On September 9, the DPRK celebrated the 69th anniversary of the founding of the republic. In the morning, citizens began laying flowers at the monument to Kim Il Sung, standing on Mansudae Hill in Pyongyang. It is obvious that the strange state ruled by three generations of dictators - Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Un - is heading towards its collapse.
It is necessary to make it clear to the DPRK that until it stops threatening the international community with its missiles and nuclear weapons, it has no future.
On September 9, the central publication of the Workers' Party of Korea, Rabochaya Gazeta, reported: “Our country has reached the level of a world military power.” She emphasized: “No matter how much the United States and its accomplices plot against us, we have the most powerful weapons, and we are invulnerable.”
It is not true. President Trump, who does not rule out the possibility of using military force, said: “It is advisable not to use weapons, but if we go for it, it will result in a tragedy for the DPRK.” The US has overwhelming superiority in terms of military power. If it comes to a military clash, the DPRK will be dealt a crushing blow.
The Kim Jong-un administration, which continues to insist that North Korea is a nuclear power, is behaving like a darling. Nevertheless, this is the devil's darling.
The leader of the DPRK executed his uncle Jang Song Thaek and killed his brother Kim Jong Nam. Kim Jong-un also unilaterally violated the agreement to investigate the situation surrounding the kidnapping of Japanese citizens. He completely ignores requests to send all Japanese home.
Context
What could a war with North Korea look like?
The New Yorker 09/08/2017The goal is to put pressure on Putin
Sankei Shimbun 09/07/2017There is a ban on oil, and there are no missiles in the DPRK
Nihon Keizai 09/01/2017 Most North Koreans live in poverty and suffer from policies of intimidation. Most likely, the joy of the townspeople from the celebration of the founding day of the republic is nothing more than a show. If it comes to war between the US and North Korea, ordinary North Korean citizens will suffer the most.For now, the best way to force North Korea to curtail its nuclear and missile programs is to back it into a corner through increased sanctions. The United States demands that the UN Security Council adopt a sanctions resolution on September 11, which will include an embargo on oil exports to the DPRK.
Nevertheless, President Putin sent a congratulatory telegram to Kim Jong-un in connection with the celebration of the founding day of the republic, in which he expressed the following thought: “The development of relations between our countries will contribute to the stability and security of the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia.”
Such a gap in the international coalition gives the green light to aggressive provocations of the DPRK. Without Russia and China, which have enormous influence on the DPRK, sanctions will not be effective enough. Now is the time for the international community to unite and suppress the DPRK.
InoSMI materials contain assessments exclusively of foreign media and do not reflect the position of the InoSMI editorial staff.
The northern part of the peninsula was under Soviet control.
Due to the fact that the defeat of Japan occurred faster than the participants in the war expected, the victorious countries were not ready to resolve the issue of the future of Korea. Meanwhile, the Koreans wanted independence and spontaneously created their own government bodies. In the northern part of the peninsula, the Provisional People's Committee of North Korea, headed by Kim Il-sung, was formed in February 1946. In response to the proclamation of the Korean state in the American occupation zone on August 15, 1948, the DPRK was proclaimed in the Soviet zone on September 9, 1948.
Early years
Political power was monopolized by the Workers' Party of Korea from the earliest years of the new state. A planned economy was established in the economy and nationalization was announced in 1946, as a result of which 70% of production came under state control. By 1949, this percentage had risen to 90%. Since then, almost all industry, domestic and foreign trade has been under state control.
As in all post-war communist states, in the DPRK the government began to actively invest in heavy industry, government infrastructure and the military-industrial complex. Between 1946 and 1959, the share of industry in the country's economy grew from 47% to 70%, despite the devastating consequences of the war with South Korea. Electricity generation, steel production and mechanical engineering grew significantly. Three-year plans were introduced, similar to the Soviet five-year plans.
Post-war years
Politically, the DPRK's position worsened due to the rift between China and the USSR, which began in 1960. Relations between North Korea and the USSR deteriorated, and Kim Il Sung was accused of supporting China. The result was a sharp reduction in military and financial support from the Soviet Union. However, in reality, Kim Il Sung did not support all of Mao Zedong’s initiatives; in particular, he declared the Cultural Revolution dangerous and destabilizing the situation in the region.
As an alternative, Kim Il Sung developed the idea Juche(“self-reliance”). The slogan, which was used since the late 50s, became the state ideology, replacing Marxism-Leninism. Juche is a policy that involves solving all internal problems exclusively on one's own.
The post-war years saw the heyday of the personality cult of Kim Il Sung.
The looming economic crisis
In the 70s, the growth of the state's economy stopped, and even a regression began. There were several reasons for this: firstly, high oil prices after the 1974 oil crisis. The DPRK did not have its own oil reserves, and the Juche policy did not allow active foreign trade; secondly, the skew of the economy towards heavy industry and financing the army also bore fruit. The DPRK could not reduce military spending; in addition, after Kim Il Sung’s words that both Koreas would be reunited during his lifetime, military spending only increased.
