A Blatant Lie: The North Korean myth of Kim Il-sung liberating the country from Japan

Tertitskiy, Fyodor 한국학술연구원 2018 Korea Observer Vol.49 No.2

This article deals with one of the central historical constructs of North Korean official historiography: the myth of the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army. North Korea claims that this army, led by the first ruler of North Korea Kim Il-sung, defeated the Imperial Japan. This claim is duly reflected in North Korean official publications and is taught to its citizens. The author examines origins, evolution and implications of this historical myth.

북한 화교 교육 제도의 역사

TERTITSKIY FEDOR 고려대학교세종캠퍼스 공공정책연구소 2017 Journal of North Korea Studies Vol.3 No.1

This paper deals with education system for Chinese people in North Korea (Hwagyo). Chinese diaspora in the DPRK is unique, since they not only comprise the only ethic minority in the country, but also are the only group of North Korean permanent residents with foreign citizenship. The education system for the Hwagyo has been composed of the special “schools for the Chinese”. The author compares these schools with ordinary North Korean schools, schools in China and schools for ethnic minorities in the Soviet Union. The turning point for the “schools for the Chinese” was the year 1963. It was then when the North Korean authorities announced that North Korean school curriculum would be enforced in the “schools for the Chinese” and all lessons would be taught in Korean. The author shows how the Hwagyo reacted to such a reform. Currently there are 13 “schools for the Chinese” in North Korea. Given that their curriculum is almost identical to that of North Korean schools and that the level of the education its students receive is substandard, the author concludes that they exist solely as a symbol of “Friendship between North Korea and China”, which is officially declared by both countries.

Kim Jong-il’s Succession Campaign of the 1970s: A Comparison of Propaganda Tracks

Tertitskiy, Fyodor 계명대학교 한국학연구원 2022 Acta Koreana Vol.25 No.1

This article offers a fresh look into one of the key events of North Korean history, the ideological campaign of the 1970s which promoted Kim Jong-il (Kim Chŏngil 金正日) as the successor to his father. Previous research on the subject has generally been limited to analyzing open sources. I, however, obtained a copy of an electronic archive of the restricted-access DPRK newspaper Chosŏn inmin’gun 조선인민군. This discovery, along with North Korea's declassification of some information about Kim Jong-il's campaign, makes it possible to compare how the campaign was presented in open and restricted sources.

Star and Stripes: History of the North Korean Flag and its Place in State Ideology

( Fyodor Tertitskiy ) 대한민국역사박물관 2016 Journal of Contemporary Korean Studies Vol.3 No.1

This article deals with the national flag of North Korea. The author explains in detail the history behind the creation of the North Korean flag, debunking the official DPRK version that claims Kim Il-sung as responsible for its creation. Existing evidence shows that the flag was in actuality designed in the Soviet Union instead. The author then proceeds to describe how this flag was established as the DPRK`s state flag in 1948 and why this decision became a cause for some unrest and even open opposition among the contemporary North Korean political elite. Furthermore, the article describes the process of distortion of the flag`s history in North Korea. From the late 1950s, any notions that North Korea may have had for a different flag were systematically erased from DPRK books and monuments, and the creation of the flag retroactively attributed to Kim Il-sung. Finally, the author presents his findings on the place of the flag in DPRK ideology. Following the dramatic increase in the intensity of the personality cult in 1967, rhetoric about loyalty to the country was to a large extent substituted with rhetoric about loyalty to the Leader, and thus the ideological role of the flag-as the symbol of the state-was reduced, giving way to symbols representing the Kim dynasty.

A STUDY OF SOVIET INFLUENCE ON THE FORMATION OF THE NORTH KOREAN ARMY

FYODOR TERTITSKIY 계명대학교 한국학연구원 2017 Acta Koreana Vol.20 No.1

This article examines the influence of Soviet Army experience and tradition on the formation of the army of North Korea in the late 1940s–1950s. As North Korea itself was born out of the Soviet occupation zone, the USSR exercised a strong influence and the Korean People’s Army was largely shaped in the Soviet image. The author analyses North Korean military regulations, unit structure, ranks, the political officer system and Party organisations in the army. The article’s findings are that the KPA was moulded according to the Soviet model, borrowing elements of its structure from different eras of Soviet history, including those that predated the creation of the North Korean state. Although some elements of its Soviet origin disappeared over time, it would not be an exaggeration to say the North Korean army is still a Soviet-type one.

