1st Central Committee of the Workers' Party of North Korea
1st Central Committee | |
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![]() Emblem of the Workers' Party of North Korea | |
30 August 1946 – 30 March 1948 (1 year, 213 days) Overview | |
Type | Central Committee of the Workers' Party of North Korea |
Election | 1st Congress (1946) |
Leadership | |
Chairman | Kim Tu-bong |
Vice Chairmen | Kim Il Sung Chu Yong-ha Ho Ka-i |
Political Committee | 5 members |
Standing Committee | 13 members |
Members | |
Total | 43 |
The 1st Central Committee of the Workers' Party of North Korea (WPNK) (Korean: 1차 북조선로동당중앙위원회) was elected by the 1st Congress on 30 August 1946 through the merger of the Communist Party of North Korea and the New People's Party of Korea,[1] and remained in session until the election of the 2nd Central Committee on 30 March 1948.[2] In between party congresses and specially convened conferences the Central Committee is the highest decision-making institution in the party and North Korea.[3] The 1st Central Committee was not a permanent institution and delegated day-to-day work to elected central guidance bodies, such as the Political Committee, the Standing Committee and the Organisation Committee (membership not disclosed).[4][5] It convened meetings, known as Plenary Sessions of the 1st Central Committee, to discuss major policies.[6] A plenary session could be attended by non-members.[6] These meetings are known as Enlarged Plenary Sessions.[6] The party rules approved at the 1st Congress stipulated that the Central Committee needed to convene for a plenary session every third month.[7] In total, the 1st Central Committee convened for twelve plenary sessions, of which eight were convened in 1947.[8]
Forty-three members were elected to the 1st Central Committee, of which thirty-one were re-elected at the 2nd Congress.[9] Its members convened for the 1st Plenary Session on 31 August 1946 and elected the 1st Organisation Committee, 1st Standing Committee and the 1st Political Committee, and voted in Kim Tu-bong as the WPNK Chairman and Kim Il Sung and Chu Yong-ha were elected vice chairmen.[10] Despite their formal roles, real powers remained in Kim Il Sung's hands, and Kim Tu-bong played a more ceremonial role due to his unwillingness to partake in the day-to-day management of party affairs.[10] In the 1st Plenary Session's aftermath, the party began establishing state structures known as provisional people's committees throughout the country, and in 1947 national elections to the People's Assembly was organised.[11] At its first plenary session, the assembly elected a Presidium and designated Kim Tu-bong as its chairman and appointed the People's Committee (the government) and elected Kim Il Sung as its chairman.[12] Of twenty-two government members, sixteen were members of the WPNK.[12]
A feature of early North Korean politics was its factionalism.[13] Four loosely defined factions had taken shape by this time; Kim Il Sung's partisans, domestic communists, the Yanan group and the Soviet Koreans.[note 1][13] The partisans, comprising soldiers who had fought Japanese rule with Kim Il Sung, lacked both theoretical and organisational experience to take leading party offices.[13] They were therefore poorly represented in the 1st Central Committee.[13] The domestic faction, composed of indigenous communists and leading members of the Workers' Party of South Korea, were underrepresented due to their underground activities in South Korea.[13] Korean revolutionaries based in China during Japanese rule, known as the Yanan faction, had the most representation on the committee.[13] The Soviet Koreans, composed of Koreans who were either Soviet-born or lived there during Japanese rule, also had significant representation.[13] The conflict between these factions would intensify over the years, with Soviet Korean Yu Song-gol stating that he "as early as 1947 ... overheard how former partisans not only mentioned the [Yanans] and 'Soviets' with a great deal of animosity but also expressed the desire to be rid of them in due course."[15] These factional conflicts were rarely based on policy differences but rather on personal interests and the struggle for power.[16] Scholar Andrey Lankov notes that "at least [twenty-eight] members" of the 1st Central Committee "became victims of Kim Il-sung's purges. The real number was probably even higher since, in many cases, purges were not made public."[13]
