Kapsan Faction Incident

Pak Kum-chol, the would be successor of Kim Il-sung in the Kapsan Faction Incident

The Kapsan Faction Incident was an unsuccessful an attempt to undermine the power of Kim Il-sung, the leader of North Korea, around the year 1967. The "Kapsan faction" was a group of veterans of the anti-Japanese struggle of the 1930s and 1940s that was initially close to Kim Il-sung. In the wake of the 2nd Conference of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) in 1966, the faction sought to introduce economic reforms, challenge Kim Il-sung's cult of personality, and appoint its ringleader Pak Kum-chol as his successor.

Kim Il-sung cracked down on the faction in a series of speeches made at party meetings. He called for a "monolithic ideological system" that centered on his personality and rallied party members against the Kapsan faction. By April 1967, the factionalists had disappeared from public. They were expelled from the party and either sent to the countryside or in prison. Kim Il-sung had his brother and heir apparent at that time, Kim Yong-ju, pen the Ten Principles for the Establishment of a Monolithic Ideological System. This new set of policies made Kim Il-sung's rule unchallengeable and expanded his cult of personality to cover other members of the Kim family. His son, Kim Jong-il, took part in these purges and took over the party's Propaganda and Agitation Department (PAD) in what was the first political task delegated to him by his father.

Background

The Kapsan Faction Incident takes its name from the region of Kapsan in South Hamgyong Province (present day Ryanggang Province),[1] home to an underground liberation organization during the anti-Japanese struggle called the Kapsan Operation Committee.[2] Members of this group had fought alongside Kim Il-sung against the Japanese and were thus part of Kim's Guerrilla faction of the Workers' Party of North Korea following the liberation of Korea.[2] The origins of the group are so tied up with Kim Il-sung's activities that sometimes the entire Guerrilla faction is called the "Kapsan" faction.[3] Gradually, the faction became seen as distinct from the rest of the Guerrilla faction due to political differences.[4] Kim had ousted other factions of the party in a series of purges in the 1950s, but the Kapsan faction remained.[2] In the aftermath of the 2nd Conference of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) in 1966, the Kapsan faction started setting forth its grievances.[5]

The faction put forward economic policies that disagreed with Kim Il-sung's economic model.[6] They were particularly opposed to Kim's Byungjin (dual-track) line of simultaneously developing the economy and the army.[5] They favored light industry over heavy industry in order to funnel funds away form the military and improve people's standard of living. They wanted the ruling WPK to relegate its role in economic planning to experts in economics, science, and engineering.[7] They also favored an economic theory of value and advocated the adoption of a semi-currency in order to give material incentives to workers.[8]

The main issue, however, was the question of who could succeed Kim Il-sung as the leader of North Korea.[6] Kim had promoted his younger brother Kim Yong-ju as a likely successor,[7] but the man lacked credentials. In particular, he had not taken part in the fight against the Japanese like the guerrilla and Kapsan faction members had.[6] He was criticized for this by the leader of the Kapsan faction, Pak Kum-chol,[6][7] who had risen in rank to become the vice premier of the state and the fourth-highest ranking member of the party.[7][9] Pak was annoyed by the ballooning cult of personality of Kim Il-sung and how it neglected the experiences of people like him who had sacrificed a lot to the country during the liberation.[5] Pak gathered many influential supporters, including Yi Hyo-sun, Kim To-man, Pak Yong-guk, Ho Sok-son, Ko Hyok, and Ha Ang-chon.[9]

