KOREA

Reported by:
Maria Cristina M .C. Balodong
BPA 4-C
KOREA

> is a region in East Asia; since 1948 it has been divided

between two distinct sovereign states: NORTH KOREA and
SOUTH KOREA.

> located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by China

to the Northwest, Russia to the Northeast and Japan to the
East by the Korea Strait and the Sea of Japan (East Sea).

> “KOREA” is the modern spelling of “COREA”, a name

attested in English as early as 1614.

> Korean Alphabet was created by Sejong the Great in the 15th
century.
 COMPARISON OF THE TWO COUNTRIES OF KOREA
Indicator North Korea South Korea
Capital Pyongyang Seoul
Official languages Korean
Official scripts Chosŏn'gŭl Hangul
Government Juche single-party state Representative democracy
Formal declaration 9 September 1948 15 August 1948
Area 120,540 km2 100,210 km2
Population (2014/2013 est.) 24,851,627 50,219,669
GDP total (2011/2014 est.) $40 billion $1.755 trillion
GDP/capita (2011/2014 est.) $1,800 $34,777

Currency Korean People's won (sign: ₩, ISO: Korean Republic won (₩, KRW)

KPW)
Calling code +850 +82
Internet TLD .kp .kr
Drives on the right
Active military personnel 1,106,000 639,000
Military expenditure (2010/2012) $10 billion $30 billion
EXECUTIVE BRANCH
THE PRESIDENT
 Elected by nationwide, equal, direct and secret ballot, stands
at the apex of the executive branch.
 Serves a single 5-year term, with no additional terms being
allowed.
 In the event of Presidential disability or death, the Prime
Ministers or members of the State Council will temporarily
serve as the President as determined by law.
 5 Major Roles:
1. Head of State, symbolizing and representing the entire
nation both in the governmental system and in foreign
relations. He has the duty to safeguard the independence,
territorial integrity and continuity of the state and to uphold
the Constitution.
2. Chief Administrator and thus enforces the laws passed by
the Legislature while issuing orders and decrees for the
enforcement of laws. Has full power to direct the State
Council. He is authorized to appoint public officials,
including the Prime Minister and heads of Executive
Agencies.
3. Commander-in-chief of the armed forces. He has extensive
authority over military policy, including the power to
declare war.
4. Chief Diplomat and foreign policy maker. He accredits or
dispatches diplomatic envoys, and signs treaties with
foreign nations.
5. Chief Policy maker and key law maker. He may propose
legislative bills to the National Assembly or express his
views to the legislature in person or in writing.
Cabinet
 Made up of 15 to 30 members and presided over by the
President.
 Members of the Cabinet are appointed by the President
upon the recommendation of the PM.
 Have the right to lead and supervise their admnistrative
ministries, deliberate state major affairs, act on behalf of
the President and appear at the National Assembly.
Prime Minister
 Appointed by the President and approved by the National
Assembly.
 As the principal executive assistant to the President, the PM
supervises the administrative ministries under the direction
of the President.
 Has the power to deliberate major national policies and to
attend the meetings of the National Assembly.
The Korean Civil Service System

> the Korean civil service is based on a grade system which

reflects a strong tradition of seniority.

> position assignments are made strictly according to grade,

and remuneration is based on grade and length of service.

> the civil service is also characteristically a closed system;

recruitment from outside is allowed only at certain grade
levels, with age limitations imposed in favor of the young.
> Vacant positions, except at the lowest grade level,
are filled mostly by promotions based on seniority.

> Korean civil servants, under provisions of the Civil

Service Law, are servants of the people, they are
required to be kind, fair and sincere.

> as of May 31, 1998, the Korean Civil Service was

comprised of 933,384 individuals employed by both
central and local governments in various job areas and
grade levels.
> of this number 915,750 work for the executive
branch (559,081 at the central government level,
including 286,000 teachers, 91,500 police force and
fire fighters and 356,669 civil servants working at the
local level).

> an additional 3,346 persons work for the legislature

(12,078 for the judiciary and 2,210 for the
Constitutional Court and the National Election
Commission).

> the ratio of civil servants to the nation’s population

is roughly 1 to 49.
> the May 31, 1998 figure for the civil service size
reflects an increase of 635 over one year period.

> the civil service sector has grown rapidly.

