4th Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea

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4th Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea
WPK flag
The flag of the Workers' Party of Korea
Date11–18 September 1961 (7 days)
LocationPyongyang, North Korea
Participants1,657 voting and 73 non-voting delegates
Outcome4th Central Committee and 4th Central Auditing Committee

The 4th Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), referred to by Kim Il Sung as the "Congress of Victors", was held in Pyongyang, North Korea, from 11 to 18 September 1961. The congress is the highest organ of the party, and is stipulated to be held every four years. 1,657 voting and 73 non-voting delegates represented the party's 1,311,563 members. The 4th Central Committee, elected by the congress, reelected Kim Il Sung as WPK Chairman, and a number of deputy chairmen.

Delegates

1,657 voting and 73 non-voting delegates were elected to represent the party's 1,311,563 members.[1] 32 different fraternal parties sent delegations to the 4th Congress, among these were the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (led by Frol Kozlov), the Chinese Communist Party (led by Deng Xiaoping), the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (led by Alfred Krehler) and the Japanese Communist Party (led by Kenji Miyamoto) among others.[2]

Congress

Kim Il Sung delivered a six-hour-long report on the work of the

League of Socialist Working Youth (LSWY).[4] He then ended his speech by talking about the WPK's international position, stating that North Korea emphasized the importance of good relations between fraternal socialist countries (telling the Chinese and Soviet delegations that North Korea would remain neutral in the Sino–Soviet dispute).[4]

On the congress' last day, amendments to the

party's by-laws were announced.[5] They were approved without much discussion; the numbers of chapters were reduced from ten to nine, while the number of articles increased from 62 to 70.[2] The changes are not very noteworthy in themselves, but they clarified the relationship between the WPK and the LSWY and the Korean People's Army (KPA).[2]

The extent of Kim Il Sung's consolidation of power became clear to all with the election of the

Yanan faction were not reelected, if one excludes those members who had denounced their allegiances to these factions and pledged their allegiance to the partisans (such as Kim Chang-nam and Nam Il).[6] Of the 57 new members, 25 of them were active in Kim Il Sung's partisan faction while approximately 21 of them were recruited from either the KPA or the LSWY.[6] In addition, there were those who were not partisan but had family ties to partisan members, such as Kim Yong-ju (Kim Il Sung's brother) and Yi Hyo-sun (elder brother of Yi Che-sun) for instance.[6] Partisans, those trained by the partisans and people with family ties to the partisans constituted 80 percent of the Central Committee; to make matters better for Kim Il Sung, there existed no other organized group within the Central Committee.[6] Of the 50 candidate members elected to the 4th Central Committee, 49 were new (with Yi Chi-chan being the only reelected).[6]

1st plenum of the 4th Central Committee

Further information: 4th Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea

The 1st Plenary Session of the 4th Central Committee convened on 18 September 1961 to elect the officers of the 4th Central Committee.

4th Inspection Commission, but Kim Chang-dok (a partisan) served as deputy chairman.[7]

The Central Committee ranking list:[8]

Plenums of the 4th Central Committee

  • 1st plenary session (18 September 1961)
  • 2nd plenary session (27 November-1 December 1961)
  • 3rd plenary session (6-8 March 1962)
  • 4th plenary session (2-8 August 1962)
  • 5th plenary session (10-14 December 1962)
  • 6th plenary session (13-15 May 1963)
  • 7th plenary session (3-5 September 1963)
  • 8th plenary session (25-27 February 1964)
  • 9th plenary session (25-26 June 1964)
  • 10th plenary session (14-19 December 1964)
  • 11th plenary session (29 June-1 July 1965)
  • 12th plenary session (15-17 November 1965)
  • 13th plenary session (28 March-4 April 1966)
  • 14th plenary session (12 October 1966)
  • 15th plenary session (4-8 May 1967)
  • 16th plenary session (28 June-3 July 1967)
  • 17th plenary session (22-25 April 1968)
  • 18th plenary session (11-16 November 1968)
  • 19th plenary session (27-30 June 1969)

References

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b c d e f Suh 1988, p. 169.
  2. ^ a b c Suh 1988, p. 371.
  3. ^ Suh 1988, pp. 169–170.
  4. ^ a b c Suh 1988, p. 170.
  5. ^ a b c d Suh 1988, p. 171.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Suh 1988, p. 172.
  7. ^ Suh 1988, p. 173.
  8. ^ Sung Chul Yang. The North And South Korean Political Systems: A Comparative Analysis, p.340

Bibliography

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

Further reading
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