North Korea’s top echelon has recently seen some new developments, with Kim Jong-un’s teenage daughter, Kim Ju-ae, hailed as the “top leader” by the official media. Political observers suggest that it may be intended to declare that the Kim family has identified the future heir and leader of the regime.
The main challenge contemporary autocratic regimes face, particularly those of a communist nature, is the seamless transfer of ultimate power. Failure to establish legitimacy in this process often leads to systemic collapse and ensuing social unrest.
Atypical Political Form of Governance
On April 3, Political commentator Heng He shared his opinion in the “Pinnacle View” program that the Kim regime of North Korea differs slightly from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) of China in forms of government.According to Mr. Heng, in China, the 1911 Revolution, or the Xinhai Revolution, overthrew the imperial system, but there was no similar social transfer in North Korea. Japan colonized North Korea for half a century, and after that, North Korea directly transitioned to socialism, an authoritarian regime. “Strictly speaking, North Korea did not go through a democratic process.”
On the other hand, Mr. Heng asserted North Korea can’t be considered a communist country, citing that it has long dropped communism from its Constitution. “In its 1992 Constitution revision, Marxism was removed and replaced by something like a sole ideology of Kim’s family, which is even higher than the basic law.”
“The Kim family has held a revered and idolized position in North Korea, without necessarily adhering to communist principles.”
But what’s intriguing is that the CCP insists on calling North Korea a socialist country, as noted by Shi Shan, senior editor and chief writer of the Chinese edition of The Epoch Times. The CCP officially recognizes there are only five socialist countries in the world, including Vietnam, Laos, and Cuba.
In traditional customs with a culture of belief in divines, East Asian countries, including ancient China, have one thing in common: hereditary monarchy and dynastic succession based on the will of the gods.
But things have altered today.
Despite officially claiming to be the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), North Korea has broken the traditional practice of hereditary systems, which, in Mr. Heng’s view, is atypical, as it is neither divinely inspired nor elected in a democracy.
Power Symbolized ‘Mount Paektu’
The Kim family, also known as the Kim dynasty or the Mount Paektu (or Baekdu Mountain) bloodline in the ideological discourse of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK), is a three-generation lineage of North Korean leadership.There is a historical background for the North Koreans to underline the Mount Paektu origin of power while excluding the Marxist communist ideology.
According to Mr. Heng, in the early 1950s, Kim Il-sung secured his power by massacres of other fractions leaderships and members. The purge killed more than 6,000 people around 1957. “After extinguishing all the opponents, [Kim Il-sung] laid the keystone of his power and passed it to his son because no one could challenge him anymore.”
Detailing the process of Kim Il-sung’s power consolidation, Mr. Heng said, “At that time, there were four major factions in North Korea, including the pro-Soviet faction, the pro-CCP faction, or the Yan'an faction, Korea’s Communist Party, and the faction led by Kim Il-sung himself, the guerrilla force.”
Mount Paektu, known as Changbai Mountain in Chinese, is located on the border between Jilin, China, and North Korea. In the 1920s, when Japan thoroughly colonized the Korean Peninsula, some Koreans fled to China’s Changbai Mountain area, Yanbian, to continue their various anti-Japanese activities, including several assassinations.
Guo Jun, editor-in-chief of the Hong Kong version of The Epoch Times, said on the “Pinnacle View” that this resistance movement became a critical spiritual pillar to Koreans. When the Japanese occupied Manchuria in China in the 1930s, these guerrillas fled to the Soviet Union and accepted its overall leadership throughout World War II. Later, when Japan surrendered, and the Soviet Union needed to take over the area north of the 38th Parallel in Korea, An officer was elected from this guerrilla force, and this man was Kim Il-sung.” Ms. Guo said.
Kim Jong-il, the son of Kim Il-sung, first put forward to the Mount Paektu bloodline. It is said that Kim Jong-il was born in 1942 at the base of the Korean guerrillas at Mount Paektu, a very orthodox way in Korean politics. However, Kim Jong-il was born in the Soviet Union. “So, out of political necessity, the official authorities [falsely] arranged for him to be ‘born’ at Mount Paektu.”
New Totalitarianism of Super-Slavery
Ms. Guo suggested that the logic of authoritarian rule—the Kim family must inherit Mount Paektu lineage—shared the same concept as the second generation of the CCP: “I fought for the kingdom, and of course, it is always my descendants who will sit on the throne.”In the early days, the Mount Paektu lineage referred to a military group of Kim Il-sung’s close associates, but later, it meant directly to Kim’s family.
The entire political rule of the Kim family has emphasized the legitimacy and legality of the future heir to ensure a smooth transfer of power within the family. Communism, Marxism, and socialism have been eradicated from their political identity, and in this respect, “North Korea has been transformed from a communist dictatorship to an imperial dictatorship.” As Ms. Guo puts it.
According to Ms. Guo, prolonged backwardness and closure are two indispensable prerequisites for North Korea to maintain that sort of imperial dictatorship.
“North Korea is now a commune system; all economic activities, enterprises, land, and mineral resources belong to the state. Even each individual does not belong to themselves but to the state. People have no freedom and no ownership of personal property.”
“It (North Korea) is a super-slavery system. Everyone is enslaved except the one with the highest power.”
Power Hereditary
According to Mr. Heng, CCP leader Xi Jinping couldn’t imitate Kim’s hereditary power system despite succeeding in securing his third term and reversing the CCP’s customs. “Xi didn’t have the same prestige, and people were just afraid of him, unlike Kim’s family, which has established its own prestige in the regime.”Mr. Heng believes that the most authoritarian leader of the CCP, Mao Zedong, had considered passing the throne on to his son, Mao Anying. Still, his hopes were dashed finally as Mao Anying was killed in a bombing raid on the Korean battlefield in November 1950.
The hereditary nature of power in authoritarian regimes means that each generation must have an iron fist who can take firm hold of power, but according to Mr. Heng, this probability is “random.”
“From Kim Il-sung to Kim Jong-il to Kim Jong un, three generations have produced formidable and influential leaders to govern society. However, it remains to be seen whether the fourth generation will produce a leader of similar caliber. If not, and if a weaker leader emerges, this type of succession may be failed soon.”
Mr. Heng further explained, “because the legitimacy of the North Korean system is not as strong as that of a traditional dynasty, as it is a republic in form. As a result, there may be some uncertainty regarding the inheritance of the Kim family.”
