Dear Comrade

Dear Comrade the Leader, Episode 232

-… … In such a situation where internal division is almost scheduled, as the general secretary said, until the right time comes, it is judged that it is a handshake to forcefully suppress these young children called Hakchongryun. Write a workaround.

– A detour? which?

A few months before the Hakchongryon erection meeting, which later political historians consider it to be ‘the incident that killed the seeds of North Korean democracy from the beginning’, Jeong Hwan and the executives were listening to the advice of Chief Kim at the countermeasure meeting.

After an analysis of the three major factions within the Hakchongryon, the labor circle, the movement circle, and the Juche system, and a briefing on the psychology of the middle-class people who are worried about supporting them emotionally even if they are afraid of the party and censorship agencies, Kim replied answered Jeonghwan’s question right away as if it was obvious.

– You are trying to change the frame due to economic problems. As the general secretary pointed out, now the majority of the people of this republic are no longer interested in ideology or ideological struggle. The important thing is to eat better and live well than now. The stock price, economic growth rate, unemployment rate, the party’s next economic policy beneficiary, Peony Holdings portfolio, etc. If you actively use this psychology, you are not going to bury this small dispute.

– Let me be more specific.

– Simple. The recent decline in economic growth rate, the decline in corporate competitiveness, the sandwich synthesizing Republic of Korea products sandwiched between Korean and Chinese products, and the diagnosis of economic downturn by international experts… … . The repertoire is infinite. All you need to do is to issue permission to establish a few more economic newspapers and broadcasts, and to instruct the state media, such as the Rodong Shimbun, to adjust the reporting of the slowing economic growth to those concerned.

-… … .

-After that, if you judge that the middle-class people have sufficiently attained ‘mental enlightenment’, you can pass on the cause of all these depressions to the Hakchongryon side. The labor community is sluggish in overseas investment due to the strong union, the movement promotes social unrest due to the protests, and the main system is… … Well, the miserable life of retired military personnel due to the recession. In this way, it is still time for the Republic to tighten its belt.

-Great analysis, but I’m taking that advice for half.

-yes?

When Jeonghwan shook his head, Director Kim asked with a rare frown on his face.

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Not only Director Kim, but also party officials who gently nodded their heads, saying it was okay to listen to his alternative suggestions, were ‘?’ He looked back at Jeonghwan with a smirk.

As if to represent their curiosity, Jang Seong-taek carefully asked Jeong-hwan.

– Stir… … Comrade general secretary. In my opinion, the alternative of Comrade Kim over there seems to be good enough. We also often read conservative newspapers such as the Goryeo Ilbo in South Korea, but when people think wrong, there is no better way than to rearrange their ideologies in that way… … .

– I’m not saying don’t use it. Unlike South Korea, what is good about holding the press? Isn’t this time? But if you use it often because it is good for medicine, you will not be able to use it when you really need it.

Jung-hwan thought so by comparing Jang Seong-taek, who still did not know, and Kim, who was slowly changing to an expression that he knew something.

Many in power are tempted to use the press too often and too easily as an easy way to get rid of static.

But the masses are never stupid, and there is a slow, but certainly collective learning effect.

In particular, as we have entered the multimedia society where information can be compared and contrasted from time to time if we only know how to use a computer because almost all records remain in the medium, the probability of the appearance of a resistance called ‘collective intelligence’ is even higher even 10 years later.

If you look at Korea during the military regime right now, the media have been pouring out attacks on the so-called ‘leftist forces’ day after day according to the reporting guidelines, but in the end, the cause of the collapse of the movement was not because of media control or dictatorship, but citizens who discovered their internal contradictions. It was more because of being neglected.

Currently, among the politicians in the Korean movement, including the Democratic Party, the only survivors were those who moderated their struggles to suggest a new alternative rather than to unconditionally destroy the old system. Values and orientation were living and breathing within the system.

Therefore, Jeong Hwan had no intention of directly burying or suppressing dissatisfied forces such as Hak Chongryon right now, until the minds of the majority of the people of North Korea, especially the middle class who support the system, left them to them.

-Then, are you saying, Comrade General Secretary, we should not take any action right now?

-Of course not. The party and the Ministry of Public Security are willing to negotiate on the demands of the Hakchon-ryon. However, the condition is that we must select and send leaders to negotiate with us.

-yes? But those words indirectly acknowledge those reactionaries as negotiators… … .

– That’s it. Oh, and make sure you do a press conference when you have an erection contest. I’m already curious to see how those little ones will change after they experience the dirtiness of the democratic elections for the first time in their lives. There is a big difference between the original ideal and reality. Shouldn’t we help people see that reality better?

– Really? If done wrong, it may only have the effect of promoting their existence to all people… … .

-Comrades, when you eat meat… … . Meat that comes out right after slaughter is tough and tasteless. The muscle tissue hasn’t been destroyed yet. It has to go through a process of aging, or controlled decay, to reduce the hardness of the muscles before it becomes the best state to eat.

-… … !!!

-Now, the meat called Hakchongryun will slowly start to rot inside, so you should cook it well over the fire of the press, just as Chief Kim said at that time. And when it’s well-baked, you just have to slice it up and eat it deliciously.

