Stephen Cho | Coordinator of the Korean International Forum
25 March 2024
Kim Jong-un, chairman of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, formalised the country’s new approach regarding the “subjugation” of the South in a speech to the Supreme People’s Assembly on January 15. Although this change in approach towards reunification had already been announced at a plenary meeting of the central committee of the Workers Party of Korea in late December, this decision by the highest organ of state power has another meaning.
This “declaration of subjugation” has changed many things. First, the DPRK made certain theoretical changes to its existing theory of national liberation and democratic revolution, known as the theory of liberation of South Korea, and to its theory of national reunification based on the proposal for founding the Democratic Federal Republic of Koryo, which was declared at the sixth congress of the Workers Party of Korea in 1980.
Previously, the WPK noted the intrinsic connection between the theory of national liberation and democratic revolution and the theory of national reunification, formalizing them as a line of independence, democracy and reunification. Specifically, the aim was to achieve anti-US independence, antifascist democratization, and national reunification, in that order, with independence expected to come first. The process of revolution and reunification was clearly expected to proceed from anti-US independence through antifascist democratization and on to national reunification.
When the US army entered South Korea as an occupying force in 1945, South Korea was recolonised and was eventually fascistized as the pro-Japanese collaborators were transformed into pro-American collaborators. Since the tragedy of Korea’s division began with this occupation, the focus on ‘independence first’ was agreed on not only by the leadership of the DPRK but also by the revolutionary forces of the South.
With Pyongyang’s “declaration of subjugation”, however, the theory of ‘independence first’ has been replaced by the theory of ‘subjugation first’. That is: the DPRK now believes that independence, democracy and reunification can only be achieved once the subjugation of the southern puppet regime has been accomplished.
From a theoretical standpoint, we can explain this new outlook as follows: The subjugation of the southern regime is at the same time a process of antifascist and nationwide democratization. These are the two stages of democratization needed in South Korea: a first stage of antifascist democratization and a higher stage through the establishment of a people’s democratic government in the South.
Antifascist democratization will require the liquidation of fascist groups, the repeal of fascist laws and the dismantling of fascist organizations. The fascist cliques in South Korea are almost without exception pro-American and pro-Japanese.
The subjugation of the southern regime will at the same time launch a process of nationwide democratization. With the liquidation of the pro-fascist, pro-American, pro-Japanese regime, these factions will be deprived of their economic base and prevented from ever again functioning as a political force. This would be similar (only more thorough!) to the process of liquidating Nazi collaborators in France after World War 2.
In South Korea, however, the scope and extent of this process will be very different, since it is not a matter of a few years but of more than a century of national treason and fascist brutality carried out by the puppet forces of the south―first in cooperation with Japanese and then in cooperation with US colonizers. This process of antifascist democratization will at the same time be a nationwide democratization, achieved by the decisive addition of the power of the northern state to that of the southern revolutionary forces.
The process of subjugation, by its very nature, can only be a thoroughly unpeaceful process.
When democratization has been achieved via the subjugation of the fascist client regime, anti-US independence can easily be accomplished. If the USA continues to intervene militarily in the internal politics of Korea, this can only trigger a non-peaceful response from the Korean revolutionary forces, including from the armed forces of the DPRK. But if the USA does not intervene, choosing to stick to its current proxy war doctrine, independence in Korea can be achieved by a peaceful process―by the expulsion of all US troops and weaponry from South Korea.
At the same time as anti-US independence is being prioritized, people’s democracy will also be promoted. Anti-US independence will not automatically lead to people’s democracy, but it is obvious that the former will very much facilitate the latter. People’s democracy can only be achieved by a thoroughly peaceful process, after the complete suppression of the fascist puppet forces.
To realize a people’s democracy in the South, a new administration aimed at realizing the people’s welfare will need to be established, based on the nationalization of major means of production. All foreign and comprador capital, the land of reactionary landlords, and US military bases will be reappropriated.
On this basis, the problems of unemployment and irregular work will be solved, the debts of peasants and poor workers will be eliminated, free education and free healthcare, and free social housing can all be provided. People’s democracy refers to the democratization at the local level. It is essentially the democratization for and by the people of the South themselves, even if the North might be involved.
Realizing a people’s democracy comes first while the reunification of Korea is promoted simultaneously. It is the prerequisite for the reunification of Korea to achieve the political task in realizing people’s democracy. The reunification of Korea will be a thoroughly peaceful process after the liquidation of the pro-US, pro-Japanese and fascist forces and the removal of the US military by the subjugation (of South Korea) and anti-US independence.
Two paths to peaceful reunification are open to a divided nation: the Korean-style federal model or the Chinese style one-state, two-system model. The difference between the former and the latter is whether the central government is federal or not. The way of peaceful reunification of Korea has been confirmed as a federal system since 1980. This has not changed by the “Declaration of Subjugation”. This was clearly expressed in various ways in the speech at the SPA in January.
The precondition of the federal reunification is the establishment of people’s democractic government in South Korea, since a reunified federal state can only be built by the consent between the socialist government in the North and the people’s democratic government in the South. It will be carried out peacefully and democratically by organizing a nationwide meeting such as the joint conference of political parties and social organizations from South and North Korea in 1948.
The establishment of a people’s democratic government in South Korea should be carried out via democratic elections. Realizing a people’s democracy in the political sector will lead to the establishment of a reunified federal state. Realizing people’s democracy in political sector is the prerequisite for the establishment of reunified federal state. Realizing a people’s democracy in political sector and the establishment of reunified federal state decisively promote realizing people’s democracy in economic sector.
When realizing people’s democracy in economic sector is finished, the next strategic stage to totally solve class discrimination proceeds.
At its eighth congress in 2021, the Workers Party of Korea amended its party rules, indicating that it was already preparing for this process of nationwide democratization―that is, for the new approach to reunification via subjugation of the South Korean puppet regime.
It is instructive to compare the preface to the rulebook as revised in the seventh congress with the preface as amended in 2021:
The former stated: “The immediate purpose of the Workers Party of Korea is to build a strong socialist nation in the northern half of the Republic and to carry out the task of National Liberation Democratic Revolution on a nationwide scale. The ultimate goal of the Party is to make all societies Kimilsungist-Kimjongilist societies and to fully realize the independence of the people.”
The latter, by contrast, stated: “The immediate goal of the Workers’ Party of Korea is to build a wealthy and civilized socialist society in the northern half of the Republic and to realize the voluntary and democratic development of society nationwide. The ultimate goal is to realize a communist society in which the people’s ideals are fully realized.”
The part of the newly amended rules, “to realize … the democratic development of society nationwide” has the meaning of the democratization on the nationwide level. While we cannot know that whether DPRK had already defined the concept of “subjugation” when it revised its rulebook, it openly announced a new line with the metaphorical expression “new way”.
The essence of the theory of subjugation first is the theory of the South Korean revolution.