The Union of Agricultural Workers of Korea (UAWK; or Korean Federation of Agricultural Workers) is a

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

and

mass organization A mass movement denotes a political party or movement which is supported by large segments of a population. Political movements that typically advocate the creation of a mass movement include the ideologies of communism, fascism, and liberalism. Bo ...

for

agricultural Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating Plant, plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of Sedentism, sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of Domestication, domesticated species created food ...

workers in

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 one of the most important mass organizations in the country. UAWK was founded in 1946 and reformed in 1965 along the lines of North Korean leader

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 ...

's landmark ''

Theses on the Socialist Rural Question in Our Country ''Theses on the Socialist Rural Question in Our Country'', also known as the ''Rural Theses'' or ''Theses on the Socialist Agrarian Question in Our Country'', is a 1964 treatise by Kim Il-sung, the first leader of North Korea. The work lays out ...

''. The organization is a member of the

popular front A popular front is "any coalition of working-class and middle-class parties", including liberal and social democratic ones, "united for the defense of democratic forms" against "a presumed Fascist assault". More generally, it is "a coalition ...

Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland The Democratic Front for the Reunification of Korea, also known as the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland (DFRF) or the Fatherland Front, is a North Korean popular front formed on 22 July 1946 and led by the Workers' Part ...

and is directly controlled by

the Central Committee ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

of the ruling

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 ...

. UAWK educates its 1.6 million members – farmers as well as office workers and manual laborers in the farming sector – on agricultural issues. Additionally, the organization educates on ideological matters, including ''

Juche ''Juche'' ( ; ), officially the ''Juche'' idea (), is the state ideology of North Korea and the official ideology of the Workers' Party of Korea. North Korean sources attribute its conceptualization to Kim Il-sung, the country's founder and ...

''. The current chairman is Han Jong-hyok.

History

The Union was founded as the Farmers' Union of North Korea(북조선농민동맹) on 31 January 1946. In February 1951, it was combined with its South Korean equivalent, the General Federation of Farmers' Unions(농민조합총연맹), to form the Farmers' Union of Korea(조선농민동맹). The organization adopted its current name on 25 March 1965. The reason behind the name change was a decision to renew the organization according to the guidelines set in

's 1964 landmark work on agricultural policy, ''

''.

Organization

The organization is headquartered in the capital

Pyongyang Pyongyang (, , ) is the capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is known as the "Capital of the Revolution". Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. According to the 2008 populatio ...

. It is directly controlled by

of the ruling

. UAWK is a member of the

. UAWK publishes the journal ''Agricultural Working People of Korea'' in Korean and English. The current chairman of UAWK is Han Jong-hyok. His predecessors were

Kim Chang-yop Kim or KIM may refer to: Names * Kim (given name) * Kim (surname) ** Kim (Korean surname) *** Kim family (disambiguation), several dynasties **** Kim family (North Korea), the rulers of North Korea since Kim Il-sung in 1948 ** Kim, Vietnamese fo ...

and Ri Myong-kil, who in turn was preceded by

Seong San-sop Seong, also spelled Song or Sung, is an uncommon Korean family name, a single-syllable Korean given name, as well as a common element in two-syllable Korean given names. The meaning differs based on the hanja used to write it. Family name The fa ...

from April 1998. Seong was preceded by

Choe Seong-suk Choi is a Korean family surname. As of the South Korean census of 2015, there were around 2.3 million people by this name in South Korea or roughly 4.7% of the population. In English-speaking countries, it is most often anglicized ''Choi'', an ...

, who became chairman in 1993.

Membership

The Union's current membership of 1.6 million is down from three million in the 1980s and 2.6 million in the 1970s. North Korean citizens are required to be members of at least one party-affiliated mass organization, one of which is the UAWK. Membership in the UWAK is open to farmers on collective farms between the ages of 31 and 65 (60 for women), as well as office workers, and manual laborers in the agricultural sector. In addition to educating about agricultural matters, the organization provides education on ideology, including the ''

'' idea. The role of the organization can be characterized as "indoctrinating and controlling ... rather than epresentingworkers."

References

Works cited

* * *

History

Organization

Membership

See also

References

Works cited

Further reading