Labor Hero () is one of the highest titles of honor of North Korea and the highest decoration of the country overall. The award was probably scheduled for establishment in the summer of 1950, but the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

postponed these plans. When the war had entered a phase of stalemate along the 38th parallel, the government had time to officially launch the decoration, originally under the name Korea Hero of Labor. 16 people were decorated Labor Heroes during the war and more since then. The decoration is based on its Soviet equivalent,

Hero of Socialist Labour The Hero of Socialist Labour (russian: links=no, Герой Социалистического Труда, Geroy Sotsialisticheskogo Truda) was an honorific title in the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries from 1938 to 1991. It repre ...

Specifications

Hero of Labor is the highest

title of honor A title of honor or honorary title is a title bestowed upon individuals or organizations as an award in recognition of their merits. Sometimes the title bears the same or nearly the same name as a title of authority, but the person bestowed doe ...

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 Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...

. It is also the highest decoration of the country overall. Immediately below it are the

Order of Kim Il-sung The Order of Kim Il-sung () is the highest order of North Korea, along with the Order of Kim Jong-il, and only second to one honorary title, the Hero of Labour. The order, named after the country's first leader Kim Il-sung, was instituted in 1 ...

and Kim Il-sung Prizes. Along with the title a gold medal is awarded. The medal features the

hammer and sickle The hammer and sickle (Unicode: "☭") zh, s=锤子和镰刀, p=Chuízi hé liándāo or zh, s=镰刀锤子, p=Liándāo chuízi, labels=no is a symbol meant to represent proletarian solidarity, a union between agricultural and industri ...

on a

five-pointed star A five-pointed star (☆), geometrically an equilateral concave decagon, is a common ideogram in modern culture. Comparatively rare in classical heraldry, it was notably introduced for the flag of the United States in the Flag Act of 1777 and s ...

. It is awarded independently of the similar award of Order of Labor.

History

Hero of Labor was probably scheduled to be established in the summer of 1950, but the breaking up of the

halted the plans. Only when the war reached a stalemate along the 38th parallel did the government have time to concentrate on its awards system. Hero of Labor was promulgated on 17 July 1951 and it became the highest civilian award of the country. The title is based on its

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

equivalent,

. It was initially promulgated as Korea Hero of Labor, using the Korean word ''Choson'' (). This set it apart from the related Order of Labor whose full name was "Korean People's Republic Order of Labor". This is likely because North Koreans copied every detail of the decorations of the Soviet Union, some of which featured the longer name of the country, "Soviet Union", and others simply "Soviet". During the war, 16 people were decorated Labor Heroes. Once the war was over, surprisingly,

Kim Il-sung Kim Il-sung (; , ; born Kim Song-ju, ; 15 April 1912 – 8 July 1994) was a North Korean politician and the founder of North Korea, which he ruled from the country's establishment in 1948 until his death in 1994. He held the posts of ...

was not awarded the title. He received one only on 7 September 1958, probably because he had consolidated his position in power following the 1956 attempted ''

coup d'état A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...

'' known as the

August Faction Incident The August Faction Incident ( ko, 8월 종파 사건), officially called the "Second Arduous March", was an attempted removal of Kim Il-sung from power by leading North Korean figures from the Soviet-Korean faction and the Yan'an faction, with s ...

Kim Jong-il Kim Jong-il (; ; ; born Yuri Irsenovich Kim;, 16 February 1941 – 17 December 2011) was a North Korean politician who was the second supreme leader of North Korea from 1994 to 2011. He led North Korea from the 1994 death of his father Kim ...

was never awarded one, leading observers to conclude that the prize did not have much political value at least at that time. In more recent times, it has been habitually awarded to mothers who have given birth to exceptionally many children.

Recipients

References

Works cited

*{{cite book, author=Lim Jae-Cheon, title=Kim Jong-il's Leadership of North Korea, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ag16AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA81, year=2008, publisher=Routledge, location=New York, isbn=978-1-134-01712-6, ref={{SfnRef, Lim, 2008 Orders, decorations, and medals of North Korea Hero (title)

Specifications

History

Recipients

See also

References

Works cited