The North and South Korean Political Systems. A Comparative Analysis [1 ed.] 9780367294472, 9780429313226

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The North and south Korean Political Systems A Comparative Analysis

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The North and

SOu~ Korean .Po~tical Systems. AComparative Analysis Sung Chul Yang

~l Routledge ~~

Taylor & Francis Group

LONDON AND NEW YORK

First published 1994 by Westview Press, Inc. Published 2019 by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright© 1994 by Sung Chul Yang All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 94-4443

ISBN 13: 978-0-367-29447-2 (hbk)

PREFACE

For nearly five decades Korean people in the both halves of the country have been living under two diametrically different political and economic systems with little or no mutual contacts and communications. Still, the cultural homogeneity and national affinity of the Korean people continue to be overwhelming. Unfortunately, however, this rather untenable situation of political and economic experiments imposed upon the culturally homogenous people is likely to remain so in the foreseeable future. The two states in the Korean Peninsula cannot be easily united into one statehood as did the former West Germany and East Germany. An attempt to emulate German unification by Korea will be near suicidal. Until and unless the two political and economic systems presently persisting on both sides of the Korean Peninsula become more comparable and compatible, it is not only-inconceivable but unwise for government policy-planners or others to hasten a genuine and bloodless unification. The two systems and two states presently existing in the Korean Peninsula are like the two bowls molded out of the same clay. The main focus of this study has been to find North and South Korea's differences of recent origins rather than their basic sameness of long standing. To pursue the clay-bowl analogy further, the primary interest has been to examine these two new bowls, their respective shapes (political structures and economic models), usages (political process and economic policy), primary users (po~tical elites and masses) and things (political outputs and economic performance). For a long time, I have been advocating that the two Koreas are the best living laboratories for comparativists, be they political scientists, sociologists, economists or other social scientists. To compare two Koreas' political processes and economic performance is, for example, v

vi

Preface

different from studying the same topics of two states. For one thing, if enormous differences exist in political processes and economic performance in the both halves today, an explanation must necessarily lie in the two entirely different political and economic systems they adopted in 1948. In analyzing both Koreas' diametrically opposed political and economic realities, cultural and other non-politico-economic factors are mostly given or irrelevant, and they cannot be the main explanatory variables. The first draft of this study was completed around 1986 in the United States, the year that I repatriated to Korea. I felt then that it was incomplete for publication. Thus, I have been doing continuous research to revise and update the information for nearly seven years while readjusting to the life in my native land. In the summer of 1992, I finally undertook the revamping and revising of this manuscript. Between 1986 and 1993 not only North Korea and South Korea but the whole world had undergone a cataclysmic metamorphoses. The seismic political and economic transformations at home and abroad had to be incorporated into this text. During this period North Korea has become further isolated from the rest of the world, and it is now an economic basket case as well as an international test case for nuclear nonproliferation. South Korea in the meantinle has successfully moved away from a prolonged praetorian authoritarianism to a working democracy. The former Communist Soviet Union and Eastern Europe have also been erased from the world map and are still struggling to create new political and economic identities, let alone some agreeable political boundaries. This book is the first comprehensive analysis of North and South Korean political systems and processes in a systematic and comparative perspective. It examines the evolution and development of the two systems from 1945 to the present. It consists of six parts. In Parts One and Two both the Korean political heritage and the contemporary political background for the emergence of the two separate regimes on the Korean Peninsula are explicated in detail as a way of preliminary introduction. In Parts Three and Four the North Korean political system as a totalitarian political order and the South Korean political system as a

Preface

vii

democratizing political order are scrutinized in a greater detail, respectively. In Part Five, the differences in both Korea's economic systems, economic strategies and policies and their actual economic performance for the last five decades are studied on the basis of available economic data. Finally, Part Six focuses on four critical and chronic issues which two Koreas have confronted over the years and require resolution. They include the problem of political succession in particular and of democratization and liberalization in general, the continuing arms race and twin fortifications, and two models of education and of reunification. The summer in Seoul is unbearably hot and humid. During the summer of 1992, my wife, who helped in the final editing of the manuscript, and I suffered through the heat to complete the manuscript in the present form. I am sure, we will remember the ordeal for a long time to come. Besides my wife, I owe the completion of this work to many people who rendered assistance over the many years it took to complete. Just a few who have given direct assistance are acknowledged here. Mr. Jin Wang Kim, the President of Seoul Press, generously and enthusiastically supported the manuscript project by typesetting the work which already looks like a published work. Professors Young Whan Kihl of Iowa State University, Chin Park and Reinhard Drifte of the University of New Castle upon Tyne in England have been helpful in locating a prospective publisher. My big Mahalo goes to Mrs. Myungjin Chung who almost magically transformed my numerous unreadable chicken-scratches into a legible printout. My appreciation is also extended to Ms. Susan McEachern, Senior editor of Westview Press, who corresponded with me for more them a year in the process of having this book published. Last but not least, I dedicate this book to my wife, Daisy Chung Chin Lee, and my children, Eugene and Susan, with whom I share the joy of living and loving. This book, I hope, will finally put to rest my children's constant inquiries, "What happened to your book, Dad?"

