2nd Congress of the Workers' Party of North Korea

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2nd Congress of the Workers' Party of North Korea
2nd Central Auditing Commission

The 2nd Congress of the Workers' Party of North Korea(

2nd Central Committee, elected by the congress, reelected Kim Tu-bong as WPNK Chairman, and Kim Il Sung and Chu Yong-ha
as deputy chairmen.

Congress

1st session (27 March)

The 1st session was presided over by

Ho Chong-suk).[4] In total 5,287 letters and 5,515 telegrams were received by the congress to congratulate its convening.[2]

2nd–3rd sessions (28–29 March)

The 2nd session began with

Hyon Chun-hyok's successor as informal head of the domestic faction, received most of the blame, and was forced to defend himself at the congress.[5] Others who were accused of factionalism were Chong Tal-hyon, Choe Yong-dal, Yi Sun-gun, Chang Si-u and Chang Sun-myong.[5] The majority of those who stood accused were high-standing officials, for instance Chong Yong-dal had served as head of the Justice Bureau, Yi Sun-gun as head of the Agriculture and Forestry Bureau and Chang Si-u as head of the Commerce Bureau for instance.[2]

After Kim Il Sung's opening criticism, several Soviet-Koreans continued the attack, with

Yanan faction remained neutral.[7]

Because of the pressure asserted on him, O Ki-sop went on to "admit" his mistakes to the congress.

trade unionism.[7] O Ki-sop criticized Kim Yo's criticism of him, claiming they were factual inaccurate.[7] Chang Si-u and Yi Sun-gun apologized to the congress, similar to O Ki-sop, but in contrast to him they accepted the criticism, and pledged their loyalty to the Kim Il Sung's leadership.[7] Choe Yong-dal admitted to mistakes, but claimed that the accusation that he had been participating in factionalism and creating independent power centres from the central party leadership was utterly false.[8] With the accused having apologies the delegates took a 10-minute break.[9] When the meeting resumed, Ho Ka-i (a Soviet Korean) delivered a "stunning speech" in which he harshly criticized all the apologies (focusing most of his speech on O Ki-sop's and Choe Yong-dal's apologies), claiming they were defending their own personal dignity at the expense of the party's image.[9] Cho Yong-ha, a domestic communist, defended O Ki-sop, claiming his stance on the trade unions was a phenomenon of the transitional stage in which North Korean society was undergoing.[9] In the second round of apologies, Chong Tal-hyon accepted all the accusations without "defense or rebuttal".[9] However, Chang Sun-myong went even further, accepting all the accusations and admitting for mistakes he had been accused of.[9]

Kim Il Sung delivered his concluding remarks when the discussions had ended.[10] He criticized by name O Ki-sop, Choe Yong-dal and Chong Tal-hyon, claiming that there "was no substance to the self-criticisms" they delivered.[10] O Ki-sop was the centre of much of the criticism, with Kim Il Sung charging that O Ki-sop's idea of trade unionism had been plagiarized from the works of Vladimir Lenin focusing on the New Economic Policy.[10] He went on to criticize his character, claiming he "was pretentious and arrogant", and had opposed the works of the North Korean Bureau for no other reason then that he was not elected its chairman.[11] Kim Il Sung asserted that Choe Tal-hyon's opposition of the North Korean Bureau was also of a personal character, and criticized Choe Yong-dal of courting "former Japanese collaborators [those who had been imprisoned by the Japanese during the occupation]".[11] He ended his speech by claiming that playing the workers' parties of North and South Korea against each other were a dangerous game, since the two parties would eventually become one.[11]

4th session (30 March)

In his first confrontation with his rivals, Kim Il Sung managed to get the Soviet-Koreans to attack the domestic faction.

Yanan faction did not speak out during the congress; with leading figures such as Kim Tu-bong and Choe Chang-ik remaining silent.[11] O Ki-sop tried to get them involved, accusing Mu Chong of "individual heroism", but Mu Chong did not reply and Kim Il Sung condemned O Ki-sop for dragging Mu Chong into a discussion about himself.[11] However, the fact is that it wasn't much the domestic faction could do to weaken Kim Il Sung's authority since he was supported by the Soviets, making him to a certain extent unremovable.[11] At this congress, Kim Il Sung and his allies purged all those WPNK members who had collaborated with the Japanese in one way or another during the occupation—the majority of those who had belonged to the domestic faction since the other factions were headquartered abroad during the occupation.[12]

On Ho Ka-i's suggestion, an 11-member committee (composed of five members of the

2nd Central Committee.[12] With the work done, Kim Il Sung presented 63 nominees for full membership, and 20 for candidate membership.[12] According to Kim Il Sung, the committee chose nominees based on four grounds; if they were outstanding cadres, what position in the government, socialist military or party apparatuses they held, if they were new cadres and at last, former reprimanded communists who were concluded to be "basically good communists."[12] In the order of ranking given to them the nominees stated their personal history to the congress before they were elected; all the nominees for full membership, with the exception of O Ki-sop, were elected unanimously.[12] Of the 990 delegates present, five voted against his candidacy.[13] Similarly, when electing the nominees for candidate membership, only Kim Tu-yong was not elected unanimously, with one vote against.[13] A seven-member Central Auditing Commission was elected unanimously by the congress.[13]

The 2nd Central Committee was composed in total of 63 new members, 30 of which had served in the

Pak Chum-kol being elected to the Central Committee.[13] Despite this, the largest single group within the 2nd Central Committee were the domestic faction.[13]

1st plenum of the 2nd Central Committee

Further information: 2nd Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea

The 1st Plenary Session of the 2nd Central Committee convened after the 2nd Congress on 30 March.

Choi Chang-ik), while two new were added; Kim Chaek, a partisan, and Pak Il-u from the Yanan faction.[13]

References

Footnotes

  1. ^ Suh 1988, p. 75.
  2. ^ a b c Suh 1988, p. 352.
  3. ^ a b Suh 1988, p. 83.
  4. ^ Suh 1988, pp. 83–84 & 352.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Suh 1988, p. 84.
  6. ^ a b c d Suh 1988, p. 85.
  7. ^ a b c d e f Suh 1988, p. 86.
  8. ^ Suh 1988, pp. 86–87.
  9. ^ a b c d e Suh 1988, p. 87.
  10. ^ a b c Suh 1988, p. 88.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h Suh 1988, p. 89.
  12. ^ a b c d e Suh 1988, p. 90.
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Suh 1988, p. 91.
  14. ^ Suh 1988, p. 80.

Bibliography

  • Suh, Dae-sook (1988). Kim Il Sung: The North Korean Leader (1st ed.).
    ISBN 0231065736
    .
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