A conflict between Kim Il Sung's partisan faction and Pak Hon-yong's domestic faction had been brewing since the North Korean Branch Bureau's formation in October 1945.[16] The leading domestic communist in the North, O Ki-sop, was accused of making "leftist and rightist errors" at the 3rd Enlarged Plenary Session.[17] Vice Chairman Chu Yong-ha further elaborated on the criticism and claimed that "O had attempted to apply labour union principles under capitalism to the socialist setting of North Korea, thereby deliberately inciting unthinking workers."[17] O Ki-sop defended himself by citing the works of Vladimir Lenin and claimed that "[if I am such] a pain in the neck then why not just pin the label of Trotskyite on [me]?"[18] While Pak Il-u supposedly rose in his defence and called for a committee to study the Lenin work in question, Kim Il Sung stated that no such committee was necessary due to O Ki-sop's past mistakes.[18] The criticism of O Ki-sop and the attacks on the indigenous North Korean communist movement that had remained active in Korea during Japanese colonialism were supported by the partisans, Soviet Koreans and the Yanans.[18]
Plenary sessions
[edit]Plenum | Date | Length | Agenda |
---|---|---|---|
1st Plenary Session | 31 August 1946 | 1 day |
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2nd Enlarged Plenary Session | 25 September 1946 | 1 day |
|
3rd Enlarged Plenary Session | 25 November 1946 | 1 day |
|
4th Enlarged Plenary Session | 2 February 1947 | 1 day | |
5th Plenary Session | Not made public | Not made public | Not made public |
6th Enlarged Plenary Session | 15 March 1947 | 1 day |
|
7th Enlarged Plenary Session | 16 June 1947 | 1 day |
|
8th Plenary Session | 1 July 1947 | 1 day |
|
9th Plenary Session | Not made public | Not made public | Not made public |
10th Plenary Session | 13 September 1947 | 1 day |
|
11th Plenary Session | 23 December 1947 | 1 day |
|
12th Plenary Session | 9 February 1948 | 1 day |
|
Members
[edit]Rank | Name | Korean | 2nd CC | Inner-composition | Background | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1st POC | 1st STC | |||||
1 | Kim Tu-bong | 김두봉 | Reelected | Member | Member | Yanan |
2 | Kim Il Sung | 김일성 | Reelected | Member | Member | Partisan |
3 | Chu Yong-ha | 주영하 | Reelected | Member | Member | Domestic |
4 | Choe Chang-ik | 최창익 | Reelected | Member | Member | Yanan |
5 | Ho Ka-i | 허가이 | Reelected | Member | Member | Soviet |
6 | Kim Chang-man | 김창만 | Not | — | Member | Yanan |
7 | Ho Jong-suk | 허정숙 | Reelected | — | — | Yanan |
8 | Kim Yong-tae | 김용태 | Not | — | — | Domestic |
9 | Pak Chang-sik | 박창식 | Reelected | — | Member | Soviet |
10 | Pak Chong-ae | 박정애 | Reelected | — | Member | Domestic |
11 | Kim Chaek | 김책 | Reelected | — | Member | Partisan |
12 | Mu Chuong | 무정 | Reelected | — | — | Yanan |
13 | Yi Chun-am | 이춘암 | Not | — | — | Yanan |
14 | An Kil | 안길 | Died | — | — | Partisan |
15 | Kim Ye-pil | 김예필 | Not | — | — | Yanan |
16 | Kim Il | 김일 | Reelected | — | Member | Partisan |
17 | Pak Hyo-sam | 박효삼 | Reelected | — | Member | Yanan |
18 | Chang Sun-myong | 장선명 | Reelected | — | — | Soviet |
19 | Kim Yol | 김열 | Reelected | — | — | Soviet |
20 | Kim Chae-uk | 김채욱 | Reelected | — | Member | Soviet |
21 | Yun Kong-hum | 윤공흠 | Not | — | — | Yan'an |
22 | Han Il-mu | 한일무 | Reelected | — | — | Soviet |
23 | Tae Song-su | 태성수 | Reelected | — | — | Soviet |
24 | Han Sol-ya | 한설야 | Reelected | — | — | Soviet |
25 | Choe Kyong-dok | 최경덕 | Reelected | — | — | Domestic |
26 | Kang Chin-gon | 강진곤 | Reelected | — | — | Domestic |
27 | Chang Si-u | 장시우 | Reelected | — | — | Domestic |
28 | Chong Tu-hyon | 정두현 | Reelected | — | — | Domestic |
29 | Yim To-jun | 임도준 | Not | — | — | — |
30 | Yim Hae | 임해 | Reelected | — | — | Partisan |
31 | O Ki-sop | 오기섭 | Reelected | — | — | Domestic |
32 | Kim Uk-chin | 김욱진 | Not | — | — | Domestic |
33 | Yi Sun-gun | 이순금 | Reelected | — | — | Domestic |
34 | Kim Kyo-yong | 김교용 | Reelected | — | — | Partisan |
35 | Myong Hi-jo | 명희조 | Not | — | — | Yanan |