Seoul, Korea, 1994

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CONTENTS

PREFACE

V

PART I. THE KOREAN POLIDCAL HERITAGE Chapter 1. A Historical Overview

3

Chapter 2. Political Culture and Traditions

13

Chapter 3. Nativistic Resilience, Nationalism and Beyond

93

PART II. CONTEMPORARY POLIDCAL SETTINGS Chapter 4. Politics of Partition

149

Chapter 5. Ideology and the Korean Experiments

165

PART ill. THE NORTH KOREAN POLITICAL SYSTEM: A TOTALITARIAN POLITICAL ORDER Chapter 6. The North Korean Political Framework

219

Chapter 7. Formal Political Structures and their Evolution

265

Chapter 8. The Ruling Elites and their Political Vicissitudes

325

Chapter 9. Kim 11 Sung's Rise and Retention of Power

359

ix

X

Contents

PART N. THE SOUTH KOREAN POLffiCAL SYSTEM: A DEMOCRATIZING POLffiCAL ORDER Chapter 10. The South Korean Political Framework

389

Chapter 11. Formal Governmental Structures and Political Process

463

Chapter 12. The Ruling Elites and their Modal Characteristics

515

Chapter 13. Legitimacy Crisis: From Rhee to Rob

545

PART V. NORTH AND SOUTH KOREAN ECONOMIC ORIENTATION: MOBILIZATION VERSUS MOTNATION Chapter 14. Resource Endowments and Natural Condition

563

Chapter 15. Economic Systems, Policies, and Strategies

581

Chapter 16. Performance in Comparison

609

PART VI. CRITICAL ISSUES AND PROBLEMS Chapter 17. The Seizure of Power in North and South Korean Politics

673

Chapter 18. Arms Race and the Twin Fortifications of the Korean Peninsula

697

Chapter 19. A Socialist Man versus a Universal Man: Education in North and South Korean Politics

743

Chapter 20. Reunification and Policy Models

797

Contents

xi

CONCLUSION Chapter 21. North and South Korea as Two Living Political Laboratories

833

APPENDICES Appendix 1: A Chronology of Historic Events

861

Appendix 2: Dynastic Lineages

863

Appendix 3: Constitution of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (April 9, 1992)

871

Appendix 4: Charter (or Rules) of the Workers' Party ofKorea

905

Appendix 5: The Constitution of the Republic of Korea

933

INDEX

967

LIST OF MAPS

Designless Pottery Sites in Korea (Bronze Age, ca. 800-300 B.C.) .................................................

6

Korea in the Confederated Kingdoms Period (ca. 1st-3rd Centuries A.D.)........................................................

7

1-3

The Early Three Kingdoms (5th Century).................................

8

1-4

The Early Three Kingdoms (7th Century).................................

9

2-1

Silla Under King Chinhiing (540-576) ................... ~.................. 62

2-2

The Unification Struggle Among the Three Kingdoms (7th Century) .............................................................................. 63

2-3

Silla and Parhae (Administrative Divisions) ............................. 64

2-4

Koryo Dynasty Administrative Divisions (ll-14th Century).... 65

2-5

The Five Circuits and Two Border Regions of Koryo (11th Century) ............................................................................ 66

2-6

The Eight Provinces of the Yi Dynasty (14th-19th Century) .... 67

2•7

Choson's Eight Provinces and Regional Military Commands (15th Century) ......................... ;.................................................. 68

2-8

Korea in the Later Three Kingdoms Period (Late 9th-Early lOth Centuries) ................................................. 69

2-9

Koryo and the Mongols (13th Century) ..................................... 70

1-1 1-2

2-10 Koryo's Northern Frontier Region (Late lOth to Early 12th Centuries) ........................................... 71

xii

List of Maps

2-11

xiii

The Hideyoshi Invasion (1592-1598) ........................................ 72

2-12 The Six Garrison Forts and Four Yalu Outposts (ca. 1450) ...... 73 3-1

Lines of March of the Tonghak Peasant Army .......................... 137

4-1

Divided Korea in Its Asian Setting ............................................ 156

4-2

The Administrative Divisions of North Korea .......................... 157

4-3

Major Cities and Transportation Facilities of North Korea ........................................................................... 158

4-4

Major Resources in North Korea ............................................... 159

4-5

The Administrative Divisions of South Korea ................... 160-161

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PART I

THE KOREAN POLITICAL HERITAGE

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CHAPTER 1

A IDSTORICAL OVERVIEW

History, which undertakes to record the transactions of the past, for the instruction of future ages, would ill serve that honorable office if she condescended to plead the cause of tyrants, or to justify the maxims of persecution....

