Workers' Party of Korea (6.0)

# **Democratic People's Republic of Korea**

**North Korea**, officially the **Democratic People's Republic of Korea** (**DPRK**), is a country in East Asia, constituting the northern part of the Korean Peninsula. In 1910, Korea was annexed by the Empire of Japan. In 1946, after the Global Disaster at the end of World War II, Korea was divided and left with remnants of the Soviet Forces and the Korean Insurgents underneath them. Negotiations on the future began, and in 1948, Korea was unified between both states until the 1980's. Internal dissent and geopolitical disagreements led to the brief harmony to splinter into aggression, causing separate governments were formed: the hardline Marxist-Leninist DPRK in the north, and the alleged revisionist Korean People's Union to the south.

## Party History

### Official Name

Workers' Party of Korea조선로동당

Трудовая партия Кореи

## Party Info

### Ideology

CommunismMarxism-Leninism

Korean Nationalism

Anti-Imperialism

## History

It began first when Pyongyang was seized. The Red Army had entered with Major Kim Il-Sung, a prominent guerrilla fighter in the region recruited by the Soviet Red Army to assist the fight in Manchuria, arrives in Pyongyang for the first time in 26 years after exile. He was greeted as were most of the Soviet troops with open arms and parades as for the first time in decades, Korea was liberated and free from Japanese rule.

It wasn’t until October 3rd of that year that the Soviet Civil Administration was established, or quite simply the “SCA”. It was used to govern in the interim, intent on establishing a collaborative government within the peninsula, Major Kim Il-Sung was retired from the Soviet Armed Forces and, in December, was installed as First Secretary of the North Korean Branch Bureau of the Korean Communist Party. The initial intent of the Soviets was Cho Man-sik to lead a popular front government in both North and South Korea which was divided between American and Soviet troops, however he refused.

The next man choice was Pak Hon-yong, a man who reestablished the Communist Party of Korea within Seoul following his release from prison by Soviet officials. As the Soviet Civil Administration further pushed down South, liberating more of the peninsula and detaining Japanese Generals who surrendered willingly, Pak Hon-Yong along with Park Chung-hee began to organize the party more formally in preparation of an immediate succession as Kim Il-Sung organized those in the North. They were at a temporary impasse of “which man succeeds the role for one?”

Park Chung-hee, more familiar with Hon-yong, elected for him to succeed. At this time however, as the Soviets lost contact with Moscow, General Terentii Shtykov was left in the position of what to do moving forward. As the Soviet Civil Administration held both Koreas, those less involved in the Communists and their movement were growing restless.

Further, the people were searching, yearning for someone to take the reigns of the nation. It was thanks to his familiarity and relationship with Kim Il-Sung that Kim was considered. In August 1946, he established Kim Il-Sung as the General-Secretary. Hon-yong would join him in the Presidium as Premier along with Marshal Park Chung-he and Vice-Marshal Ri Yong-ho who would exist as the First Chiefs of General-Staff. Kim Tu-bong would become the Secretariat of the Presidium of the Politburo.

The Soviet Civil Administration was left at a standstill as the first Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was established on 27 August 1946. With a formal established political backing in Korea, what was their role? Where did they go? Unsure, the SCA retained its position as a paramilitary role within Korea, organizing their soldiers to assist in evacuations as well as sea-wide search and rescue operations. Throughout the next decades, with mixed Russo-Korean leadership, Kim Il-Sung fought decisively for leadership against Syngman Rhee until finally, in 1956, Rhee was elected General-Secretary of the Worker's Party. In the next decade of his leadership that followed, the nation prospered.

This was until the 1970's which saw an era of stagnation under his watch, causing him to step down and Kim Il-Sung along with NKVD exiles from the West and Ivan Chistyakov to rise to the seat. Their reforms and economic shifts caused dissent within the party, mixed with (WIP).