – a communist-sponsored non-governmental organisation – sent an all-female international commission to investigate the war crimes and atrocities allegedly committed by United Nations forces against civilians during the military occupation of North Korea in late 1950. Communist internationalism has been relatively marginalised in the recent wave of scholarship on internationalism and international organisations. This article uses the Women's International Democratic Federation mission to Korea to analyse how the shifting relationship between communist internationalism, human rights and feminism played out in the ‘Third World’ during the early Cold War.

North Korea: The Korean People’s Army in the Shadow of Its Supreme Leader

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seongji Woo
Keyword(s):  
North Korea ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
The United States ◽  
The North ◽  
Economic Support ◽  
History Of ◽  
Supreme Leader ◽  
Security Guarantees ◽  
Reform And Opening Up ◽  
The Military

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has long remained a hermit socialist nation. The North Korean leaders have endeavored to build a strong military with a large manpower and nuclear weapons capabilities even though some of its military gear is outmoded. The dictatorship in Pyongyang has used the ever-present threats from external hostile forces as well as potential domestic enemies as a rationale for beefing up its armed forces. The origin of the North Korean military dates back to Kim Il-sung’s anti-Japanese armed struggle in the 1930s. Kim Jong-il and Kim Jong-un, his successors, have continued to improve the country’s nuclear and missile programs with vigor, even at the expense of a failing economy. Kim Jong-un has been bargaining with the United States over the scaling down of his nuclear and missile programs while hinting at major economic reform and opening up projects to revive the economy. Whether Pyongyang is genuine about denuclearization in exchange for international economic support and security guarantees remains unclear. North Korea has a highly militarized regime and, thus, some have referred to it as a garrison state or a fortress state. Its posture to the outside world is oftentimes militant and abrasive. The regime in Pyongyang invaded its southern neighbor in a fratricidal war in the early 1950s. The history of inter-Korean relations since then has been marred by repetitive currents of feuds and crises, many of which have been inflamed by the North. The North Korean military holds a firm place in society. Over its history, North Korea’s Supreme Leader, along with the Korean Workers’ Party, has maintained tight control over the military. The leader’s firm control of the armed forces is likely to persist for the time being.

Political Change in North Korea

Asian Survey ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 773-800 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephan Haggard ◽  
Luke Herman ◽  
Jaesung Ryu
Keyword(s):  
Distinctive Feature ◽  
North Korea ◽  
Political Change ◽  
Kim Jong Il ◽  
The Military

During the succession from Kim Jong Il to Kim Jong Un, North Korea witnessed a revival of party institutions. However, the most distinctive feature of the transition was a succession of purges that replaced powerful figures from the Kim Jong Il era with new loyalists. The system remains personalist, but with strong reliance on the military and security apparatus.

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