Edward Gibbon'

If all human beings are in certain respects like all other human beings, like some other human beings, and like no other human beings, 2 so are nations. Korea as a nation is no exception in this regard. It shares some universal political qualities with other nations, and possesses at the same time unique political qualities and paradoxes as well. The history of Korea dates back to the Paleolithic period. Paleolithic remains and sites have been found in virtually every part of the Korean Peninsula. It is generally estimated that Paleolithic man began to inhabit the Korean Peninsula some 40,000 or 50,000 years ago, although the Korean people of today may or may not have descended from these Paleolithic inhabitants in the Peninsula. 3 Around the second century B.C. with the advent of the use of the bronze implements, the walled-town states with articulated political structures emerged in the Korean Peninsula. In the northern region, the walled-town states such as Puyo in the Sungari River basin, Yemaek along the middle reaches of the Aprok (Yalu) River, Old Choson in the Liao and Taedong River basins, lmdun in the Hamhiing plain on the northeast seacoast and Chinbon in the Hwanghae area were notable. 3

4

The Korean Political Heritage

To the south of the Han River, the state of Chin was the typical walledtown state. The most advanced among these was Old Choson whose existence was known to and recorded in China.4 The Korean nation has existed for millennia, if a nation stands for an aggregation of people sharing basically the same culture, language, history, religion and ethnic origin (or some combination of these) in a particular territory. 5 Ethnically, like the origins.of other national groups, the Korean people probably descended from the various confluent ethnic groups in surrounding regions-Chinese, Mongols, Manchurians and Japanese. Yemaek people, according to one study, constitute the core ethnic element which has developed into the people known as Koreans today. 6 Be it as it may, the Korean people have evolved from a slow and tedious process. More than fifty thousands years have elapsed in the evolution of people known as Koreans. 7 Korea was founded by its legendary primogenitor, Tankun, some 2,333 years before Christ. The recorded history of the Korean state(s), as a ruling organization that monopolized the legitimate use of physical force, began during the era of the Three Kingdoms (57 B.C.-661 A.D.), if not earlier. 8 The first united Korean nation-state was established in 676 by the Silla Dynasty (57 B.C.-935 A.D.). With the help of China's T'ang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.), Silla unified Korea by defeating two other indigenous Korean kingdoms, Koguryo (37 B.C.-668 A.D.) and Paekche (18 B.C.-661 A.D.). Silla's unification of Korea in 676 can be interpreted in three ways. First, Silla's alliance with T'ang resulted in involvement of foreigners into Korean politics. 9 Silla with the help of T'ang's military forces defeated the indigenous coalition forces of Koguryo and Paekche. Second, the vast territorial loss deprived Korea of its status as a tripartite power in East Asia along with China and Japan. Silla's unification paid a dear price-the loss of Manchuria, which had been a part of the Koguryo Kingdom. Several attempts by Silla to regain the lost territories in Manchuria have been unsuccessful. 10 Third, the Kingdom of Parhae(698-926), which was founded by Taejoyong, a former Koguryo general, with his fellow expatriates of the

A Historical Overview

5

fallen Koguryo, soon controlled most of the former Koguryo territory north of Taedog River.ln that sense, the Silla's unification of the Three Kingdoms was a misnomer. Silla incorporated Paekche, but most of the former Koguryo territory was under Parhae's control. Silla' s unification, then, produced a divided Korea-Silla and Parhae which fell to the Khitans in 926. The united Silla (676-935) survived for more than 200 years before mass rebellions erupted around 888, which divided the Korean Peninsula into three new kingdoms; the Later Koguryo (901-917), the Later Paeckche (900-936), and the United Silla (676-935). Koryo, an outgrowth of the Later Koguryo, established the second united nation-state on the Korean Peninsula in 936 by absorbing the other two. The Koryo unification, then, was the first bona fide united Korean state, which occupied most of the present Korean Peninsula south of Ch'ongch'on River. The United Koryo lasted five hundred years before it fell to the Yi Dynasty. The Yi Dynasty (1393-1910) was created by Yi Song-kye, a commanding general of Koryo, who successfully staged a military coup in 1388. During the reign of Sejong the Great (r. 1418-50), the present Korean national boundary in the north, marked by Aprok (Yalu) and Tuman (Tumen) rivers, was formalized, and it has remained ever since. The Yi Dynasty ruled Korea for over five hundred years until it fell a victim to the Japanese colonial rule in 1910. The Japanese rule, the first outright foreign colonization of the entire Korean Peninsula, ended in 1945 when Japan was defeated in World War II. The price of Korean liberation from Japan in 1945 was, however, arbitrary and artificial partition of the country by the United States with the tacit agreement of the former Soviet Union. The physical partition of the country, the hiunan separation and the political and ideological rivalry between the two halves have persisted ever since.

6

The Korean Political Heritage

MAP 1-1. Designless Pottery Sites in Korea (Bronze Age, ca. 800-300 B.C.) 126°

124°

128"

MANCHURIA 42°'--t---+---

0

U II iing I sland

HWANGHAE

• Cheju'f'a~ 124°

126°~

128°

7

A Historical Overview

MAP 1-2. Korea in the Confederated Kingdoms Period (ca. lst-3rd Centuries A.D.)

Ja•

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1

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1

o~

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Island

/

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{_

r--~---t--~-Ch-e-1u-tla-~-d~~--~--~~~-?·~-O~~~-o~(diAP~~~;k~~;

122·

124•

4

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1za•

Ill,_, '130~

I

1

The Korean Political Heritage

8

MAP 1-3. The Early Three Kingdoms (5th Century)

I

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I

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I

,

'

'

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.ll. Maullyong .D. Hw~n!lch'oryong

EASTERN SEA

Q

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u -~ . . . . . . .:.... ,.,, . . / I ~~n&JmKw~ns~-s8ong A

YELLOW SEA

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~

A Historical Overview

9

MAP 1-4. The Early Three Kingdoms (7th Century)

I

I

I 1

I

!