THE ASCENSION OF THE ORDINARY MAN : HOW THE PERSONALITY CULT OF KIM IL-SUNG WAS CONSTRUCTED (1945-1974)

FYODOR TERTITSKIY 계명대학교 한국학연구원 2015 Acta Koreana Vol.18 No.1

김정일 승계 캠페인 연구

이휘성(Fyodor Tertitskiy) 북한학회 2020 북한학보 Vol.45 No.1

이 논문에서는 북한의 두 번째 지도자인 김정일의 승계 캠페인을 재검토하려고 한다. 필자는 기존 연구와 새롭게 발견한 사료를 기반으로 김정일의 권력 승계 과정에 따른 사상 캠페인의 진화를 분석하였다. 필자는 이 캠페인이 1971년경에 시작하였다는 증거 사료를 발견했다. 이 사료를 보면 김일성이 김정일을 후계자로 선택한 것은, 마오쩌둥의 후계자로 추대되었던 린뱌오의 쿠데타 시도 및 사망 사건과 관계가 있는 것으로 추정된다. 김정일 찬양 캠페인은 1971~74년 소규모로 진행되었고, 1974년 2월 김정일이 후계자로 추대된 후 본격적으로 진행되었다. 그러나 1977년 5월경부터 김정일은 정치적 위기를 겪은 것으로 보이며, 김정일 관련 행사와 선전 규모는 눈에 띄게 줄어들었다. 약 2년 동안 벌어진 것으로 보이는 이 위기가 지나간 후에 캠페인은 다시 원래 수준으로 돌아왔다. 1980년 10월 조선로동당 제6차 대회 개막 직전, 주스위스 북한 대사가 김정일이 김일성의 후계자라는 것을 대외에 공포했고, 김정일의 승계 캠페인은 완성되었다. This article deals with one of the most important topics in North Korean history: the succession campaign of Kim Jong-il, the second ruler of North Korea. As the newly discovered sources demonstrate, this campaign began around 1971, with the rise of Kim Jong-il as successor possibly being linked to events surrounding the death of Lin Biao, who had been chosen to succeed Mao Zedong. The campaign hailing Kim Jong-il was low-profile until he was formally endorsed as a successor in 1974. Following this decision, it became far more prominent. However, around middle 1977, Kim Jong-il faced a crisis which led to the scale of the campaign being significantly diminished for two years. After it passed, the campaign resumed once again at full speed. Finally, immediately before the Sixth Congress of the Party in October 1980, the North Korean Ambassador to Switzerland announced to the outside world that Kim Jong-il had been chosen as successor thus completing the campaign.

The Personal File of Jin Richeng (Kim Il-sung): New Information on the Early Years of the First Ruler of North Korea

Konstantin Tertitski,Fyodor Tertitskiy 계명대학교 한국학연구원 2019 Acta Koreana Vol.22 No.1

This article studies an important period 1929–1931 in the life of Kim Il-sung (C. Jin Richeng), the first leader of North Korea, through an analysis of his previously unknown personal file written by officials of the Communist International in the Soviet Union in 1941 after Kim had escaped to the USSR from Manchukuo. It is possibly the first biography of Kim Il-sung ever written. The document sheds new light on some aspects of Kim’s early life, including his arrest in 1929, his service in the Chinese People’s National Salvation Army, and the events surrounding his admission into the Chinese Communist Party. On the basis of this file and other documents of the era, such as diaries of Kim’s superior Zhou Baozhong and Comintern chief Dimitrov, this paper presents an account of Kim Il-sung’s life and career in the late 1920s – early 1930s and reveals the distortions of the official North Korean biography of Kim Il-sung in service to the ideological goals of the state.