Interest groups in North Korean politics.(Essay)

North Korea is often characterized as some form of highly centralized rule: totalitarian, posttotalitarian, corporatist, or personalistic. This article argues that much of the confusion around understanding North Korea's actions stems from misplaced models. Much of the current thinking on North Korea's politics does not account for the limited institutional plurality in the system. The article documents how the state's political institutions have changed since the country's founding and highlights the formal and informal roles of each major bureaucracy today. The Korean Workers Party and the role of Juche have declined, but the National Defense Commission and "military-first politics" have not taken their place as reigning supreme. Rather the interaction between the Korean Workers Party, military, and cabinet helps explain and moderate policy outcomes.

KEYWORDS: North Korea, DPRK, institutions, interest groups, pluralism, cabinet, NDC, KWP

**********

This article seeks to provide a conceptual basis in which to evaluate North Korean domestic politics. Models of North Korean politics hold that the state can be understood as a type of totalitarian or authoritarian state. Kim Jong Il has "almost total power," (1) and the system is marked by a "hybrid of modern Stalinism and traditional Korean authoritarianism" that "lack[s] ... interest group participation." (2) It is "an eroding totalitarian regime [... where] an absolute dictator still rules," (3) and the "application of a 'bureaucratic model' to North Korea is premature." (4)

North Korea under Kim Il Sung approximated the totalitarian ideal type, but North Korea today is better understood as a centralized polity in which interest groups play an important role. Kim Jong Il's government is highly centralized, but it is less centralized than his father's. North Korean high politics comprise the interaction of the military, party, and cabinet with "oversight" by the security apparatus. The limited autonomy of these groups allows them to be defined as interest groups, and their interaction creates a role for discussing pluralist politics in North Korea. Kim Jong Il's focus on political survival and emergency management over ideology as a guiding force makes today's North Korean government more rational than in the past. Bureaucratic winners and losers are defined on an issue basis. In short, interest group politics--in conjunction with Kim Jong Il's central role--help explain political outcomes.

Models of North Korean Politics

Totalitarianism