북조선 행정10국의 조직과 활동

Abstract

In accordance with Stalin’s order to establish a bourgeois democratic government in North Korea, the Soviet military command in North Korea convened in Pyongyang in October 1945 representatives of the people’s committees for five provinces of North Korea and raised the question of instituting an independent political authority in North Korea. On November 19, 1945, the Soviet military command organized ten administrative bureaus corresponding to industry, transportation, agriculture and forestry, commerce, communications, finances, education, health, justice, and security, and appointed local Koreans as the directors of the bureaus. The ten administrative bureaus were under the direct control of General Romanenko, the deputy commander of the civil administration that the Soviet military command operated in North Korea. Representatives of the Soviet military command were dispatched to the ten administrative bureaus. Duties of the administrative bureaus lay in more efficiently managing the economic life of North Korea and mediating the activities of local government agencies. The administrative bureaus had to execute the Soviet military command’s orders and directions, prepare data regarding various issues of concern to the Soviet military command, and accede to consultations. The orders and directions of the administrative bureaus in turn wielded a binding force on all inhabitants as well as administrative and economic agencies of North Korea. The administrative bureaus exerted a positive influence on the normalization of inhabitants’ economic and cultural lives, but faced immense hardships due to scant connections among the administrative bureaus and between the central and local governments, as well as insufficient experiences and expertise of bureau executives. As a result, a demand arose for the foundation of a sole central political authority for North Korea that would encompass the ten administrative bureaus.