I

'\ '

''

.....

--

I

........,

....,

....... ' \\

I I

,

\

Q

Usan

YELLOW SEA

Kumsong(Kyongju) 0

ramnaO

10

The Korean Political Heritage

Notes: 1. Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 3 vols. (New York: Modern Library, 1980), 1: 453-54. 2. Clyde Kluckhohn and Henry A. Murray, "Personality Formation: The Determinants," in Clyde Kluckhohn and Henry A. Murray eds., Personality in Nature, Society and Culture (New York: Knopf, 1953), p. 53. 3. For details, see Pyong-do Lee, Kuksa Daekwan [Outline of Korean National History] (Seoul: Pomunkak, 1957), pp. 15-21 and his Hankuk Kodaesa Yonku [The Study of Korean Ancient History] (Seoul: Pakyong-sa, 1976), especially chapters one and two, pp. 27-64; Woo-keun Han, The History of Korea, trans. Kyung-shik Lee and Grafton K. Mintz (Honolulu: East-West Center Press, 1970), pp. 3-8; William E. Henthorn, A History of Korea (New York: The Free Press, 1971), pp. 6-17; Ki-baik Lee, A New History of Korea, trans. Edward W. Wagner (Seoul: lljokak, 1984), pp. 1-2. T'ae-won Kwon, Hankuk Sahoe P'ungsoksa Yonku [A Study of Korean Cultural History] (Seoul: Kyongin Munhwa-sa, 1980), pp. 12-67. A critical view on the oriiins of Korean people, which differs from the writers of twenty-eight-volume Hankuk-sa, published by South Korea's National History Publications Committee (Kuksap'yonch'anwiwonhoe), is found in Byong-sik Han, "The Problems of National Origin Seen in Hankuk-sa" in Hanyang (January-February and March-April, 1984), pp. 118-126 and pp. 122-132, respectively. 4. For details, see Pyong-do Lee, Hankuk Kodaesa Yonku, especially, pp. 44-96. 5. The term "nation" generally stands for a large group of people who share common traditions and culture and usually a common language. Haas, for instance, defined nation as "a socially mobilized body of individuals, believing themselves to be united by some set of characteristics that differentiate them (in their own minds) from "outsiders," and striving to create or maintain

their own state." See Ernst B. Haas, Beyond the Nation-state: Functionalism and International Organization (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1968), p. 465. The term, "state," generally consists of a permanent population with a defined territory and a government which is capable of both enlisting people's habitual obedience and entering into relations with other states. In Europe, with the emergence of the nation-state in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the nation has been equated with the state. Despite these distinctions, the confusion surrounding the terms, nation, state and nation-state has not dissipated. A source of confusion stems from its misuse, e.g., in the United States, the states such as Kentucky and California are only constituent part of the American state; "nations" in the United Nations mean "states," not "nations." The political reality also contributes to such confusion, e.g., the former Soviet

A Historical Overview

6. 7. 8.

9.

10.

11

Union was a state consisting of many nations; Korea (and Germany was) is "one nation with two states" or "two regimes in one state." For a discussion of this confusion, see, for instance, Cecil V. Crabb, Jr., Nations in a Multipolar World (New York: Harper and Row, 1968), pp. 2-4 and pp. 50-68; Karl W. Deutsch, Nationalism and Social Communication (Cambridge: The M.I.T. Press, 1953, 1966), passim. A good survey of the concepts such as nation, nationality, and nation-state is found in Dankwart A. Rustow, A World of Nations: Problems of Political Modernization (Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 1967), especially, pp. 1-134. For a discussion of the meaning of (nation) in the Korean context, see Ki-pyok Ch'a, "Resistant Nationalism in Foreign Relations" (in Korea) D-ch'ol Shin, "Resistant Nationalism in Internal Settings;" and also, Yong-hee Lee, "The Concept of Nationalism," in Chae-bong No, ed., Hankuk Minjok chui wa KukjechOngch 'i [Korean Nation-. alism and International Politics] (Seoul: Minum-sa, 1983), pp. 13-32, pp. 6986 and pp. 211-239. For an analysis of the concept of nation in North and South Korea, see Sang-yong Choi, "A Comparative Study on the Concepts of Nation in South and North Korea" (in Korean), Unification Policy Quarterly (Winter 1978), pp. 12-44. Pyong-do Lee, KuksaDaekwan, pp. 11-15; T'ae-won Kim, Op. Cit., pp.12-70. Ki-baik Lee, A New History of Korea, pp. 1-8. For a detailed analysis of Korea's ancient historical developments, see Pyongdo Lee, Hankuk Kodaesa Yonku [A Study of Ancient Korean History] (Seoul: Pakyong-sa, 1976); Henthorn, Op. Cit., pp. 18-32. For a study of the evolution of the Silla state, see Chong-uk Lee, Silla Kuka Hyongsongsa Yonku [A Study of Silla's Development as a State] (Seoul: Djokak, 1982), especially, pp. 12-73. The earliest recorded history of foreign invasion in the Korean Peninsula occurred between 108 and 109 B.C. when the Emperor Wu Ti of China's Han Dynasty created four colonies or commanderies: Nangnang (Lo-lang in Chinese), ChinbOn (Chen-fan), lmdun (Lin-t'un) and Hyont'o (Hsuant'u) in today's northwestern Korea. For details, see Pyong-do Lee, Hankuk Kodaesa Yonku, pp. 97-112; Woo-keun Han, Op. Cit., pp. 12-22; Ki-baik Lee, Op. Cit., pp. 19-21. After the collapse of Koguryo, Parhae Kingdom (698-926) was created by the people of Koguryo in the Manchurian area. When it fell in 926 to the indigenous Malgal people, Manchuria ceased to serve as a stage for the unfolding drama of Korean history. For details, see Ki-baek Lee, Op. Cit., pp. 88-91; Woo-keun Han, Op. Cit., pp. 86-89.

