How to Appreciate North Korea's 7th Party Congress

North Korea's 7th Party Congress was held in Pyongyang from May 6-10, the first in 36 years. Through this congress, North Korea officially formalized Kim Jong Un's sole leadership system and unveiled a 'brilliant blueprint' for North Korea's future vision. Ha Young-sun, Chairman of EAI and Professor Emeritus at Seoul National University, assesses that the contents of this blueprint offer no new insights beyond what was announced in the New Year's address. He points out that North Korea's future appears bleak with its choice of the nuclear-economy parallel development line as the basic strategy for its realization. Furthermore, he emphasizes that for Chairman Kim Jong Un to build a brilliant 21st-century North Korea, he must abandon the 19th-century excessive security theory and establish a nuclear-free parallel development line based on appropriate security theory.

North Korea's 7th Workers' Party Congress was held in Pyongyang after a 36-year hiatus. It commenced with an opening ceremony on the first day, followed by a review of work reports exceeding 70,000 characters and discussions by 40 participants on the second and third days. The congress concluded on the final day with the election of Kim Jong Un as Chairman of the Workers' Party and a closing ceremony.

Even after observing the four-day event, many domestic and international observers remain confused, struggling to grasp the overall picture of the Party Congress, much like blind men touching an elephant. To clarify this confusion, let us attempt to discern the intentions of the stage director hidden within the dialogue, rather than merely analyzing the superficial content of the script.

In his opening address on May 6, Chairman Kim Jong Un stated, "At the 7th Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea, we will review the brilliant achievements and valuable experiences gained by our Party and people during the review period, and set forth the strategic line and tasks for struggle to continuously and vigorously usher in an era of great prosperity in socialist construction, and indicate the direction of advance for our revolution." He further declared, "This Party Congress marks a historic milestone in strengthening and developing the glorious Party of Kim Il Sung-Kim Jong Il and in the struggle to complete the cause of socialism."

On the third day, in conclusion to the work review report, Chairman Kim Jong Un emphasized, "The purpose of convening the 7th Party Congress is to lay an unshakeable foundation for completing the cause of the Juche revolution, which embodies the sacred lives of our great Leaders, to present the high goals and struggle program for building a strong socialist nation, and to create a new upsurge in revolution and construction." He further stated that they would "deepen the work of establishing the Party's unified leadership system at a high level" and "continue to thoroughly implement the Party's strategic line of parallel development of economic construction and nuclear armament." He described the parallel development line as "the most revolutionary and scientific line reflecting the lawful demands of building a strong socialist nation and the specific realities of our country."

In his closing remarks on the final day, Chairman Kim Jong Un summarized the 7th Party Congress as having "unfolded a brilliant blueprint for the comprehensive construction of a strong socialist nation under the banner of the Kim Il Sung-Kim Jong Il-ization of the entire society, thereby realizing the dreams and aspirations of our people, and presented the programmatic tasks for achieving the independent reunification of the fatherland and accelerating the self-determination of the entire world."

Synthesizing Chairman Kim Jong Un's remarks, the three core elements of the 7th Party Congress are: the sole leadership system as the protagonist of the stage, the brilliant blueprint for building a strong socialist nation as the play's script, and the parallel development line as the acting instructions.

The importance of Kim Jong Un's sole leadership system is most evident in the discussion by Choe Ryong Hae, First Deputy Director of the Organization and Guidance Department of the Workers' Party, a key figure, during the 40 participants' discussions following Kim Jong Un's work review report. Recalling the efforts to establish the Party's sole leadership system over the past four years, Deputy Director Choe evaluated the discovery and crushing of 'modern-day factionalists within the Party' by Kim Jong Un during a critical period of inheriting the Juche revolutionary cause as a special event that brought about a fundamental shift in establishing the Party's sole leadership system and in the struggle for the Party's unity and solidarity. He further stated that the lesson learned was that failure to properly establish the sole leadership system would allow 'heterodox ideas' to infiltrate the Party, leading to irreversible consequences for the Party and the revolution.