* * *

“Comrades! This is the 1st meeting of the founding of the Hakchongryun! Take it, read it, and see how this republic should change in the future… … .”

“Academy? Isn’t that an organization with executives who follow the Juche ideology? Although I’m interested in South Korean politics, I’m not familiar with such a place… … .”

“This is a fundraiser to commemorate the founding of the Hak Chongryon! That every penny you spend will become the foundation for changing this republic… … .”

“change? Are you talking about going back to the Juche idea? Pick it up! Young people these days never starve, so they don’t know how to appreciate the leadership of the party and general secretary! In the old days of generals, the comrades who would have mobilized young labor or went out are now preparing for overseas travel, not knowing who it is thanks to… … .”

“Ah, no, that one over there… … !!!”

And sooner or later, this waiting for Junghwan returned as a reward.

We have reached a point where internal divisions within the Hakchongryon are beginning to become visible.

In fact, the intense (?) rejection of these citizens was natural, as North Korean society had already progressed as the market economy systemization progressed.

In an era when Burger King opens at Pyongyang Station, Pirates of the Caribbean is screened in theaters, and middle school students are passionate about Japanese animation, the vast majority of people did not want to return to the communist economic system of the Kim Il-sung-Kim Jong-il era, symbolized by the Juche ideology.

And in the midst of such economic development, even in the case of the labor force, who can be said to be the biggest victim, in most cases, the Juche ideology took off the crane and shook their head.

In the old republic, where the Juche ideology was stagnant, if the party chose to mobilize effort, they had to just shut up and suffer from harsh labor without compensation.

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No matter how poor the working conditions are, at least the current republic has the freedom to earn money freely according to its ability.

– Juche idea? Athletes over there, did you get hit with peas in the goal as a group? Or do you know what kind of back to the future reality is because you’re a bunch of nerds who have been watching US movies since you were a kid? If there is a little more time, I’d say we’ll start the anti-Japanese partisan struggle again, but Ki-rae!

– Does this make sense? The Juche ideology in 2006, these sandals in the athletic world were determined to roll up the entire Hakchhongryon organization that they worked so hard to build! Do you even know that the common people are talking behind the scenes if that makes sense?

To summarize the reaction of half ridicule and half anger in the Hakchongryon labor community who witnessed the emergence of an unprecedented mutation of the Juche idea-democratic coalition leadership at the Hakchongryon erection contest, it was roughly as follows.

Even if they were secretly and sometimes openly ignored because they lived less and learned less than the members of the movement, at least they could not have known that the first leadership of the current Hakchongryon was purely political necessity.

Even within the movement, which is the main driving force right now, no matter how much the negotiating initiative should be taken, there was a strong objection that this was not the case.

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No, in fact, this skepticism was more severe than in the labor community in a sense, as it was the faction within the movement that risked the most for the faction, line, theory, and ideological purity within the Hak Chongryon.

-Comrade Chairman! Does this make sense? I couldn’t agree at all about overthrowing the dictatorship of the Workers’ Party of Korea, and now aligning ships with those who will kill the main system! In this case, I would rather agree with the working comrades over there!

-The same goes for our group leadership system promotion groupa! Did you know that the Juche ideology was an ideology that was ridiculed in China for being crazy by Koreans even in the days of Kim Il-sung? No matter how much we can learn from China now, I’ve never seen it like that again!

Eventually, these internal disputes quickly led to the visible form of organizational disruption.

Less than a week after the erection contest ended, almost all of the labor unions, who were full of dissatisfaction with the movement, and some of the pro-labor-oriented movement leaders left the Hak Chongryon and established a separate organization.

– The Korean Workers’ Federation! Our ‘Trade Union’, launched today, is exclusively for workers! It is an organization of workers’ struggle by workers! The Ministry of Public Security wants us to be recognized as official negotiators and not come to the negotiating table, not Hak Chongryon, tainted with the rotten Juche ideology!

As the situation came to pass, before even starting negotiations with the Ministry of Public Security, which was the primary goal of the establishment of the Hak Chongryon, we had no choice but to face difficulties.

Of course, the original Hakchon-ryon side protested that they were real, and the newly established organization, the Trade Union Federation, argued that it was an unrepresentative organization from which some radicals had departed, but the Ministry of Public Security had a good excuse for this.

-Comrades, this negotiation is temporarily suspended. If you want to negotiate with the Ministry of Public Security, let’s talk again after we’ve settled the family strife, no matter how we unite with the comrades in the Labor General Union over there.

– No, where is such a law? At first, you clearly promised that you would recognize our Hakchongryon as a negotiator!

-Ah, think about our position, comrades. There is almost no difference in the number of heads between you and Rochongmaeng, right? However, the requirements for negotiation are completely different from each other, so the Ministry of Public Security, don’t you know that we have no choice but to choose the one with the most representation possible and proceed with the negotiation, don’t you?

– Gee, Gee, but… … .