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CHAPTER 2

POLITICAL CULTURE AND TRADITIONS

It would be absurd to cut every culture down to the Procrustean bed of some catchword characterization. Ruth Benedict1

It may be said of Korea that there is no countly of comparable significance concerning which so many people are ignorant. Cornelius Osgood2

If the present political scene in the Korean Peninsula is partially, if not entirely, the mirror image of the country's political past, an understanding of its political culture and traditions, however perfunctory, is in order. For, the Korean political culture, shaped by its people's common historical and political experiences, continues to influence the political behavior of both its rulers and people. Like cultures of other traditional societies which can be divide into "high" and "low," "great" and "little," or "elite" and "mass" cultures, the traditional Korean political culture is by and large bifurcated, one rooted in the ruling elite, and the other in the masses. 3 Although these two cultures are, in reality, meshed together in a seamless whole, they are divided here into two "boxes" for the sake of analysis. Authoritarian political order, class-based socio-political structure, centralized bureaucratism and political longevity, factionalism and civil13

14

The Korean Political Heritage

military rivalry, land-based power dynamics, state religion, and external linkages and pacifism represent Korea's "elite political culture," whereas armed revolts, peasant rebellions, nativistic resilience and nationalism, its "mass political culture.'>4 As it will become clear in the following chapters, some fragments of these ''two cultures" survive even in contemporary political culture of the two Korean regimes. Traditions, including political ones, are indeed diehard. Revolutions attempt to reshape traditions but, in the long run, they accommodate traditions, not the reverse.

Elite Political Culture Authoritarianism In the political history of all nations, an authoritarian order has been a rule. Even in our world of some 180 nations, an autocratic or authoritarian order is the rule, not an exception. Traditional authoritarianism, 5 characterized by a centralized bureaucratic monarchy, may indeed be one of the most enduring political traditions in Korea. Authoritarianism exists if, among other things, the ruler or the ruling elites of a given political system perceive the law as a device for controlling the subject rather than as a principle regulating relations between themselves and their people. Korea has had its share of authoritarian traditions. The government office or department which administered law in the Koryo and Yi dynasties, for example, was called respectively hyongbu [the Department of Punishment] and hyongjo [the Ministry of Punishment]. Hyong literally means "punishment.''6 The Korean conception of law was akin to that of the Chinese Legalist School of the third century B.C. The law was "a tool of absolutism to aid in administrative unification." It was "an arm of the state."7 The law in Korean, Chinese and Japanese life was not developed to protect either the individual's political rights or his or her economic position. Nor did it represent an accumulation of collective experiences

Political Culture and Traditions

15

of the society. 8 The notion that a process of law is essential for the protection of life, liberty and property was simply not "Oriental." In the Korean political tradition, law was "an instrument of chastising the vicious and the depraved." Further, Pyong-choon Hahm wrote: It [law] was an unpleasant necessity prescribed by the failure of reason in politics. Law as a political norm always meant the positive law. It was something that had been legislated by the ruler. It was sharply distinguished from custom. It always signified a norm with physical force as sanction behind it. It was therefore synonymous with punishment, no more no less. 9 The role of the Korean equivalent of the Western ministry of "law" or "justice" (ius, droit or recht) was to "punish" subjects who failed to comply with the government orders, rules and laws than to administer law, to uphold justice or to adjudicate disputes. To put it another way, the department of punishment existed in the Koryo and the Yi dynasties, not the department of law or justice. The concept of kingly authority evolved gradually in Korea. During the period of Wiman Chason (194 B.C.?-106 B.C.), the farming population in the villages was ruled by the elites in the walled-town states. In Puyo and Koguryo, the two northern Korean kingdoms, for instance, their kings were chosen by some form of elective process in their early formative periods, and they were held accountable for poor harvests and were often either replaced or even killed for such "failures." Noteworthy also is that as early as in 49 A.D., the Puyo ruler adopted the use of the term, wang, the Chinese appellation for "king." 10 It was around the second or the third century in Puyo and Koguryo, respectively, that a loosely organized confederated kingdom gradually transformed itself into a centralized state with kingly authority. In Koguryo the right to the throne was permanently secured by the Ko house of the Kyeru lineage in the time of King T'aejo (r. 53-146?). During the reign of Kogukch' on (r. 179-196), the idea of kingly authority in a centralized state began to take root. Under his reign the pattern of succession to the throne changed from brother-brother to father-son. In Paekche a centralized aristocratic state came into being during the reign