In the opening of his work review report, Chairman Kim Jong Un reflected on the past 36 years since the 6th Congress, emphasizing Juche ideology and the Songun policy, and stated, "All the victories and the fundamental secret of the achievements made by our Party and people in carrying out the Juche revolutionary cause during the review period lie in our struggle under the wise leadership of the Leaders, with the great Comrade Kim Il Sung and Comrade Kim Jong Il as our supreme leaders, and in inheriting the revolutionary cause of the Leaders." He particularly stressed the continuation of the sole leadership system.

Kim Jong Un, standing on stage as the third-generation leader following his grandfather Kim Il Sung and father Kim Jong Il, presented the 'brilliant blueprint,' already foreshadowed in the New Year's address, in earnest during his three-hour work review report on the second day of the Party Congress. However, the main presentation offered no new insights beyond the preview. As expected, it highly praised Kim Il Sung's Juche ideology and Kim Jong Il's Songun policy from the perspective of the 'three revolutionary forces' that have shaped the history of North Korea's leader system for the past half-century. It then structured the blueprint into four chapters to complete these endeavors: first, building a strong socialist nation; second, achieving the independent reunification of the fatherland; third, realizing the self-determination of the world; and fourth, strengthening the Party.

In the first chapter, for building a strong socialist nation, it presents four types of strong nations: a technologically advanced nation, prioritizing science and technology including 21st-century cutting-edge technology; an economically strong nation, including the five-year national economic development strategy (2016-2020); a civilized nation, encompassing education, health, sports, and culture and arts; and a politically and militarily strong nation, including the socialist political system, ideology, and military. This chapter elaborates and expands upon the content of the New Year's address.

Following the construction of a strong socialist nation, the second chapter of the blueprint focuses on building a unified nation. Instead of presenting new unification proposals for the 21st century, the chapter reiterated the 'Three Principles of National Reunification' advocated since the July 4th South-North Joint Communiqué in 1972: independence, national great unity, and ensuring peace, and the realization of a North Korean-style federal republic. It criticizes South Korea, stating that for independence, it must abandon its pro-US subservient mentality, break away from its humiliating 'pro-US follower policy,' and cease its 'collusion with foreign forces' that harms its compatriots. Meanwhile, for peace, it demands that the US recognize North Korea's strategic status as a nuclear power and the trend of the times, withdraw its anachronistic 'hostile policy toward North Korea,' replace the Armistice Agreement with a peace treaty, and withdraw its troops and war equipment from South Korea. South Korea, it argues, must completely halt indiscriminate political and military provocations and war games. For national great unity, it calls for joining hands with those who have previously walked the path of anti-unification, provided they retain national conscience, and working together for unification through a federal system based on North Korea's unification capabilities, rather than pursuing the unrealistic goal of unification through regime collapse.

The third chapter of the blueprint concerns the construction of an international power. To this end, it states that as long as "imperialist nuclear threats and high-handedness continue," it will quantitatively and qualitatively strengthen its 'self-defensive nuclear forces' in accordance with the parallel development line. It also pledges that "as long as hostile forces do not infringe upon sovereignty with nuclear weapons," it will not use nuclear weapons first and will strive for global denuclearization. Furthermore, it aims to actively develop friendly cooperative relations with progressive nations and to improve and normalize relations with countries with which it previously had hostile relations, provided they respect its sovereignty and are friendly.

Finally, the blueprint concludes by emphasizing the importance of establishing the Workers' Party's sole leadership system, urging, "Let us hold high the revolutionary banner of Kim Il Sung-Kim Jong Ilism, unite around the Party Central Committee, and unite again and again, and vigorously advance toward strengthening the Party, achieving the cause of socialism, realizing the independent reunification of the fatherland, and achieving the cause of global self-determination."