The aging Kim Il Sung continued his line in the economy, which led to the DPRK's default in 1980, and industrial production declined until the late 1980s.
Reign of Kim Jong Il
Kim Il Sung died in 1994 and was succeeded by his son, Kim Jong Il. His appointment was predetermined back in the early 80s with the active assistance of Defense Minister O Chin Woo. Kim Jong Il assumed the post of General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and Chairman of the National Defense Committee. The post of the country's president remained vacant.
During Kim Jong Il's reign, the country's economy continued to stagnate. Between 1999 and 1999, there was a severe famine in the DPRK, which, according to various estimates, killed from 10 thousand to 3 million people. The country's economy continues to remain isolated, and amounts equal to a quarter of GDP are spent on military needs. Almost the entire working-age male population aged 18-30 serves in the army, while industry is in decline.
As a result, according to a report by Amnesty International, in the DPRK in 2003, about 13 million people (60% of the country's population) suffered from malnutrition. North Korea received food worth more than $300 million from the United States, South Korea, Japan and the EU. In addition, supplies come from the UN and non-governmental organizations.
Forced liberalization in economics and politics
During the reign of Kim Il Sung, as well as in the early years of the reign of Kim Jong Il, North Korea was a totalitarian-Stalinist state with an almost complete absence of any civil liberties, with strict censorship and severed international ties. At the same time, due to the Confucian values that reigned in Korean society, totalitarian control over public life was much stricter than in the USSR.
At present, at least formally, the basic principles of the regime remain the same. However, in recent years, in the DPRK, according to the famous Korean scholar A. Lankov, “the quiet death of North Korean Stalinism” has occurred. The cessation of assistance from the USSR led to a large-scale economic crisis, primarily to a constant shortage of food, which resulted in the forced legalization of small private enterprise and shuttle trade with China, and many other restrictions were actually abolished. The death penalty is applied only for particularly serious crimes, including “political” ones; Although the atmosphere of mass surveillance and denunciation remains, most restrictions can be bought off with a bribe (in the 1990s and earlier this was practically impossible).
It should be borne in mind that economic and political liberalization is occurring against the will of the DPRK leadership. However, despite the fact that the state periodically tries to curtail private economic activity, such attempts turn into failure over and over again.
In 2007, after the visit of the President of South Korea to the DPRK, North and South Korea jointly asked the UN to promote the unification of Korea. However, the official attitude towards South Korea began to change even earlier. South Korean music and films are penetrating semi-legally into the DPRK (previously, listening and watching them was punishable by death as “high treason”). In this regard, serious changes have occurred in the public mood of North Koreans - the economic superiority of South Korea is no longer disputed by anyone (back in the mid-1990s, one was supposed to believe in the general and hopeless poverty of the South), but the belief about the unconditional “spiritual” and military superiority of the North.
In the economic sphere, at the beginning of the 21st century there have been attempts to transition to a market economy, which has led to an increase in foreign investment. In particular, China alone invested $200 million in the country's economy in 2004. It is interesting to note that the northern regions of the DPRK, closest to China, are currently the most economically prosperous (apart from several large cities in the south of the DPRK, including Pyongyang) - historically, the north of Korea has always been the poorest compared to other regions of the country.
The reign of Kim Jong-un
On June 28, 2012, it was decided that agricultural cooperatives could have units of 5-7 people who could take 30% of the harvest. Thanks to this, in 2013, for the first time, there was a harvest that was almost enough to feed the population (more than 5 million tons of grain). In 2014, the share of harvest left to the units was increased to 60%, and personal plots of up to 0.3 hectares were allowed (previously they were 0.01 hectares).
By a decree of May 30, 2014, managers of state-owned enterprises were allowed to buy components and equipment on the free market at market prices, hire personnel, fire personnel and pay them the salary they consider necessary. In 2012, the creation of more than 20 special economic zones was announced to attract foreign investors. The legal departure of citizens to China to work was allowed.
The first attempt to become a space power, with the launch of the launch vehicle "Unha-3" (translated as Milky Way-3), scheduled for April 2012, as part of grandiose celebrations in honor of the 100th anniversary of the birth of the founder of the state, Kim Il Sung, ended in failure , this was only possible on December 12, when the DPRK launched the artificial Earth satellite “Gwangmyongsong-3” into orbit, thus ahead of South Korea by several months.
At the beginning of 2014, the British “Teletubbies” and the television series “Doctor Who” were acquired for broadcast by North Korean television.
Crisis of 2013
The launch of a North Korean ballistic missile is scheduled for April 10, although it is not yet possible to say whether Pyongyang is actually preparing to launch the missile or is simply showing strength.