> Civil servants numbered 253,186 in 1962; 417,348 in

1970; 596,431 in 1980; 818,121 in 1990 and reached a
peak of 936,689 in February 1998, when the
government of President Kim Dae-jung was
inaugurated.

> the new administration soon began taking measures

to reduce its size.
> the downsizing efforts of the current government resulted in a
decrease of 3,305 employees for the three-month period
between February 1998 and May 1998.

> civil servants are broadly classified into two groups: “CAREER”
civil servants and “SPECIAL CAREER or NON-CAREER” civil
servants.

> the CAREER CIVIL SERVANTS constitute an absolute majority,

as they include all the groups categorized as general services
personnel (judges, prosecutors, diplomatic, police, fire-fighting,
educational and military personnel, civilian employees in the
military, employees of the national intelligence service, and
other personnel classified as special services by other laws); and
technical services personnel (those in various technical and
clerical services).
> the SPECIAL CAREER CIVIL SERVANTS include:
politically determined personnel (elected officials of all kinds,
officials requiring consent by the National Assembly before
appointment, and high ranking political appointees usually at
the vice-ministerial level or above); specially designated
services personnel (other political appointees and those
positions designated as requiring special talents or skills);
contract-based personnel (experts employed through fixed-
period contracts); and manual workers.

> classification of career civil servants, other than by area of

service as indicated above, is based on grades.
> there are nine grades, with grade 1 being the highest
(assistant minister level) and 9 the lowest.

> this grade system applies fully to the engineering and

administrative job groups.

> other job groups, although not so well suited for this grade
system, widely use so-called “grade-equivalency” to define
one’s status relative to those in the administrative job group.

> qualification of every government position is specified

strictly in terms of the title.

> Grade promotions are made either by competitive

examination or by reviews among candidates.
> to be a candidate for promotion, one should first
meet the minimum grade-specific length-of-service
requirements, and then climb up through the list of
candidates until he/she reaches the top range.
KOREAN SOCIAL CLASSES
KOREAN SOCIAL CLASSES
KOREAN SOCIAL CLASSES
KOREAN SOCIAL CLASSES
KOREAN ECONOMIC HISTORY

3 distinct periods:
1.The period of Malthusian stagnation up to 1910,
when Japan annexed Korea;
2.The colonial period from 1910-1945, when the
country embarked upon modern economic growth;
and
3.The post colonial decades, when living standards
improved rapidly in South Korea, while North Korea
returned to the world of disease and starvation.
KOREAN SOCIO-ECONOMIC SYSTEM
The State and Social Benefits
Apart from gains by labor, the people enjoy
tremendous additional benefits from the state thanks
to socialist policies enforced by the Party and the
government.

1. Food Supply Benefit

~ the state supplies food to workers, office
employees and even newly-born babies. The state
purchases rice at the price of 189 won per kg and
corn at 96 won per kg from cooperative farms and
sells rice at 46 won and corn-processed noodles at 33
won.
2. Benefits from Providing Houses
~ the state is involved in building and allotting
dwelling houses free of charge, and the people are
ignorant of dwelling tax. It is the only country that
builds and allots dwelling houses for working people
and bears most of the utility costs. The state builds
rural dwelling houses for nothing and never receives
rentals from the cooperative farmers.

3. Benefits from free Medical Care

~ the country enforced free medical care for
workers, office workers and their dependents since
January Juche 36 (1947).
Universsal free medical care was enforced since
January, Juche 42 (1953) and the complete, universal
free medical care since February, Juche 49 (1960).
Thus, the sate bears totally the expenses of medical
check-ups and treatment, bed, and board hospitals,
medicines, and even travel costs to and from
sanatoria.

3. Benefits from free Education

~ the country enforced free education at all
educational institutes since Juche 48 (1959). Today
the country offers the complete 11-year compulsory
free education which enables from
Kindergarteners to university students to study free
of charge. Even college and university students are
learning supported by scholarships from the state.

3. Benefits from Tax Exemption

~ thanks to the popular policies pursued by the
Party and the government of the Republic, the
country eliminated the devilish tax regime enforced
by the Japanese imperialists, landlords and
capitalists and gradually reduced some taxes which
led to abolishing the agricultural tax in kind in Juche
55 (1966) and a small amount of income taxes
Paid by workers and office workers in April Juche 63
(1974), thus completely eliminating the tax regime, a
legacy of the old society.