– You didn’t say that we should listen to both sides’ demands, didn’t we? I can’t accept such a coercion. As your comrades will know well, though, reform and opening up and the republic has changed a lot recently, and above all, the general secretary is a person who listens to all people’s complaints as much as possible, so something unprecedented in the history of the party was possible. You too have to change your mind.

-… … big ugh… … !!!!

In the end, as it turned out, the key to negotiating came to depend on who was the ‘orthodox’ organization between the Hakchon-ryon and the Labor Union.

In the first place, since both the Hakchon-ryon and the Labor Union are new organizations, in the end, ‘orthodox’ has no choice but to become ‘an organization with a presence enough to be recognized by the Ministry of Public Security’.

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Naturally, the Hakchongryun, which was originally a few movement groups, was the main axis, and the unions established by the labor and movement circles were no longer overwhelmingly superior in numbers, so both sides had no choice but to focus on securing their presence.

And the only way they could secure their presence, as the media to represent their position was only an unauthorized underground newspaper, they had no choice but to gather together and shout slogans.

– Let’s get together! Everyone in the sports world should come together and raise their voices to show our generation! Only then can the Ministry of Public Security and the general public listen to us and influence our thoughts!

– Our Rochongmaengmaeng must not lose! If you push it, it’s over! Transport workers, ports, construction sites, automobile industries, metal processing plants, and even the distribution industry, gather together! If we unite, we live; if we disperse, we die!

In the end, in this way, in the central city of Pyongyang, flags were fluttered, and protesters with bands clapped their heads banging loudly with kwaenggwa-ri and drums continued day by day.

Of course, united demonstrations in the sense of resistance to the party have been formidable before, but this time around, the slogan of all labor movement groups is becoming more radical, and blood is in the eyes of the participants, perhaps because the life-and-death issue of the fight for internal initiative is at stake. started to stand up.

And, starting with the salvation of the truck protests, the feelings that overlapped and overlapped in the past, and now, the two radical groups who have begun to perceive each other as ‘an obstacle to reform of the republic and the enemy of workers/democracy’ when confronted. The results were not too difficult to predict.

In the first place, if the two demonstrations were held far away from each other, whether it was intentional or not, the place where the Ministry of Public Security gave permission to hold the demonstration was so close to each other that violence inevitably occurred.

-Kill the Hakchongryun bastards! Let’s meet the parents and show the good taste to the stinky sandals!

– Destroy the Rochongmaeng reactionaries! Purge all the dogs of dictatorship that lick the backs of corrupt party cadres!

One day in early spring, when winter passed and the weather had cleared, the protests on both sides became particularly hot. On the streets of Pyongyang University, protesters from the Hakchon-ryon and the Labor Union clashed violently, resulting in 16 seriously injured and over 100 people injured.

If it had not been for the Ministry of Public Security and the People’s Security Ministry to intervene in the middle to separate the two sides, it was clear that there would have been deaths.

And after seeing this series of events from our company, Junghwan finally decided that the time had come.

“Now that the meat has matured enough, it’s time to put it on the fire.”

Two days after the violence on the university street, an editorial was published in the Rodong Sinmun.

The editorial’s impact was even more formidable, as on the front page of that day, a group of colliding protesters were taken to an ambulance, and public security agents and security guards running around carrying bloodstained workers (mostly intentionally).

– The blood-dried republic’s economic bloodline in protests of some violent and short-sighted extremists.

As a party official, I can’t help but feel very worried and ashamed when I think about what I saw in the eyes of foreign investors who recently visited Pyongyang, the proud capital of the revolution, carrying foreign bags.

This is because, indeed, violent and disorderly, backward country-type violence took place near an urban area frequented by foreign investors who were frequented by industrious party leadership-level executives running around to wear out and bending their backs like a sledgehammer.

Others say that they guarantee workers’ rights, correct the party’s errors and say that we can all work well together.

… … (syncopation)… … To those who have lost their sense of reality and demand advanced wages and working hours, the Republic of Korea is just trying to get out of a middle-income country and enter an advanced country.

It is only with the wisdom of the General Secretary, the greatest man of the Korean people, that we can escape the economic hardship caused by the economic sanctions and internal reactions of foreign mobsters who are jealous of the sovereignty of the Republic and the Korean people, and the ‘very few’ mistakes of the dear President Kim Il-sung. It is thanks to the bloody sweat and sweat of the party cadres who faithfully follow the leadership of the general secretary.

Of course, it is true that some working-class people have made certain sacrifices for the priority line of economic growth for nearly 20 years after the historic reform and opening, but it is still a time when the republic should tighten its belt a little more and strive for economic self-reliance. There is no doubt about it.

I will warn some extremists who are anxious because they cannot color the current university streets with anti-systemic agitation and let innocent people fall into their schemes.

The general secretary may tolerate the foolish violence and disorder of the comrades with his benevolent heart for the time being, but please bear in mind that the people’s eyes are watching all the actions of the comrades harming the economy of the republic.

We pray that they will soon realize their errors and mistakes and return to the faithful people of the Party and Republic.

– Director of the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the Workers’ Party of Korea and Chairman of the Central Inspection Committee, Hyun Young-suk