Until the beginning of the 20th century, Korea was a monarchical state - a vassal of Qin China. After the Russo-Japanese War, Japan imposed its protectorate on Korea, and annexed it in 1910.
In 1943, at a conference in Cairo, Roosevelt, Churchill and Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek agreed to create a unified and independent Korean state. The USSR, USA and Great Britain also agreed on this issue at the Tehran Conference in 1943 and the Yalta Conference of the Allies in 1945. On August 8, 1945, the USSR entered the war against Japan. Korea, which bordered the USSR, fell into the zone of action of Soviet troops.
“Soviet troops entered Korean territory because it was then part of the Japanese Empire,” explained Yevgeny Kim, a senior researcher at the Institute of Far Eastern Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. — In Korea at that time there was the so-called 17th Front of the Japanese Army, transferred to the operational subordination of the Kwantung Army. There were about 600 Japanese planes, about 100 thousand military personnel, and supplies for the Kwantung Army went through Korea. To ensure the defeat of the Manchu group, we needed to cut off the supply routes for Japanese troops through Korea.”
Concerned that all of Korea might fall under Soviet control, the Americans developed a plan to divide the peninsula into Soviet and American occupation zones along the 38th parallel, dividing the peninsula almost in half.
“The 38th parallel was chosen as the line dividing the areas of responsibility of Soviet and American troops. It was a temporary line, purely military,” said Alexander Vorontsov, head of the Korea and Mongolia department at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in a conversation with RT.
The capital of the country, Seoul, was within the American occupation zone. The Soviet Union accepted the American proposals.
“Stalin might not agree, since there were no Americans anywhere near Korea,” says Kim. “But we were allies, and he didn’t want to quarrel with them.”
As a result, in 1945, the Korean Peninsula was occupied by the USSR and the USA. On August 14, 1945, the Red Army entered Korean territory from the north. On September 8, 1945, the Americans landed at Inchon in the south of the peninsula.
“Soviet troops actually fought in Korea, there were fleeting but bloody battles, but the Americans landed in Korea after the surrender of Japan,” Vorontsov notes.
In total, 4.5 thousand soldiers and officers of the Red Army died during the liberation of Korea.
Different policies
On September 12, 1945, the Korean People's Republic was proclaimed in Seoul by supporters of Korean independence. It was headed by left-wing nationalist Yo Unhyun. The government under his leadership relied on a network of people's committees created in the north and south of Korea. However, American occupation forces refused to recognize the government of the People's Republic of Korea and the people's committees and outlawed them in December 1945.
The reason is the policy of the people's republic: left-wing activists took an active part in the work of the people's committees, and among the goals they set for themselves were the nationalization of railways, communications, banks and mines, as well as an 8-hour working day and free distribution of land to peasants . The rightists preferred to focus on the “government” located in Shanghai, created by migrants from Korea. However, the United States did not recognize him either. Very soon, the Americans banned the activities of the Korean Communist Party in the south of the country.
They relied on the former chairman of the provisional government of the Republic of Korea in exile, Syngman Rhee, who had lived in the United States since 1925. In October 1945, he arrived in Seoul on the personal plane of the Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces in Japan, General MacArthur. Syngman Rhee began active activities in Korea, claiming the role of the main politician of the south.
- Lee Seung Man
- Keystone Pictures USA
“Some South Koreans from the bourgeoisie and the feudal-landlord class welcomed the Americans,” Kim notes. “But by that time the people’s committee, the Communist Party, was already operating there, and the general mood of the population was in favor of socialism.”
The USSR pursued a different policy, trying to rely on people's committees. They were recognized by the Soviet leadership as legitimate. The United States declared from the very beginning that only its military administration had power in the south of Korea.
The Korean communists were an important pro-Soviet force. However, the communist forces in Korea were then fragmented, and it was necessary to unite them: in the south, the so-called internal group of communist underground fighters who did not leave the country during the years of occupation and war announced the re-establishment of the Korean Communist Party. There was a “Yan’an” group operating in China, but the group closest to the Soviet military command was the “Manchurian” (or “partisan”) group - communists who participated in the guerrilla war in northern Korea and Manchuria.
A significant part of them were pushed back to the territory of the USSR during the clashes with the Japanese. The 88th separate rifle brigade of the Red Army was created from Korean and Chinese partisans, which took part in the liberation of Korea. Red Army captain and former guerrilla commander Kim Il Sung turned out to be the highest-ranking Korean in this brigade on North Korean territory.
- Kim Il Sung in Seoul, June 1950
Already in December 1945, Kim Il Sung replaced Comintern veteran Kim Yong Bum as head of the North Korean Bureau of the Communist Party of Korea.