36 | Han Pin | 한빈 | Not | — | — | Yanan |
37 | Yi Chong-ik | 이종익 | Reelected | — | — | — |
38 | Chon Song-hwa | 전송화 | Not | — | — | Soviet |
39 | Kim Wol-song | 김월송 | Not | — | — | Domestic |
40 | Chang Chong-sik | 장종식 | Not | — | — | Domestic |
41 | Kim Min-san | 김민산 | Reelected | — | — | — |
42 | Pak Hun-il | 박헌일 | Reelected | — | — | Yanan |
43 | Pak Il-u | 박일우 | Reelected | — | Member | Yanan |
Notes
[edit]- ^ While a hallmark of early North Korean politics is factionalism, scholars Scalapino and Lee note that "To place too much emphasis upon factional affiliation is probably a mistake, especially concerning the so-called Soviet and Yan'an factions. Defectors have often stated that the factional divisions were neither as clear-cut nor as meaningful in all cases as non-Communist sources alleged. Moreover, as a careful survey of this period reveals, increasingly the only meaningful faction was coming to be Kim Il-sung. The crucial factor was one's relationship to Kim, irrespective of background. Nevertheless, there were differences in background, educational experience, and even culture that stemmed from the heterogeneous nature of the Korean revolutionary movement. And this did constitute a political problem, as the Korean Communists readily admitted. While factionalism may not have been as important as some South Korean writers have indicated, and undoubtedly involved many more ambivalent and poorly defined factions, it remained a crucial issue in this period."[14]
References
[edit]Citations
[edit]- ^ Suh 1981, pp. 282–3.
- ^ Suh 1981, pp. 285–6.
- ^ Suh 1981, pp. 271 & 316–7.
- ^ Suh 1981, p. 271.
- ^ Scalapino & Lee 1972, p. 357.
- ^ a b c Suh 1981, p. 277.
- ^ Suh 1981, p. 276.
- ^ Suh 1981, pp. 276–7.
- ^ Suh 1981, p. 312.
- ^ a b Lankov 2002, p. 31.
- ^ Scalapino & Lee 1972, pp. 367–70.
- ^ a b Scalapino & Lee 1972, p. 371.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Lankov 2002, p. 82.
- ^ Scalapino & Lee 1972, pp. 479–80.
- ^ Lankov 2002, p. 88.
- ^ a b Lankov 2002, p. 89.
- ^ a b Scalapino & Lee 1972, p. 377.
- ^ a b c Scalapino & Lee 1972, p. 378.
- ^ Suh 1981, pp. 282–5.
- ^ Suh 1981, pp. 316–8. This reference informs about Central Committee membership, Politburo membership, Standing Committee membership, death of members and reelection to 2nd Central Committee.
- ^ Suh 1981, pp. 459–82. This reference informs about the composition of every North Korean government from 1948–80.
- ^ "III. 북조선임시인민위원회 조직과 역할" [ko:III. Organization and Role of the Provisional People's Committee of North Korea] (in Korean). National Institute of Korean History. Archived from the original on 8 February 2021. Retrieved 8 February 2021. This reference informs on the composition of the People's Committee, the provisional government of North Korea 1946–8, and those that held government offices within it.
- ^ Paik 1993, pp. 823–6. This reference informs the reader about the composition of the North Korean military leadership at the time of the 1st Central Committee.
- ^ Paik 1993, p. 179. This reference informs the reader on the background of each member of the 1st Central Committee.
- ^ Research Institute of East-West Problems 1983, pp. 565–6 & 576. This reference informs on the offices held by Pak Chong-ae and Pak Il-u during the term of the 1st Central Committee.
Bibliography
[edit]Books:
- Lankov, Andrey (2002). From Stalin to Kim Il Sung: The Formation of North Korea, 1945–1960. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0-8135-3117-5.
- Scalapino, Robert; Lee, Chong-sik (1972). Communism in Korea: The Movement. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-02080-1.
- Suh, Dae-sook (1981). Korean Communism 1945–1980: A Reference Guide to the Political System (1st ed.). University Press of Hawaii. ISBN 978-0-8248-0740-5.
Dissertations:
- Paik, Hak Soon (1993). North Korean State Formation, 1945–1950 (Thesis). University of Pennsylvania. OCLC 187455561. Archived from the original on 2022-03-28. Retrieved 2021-02-17.
Journals:
- Research Institute of East-West Problems (24 August 1983). "North Korea: Biographic Dictionary (Part II)" (PDF). Korean Affairs Report (304). Foreign Broadcast Information Service. OCLC 880847287. Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 October 2020.