북한 ‘수령’ 성격 규정의 다양성 및 그 변용에 관한 연구

Abstract

North Korea, which formalized the title of ‘Suryong(supreme leader)’ to Kim Il-sung in 1967, converted the People's Democratic Constitution into a socialist constitution in 1972 and established a "Suryong system" as a political system. In 1974, the “suryong revolution theory” completed North Korea as a Suryong-centered governing system. Theoretically, the supreme leader of North Korea has secured the status of “Suryong” (the brain). ‘Suryong Theory’ and ‘Successor Theory’ further reinforced this logic, so the Suryong theory institutionalized the Suryong, and the Succession theory suggested the ‘future Suryong’. In this respect, Kim Jong-un has secured the status of a “Suryong” politically since he took over in 2012. However, ironically, when reviewing North Korea's official newspaper Rodong Sinmun, Kim Jong-un's name did not appear with the modifier "Suryong" directly around it until 2020. A sentence that implicated Kim Jong-un as the Suryong finally did appear until 2014. Therefore, the title of Suryong was nothing but the domain of Kim Il-sung until 2020. However, when North Korea held the 8th party congress in January 2021, it appointed Kim Jong-un as the “general secretary of the party” and referred to Kim Jong-un as the “people’s Suryong” in the recommendation speech. since then, the Rodong Sinmun has directly attached the modifier ‘Suryong’ to Kim Jong-un’s name for the first time at the editorial on May 14. since then, articles in the Rodong Sinmun have naturally referred to Kim Jong-un as Suryong. An editorial in the Rodong Sinmun made it clear that Kim Jong-un was enthroned as Suryong at the 8th Party Congress. In this way, it is not easy to explain the reality of North Korea's politics, in which Kim Jong-un is appointed as Suryong in 2021, with the 'Suryong theory' and the 'successor theory'. Therefore, this study focused on the fact that the Suryong is an image of a leader, approached it with the concept of ‘symbolization of the leader (suryong) image’, considered this phenomenon and attempted to analyze it, and the following results were obtained. The steps and process from making Suryong images toward securing the symbolization were established as below. The creation of the image of Suryong (2014) → building of the image of Suryong(2016) → strengthening of the image of Suryong (2019)→ fixing of the image of Suryong/securing of the symbol of Suryong (2021). Therefore, from the implicit recognition of the status of the Suryong in 2012 to the formalization of the status of the Suryong in 2021, that is, it is possible to meaningfully explain the reality of North Korea's politics, which is Kim Jong-un's Suryong enthronement. The 8th Party Congress in 2021 not only formalized Kim Jong-un as the Suryong, but also promoted Kim Jong-un's revolutionary ideology (Kim Jong-unism). The logic was oprerated that the Suryong should present not only leadership but also ideology. As such, the Suryong and revolutionary ideology are inextricably linked in North Korea. In addition, North Korea focused on Kim Jong-un's ‘view of loving people’ by promoting the image of 'people's Suryong'. Here too, another justification for Kim Jong-un's Suryong enthronement , "to serve the people better", is secured.