Failed provisional government
In December 1945, the Moscow Conference of the Foreign Ministers of the USSR, USA and Great Britain was held, at which it was decided to introduce a trusteeship regime over Korea with the prospect of creating a single independent state and a single Korean government in five years. The United States sought to ensure that all power for the duration of the trusteeship regime was concentrated in the hands of a joint commission of allies under the leadership of the commanders-in-chief of the USSR and the USA in Korea. However, Moscow insisted that power pass to the provisional democratic government of Korea. On December 29, 1945, this decision, approved by the United States, was made public.
Although the idea of trusteeship was first voiced by US representatives, the Americans carried out a kind of information operation, presenting the situation in the eyes of the Koreans in such a way as to place all the blame for postponing Korean independence on the USSR.
Two days before the start of the conference, information appeared in the Seoul East Asian Newspaper that it was the USSR that insisted on introducing a trusteeship regime over Korea, while the United States allegedly demanded immediate independence. Syngman Lee did not stand aside either.
“On December 19, Syngman Rhee spoke on Seoul radio and accused the Soviet Union of introducing the idea of trusteeship over Korea, and this is the deprivation of Korea’s independence. And he began in every possible way to agitate the Koreans against the Soviet Union. And this was even before our response to the US proposal of December 17 was given,” Kim explained.
As a result, mass protests against the guardianship regime took place in the country. The prospect of creating at least a temporary but common Korean government was blocked due to the incompatible demands of the USSR and the USA regarding the composition of this government.
“The Americans understood that if they allowed the masses to elect who they wanted, a people’s democratic regime would emerge in Korea,” says Kim.
Negotiations on the creation of a temporary government were unsuccessful, and both sides headed for the creation of their own administrations in their occupation zones.
Self-government of the North
In 1946, the Workers' Party of Korea was founded, absorbing the New People's Party and the Communist Party of Korea, created by former Korean emigrants from China. The leader of the new association was Kim Doo Bong, the head of the New People's Party. All political parties operating in North Korea—the Democratic Party, the Labor Party, and the religious Young Friends of the Heavenly Way Party—became part of the United Democratic Fatherland Front, an umbrella organization led by communists.
The Provisional People's Committee for North Korea was created to replace the Five Provinces Administrative Bureau, the provisional Korean government that acted alongside the Soviet occupation authorities in North Korea. The new government was headed by Kim Il Sung.
The North Korean leadership set a course for socialist reforms: the nationalization of enterprises, the distribution of land among peasants that belonged to large owners and pro-Japanese collaborators. A significant portion of those who collaborated with the Japanese or were affected by reforms in the north fled to the American zone of occupation.
On February 17, 1947, the first congress of representatives of people's committees of cities, provinces and counties was held in North Korea, which elected the highest body of state power - the People's Assembly of North Korea, which was supposed to govern the territory of the Soviet occupation zone until the creation of a unified government of Korea.
The South is falling apart
In South Korea, dissatisfaction with the American administration was growing. In the fall of 1946, mass protests and clashes with police took place in the largest cities of the south. Local “advisory bodies”: the legislative assembly and the government collaborated with the American occupiers. The latter was headed by Syngman Lee. However, all power in the south belonged to the American military administration.
To find out the mood of the population, the Americans conducted a public opinion poll in July 1946, and it showed that 70% of respondents were in favor of socialism. Therefore, a course was taken to establish a right-wing authoritarian puppet regime behind the screen of democracy.
“They began to deliberately prepare for the creation of a separate government in the south of Korea and, accordingly, the split of the country. And so that they would not be disturbed, they began to physically eliminate political figures who could interfere with this. 1946, 1947 and 1948 were the years of large-scale murders of political figures in South Korea,” the expert notes.
In 1948, the United States initiated elections for a Constitutional Assembly in the southern Korean Peninsula. Opponents of the elections staged mass protests because they feared that, with a boycott from the north, they would perpetuate the division of the country. In April 1948, an uprising under communist slogans began on the island of Jehujo in South Korea, which lasted almost a year. During its suppression, government troops killed, according to various sources, from 14 thousand to 60 thousand inhabitants of the island. Despite the protests and boycott of leftist parties, in May 1948, elections to the Constitutional Assembly were held in South Korea, in which the leaders of pro-American bourgeois parties won.
On July 17, 1948, the Constitution of the Republic of Korea was approved. On July 20, the Constitutional Assembly elected Syngman Rhee as the first president of the new state - the Republic of Korea.
“The initiative for the split was in the south, among the Americans, because they were the first to proclaim a separate government of South Korea,” says Vorontsov.
Final separation
The North did not recognize either the elections to the Constitutional Assembly or Syngman Rhee as the head of Korea. Very quickly the new regime showed all the signs of an authoritarian right-wing dictatorship. Opponents of the president were persecuted or killed on the orders of Syngman Rhee. Among the killed political opponents are Yo Unhyun (the head of the People's Republic of Korea), Kim Gu, Seung Man Rhee's rival in the presidential elections of the Republic of Korea, as well as a number of other North Korean politicians.