16

The Korean Political Heritage

of Kiin Ch'ogo (r. 346-375). In Silla the father-son succession pattern was established during the reign ofNulchi (r. 417-458), and an incipient centralized aristocratic state emerged in the reign of Pophiing (r. 514540).11 The political traditions of father-son hereditary succession and a centralized monarchical authoritarian order made further entrenchment in the subsequent Korean kingdoms-the Unified Silla (676-935), Koryo (918-1392) and Yi Choson (1392-1910). The authoritarian political order continued under the Japanese colonial rule (1910-1945) after the demise of the Yi Dynasty. Nor has this tradition shown a sign of decline in the post-World War Korean politics of division. The Korean political tradition of an authoritarian order under a centralized bureaucracy has existed throughout 2,200 years of its recorded history. In other words, Korea lacks democratic and liberal political traditions embodied in concepts such as law and justice, civil liberties and civil rights, local autonomy, decentralization and political pluralism. 12 It is true that as a backdrop of this prevailing authoritarian political tradition, there have been numerous governmental institutions which were rudimentarily, at least, democratic. The historical records; for instance, indicate that in the formative period of ancient Silla the leaders were elected by lineage group assembly. 13 In Koguryo Taedaero [the Chief Minister] was elected by a council of aristocrats. Paekche had Chongsaam, the "rock." A name of three or four possible candidates were put under it, and some time later the person whose name had the special sign or signature was chosen as chief minister. The gradual evolution of Silla' s political institution from Kongch 'ong [the Village Council], ChOngsa-tang [the Political Affairs Council] to Nam-tang, the government headquarters for a council of the king and his ministers, and to Hwan-baek [the Council of Nobles] is another example. Hwabaek was an assembly of Silla nobility which reached its decisions by consensus on the most important matters of state, such as succession to the throne, the declaration of war and the adoption of state religion. 14 The Koryo Dynasty's Todang [Top'yong' uisasa] [the Privy Council] and the Yi Dynasty's Uijongbu [the State Council] were similarly structured. 15

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This evidence suggests that kingly authority in traditional Korea was not always autocratic, i.e., monarchs often shared power with their ministers and nobles. Still, the mass remained their subjects, who could not participate in the political process. In that sense, the Korean monarchies, be they the Three Kingdoms, the Koryo or the Yi dynasties, were far from being democratic. To use Almond-Powell's typology, traditional Korean political culture was a prototype of "subject political culture." 16 The Korean mass publics were subjects .who passively obeyed government authorities and laws, but they seldom participated in political processes. In brief, the authoritarian tradition in Korean politics is indeed long, while the democratic experiment is rather short and is largely of recent Western origin. Most surveys on the South Korean people's political belief system, for instance, have shown weak commitment to and respect for, fundamental democratic values and beliefs such as political competition, majority rule and minority rights, political accountability and assertive self-role perception. Conversely, their influence from authoritarian values remains strong and persistent. 17 Although no comparable surveys on the North Korean people are available, their traditional political belief system may not have been drastically altered even under the present communist system. Or, more accurately, the current North Korean regime has effectively utilized the authoritarian tradition to its maximum advantage. As Stephen White pointed out, political-cultural variables are not the only and may not even be the main ones that explain a contemporary political system, but even in communist states which claim to have broken decisively with their traditional inheritance, there seem "good grounds for regarding pre-revolutionary patterns of political belief and behavior as at least an important contributory factor in any adequate explanation of their contemporary politics. 18 In a nutshell, both North Korea's present communist totalitarian rule and South Korea's authoritarian and. currently democratizing politics, albeit their fundamental dissimilarities, have a common authoritarian root, deeply imbedded in the Korean historical and cultural psyche.

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The Korean Political Heritage

Class Society As noted previously, it was around the second century in ancient Korea when the division occurred between the peasants living in the farming villages and the ruling elites residing in the walled towns. The majority of the farming population at that time were free peasants, and below them were some slaves and tenant farmers or yuin [wanderers]. The ruling elites also maintained a large retinue of household slaves. In the sixth century the kolp'um [bone-rank] system was introduced in Silla as its ruling class system. Under this system social status was determined by heredity, and kinship and marriage systems were strictly controlled. At the top of the society were two classes called songgol [sacred blood or hallowed-bone] and chingol [true blood or true-bone]. They were made up exclusively of the royal family. Below them were six grades called tup'um [head ranks], where head-rank six was the highest and head-rank one, the lowest. 19 In the final years of Silla, the powerful local gentry, songju [castle lord], appeared with its private army and military garrison, as Silla's local maritime trade with T'ang China and Japan flourished. But the local gentry, largely defiant of the central royal authority, was shortlived. The local gentry class gave in to Koryo, the new centralized monarchy, which reunified the country after the fall of Silla. In Koryo a much more sophisticated ban [class or orders] was created. The population segments in each class were assigned certain rights and obligations, in principle at least, on a hereditary basis. Munban [civil official order] filled civil offices, muban [military official order], military offices, namban [court functionary order], palace service offices and kunban [the soldiering order], filled the ranks of the military units. Below these orders were local and central minor bureaucrats, artisans and the like. The bottom rungs of the society were made up of paekchOng [butchers] and ch'onin [low-born] or slaves, both of whom were not eligible to hold a government office. 20 The introduction of kwako [a civil service examination system] and NobiankombOp [The Slave Review Act] had an impact on the Korean class structure. A rudimentary form of a state examination system for