The Kapsan faction sought to name Pak the successor of Kim Il-sung.[9] As an initial move, they helped Kim Il-sung purge Kim Chang-nam, a prominent political theorist, but only to make room for Pak.[10] The faction members started exalting Pak's words as "teachings" equal to the teachings of Kim Il-sung.[5][9] One of the faction members, Kim To-man, who was the Director of the Propaganda and Agitation Department (PAD) of the party, produced work called An Act of Sincerity[9] – described variously as either a film or a stage play[11] – that honored the feats of Pak and his wife as members of the Kapsan Operation Committee. Kim To-man also had Pak's birthplace rebuilt.[9] Additional accusations included a biography on Pak and the failure to disseminate propaganda materials on Kim Il-sung.[8] Pak was accused of not supporting the party's military line. His ally Yi Hyo-sun was charged of personally failing covert operations in South Korea.[12] The factionalists were also said to be "revisionists" and having forced people to read "feudalist" literature from the time of the Joseon dynasty.[8] These actions, without the approval of Kim Il-sung, was seen as serious acts of undermining his cult of personality and authority.[9] On top of that, the faction was seen as pro-Chinese contrary to the pro-Moscow line of Kim.[10]

Incident

Kim Il-sung perceived the Kapsan faction's ideas and actions as existential threats to his rule and the state. In March 1967, Kim warned the Kapsan faction members in a speech entitled "On Improving Party Work and Implementing the Decisions of the Party Conference" and accused them of practicing "individual heroism". Kim's solution to the problem was a "monolithic ideological system" that rallied the party around him.[5] Kim warned other party officials not to side with the factionalists. The faction members ignored his warnings and held their course.[9] Kim acquired permission from his loyal party members in a secret meeting to remove the Kapsan faction.[13] A wide purge of both real and presumed members ensued.[14] By April, the key figures had disappeared from public life. In May, at the fifteenth plenum of the fourth Central Committee of the WPK, Kim had the faction members formally expelled from the party. Pak Kum-chol was sent to work in a factory in the countryside.[5] Others were charged with crimes and sent to prison camps.[5][9] On 25 May, Kim held a speech to party ideological apparatchiks entitled "On the Questions of the Period of Transition from Capitalism to Socialism and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat".[9] The speech became known as the "May 25 Teaching" and would become a political tool for Kim's supporters to expose factional elements in the party.[13][9]

Kim Jong-il took part in investigating the faction. The task was delegated to him by Kim Il-sung. Kim Jong-il was only 26 at the time and it was the first official duty given to him by his father.[8] Six months after the purge, at an unscheduled meeting of the party, Kim Il-sung called for loyalty in the film industry that had betrayed him with An Act of Sincerity. Kim Jong-il himself announced that he was up to the task and thus begun his influential career in film-making.[15] Kim left the party's Organization and Guidance Department to take over PAD which had been tarnished in the incident.[16] He gave his support for establishing a monolithic ideology centered around his father alone.[8] Kim called a month-long conference of filmmakers to re-orient the country's film industry by cleansing it from the "poison" of the Kapsan faction.[17] Kim also had the conspirators' war memoirs removed from a popular collection called Reminiscences of the Anti-Japanese Guerillas.[18]

Aftermath

The Kapsan Faction Incident was "a watershed in North Korean politics". It marked the last credible challenge to Kim Il-sung's position. Once the faction had been cleared, Kim's grip on power hardened and his cult of personality intensified. Kim Il-sung badges were introduced and it became mandatory to quote Kim in public meetings. Soon after the incident, Kim Yong-ju, Kim Il-sung's brother, codified his rule in the influential Ten Principles for the Establishment of a Monolithic Ideological System.[9] Kim Il-sung announced the principles to the public in a speech held at the Supreme People's Assembly on 16 December 1967 entitled "Let Us Embody the Revolutionary Spirit of Independence, Self-Sustenance, and Self-Defense More Thoroughly in all Branches of State Activity".[5]

Kim's cult of personality began to focus on members of his family as well.[9] The first figure the cult was extended to was his mother, Kang Pan-sok.[16] In July 1967, a song entitled "Mother of Korea" praising her was published. In July and September Rodong Sinmun published articles praising Kang.[8] September also saw a campaign to emulate Kang in the Korean Democratic Women's Union. By 1968, the North Korean cult of personality was complete.[16] By the time of the following year, the purges were over.[19]