In North Korea, in response to the elections in the south, it was decided to hold elections for the Supreme People's Assembly on August 25, 1948. In the north, elections were held officially, in the south - secretly. On September 8, 1948, the Supreme People's Assembly approved the constitution, and on September 9, it proclaimed the creation of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The formal leader of the state was the Chairman of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, Kim Doo-bong, who headed the presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly. Kim Il Sung became the head of the country's government.
“The Supreme People's Assembly included 316 deputies from South Korea and 260 deputies elected from the North, giving them the basis to claim that they have created a republic that represents all Koreans,” Kim notes.
As a result, two governments were formed in liberated Korea - socialist in the north and capitalist in the south. Each of them claimed to rule the entire country.
- US landing, Korea, 1950
South Korea had a constitution that, despite all its Korean specifics, was copied from Western models - primarily from the American one. At the same time, North Korea copied the 1936 USSR Constitution. The two governments - in the north and south of the Korean Peninsula - not only did not recognize each other and were guided by different political and economic models, but also did not hide the fact that they were going to solve the problem by military means.
“The split has become a fact. Two states emerged, and the 38th parallel turned into a border,” Vorontsov noted.
Unfinished War
In 1948-1949, Soviet and American troops were withdrawn from Korea. As Kim notes, this contributed to the outbreak of war between the two Koreas - the factor of deterring aggression disappeared. And although the Korean War was formally started by North Korean troops on June 25, 1950, it was preceded by almost a year of intense fighting on the border of the two state entities and statements by the South Koreans about their intention to suppress the north by force of arms.
“From April 1949 to July 4, 1950, 1,400 military clashes took place on the border between North and South Korea, involving up to two battalions on each side every day. In fact, the military conflict has been going on continuously since 1949,” Kim emphasized.
Syngman Rhee and the South Korean generals did not hide the fact that they were going to resolve the issue of Korean unification by military means, preparing a throw to the north.
- Korean War, 1951
As a result of the Korean War of 1950-1953, in which the USA, China, the USSR, and Great Britain were involved, neither side, despite serious losses, was able to achieve a final advantage. As a result, a military demarcation line was established along the 38th parallel, where the front stabilized by July 1953.
On July 27, 1953, representatives of the US armed forces, the DPRK and the “Chinese volunteers” (the latter were actually units of the People's Liberation Army of China) signed a truce that is still in force. Representatives of South Korea refused to join him. The peace treaty, despite several attempts by the DPRK, was never signed.
“The United States is not going to sign it, because if a peace treaty is signed, then why are Americans needed there... But they don’t want to leave, because South Korea is a convenient springboard against China and Russia, South Korea is not signing a peace treaty because that then they will have to recognize North Korea,” Kim concluded.
Now it is South Korea, according to experts, that is most strongly pushing the idea of unifying the peninsula. The DPRK is still considered an “extremist organization” there, the expression of sympathy for which is prohibited by law. The South Korean government to this day appoints and maintains the governors of the five provinces that are de facto part of the DPRK, along with all the necessary apparatus, so that in the event of the capture of the north, they can immediately begin governing these territories.
“The South proceeds and has proceeded from the position: “We are stronger, time is on our side,” notes Vorontsov. — Seoul - because the unification of Korea will take place according to the German scenario, when the Republic of Korea will simply absorb the DPRK. But North Korea, despite all the difficulties, survives. Moreover, they have entered a trend of positive economic growth. And plus more successes in the nuclear missile sector.”
The North, in turn, proposes the idea of the Koryo Confederation - the creation of a supranational entity that would cover both Korean states without changing the specifics of each of the regimes that were formed over almost 60 years, according to a model similar to the Chinese principle of “one country, two systems” applied during the integration of Hong Kong into China.
“As for the unification, I believe that they have passed the point of no return,” says Kim. “We need to calm down and admit that they live in different countries, each of which has developed its own special style and even the spoken language is different. We must discard all ideas about unification. This is a long-term prospect."
September 9, 1948 a bright star flashed in Northeast Asia, heralding the creation of a new one, socialist a state that showed third world countries a practical way to fight for their independence, for the legitimate right of every people to independently choose their historical path of development.
The creation of the DPRK was a significant milestone in the history of the Korean nation, the beginning of the independence and independence of the Korean state, created for the benefit of the working people, for the benefit of their interests and the real improvement of the life of the common man. After the liberation of Korea from the Japanese colonial yoke in 1945, under the leadership of the Great Commander Comrade Kim Il Sung, the Great Leader did a great deal of work towards the unification of the Korean nation, divided territorially into two parts by the Americans who occupied the south of Korea in the final period of World War II and refused to leave the territory Korean Peninsula after its completion. Unfortunately, the issue of unification remains on the agenda due to the criminal, hostile, misanthropic policy of the United States, which in every possible way opposes this unification, contrary to the wishes and aspirations of the entire Korean people.
