김정은 시기 조선인민군 정체성 변화에 관한 연구 －김정일 시기와의 비교를 중심으로－ = A Study on the Change of the Identity of the Korean People’s Army during the Kim Jong-un Period - Focusing on the Comparison with the Kim Jong-il Period -

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study set the main attributes of the Korean People’s Army as autonomous characteristics from outside and political from inside in analyzing the identity of the KPA. KPA takes the characteristics of the socialist military as its prototype and at the same time has characteristics of cohesion in the North Korean-style security strategy. The group identity theory was applied to the research subject to conceptualize the two identities that were used as variables. For example, the KPA pursues strategic autonomy to protect itself from the outside while adjusting its politicality to strengthen its presence inside. Two variables were defined based on observations during the period (1945-1969) in which the character of the North Korean military was formed. Based on the definition of the two variables, the patterns of changes from 1970 to the present were compared by Kim Jong-il and Kim Jong-un periods. In the case of autonomy, it became an indicator of why the North Korean military conducts so-called irrational behavior in the context of the actor. Politicality expressed differently for each leader made it possible to infer what military strategies the ruling power would use.