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Songbun
''Songbun'' (), formally chulsin-songbun (, from Sino-Korean 出身, "origin" and 成分, "constituent"), is the system of ascribed status used in North Korea. Based on the political, social, and economic background of one's direct ancestors as well as the behavior of their relatives, ''songbun'' is used to classify North Korean citizens into three primary castes, core, wavering and hostile, in addition to approximately fifty sub-classifications, and determine whether an individual is trusted with responsibilities, is given opportunities within North Korea, or even receives adequate food. ''Songbun'' affects access to educational and employment opportunities and it particularly determines whether a person is eligible to join North Korea's ruling party, the Workers' Party of Korea. History The Korean Workers' Party Politburo passed a decree in 1957 entitled "On the Transformation of the Struggle with Counterrevolutionary Elements into an All-People All-Party Movement", which ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and Tumen rivers, and South Korea to the south at the Korean Demilitarized Zone. North Korea's border with South Korea is a disputed border as both countries claim the entirety of the Korean Peninsula. The country's western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eastern border is defined by the Sea of Japan. North Korea, like its southern counterpart, claims to be the legitimate government of the entire peninsula and adjacent islands. Pyongyang is the capital and largest city. In 1910, Korea was annexed by the Empire of Japan. In 1945, after the Japanese surrender at the end of World War II, Korea was divided into two zones along the 38th parallel, with the north occupied by the Soviet Union and the south occupied by the Unit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Workers' Party Of Korea
The Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) is the founding and sole ruling party of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, commonly known as North Korea. Founded in 1949 from the merger of the Workers' Party of North Korea and the Workers' Party of South Korea, the WPK is the oldest active party in Korea. It also controls the Korean People's Army, North Korea's armed forces. The WPK is the largest party represented in the Supreme People's Assembly and coexists with two other legal parties making up the Democratic Front for the Reunification of Korea. However, these minor parties are completely subservient to the WPK and must accept the WPK's "leading role" as a condition of their existence. The WPK is banned in South Korea (Republic of Korea) under the National Security Act and is sanctioned by the United Nations, the European Union, Australia, and the United States. Officially, the WPK is a communist party guided by Kimilsungism–Kimjongilism, a synthesis of the ideas of Kim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caste
Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultural notions of purity and pollution. * Quote: "caste ort., casta=basket ranked groups based on heredity within rigid systems of social stratification, especially those that constitute Hindu India. Some scholars, in fact, deny that true caste systems are found outside India. The caste is a closed group whose members are severely restricted in their choice of occupation and degree of social participation. Marriage outside the caste is prohibited. Social status is determined by the caste of one's birth and may only rarely be transcended." * Quote: "caste, any of the ranked, hereditary, endogamous social groups, often linked with occupation, that together constitute traditional societies in South Asia, particularly among Hindus in India. Althou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caste System
Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultural notions of purity and pollution. * Quote: "caste ort., casta=basket ranked groups based on heredity within rigid systems of social stratification, especially those that constitute Hindu India. Some scholars, in fact, deny that true caste systems are found outside India. The caste is a closed group whose members are severely restricted in their choice of occupation and degree of social participation. Marriage outside the caste is prohibited. Social status is determined by the caste of one's birth and may only rarely be transcended." * Quote: "caste, any of the ranked, hereditary, endogamous social groups, often linked with occupation, that together constitute traditional societies in South Asia, particularly among Hindus in India. Although ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
North Korean Famine
The North Korean Famine (), also known as the Arduous March or the March of Suffering (), was a period of mass starvation together with a general economic crisis from 1994 to 1998 in North Korea. During this time there was an increase in defection from North Korea which peaked towards the end of the famine period. The famine stemmed from a variety of factors. Economic mismanagement and the loss of Soviet support caused food production and imports to decline rapidly. A series of floods and droughts exacerbated the crisis. The North Korean government and its centrally planned system proved too inflexible to effectively curtail the disaster. North Korea attempted to obtain aid and commercial opportunities, but failed to receive initial attention. Estimates of the death toll vary widely. Out of a total population of approximately 22 million, somewhere between 240,000 and 3,500,000 North Koreans died from starvation or hunger-related illnesses, with the deaths peaking in 1997.No ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Imperial Japanese Army
The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor of Japan as supreme commander of the army and the Imperial Japanese Navy. Later an Inspectorate General of Aviation became the third agency with oversight of the army. During wartime or national emergencies, the nominal command functions of the emperor would be centralized in an Imperial General Headquarters (IGHQ), an ad hoc body consisting of the chief and vice chief of the Army General Staff, the Minister of the Army, the chief and vice chief of the Naval General Staff, the Inspector General of Aviation, and the Inspector General of Military Training. History Origins (1868–1871) In the mid-19th century, Japan had no unified national army and the country was made up of feudal domains (''han'') with the Tokugawa shogunate (''bakufu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ko Yong-hui