3. Benefits from Social Insurance and Social Security

System
~ female workers take 5 months of maternity
leave, and in case of having more than 3 children,
receive salaries equivalent to 8 hours of work even
though they work for 0 hours. When workers become
physically impaired due to diseases, wounds and
other factors, they are provided with relevant
subsidies, treatment and living conditions from
the state. Old pensioners (men over 60, women over
55) receive pensions and old people and orphans
devoid of care receive living conditions.

Political System

The DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of

Korea) is an independent socialist state representing
the interests of all the Korean people.
The Republic is the Juche-oriented socialist state
which embodies the idea and leadership of Comrade
Kim II Sung, the
Founder of the Republic and the Father of Socialist
Korea.

His idea and the achievements made under his

leadership are the basic guarantee for the Republic’s
prosperity.

The socialist system of the Republic is a people-

centered social system in which the masses of the
working people are the masters of everything and
everything in society serves them.
System of State Organs

1. Power Organs

Consist mainly of the central power organ and local

power organ.

The central power organ is the Supreme People’s

Assembly and the SPA standing committee during its
recession.

Local power organ is the people’s assembly at all

levels.
2. National Defence Commission

Is the supreme military guidance commission in the

national sovereign organ and the general national
defence administrative organ.

It is the standing supreme power organ of the

national defence sector, and at the same time, this
becomes the backbone organ in the state
administrative organ as an administrative organ.
3. Administration Organs

 this consists of central administration and local

administration organs.

Central administrative organ is the cabinet and the local

administration organs are the local people’s committee at all
levels.

The cabinet is the government of the Republic.

As the administrative execution body and the general state

management body of a supreme organ, the cabinet carries out
the laws, decrees, decisions, and orders and has been seizing in
a unified way all the works in the state management &
guidance.
4. Prosecutorial and Justice System

 the prosecutorial body is a state organ supervises the

observance and execution of the socialist law.

This system has central prosecutorial office, provincial (or

the city under the direct jurisdiction), city ( or district),
county prosecutorial offices and special prosecutorial offices.

The central prosecutorial office controls over all the work in

a unified way.

The justice body is a state organ exercising the socialist

judicial power.
Juche Ideology

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is guided in its

activities by the Juche idea authored by President Kim II
Sung.

The Juche idea means, in a nutshell, that the masters of the

revolution and construction are the masses of the people and
that they are also the movie force of the revolution and
construction.

The Juche idea is based on the philosophical principle that

man is the master of everything and decides everything.
Juche Ideology

It is the man-centered world outlook and also a political

philosophy to materialize the independence of the popular
masses, namely, a philosophy which elucidates the theorotical
basis of politics that leads the development of society along the
right path.

Songun Politics

> is rooted in the military-priority ideology that embodies the

Juche idea. President Kim II Sung is a founder of Songun
ideology and an outstanding leader of the Songun revolution.
He inherited a revolutionary heritage of two pistols from his
father and made a determination to restore the lost country
with an armed struggle.

The formation of the “Down-with-Imperialism Union” by

the President in October Juche 15 (1926) was a proclamation
of do-or-die battle to crush the Japanese imperialists.
Political Parties and Public Organizations

The Worker’s Party of Korea

Was founded on October 10, Juche 34 (1945).

Is a revolutionary party of a Juche type which was founded

by great Comrade Kim II Sung and is now led by Comrade
Kim Jong II.

The party inherits the revolutionary traditions established

in the period of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle and
is guided solely by the Juche idea in its activities.
Its immediate objective is to attain the complete victory of
socialism in the Northern half of Korea and carry out the
tasks of national liberation, people’s democratic revolution
throughout the country.

Its ultimate goal is to model the whole society on the Juche

idea and build a communist society.

The Korean Social Democratic Party

> Was formed on November 3, Juche 34 (1945) by medium

and small entrepreneurs, merchants, handicraftsmen, petit-
bourgeoisie, some peasants, and Christians, out of the masses
antiimperialist, anti-feudal aspirations and demands to
eliminate the
aftermath of Japanese imperialist colonial rule and build a
new democratic society.

Its guiding idea is national social democracy befitting

Korea’s historical conditions and national characteristics and
its basic political motto is independence, sovereignty,
democracy, peace and the defence of human rights.