노동당 제3차 대표자회와 당 규약 개정： 규약 개정의 배경과 의도 및 특징을 중심으로

Abstract

At the Third Conference of the Korean Workers’ Party (KWP) in September 2010, North Korea initiated a political succession from Kim Jong Il to Kim Jong Un, reappointed power elites in the Party Central Committee, and revised the party bylaws. This paper examines the significance of the bylaws in North Korea, why the North Korean leaders revised the bylaws, and the features of the newly revised bylaws. Because it has similarities to a socialist state, North Korea has adopted the party-state system in which the KWP controls other state and non-state organizations. Under the single party system, the KWP’s bylaws contain the core rules and norms of the North Korean organizational system. This is the main reason why the bylaws interest North Korea specialists. The bylaws stipulate party goals and principles, members’ rights and obligations, organizational structure, and ways the party works, among other things. At the Third Party Conference, the North Korean leaders revised the party bylaws with the following goals. The first is to facilitate a power succession from Kim Jong Il to Kim Jong Un and prepare the party in case of Kim Jong Il unexpectedly dies. Second, they aimed to write what (North Korea claims) Kim Jong Il has achieved since he was appointed as Kim Il Sung’s successor in 1974. Third, the leaders wanted to rehabilitate the role of the party, which has declined with the collapse of the socialist economy in the mid-1990s. Finally, they wanted to step up party measures to suppress North Korea’s “negative” social changes, which have been undergone from the mid-1990s. Compared to the previous bylaws, the newly revised ones have several features. The first is that the symbolic meanings of Kim Il Sung have been diverse. Second, the new party bylaws can be called the Kim Il Sung family’s bylaws because they identify the KWP‘s historical development with the achievement of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. Third, the new bylaws strengthened the status of General Secretary of the KWP, which now represents the whole party as well as the Party Central Committee. Fourth, the functions of the Central Military Affairs Committee have been powerful enough to support the control over the military by Kim Jong Un, who is its Vice-Chairman. Fifth, the bylaws created two chapters：‘Ch. 8 the Party and People’s Regime’ and ‘Ch. 10 Party Symbol and Flag.’ Finally, the new bylaws only represent the conservative North Korean leaders’ interests, not ordinary party members’ and non-members’ interests.