After the incident, the Korean word for leader, suryong, which had been used for the leader of any group, or for Lenin or Stalin, became to exclusively mean Kim Il-sung. It also marked the rise of Kim Jong-il into the center of political life.[8]

Following the purges and personnel replacements, North Korea's policy toward South Korea became more hard-line.[12] Kim's May 25 speech also had the effect of establishing his own theoretical position distinct from that of China or the Soviet Union, granting him political independence from the two socialist great powers.[9] Kim Il-sung's Byungjin economic line took hold, although in reality it meant privileging the army over the economy.[20] His political ideologue of Juche also began to gradually gain momentum.[21][5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Hoare, James E. (2012). "Kapsan Faction". Historical Dictionary of Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Lanham: Scarecrow Press. p. 200. ISBN 978-0-8108-7987-4.
  2. 1 2 3 Lim 2008, p. 37.
  3. ↑ Armstrong, Charles K. (2013). The North Korean Revolution, 1945–1950. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-6880-9.
  4. ↑ Lim 2015, p. 47.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Person, James F. (14 December 2013). "The 1967 Purge of the Gapsan Faction and Establishment of the Monolithic Ideological System". North Korea International Documentation Project. Wilson Center. Retrieved 11 October 2018.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Lim 2008, p. 38.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Cha & Sohn 2012, p. 26.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Lim 2008, p. 40.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Lim 2008, p. 39.
  10. 1 2 Myers 2015, p. 95.
  11. ↑ Myers 2015, p. 95n52.
  12. 1 2 Taik-Young Hamm (2012). Arming the Two Koreas: State, Capital and Military Power. London: Routledge. p. 143. ISBN 978-1-134-62066-1.
  13. 1 2 Cha & Sohn 2012, p. 27.
  14. ↑ Myers 2015, p. 97.
  15. ↑ Cha & Sohn 2012, p. 28.
  16. 1 2 3 Lim 2015, p. 48.
  17. ↑ Cha & Sohn 2012, p. 29.
  18. ↑ Lim 2008, p. 44.
  19. ↑ "Korea". Encyclopaedia Britannica. 13. Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica. 1973. p. 462A. ISBN 978-0-85229-173-3.
  20. ↑ Myers 2015, p. 105.
  21. ↑ Myers 2015, p. 96.

Works cited

  • Cha, John H.; Sohn, K. J. (2012). Exit Emperor Kim Jong-Il: Notes from His Former Mentor. Bloomington: Abbott Press. ISBN 978-1-4582-0217-8.
  • Lim Jae-Cheon (2008). Kim Jong-il's Leadership of North Korea. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-01712-6.
  • — (2015). Leader Symbols and Personality Cult in North Korea: The Leader State. New York: Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-317-56740-0.
  • Myers, B. R. (2015). North Korea's Juche Myth. Busan: Sthele Press. ISBN 978-1-5087-9993-1.

Further reading

  • Kim Il-sung (1985) [1967]. "On Improving Party Work and Implementing the Decisions of the Party Conference: Speech at the Conference of Chief Secretaries of Provincial, City, County and Factory Party Committees, March 17-24, 1967". Kim Il Sung: Works. 21. Pyongyang: Foreign Languages Publishing House. OCLC 827642144.
  • — (1967). "On the Questions of the Period of Transition from Capitalism to Socialism and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat: Speech Delivered to Party Ideological Workers May 25, 1967". Association for the Study of Songun Politics, UK.
  • — (1967). Let Us Embody More Thoroughly the Revolutionary Spirit of Independence, Self-sustenance and Self-defence in All Fields of State Activity: Political Programme of the Government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Announced at the First Session of the Fourth Supreme People's Assembly of the D.P.R.K., December 16, 1967. Pyongyang: Foreign Languages Publishing House. OCLC 712082791.
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