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the selection of government officials was introduced in 788 A.D. in Silla, but it was Korro's Kwangjong (r. 949-75) who, with the help of Shuang Chi, a Chinese embassy member from the state of the Later Chou, institutionalized a civil service examination system in Korea in 958 as the principal avenue through which a person can enter the government bureaucracy. Two years earlier Kwangjong enacted the Slave Review Act to reduce the number of bloated slave population. Both moves by Kwangjong were calculated to strengthen his centralized monarchical power. The civil service examination limited the number of civil and military officials recruited from the hereditary ranks (mostly from the late Silla royal families and /or the descendants of the Koryo's founding fathers). Technically, any yangin [a free-born] except ch'onmin [low-born] was eligible to take the civil service examination, but in reality it was impossible for the general peasant popUlation, free or low-born, to take the examination, let alone pass it. 21 Likewise, the Slave Review Act. was enacted to control the power of the local gentry who held a large number of slaves, their main source of economic and military strength. The king restored "slaves," who were originally commoners, to free status, thereby, mitigating the power base of the local gentry. 22 The Yi Dynasty also enforced a rigid ruling class system, although it was much more broadly based than Silla' s true-bone royal aristocracy or Koryo' s class-based hereditary aristocracy. Yi' s new ruling class, yangban [two classes or two orders], literally meant both the civil and military officials. However, it generally referred to the civil officials, the literati, because the military officials were considered socially and politically inferior. Yangban virtually monopolized the Yi dynasty's bureaucracy by a variety ofcontrol mechanisms by: (1) maintaining a clan exogamous and class endogamous marriage system; (ii) banning children from second marriages of yangban class and their illegitimate children from key government posts; (iii) segregating yangban's residence from the rest of the popUlace; (iv) discriminating against people from regions such as Pyongan and Hamgyong provinces; and (v) managing the educational institutio:ts and, thereby, controlling the state examination system. 23

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The Korean Political Heritage

The Yi Dynasty's socio-political class system was divided broadly into four strata. At the top were yangban, the ruling elites who virtually monopolized both power and wealth (land}. 24 Yangban occupied the top class, sa [literati or gentry] of sa-nong-gong-sang, the so-called four social class division-literati, farmers, artisans and merchants. Next were chungin [middle class people], who were medical officers, translator-interpreters, technicians in the astronomy and meteorology office, accountants, law clerks, scribes and artists. Included also in this class were sori [petty clerks], ajon [local civil functionaries] and kun'gyo [military cadre members]. To the third class, yangin or sangin [good people or common people], belonged the majority of the people who were engaged in farming, industry and trade. Ch'onin [lowly class people or slaves] were at the bottom rung of the class system. Ch'onin were divided into kongch'on [public or government-owned slaves] and sach'on [private slaves]. The slave status was hereditary in that the owners claimed descendants of their slaves as property and could use them as public tribute or sell them to other owners; Besides slaves, paekjong [butchers], kisaengs [actors, actress and singers] and mudang [female shamans] belonged to ch'onin class. Slavery was formally abolished in 1801, but the traditional class structure proved to be rigid; it persisted well into the modem era. Doubtless, class distinction or social distancing among people is a universal phenomenon. One society differs from another only in its criteria for such distinction and distancing, scope and magnitude. The criteria range from birth or blood (heredity), marriage or kinship ties, race, ethnicity, religion, region, wealth, education to occupation. The criteria may be ascriptive or achievement-based. What distinguishes the traditional Korean class system from others is its high degree of rigid bifurcation of the ruling elites and the ruled; immobility; closed interlocking systems of marriage among powerful family clans; regional favoritism; and the virtual monopoly of power and wealth by the ruling elite. Y.M. Kim, in his study 25 of the Yi Dynasty's top political elites (a total of 4,693 top bureaucrats of chOngsamp'um [rank three] or above in the period ofKojong [r. 1864-1907] and Sunjong [r.l907-10]), identi-

