Park Chung Hee and Kim Il Sung are perhaps the two most influential Koreans of the 20th century. They were leaders of two opposing sides on a divided Korean peninsula. Park was the leader of South Korea, known as The Republic of Korea (ROK), and Kim was the leader of North Korea, known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). Since the Korean War, their countries have been in a stalemate characterized by a switch between periods of polarizing tension and times of cooperation and possible reunification. Despite being from rival states, these leaders actually have many similarities. In this essay, I will establish that these similarities exist in their biographical stories, cult personalities and nationalist policies imposed by their
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The family of Kim Il Sung still controls North Korea. His son Kim Jong-il was the leader after he died, and his grandson Kim Jong-un is the current leader of North Korea. They are a sort of royal family of rule passing from father to son. Rule isn’t passed from father to eldest son, as Kim Jong-il took rule over his older brother. The extended family of the Kims, through marriage or blood, are involved in politics or the military (Smith 2015). Like the Kim family, the Park family is a family of politicians. They are not a dynasty, as there have been other South Korean leaders since Park. One of Park Chung Hee’s children, Park Geun-hye was president of South Korea from 2011 until her impeachment in March 2017. She was the leader of her political party and a member of the Korean National Assembly (Carriere 2017). Despite both of these families being political, the careers of the Parks ended badly. The Kims are still going on, or they are revered by their peoples after they died in office. They are similar in the fact that they are political families, but the Kim’s are the ones still in power and in a …show more content…
Independance, or rather the self reliance of the country and the ability of the nation to defend itself. Nationalism as its own ideology is subordinate, or a smaller part of juche. It has a nation-first principle that places individual freedoms below that of the state. In this ideology, an individual can be considered as a person if they go along with societal principles and allow themselves to be remodeled by it (Kwon 2016). Kim Il-sung’s policies of Juche created a social structure where members of the party had more power and privilege over the rest of society. Those more loyal to the leader, the more they had more power. That being said, traditional social problems still existed. Differences such as occupation and region still remained as breakages in society. Kim Il-Sung was not able to create complete control and subordination of society (Smith 2015). Loyalty to the leader was the most important factor in gaining status and prestige in North Korean Society. His policies did however, ensure that nationalism in the DPRK was institutionalized into everyday
The family of Kim Il Sung still controls North Korea. His son Kim Jong-il was the leader after he died, and his grandson Kim Jong-un is the current leader of North Korea. They are a sort of royal family of rule passing from father to son. Rule isn’t passed from father to eldest son, as Kim Jong-il took rule over his older brother. The extended family of the Kims, through marriage or blood, are involved in politics or the military (Smith 2015). Like the Kim family, the Park family is a family of politicians. They are not a dynasty, as there have been other South Korean leaders since Park. One of Park Chung Hee’s children, Park Geun-hye was president of South Korea from 2011 until her impeachment in March 2017. She was the leader of her political party and a member of the Korean National Assembly (Carriere 2017). Despite both of these families being political, the careers of the Parks ended badly. The Kims are still going on, or they are revered by their peoples after they died in office. They are similar in the fact that they are political families, but the Kim’s are the ones still in power and in a …show more content…
Independance, or rather the self reliance of the country and the ability of the nation to defend itself. Nationalism as its own ideology is subordinate, or a smaller part of juche. It has a nation-first principle that places individual freedoms below that of the state. In this ideology, an individual can be considered as a person if they go along with societal principles and allow themselves to be remodeled by it (Kwon 2016). Kim Il-sung’s policies of Juche created a social structure where members of the party had more power and privilege over the rest of society. Those more loyal to the leader, the more they had more power. That being said, traditional social problems still existed. Differences such as occupation and region still remained as breakages in society. Kim Il-Sung was not able to create complete control and subordination of society (Smith 2015). Loyalty to the leader was the most important factor in gaining status and prestige in North Korean Society. His policies did however, ensure that nationalism in the DPRK was institutionalized into everyday