In the newly born Socialist Republic, the creation of an independent and self-sufficient economic base began. The country has set a course for training its intelligentsia and scientific and technical personnel. The adopted development plans for the country set goals that were always successfully implemented by the heroic people of the DPRK. Over the past 63 years, the DPRK has become a country with universal literacy, where every 4th person has a higher education, and where a high potential for science and culture has been created. But personnel, as you know, decides everything. Therefore, it is not surprising that in response to constant threats, direct blackmail and various provocations from the United States, domestic scientists and scientific and technical personnel of the DPRK created reliable protection for the peaceful labor of citizens, in the form of nuclear weapons, from the threat of a preventive attack on the country from those distraught from US permissiveness. And no matter what anyone says, the presence of a nuclear shield is today the only guarantee of maintaining peace in Northeast Asia and on the Korean Peninsula, in particular.
Achievements in the field of economic development, science, growth in the welfare of the people, constantly improving medical care in the most remote areas from the capital, large-scale residential construction, both in cities and in rural areas, speak volumes. Today, the DPRK has a highly developed industry and advanced agriculture. It is very difficult to build socialism in the DPRK due to the constant interference of the United States in all affairs on the Korean Peninsula and the corruption of the changing South Korean puppet governments, their subordination and servility to America. But, despite these enormous difficulties, the constant suffocating economic blockade of the DPRK, the country not only has not weakened, but has grown, matured and continues to confidently move forward, has received recognition from almost all states of the planet (diplomatic relations have been established). The basis of all achievements is the heroic work of the people of the DPRK, their monolithic unity around the Leader and the Party. The Armed Forces of the DPRK are people's flesh and blood; they not only vigilantly guard the gains of socialism, but also take an active part in its further construction. It was the unity of the people around the Leader and the Party that created that monolith that no one was given the power to destroy.
Today, 17 years after the death of the Great Leader, the worthy successor of his work, Comrade Kim Jong Il, is at the helm of the country. He enjoys great love and trust from the people.
His re-election to the post of Chairman of the State Defense Committee of the DPRK on September 3, 2003 testifies to his services to the country and people and his extraordinary abilities as a politician, ideologist, wise statesman, and talented commander. It is no coincidence that the people of the DPRK call him the Great KIM JON IL.
Now the people are preparing to celebrate the centenary of the birth of the Great Leader in the coming 2012 with new labor successes.
We heartily congratulate the courageous and hardworking people of the DPRK on the 63rd anniversary of the founding of their Socialist state, and we wish them to continue their path to the top of a highly developed, prosperous socialist state as firmly and confidently as possible.
On the day of the 63rd anniversary of the founding of the DPRK, congratulating the Koreans on this holiday, we sincerely wish happiness to every family and new success in strengthening the power of their Socialist state.
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RUSSIAN RELATIONS WITH DPRK
On October 12, 1948, the USSR was the first to establish diplomatic relations with the DPRK. North Korea officially recognized the Russian Federation as the legal successor of the former USSR. On February 9, 2000, a new interstate Treaty of Friendship, Good Neighborliness and Cooperation was concluded in Pyongyang. The legal basis for Russian-North Korean relations also consists of the Pyongyang (2000) and Moscow Declarations (2001), signed during the visits of the President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin to the DPRK and the Chairman of the State Defense Committee of the DPRK Kim Jong Il to Russia.
Russia and the DPRK maintain political dialogue at the highest and highest levels, contacts and exchanges between various departments of the two countries, and inter-parliamentary relations are developing.
On August 24, 2011, negotiations between Dmitry Medvedev and Kim Jong Il took place in Ulan-Ude, during which a wide range of issues of bilateral relations, as well as regional issues, including the situation surrounding the settlement of the nuclear problem on the Korean Peninsula, were discussed. The agenda also included the implementation of trilateral (Russian Federation - Republic of Korea - DPRK) economic cooperation projects - connecting Korean railways with the Trans-Siberian Railway, construction of a power transmission line and laying a gas pipeline from the Russian Federation to the Republic of Korea through the territory of the DPRK.
The death of Kim Jong Il (December 19, 2011) and the accelerated transfer of power to Kim Jong Un initially did not have a significant impact on the overall vector of development of bilateral relations. During the exchange of telegrams, Kim Jong-un assured the Russian leadership that the continuity of the DPRK's policy in the Russian direction would be maintained.
However, North Korean nuclear missile experiments, carried out contrary to the demands of the world community at the end of 2012 - beginning of 2013, could not but have a negative impact on the dynamics of the development of our relations. Russia supported the corresponding UN Security Council resolution 2094 of March 7, 2013, which further tightened sanctions aimed at stopping Pyongyang’s programs in this area. Many planned bilateral events and contacts were cancelled. In particular, the meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission was postponed to a later date.