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fied the salience of civil character, blood ties, family and clan networks and regional favoritism: 1. The top bureaucrats were recruited predominantly from those passing the civil examination: 60.7% from those who passed munkwa [civil exam]; 13.6% from mukwa [military exam]; 8.4% from munum [recruitment through parental connections]; and the rest from unknown or other channels. 2. These elites were mostly from well-known family clans, e.g., 10.6% from Yi clan of Chonju; 5.9% from Min clan of Yohiing; 52% from Kim clan of Andong; 3.4% from Cho clan of Pungyang; 3.5% from So clan of Taegu; 3.4% from Kim clan of Kwangsan; 2.5% from Hong clan of Namyang; 2.2% from Han clan of Ch' ongju; and 2.1% from Pak clan of Bonam. These powerful family clans were interlocked through the maintenance of the closed marriage practices among themselves. 3. They were mostly from the capital. Among those recruited through munkwa, Seoulites represented 72.4%, Kyonggi Province, 5.9%, Ch'ungch'ong, 7.6%, Kyongsang, 3.7%, ChOlla, 1.8%, Kangwon, 1.3%, Pyongan, 1.3% and Hamgyong, 0.3%. 4. These ruling elites represented only 1.1% of the total Korean household. They belonged mostly to the top bureaucratic group or the rich local landed gentry. A high degree of Yi bureaucracy's hereditary characteristic was evident in the fact that the fathers (more than two thirds) of these ruling elites were top bureaucrats. In short, merits and capabilities were necessary but never sufficient conditions for a person to become a member of the ruling elites in the Yi Dynasty, and for that matter, in Koryo as well. 26 The elite recruitment practices of applying extra criteria such as the interlocking family clan and marriage links, school and regional ties and corresponding political favoritism have not been eliminated either from North Korea's communist party and its state bureaucracy or from South Korea's political officialdom. The essence of this legacy still lingers on in the both halves of the Peninsula. The father-son succession scheme and conspicuous nepotism in North Korea, similar nepotistic practices under the Park, the Chun and even the Roh regimes in South Korea, not to mention the serious Yong-Honam regional rivalry and rift are the contemporary manifestations.

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The Korean Political Heritage

Centralized Bureaucratism and Political Longevity Another salient feature of Korean political tradition is characterized by the longevity of the dynastic rule under a centralized bureaucracy. In a way, the longevity and stability of the dynastic rule and a centralized bureaucracy had been mutually reinforcing. The physical setting of Korea-a peninsula of relatively small size~had also been a contributing factor to the rise and durability of strong centralized bureaucratic governing apparatus. In the Three Kingdoms, for instance, Koguryo lasted 705 years, Paekche, 679 years and Silla, nearly a millennium (992 years) of which Korea was unified for some 260 years. Of the next two dynasties, Koryo survived nearly half a millennium (479 years) and Yi Choson, over half a millennium (518 years). In addition to this dynastic longevity and stability, the history of territorial unity of Korean kingdoms was one of the longest in the world. From the period of the unified Silla (though not the entire area of the Korean peninsula) to the present, the duration of Korea's territorial unity amounted to nearly thirteen hundred (1,284) years, while the territorial division lasted less than one hundred years, including the years of partition since 1945. Like other political developments, the evolution of a centralized bureaucracy in traditional Korea had been piecemeal and gradual. As noted earlier, the kingly authority took root around the second century B.C. in Puyo and Koguryo. The more elaborate aristocratic centralized governing structure took shape in Silla with the introduction of the "bone-rank" system, although all three kingdoms had somewhat similar type of officialdom. Koguryo had twelve office ranks, Paeckche, sixteen ranks and Silla, seventeen ranks. In Paekche and Silla, each rank within the government was assigned an official robe of specific color. In Paekche 16 ranks were divided into three tiers-purple denoting the top six ranks, -scarlet, the next five ranks and blue robes, the bottom five ranks. In Silla, official robes had four colors-purple for the top five ranks, scarlet for the next four ranks, blue for the two low ranks, and yellow for the lowest

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six ranks. 27 Besides the aforesaid offiCial rank system, the councillor bodies, composed primarily of leaders of the royal and aristocratic families, such as Koguryo's council of high aristocracy, Paekche's chongsa-am and Silla' s hwabaek played a significant role in political decision making. Administratively, the three kingdoms were separated into several local districts. The local administrative units were called kun [county or district]. The head of each district is called ch'ozyongunji (or tosa) in Koguryo, kunjang, in Paekche and kunt'aesu in Silla. These local administrative units were combined to form five larger provinces called pu (north, south, east, west and inner) in Koguryo, pang (center, north, south, east and west) in Paekche and chu (upper, lower, new, etc.) in Silla. The governors of pu, pang and chu were called yoksal, pangnyong and kunju, respectively. In Silla each province established its own military garrison, chong, which was commanded by the generals of the "true-bone" origin. And hwarang [flower of youth or youth military cadet] was created as the institution where elite military officers were trained for the garrison (Koguryo was known to have had a similar organization called kyongfang). 28 Noteworthy also is that in 651 Chipsabu [the Chancellery or the Executive Council] was founded and its head acted as prime .minister to supervise the various ministries such as the military affairs, disbursements, rites, tax collections, official surveillance and justice (punishment).29 Under the Unified Silla a number of government apparatus was restructured to further strengthen its centralized bureaucratic control. In 685 soon after its unification, Silla established nine chu [province] which was headed by ch 'onggwa (later called todok). Each province was divided into kun [prefecture], headed by t'aesu, who controlled several hyon [small town or counties], headed by yong. Hyon was subdivided into villages (ch'on) and settlements for people of unfree status (e.g., pris