Kim Jong-Il: Social Discourse

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In contrast to democratic regimes, those led by autocratic military dictators are typically more restrictive and the public has to obey orders delivered from above or they risk serious injury up to and including death. Today, North Korea remains under the military rule of a dynastic legacy that initially developed in the late 1940 and produced a social discourse suggesting political and economic instability, especially as the current leader, Kim Jong-un, has heavy involvement in a nuclear arms program that could spell potentially deadly consequences worldwide. However, Kim Jung-il, the focus of this paper, played an active role in the decision-making processes contained with a heavily militarized bureaucratic apparatus. Likewise, the combined …show more content…

While in power, Kim Jong-il commanded a military-first political order centered on ideological principles such as juche (“self-reliance”) and gangseongdaeguk (“a powerful and prosperous nation”) that produced a heavily propagandized social discourse (Woo 2014, 118). Until his death on December 17, 2011, Kim Jong-il acted on the belief that military rule would produce an egalitarian democratic order for the people of North Korea. However, the fact that North Korean people continue to endure extreme suffering under the current rule of Kim Jong-un provides a case and point for understanding the global consequences of military autocracy disguised as …show more content…

Under the rule of Kim Il-Sung, North Koreans worshiped a “Great Leader” who oversaw what political scientists across the board define as a “highly centralized brutal regime” (Manyin 2012, 1). Kim Jong-il, the “Dear Leader,” on the other hand, arguably produced remarkable economic stability through by forcing male citizens to join the national military. Yet, following in the footsteps of his father, Kim Jong-il entered into office largely through militaristic means. Kim Jong-il, nevertheless, had to prove that he was masculine enough to rule a country largely isolated from external global influences. Accordingly, Kim Jong-il served in his father’s previous position as General Secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea in 1997. One year later, the North Korean public voted for Kim Jong-il to serve as chairperson of the National Defense Commission. While Kim Jong-il served in his father’s previous position, leaked information about a rogue nuclear program that reached the office of former President George W. Bush emerged as North Korea was on the verge of achieving economic stability (Ishiyama 2014, 570). Consequently, Kim Jong-il reinstated isolationist policies that established North Korea as a “hermit kingdom” which is considered extremely challenging for political scientists to assess systematically (Ishiyama 2014, 570). Considering how Kim

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