At the same time, efforts were continued to find ways to reduce tension on the peninsula and to resume the six-party negotiations on the settlement of the nuclear war as soon as possible. In 2013, congratulatory telegrams were exchanged at the highest level on the occasion of the Liberation Day of Korea (August 15), V.V. Putin sent a telegram to Kim Jong-un on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the founding of the DPRK (September 9), our ministers congratulated each other on the 65th -anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations (October 12). On July 4, 2013, consultations between the First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia V.G. Titov and the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia I.V. Morgulov with the First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the DPRK Kim Kye Gwan took place in Moscow.
February 5-10 this year Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK Kim Yong Nam visited the Russian Federation and took part in the opening ceremony of the XXII Winter Olympic Games. On February 7, in Sochi, he had a brief protocol contact with V.V. Putin. Negotiations were also held with V.I. Matvienko.
During the visit to Pyongyang of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan R.N. Minnikhanov on March 21-22 this year. Issues of bilateral trade and economic cooperation were substantively discussed.
On March 25-27, the Minister for the Development of the Far East A.S. Galushka visited Pyongyang as co-chairman of the Russian-North Korean Intergovernmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation, during which a constructive exchange of views took place on further improvement of the mechanisms of interstate interaction in the trade, economic and scientific sectors.
On April 28-30, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Far Eastern Federal District, Yu.P. Trutnev, visited the DPRK. The head of the Russian delegation had meetings with Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK Kim Yong Nam, Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of the DPRK Pak Pong Du, Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers, Chairman of the State Planning Committee of the DPRK Ro Du Cher.
The contractual and legal framework of bilateral relations continues to be improved - an Agreement on Cooperation in the Field of Prevention of Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Harvesting of Living Marine Resources, an Agreement on the State Border Regime, an Agreement on the Settlement of the Debt of the DPRK to the Russian Federation on Loans Extended by the USSR, an Exchange Plan are signed between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the DPRK for 2013-2014. and a number of other protocols and agreements. The Agreement on the reception and transfer of persons who have violated the legislation of the parties on the entry, exit and stay of foreign citizens, and the Agreement on legal assistance in criminal cases are being prepared for signing.
Russia is one of the traditional trade and economic partners of the DPRK. International sanctions, as well as unilateral restrictions imposed by some countries, seriously complicate the development of our economic ties. However, the volume of Russian-North Korean trade turnover in 2013 increased by 64.2% compared to 2012 and amounted to 112.7 million US dollars, incl. Russian exports to the DPRK - $103.4 million (an increase of 77.0%), imports from the DPRK - $9.3 million (a decrease of 9.1%).
The only bilateral investment project being implemented in practice at this stage is the reconstruction of the Khasan-Rajin railway section (almost completed) and the third berth of the Rajin port (planned to be completed by mid-2014), carried out by Russian Railways JSC in the interests of creating a large transshipment terminal.
Russia continues to provide humanitarian assistance to the DPRK - in 2013-2014, through international organizations, fortified wheat flour, 50 fire engines, and sets of medical equipment and medicine were supplied to the DPRK. In addition, significant assistance is also provided bilaterally.
Contacts between public organizations, friendship societies, and higher educational institutions have intensified somewhat. Tours of Russian creative groups to the DPRK have resumed - on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries in October 2013, the “Orchestra of the 21st Century” performed in Pyongyang under the direction of People’s Artist of Russia P.B. Ovsyannikov. In April this year In the DPRK, the Ensemble of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia took part in the “April Spring” festival under the direction of People’s Artist of Russia V.P. Eliseev.
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DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF KOREA
1. GENERAL INFORMATION
Area - 122.8 thousand square meters. km, or 55% of the territory of all Korea. In the north it borders with the People's Republic of China (1360 km) and the Russian Federation (39.1 km, including along the Tumangan River - 16.9 km, by sea - 22.2 km). Population – about 24.5 million people. The capital is Pyongyang (with its suburbs - 2.6 million inhabitants).
Administratively, the DPRK consists of nine provinces, two cities with special status - Nampo and Rason, counties and villages. The Rason trade and economic, Kaesong industrial and Kumgan tourist zones have special administrative status.
2. STATE STRUCTURE
North Korea is a socialist state.
The State Defense Committee of the DPRK has been declared the highest governing body of the country. Its First Chairman - Kim Jong-un - is the "highest official", the supreme commander of the Korean People's Army (KPA).
According to the Constitution, the highest legislative body is the unicameral Supreme People's Assembly (SPA) of the DPRK, elected for five years. In the period between sessions, its work is led by the Presidium of the Supreme Council. The last elections to the Supreme Council were held in March 2014. Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council - Kim Yong Nam (represents the DPRK in foreign relations), Chairman of the Supreme Council - Choi Thae Bok.
