Childhood Policies and Practices in the DPRK: A Challenge to Korean Unification

Abstract

This thesis investigates the childhood policies and practices of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), exploring the ideological construction of the North Korean child through arts, education, discipline and play, elements of what might be termed a broader collectivisation of childhood. North Korean childhood is perceived not as a protected pre-political phase in individual human growth, but a foundational stage in the construction of revolutionary consciousness, fostering national cohesion, ideological purity, and reverence for Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il, and Kim Jong Un. Guided by a Western paradigm perceiving childhood as “other,” estranged from the business of state building and war making, security studies and international relations have neglected children’s culture. Yet North Korea remains a barracks society, military first (Songun) revolutionary consciousness forming the cradle-to-grave foundation of individual and national identity and narrative. In their formative study North Korea: Beyond Charismatic Politics, Heonik Kwon and Byung-ho Chung identify the most urgent imperative of the DPRK as the extension of charismatic authority beyond the mortal lifespan of its founder, Kim Il Sung. This thesis will argue childhood policy and practice constitute a primary instrument for this extension.