Chairman Kim Jong Un reaffirmed his commitment to the parallel development line of economic construction and nuclear armament as the fundamental strategic line for realizing the 'brilliant blueprint' amidst difficult domestic and international realities, and pledged to strive for its implementation. He stated, "The parallel development line is not a temporary measure but a strategic line that must be pursued permanently in the supreme interest of our revolution. It is the most just and revolutionary line for rapidly building a prosperous socialist nation by strengthening the nation's defense capabilities with nuclear armament as the core while accelerating economic construction." On the final day of the Party Congress, he announced the amendment of the 'Rules of the Workers' Party of Korea,' emphasizing the parallel development line and the construction of four major socialist powers as the most significant matters for the Party and the state and as strategic requirements of the revolution.

The future of Kim Jong Un's efforts to realize North Korea's 21st-century dream, termed a 'brilliant blueprint,' through the strategic choice of the parallel development line, following the formalization of the sole leadership system at the 7th Party Congress, appears bleak. This is reminiscent of the book published by the East Asia Institute (EAI) in 2010, titled "North Korea 2032: Co-evolution Strategy Towards Advancement." In early 2008, Professor Cho Dong-ho, a leading scholar of the North Korean economy, and I agreed to draw up a 21st-century blueprint that could brightly illuminate North Korea's otherwise dim future. After nearly three years of study groups and writing, we developed a blueprint comprising three stages: the retreat of the Songun era (2008-2011), the first stage of the co-evolution strategy for advancement in transition and reform (2012-2021), and the second stage of the co-evolution strategy for advancement in complex network formation (2022-2032). We hoped that North Korean authorities would refer to our blueprint to formulate and implement a proper 21st-century survival strategy for North Korea.

However, for Chairman Kim Jong Un to build a brilliant 21st-century North Korea, efforts must be made to rapidly transform the blueprint and strategic line announced at the 7th Party Congress to align with the domestic and international realities of the 21st century. First and foremost, a swift transition from the excessive security theory of the nuclear-economy parallel development line, which is out of step with the times, to the appropriate security theory of a nuclear-free new parallel development line is urgently needed.

The current parallel development line is based on a 19th-century view of international politics. However, the United States, dreaming of a 21st-century empire, no longer pursues 19th-century imperialism. If the 19th century was an era of aspiring for independence, the 21st century is moving towards co-sovereignty. Therefore, instead of pursuing the parallel development line, which sets up an unrealistic hypothetical enemy in the form of the US 'hostile policy toward North Korea' and incurs immense economic sanctions, North Korea should establish a new parallel development line for 21st-century security and prosperity based on conventional weapons. The longer these efforts are delayed, the more they will exacerbate the difficulties of the sole leadership system.

The dream of a unified nation based on the 'Three Principles of National Reunification' for fatherland unification, formulated half a century ago in the 1960s based on the three revolutionary forces, must also be reconfigured in the rapidly changing domestic and international realities of the 21st century. The outdated relics of the 20th century, such as South Korea's 'regime unification theory' premised on North Korea's collapse and North Korea's federal unification proposal through strengthening 'revolutionary capabilities,' must be quickly discarded. Instead, a complex network unification plan suitable for the 21st century must be systematically designed and constructed.

As detailed in the East Asia Institute's blueprint, the theory of four major socialist powers, which intricately blends 19th-century nation-building with 21st-century complex state construction, must also be reconfigured in accordance with the three-stage co-evolution strategy.

As a result of these efforts, we hope that the 8th Party Congress will be convened as soon as possible to unfold a new blueprint that can brilliantly showcase the future of 21st-century North Korea in name and reality. North Korea's 21st-century endeavors should be pursued in conjunction with the co-evolutionary efforts of South Korea and the surrounding stakeholders. ■

Author

Ha Young-sun_ Chairman of EAI, Professor Emeritus at Seoul National University. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Washington and has served as Professor at Seoul National University's Department of Political Science and International Relations, Director of the Institute for International Affairs, Director of the Center for American Studies, and President of the Korean Peace Studies Association. He is currently a member of the Presidential National Security Advisory Council and a civilian member of the National Unification Advisory Council. His publications include "Ha Young-sun's International Politics Columns 1991-2011," "Complex World Politics: Strategy, Principles, and a New Order," "A New Era for Korea-Japan and Co-existence Complex Networks," and "World Politics in Transition."

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