The highest administrative and executive body of power is the Cabinet of Ministers. Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers - Park Pong Du.
Local authorities - provincial, city, county people's assemblies are elected for a term of four years. During the period between sessions, local power is exercised by people's committees.
A special role in North Korean society is played by the Workers' Party of Korea (First Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea - Kim Jong-un), which has about 4 million members and candidate members.
3. ECONOMIC SITUATION
The DPRK is pursuing a course of “self-reliance” in the economy, focusing on a rigid administrative-command system. The situation in the national economy of the country, which is experiencing a deep systemic socio-economic crisis, remains difficult.
In 2013, at the March plenum of the Central Committee of the WPK, a decision was made to implement a new strategic course, “Penjin,” the essence of which boils down to parallel economic construction and the build-up of “nuclear deterrent forces.”
North Korea is extremely militarized. The number of KPA is about 850 thousand people. About 15% of the budget is spent on defense.
4. FOREIGN POLICY ACTIVITIES
The DPRK maintains diplomatic relations with 166 countries, as well as with the European Union and ASEAN, and is a member of more than 250 international organizations.
The DPRK joined the UN at the same time as the Republic of Korea in 1991.
Pyongyang’s foreign policy doctrine is based on the ideas of “independence” and “originality,” opposed to globalization and openness in world politics and economics. In international relations, the DPRK defends the principle of state sovereignty and opposes any actions aimed at exerting forceful pressure and interfering in the internal affairs of independent states.
The DPRK carries out its foreign policy activities under the conditions of sanctions imposed in accordance with UN Security Council resolutions (No. 1718, 1874, 2087, 2094, 2270), condemning the North Korean nuclear missile program.
5. INTER-KOREAN RELATIONS
The DPRK and the Republic of Korea were proclaimed on September 9 and August 15, 1948, respectively, after attempts to recreate a unified Korean state failed. According to the Armistice Agreement, signed on July 27, 1953 following the 1950-1953 war, North and South Korea are separated by a military demarcation line, on both sides of which there is a demilitarized zone with a total width of 4 kilometers.
In July 1972, the Joint Statement of the North and the South was signed, which set out the basic principles of unification - independently, without relying on external forces; in peaceful way; based on the "great national consolidation".
In 1991, the DPRK and the ROK entered into an Agreement on Reconciliation, Non-Aggression, Cooperation and Exchanges, and in 1992 they adopted the Joint Declaration on the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
In the entire history of relations, two inter-Korean summits have taken place. Both took place in Pyongyang: June 13-15, 2000, between former DPRK leader Kim Jong Il and then-ROK President Kim Dae-jung, and October 2-4, 2007, between Kim Jong-il and then-ROK President Roh Moo-hyun.
The nuclear test and launch of a launch vehicle carried out in North Korea in 2016 complicated the prospects for the normalization of inter-Korean relations and became the reason for increasing the military activity of the United States and the Republic of Korea in Northeast Asia.
6. RUSSIAN-NORTH KOREAN RELATIONS
North Korea officially recognized the Russian Federation as the legal successor of the former USSR. On February 9, 2000, a new interstate Treaty of Friendship, Good-Neighborliness and Cooperation was concluded in Pyongyang. The legal basis for Russian-North Korean relations also consists of the Pyongyang (2000) and Moscow (2011) declarations, signed during the visits of the President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin to the DPRK and the Chairman of the State Defense Committee of the DPRK Kim Jong Il to Russia.
Russia and the DPRK maintain political dialogue at the highest and highest levels; develop contacts and exchanges between various departments of the two countries, inter-parliamentary relations.
North Korean nuclear missile experiments, carried out contrary to the demands of the international community, had a negative impact on the dynamics of the development of bilateral relations. Russia supported UN Security Council Resolution No. 2270 of March 2, 2016, which further tightened sanctions aimed at stopping Pyongyang’s nuclear missile programs.
At the same time, efforts were continued to find ways to reduce tension on the peninsula and to resume the six-party negotiations on the settlement of the nuclear war as soon as possible.
The contractual and legal framework of bilateral relations continues to be improved: an Agreement on Cooperation in the Field of Prevention of Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing of Marine Resources, an Agreement on the State Border Regime, an Agreement on the Settlement of the Debt of the DPRK to the Russian Federation on Loans Extended by the USSR, an Agreement on Acceptance and Transfer persons who have violated the legislation on the entry, exit and stay of foreign citizens, the Agreement on Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters and a number of other documents.
The volume of Russian-North Korean trade turnover remains low and in 2014 amounted to 92.3 million US dollars.
The only bilateral investment project that has received practical implementation is the reconstruction of the Hasan-Rajin railway section and the pier in the port of Rajin.
Russia continues to provide humanitarian assistance to the DPRK through international organizations, as well as through bilateral channels.
Contacts are developing through public organizations, friendship societies, and higher educational institutions.