Ko Yong-hui (; ; 26 June 1952 – 13 August 2004), also spelled Ko Young-hee, was the consort of North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-il and the mother of his successor, Kim Jong-un. Within North Korea, she is only referred to by titles, such as "The Respected Mother who is the Most Faithful and Loyal 'Subject' to the Dear Leader Comrade Supreme Commander", "The Mother of Pyongyang", and "The Mother of Great Songun Korea". Biography Born in Osaka, Japan, to Korean parents, Ko's birth date and Japanese name in Japanese official records are 26 June 1952 and Takada Hime (高田姫), respectively. Her father, Ko Gyon-tek, worked in an Osaka sewing factory run by Japan's ministry of war, a 16th generation descendant of the Joseon scholar official, Go Deuk-jong. She, along with her family, moved to North Korea in May 1961 or in 1962 as part of a repatriation program. In the early 1970s, she began working as a dancer for the Mansudae Art Troupe in Pyongyang. Her younger sister Ko Yong ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kim Jong-un
Kim Jong-un (; , ; born 8 January 1982) is a North Korean politician who has been Supreme Leader of North Korea since 2011 and the leader of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) since 2012. He is a son of Kim Jong-il, who was North Korea's second supreme leader from 1994 to 2011, and Ko Yong-hui. He is a grandson of Kim Il-sung, who was the founder and first supreme leader of North Korea from its establishment in 1948 until his death in 1994. Kim Jong-un is the first leader of North Korea to have been born in the country after its founding in 1948. From late 2010, Kim was viewed as successor to the leadership of North Korea. Following his father's death in December 2011, state television announced Kim as the "Great Successor". Kim holds the titles of General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, Chairman of the Central Military Commission, and President of the State Affairs. He is also a member of the Presidium of the Politburo of the Workers' Party of Korea, the h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Osaka
is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2.7 million in the 2020 census, it is also the largest component of the Keihanshin Metropolitan Area, which is the second-largest metropolitan area in Japan and the 10th largest urban area in the world with more than 19 million inhabitants. Osaka was traditionally considered Japan's economic hub. By the Kofun period (300–538) it had developed into an important regional port, and in the 7th and 8th centuries, it served briefly as the imperial capital. Osaka continued to flourish during the Edo period (1603–1867) and became known as a center of Japanese culture. Following the Meiji Restoration, Osaka greatly expanded in size and underwent rapid industrialization. In 1889, Osaka was officially established as a municipality. The cons ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kim Jong-suk
Kim Jong-suk (; 24 December 1917Suh Dae-sook. Kim Il Sung: The North Korean Leader. New York: Columbia University Press, 1988. – 22 September 1949) was a Korean anti-Japanese guerrilla, a Communist activist, North Korean leader Kim Il-sung's first wife, former leader Kim Jong-il's mother, and current leader Kim Jong-un's grandmother. Biography Kim Jong-suk was born on Christmas Eve 1917 in Hoeryong County, North Hamgyong Province, Japanese Korea. Lintner, Bertil. Great Leader, Dear Leader: Demystifying North Korea under the Kim Clan. Chiang Mai, Thailand: Silkworm Books, 2005. Suh Dae-sook writes that she was "the elder of two daughters of a poor farmer." However, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), states that she had a younger brother, Kim Ki-song (김기송), who was born 9 February 1921. Kim Jong-suk followed her mother to Manchuria to look for her father, but they discovered that he had already died there. Soon after that, her mother died and she became a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daily NK
''Daily NK'' is an online newspaper based in Seoul, South Korea, where it reports on various aspects of North Korean society from information obtained from inside and outside of North Korea via a network of informants. North Korea is ranked 179 out of 180 in the 2021 World Press Freedom Index, which is compiled by Reporters Without Borders. The organization's president and editor-in-chief are South Korean, while its journalists are a mix of South Koreans and North Korean defectors. ''Daily NK'' is a recipient of funding from multiple institutions and private donors, including the National Endowment for Democracy, an NGO funded by the U.S. Congress. ''Daily NK''s president is Lee Kwang-baek. The amount of ''Daily NK'''s funding from the National Endowment for Democracy since 2016 is available in the public sphere. The organization is part of a consortium with thUnification Media Group which is a South Korea-based non-profit organization that produces and delivers radio conten ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kang Pan-sŏk
Kang Pan-sŏk ( ko, 강반석; 21 April 1892 – 31 July 1932) was the mother of North Korean leader Kim Il-sung. Biography She came from the village of Chilgol and raised Kim on a small farm in Mangyongdae, both near Pyongyang. She accepted, but rarely participated in her husband's pro-independence activism. After the family fled to Manchuria to avoid arrest, she did not return to Korea. 21 April is a day of memorial for her in North Korea, when a wreath-laying ceremony is held at Chilgol Revolutionary Site. Legacy In North Korea, Kang Pan-sŏk is referred to as the "Mother of Korea" or "Great Mother of Korea". Both titles are shared with Kim Jong-il's mother Kim Jong-suk. However, it was Kang Pan-sŏk who was the first family member of Kim Il-sung to have a cult of personality of her own to supplement that of her son, from the late 1960s onwards. In 1967, ''Rodong Sinmun'' praised her as the "mother of all". The same year, the Democratic Women's League initiate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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