1950년대 전반기 북한 ‘영예군인’의 활동과 사회주의 이행의 결합

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the activities and historical significance of North Korean ‘honorable veterans’ in the first half of the 1950s. Due to the Korean War, which broke out in June 1950, there was no choice but to mass-produce a number of wounded soldiers in the People’s Army. Therefore, the North Korean authorities sought to discharge soldiers who could not fight and actively utilize their labor. It was to compensate for the significantly reduced national productivity due to the war. First, material benefits, including state subsidies, were provided for honorable veterans. Above all, in order to promote their re-employment, it was to open an ‘Honorable Veterans Academies’ and to cultivate manpower necessary for the industrial, agricultural, and commercial sectors. In order to ensure the advancement of honorable veterans into society, the North Korean authorities have prepared measures such as mandating their employment. Accordingly, ‘mystery stories’ that perform exemplary duties in administrative agencies and factories were steadily introduced. However, the negative reality was also continuously exposed. Front-line administrative agencies were negligent in their management, and honorable veterans were avoided in production sites. It would have been easy for honorary soldiers to be treated as a factor that hindered their goal under conditions of being given a certain amount of production by the state. Eventually, the North Korean government formed a producer cooperative consisting of honorable veterans. The plan was to make the most of their labor force as much as possible, but on the other hand, conflict at the front line was also an important opportunity. Despite these measures, the performance was still poor. However, their significance can be found in the activities of honorable veterans in the first half of the 1950s. Their experience working in various production cooperatives had a lot of room for use in the future socialist transition, and it became an asset that allowed the authorities to recognize the subject of soldiers as the ‘potential’ of the socialist transition.