1. Historical Roots of the North Korean State
North Korea was created by revolutionaries driven by nationalism, anti-imperialism and the search for the right path to modernity. All three were the products of its encounter with the modern world that began in the late nineteenth century. An intense nationalism, accompanied by a fierce desire to be free of foreign control characterized not just Kim Il Sung and the builders of the North Korean state but many modern Korean leaders. An ancient, ethnically homogeneous society with its distinctive culture, Korea found itself caught up in the world of nineteenth-century imperialism for which it was unprepared. China, Russia and Japan fought for control over the peninsula, with Japan emerging victorious. In 1910 it was annexed by Japan which governed it as a colony for 35 years. Under direct foreign rule for the first time in their history Koreans responded with modern nationalist and anti-imperialist movements that sought to regain their independence, and secure it by creating a strong and powerful nation that could take its place among the leading states of the world. This was the aim of the DPRKs leaders, and differed in these respects little from that of all Korean nationalists including those that ruled the South after 1948.
Early Historical Background
Much of Koreas long history may seem too remote to be of relevance to the story of North Korea but, in fact, this is not so. As is true of their East Asian neighbors Koreans have been historically minded, and their interpretation of the past is central to their modern identity. North Koreas ideology and the way it sees itself are intertwined with its understanding of Korean history.
Korea as a unified state dates back to the seventh century. Three kingdoms Shilla (or Silla) in the southeastern part of the peninsula, Paekche in the southwest and Kogury in the North had emerged by the fourth century and competed for supremacy until Shilla emerged victorious in 676. Thereafter, except for a brief period in the early tenth century one state governed the peninsula. The northern border fluctuated somewhat, but has not changed significantly since the early 1400s. When the country was partitioned in 1945 it ended 13 centuries of unity. Few states in the twentieth century were as old or had such stable boundaries. It was also homogeneous to an unusual degree. Whatever varied peoples may have lived on the peninsula, they had long become a single ethnic-linguistic group by the nineteenth century. North Korea today is possibly the worlds most ethnically uniform society, and South Korea would be a candidate for the second most. While China had a profound influence on their society, Koreans maintained a distinctive culture with their own dress, styles of houses, folk art and customs, their own unique alphabet developed in the fifteenth century, and their own cultural identity. Until the late nineteenth century there were no significant Korean communities outside Korea so that it was, uncommonly, a land where political, linguistic-ethnic and cultural boundaries were nearly the same. Korean history was also characterized by a high degree of historical continuity. Three dynasties ruled from the 676 to 1910 without radical changes in the basic institutions. In the Shilla period it was ruled by the Kim royal family. In 935 a new dynasty ruled from Kaesong (Kaesng) in what is now North Korea renaming the state Kory. After nearly five centuries of rule the Yi dynasty came to power in 1392 with a new name for the state: Chosn. The Yi or Chosn dynasty, moved the capital to Seoul and remained on the throne until the Japanese annexed Korea in 1910. During 13 centuries of monarchic rule many of the same aristocratic families dominated politics and society century after century. Only the intrusion of foreign imperialism and the Japanese takeover brought a break in history and even then the old aristocratic lineages controlled much of the countryside until the land reforms after 1945.
Korea has been shaped by its relationship with its neighbors. Korea was part of the Chinese tributary system, with the Korean king a vassal of the Chinese emperor. This was sometimes misunderstood by Westerners to mean something short of full independence, but the reality was that Korea was fully autonomous. Its obeisance to its huge neighbor was usually more ceremonial than substantive. Korean nationalists in the early twentieth century felt ashamed at what they regarded as their subservience to China which in both North and South Korea is referred to as sadaejui , literally translated as serve the great-ism; in modern times it had the connotation of slavishly serving a great power rather than being proudly independent. Before 1876, however, the educated classes, at least, took pride in being part of the great cosmopolitan world centered in China and in their adherence to the study of the Way, as the Confucian tradition was sometimes called. Indeed, the rigid adherence to Neo-Confucianism that characterized Korea from at least the fifteenth century exceeded that of China, Vietnam or Japan but enabled the ruling class to see their society as the truest bastion of righteousness.
From Hermit Kingdom to Colony
North Korean propaganda portrays Korea as a victim of imperialist aggression. In fact, in South Korea too Korean history, despite long periods of peace, is often depicted as one of repeated foreign invasions: the Khitans from inner Asia in the tenth century, the Mongols in the thirteenth, the Japanese in the late sixteenth and the Manchus in the early seventeenth centuries. To avoid trouble Chosn state sought to limit its contact with the outside world. The aggressive, globalizing Euro-centered world of the late nineteenth century, however, did not make opting out of the emerging international economic system possible. After the British forcibly pried China open to Western trade in the Opium War of 18391842, and after the Americans opened Japan in 1854, some Western attention was drawn to the hermit kingdom. The British unsuccessfully attempted to initiate trade. Meanwhile, French missionaries sneaked into the country, and following the execution of several of them France sent a punitive expedition in 1866.
North Koreans regard the General Sherman incident as the beginning of the modern era of imperialist intervention into their country. This obscure affair, little known to Americans, has been made into a major event, with the official version memorized by all school children. In August 1866 a heavily armed American ship, the General Sherman , with a crew of Americans, Chinese, Malays and British sailed up the Taedong River to Pyongyang seeking to open up trade. A local official explained that the country was closed to trade with foreigners but the ship ignored the request to leave. After tense negotiations led to an exchange of fire between the crew and locals, the Koreans burned the ship, which was caught on a sandbar, and killed its crew. For a while the Americans did not know what had happened to the ship. The government in Seoul informed the Chinese of the incident and through the Chinese the USA eventually learned of its fate. In 1871 the US Minister to China, Frederick Low, led five ships and 1,200 men under Admiral John Rodgers on a punitive expedition. The Americans attacked the island of Kanghwa and some coastal forts. The Koreans fought to the death, inflicting a few casualties on the Americans. Without authorization to proceed further, and frustrated by the Koreans refusal to talk, Low and Rodgers withdrew. The government, proud to have driven off the barbarians, both the French in 1866 and the Americans in 1871, erected stone signs that proclaimed Western barbarian invade or land. If we do not fight we must then appease them. To urge appeasement own to betray the nation.
