People's Committee (postwar Korea)
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The People's Committees (Korean: 인민위원회; Hanja: 人民委員會) were a type of largely local committee-government which appeared throughout Korea immediately following the conclusion of the Second World War. These committees existed in their original form from August 1945 to early 1946. By 1948, these participatory grassroots organs of self-government became centralized in the north and purged in the south.[1]
Formation and objectives
Immediately following the close of the
Scale and distribution
The People's Committees were widely distributed in post-liberation Korea.
Total North and South | South of 38th Parallel | North of 38th Parallel | |
---|---|---|---|
Township (myǒn) | 2,244 | 1,667 (no PC in 13 townships) | 564 |
Village (ǔp) | 103 | 75 | 28 |
Island | 2 | 2 | 0 |
County (kun) | 218 | 148 | 70 |
City | 21 | 12 | 9 |
Province | 14 | 7 | 7 |
Committees in the North
People's Committees North of the 38th parallel were proportionally more numerous and more powerful than their counterparts in the south. The demographics of the North featured many more small holding farmers and landlords whose patrimonies where much smaller than their southern equivalents.
In June 1946, a Labor Law was instituted calling for an eight hour work day, standardized wage scale, paid annual vacation, collective bargaining rights, and elimination of child labor in hazardous industries.[1] The July 1946 Law of Equal Rights for Men and Women provided equal rights to political participation, economic opportunities, educational opportunities, freedom of choice in marriage, freedom of choice in divorce, and outlawed polygamy and the sale of women as wives or concubines.[1] Major industries, banks, and transportation (many of which had been owned by Japanese occupiers) were nationalized.[1]
The northern committees had a fundamentally different relationship from the southern with both their occupation authorities and their Korean state. The Soviet Occupation forces recognized the PCs and initially tried to work with them.
Once this was accomplished, the Soviet Occupation forces directly integrated the People's Committees into the nascent DPRK.
Orientation
Local leftists fresh after the liberation struggle were certainly prominent in the counsels formed throughout the country. However, the committees themselves can not be considered to be fundamentally leftist in their inception or their functioning.[
Historical significance
Although Koreans north of the 38th parallel played a much more active role the formulation of their new country than those to the south, the orientation they were taking their country to was influenced to a great degree by Soviet political interests.[11]
Committees in the South
The Southern Occupation Zone was initially home to perhaps the largest and most significant of the PCs, the Committee for the Preparation of Korean Independence (Chosǒn kŏn'guk chunbi wiwǒnhoe, CPKI). The CPKI was founded by Yŏ Unhyŏng and other nationalists in Seoul. This committee had aspirations of becoming an interim national government for Korea. It had, at its greatest reach, 145 peacekeeping forces (ch'iandae) spreading its influence throughout the country. These ch'iandae were not closely controlled by the center. They quickly prioritized local issues such as maintaining access to food and keeping order in the regions to which they were assigned. They did not maintain control by the central CPKI authorities and were gradually integrated into the provincial PCs. The CPKI itself would cease to exist under pressure from the occupation authorities soon thereafter.[citation needed]
The People's Committees south of the 38th Parallel in 1945 found themselves abutting the fiercely anti-communist American occupation forces and the nascent Southern System. The American Occupation was alarmed by the apparent red orientation of the PCs within their zone. Fears of communist control of the PCs and the standing policy of not recognizing pre-existing Korean governments led the occupation forces to ban the People's Committees and outlaw them throughout the American Occupation Zone.[12]
Orientation
The name of the People's Committees sounds Soviet-Affiliated and would have so sounded in 1945.[13] However, the People's Committees in the South were largely controlled by nationalists who were more interested in creating an independent Korea than they were in the political struggles of the emerging Cold War. Leftists were present on many committees but remained a minority until the committees were dissolved.[10]
Historical significance
In the South, the dissolution of the People's Committees was the beginning of a decades-long struggle on the part of Southern System elites to repress and discredit popular action which they viewed as being pro-communist.
References
Citations
- ^ OCLC 950929415.
- ^ Lankov 2012, p. 12
- ^ Armstrong 2003
- ^ Hwang 2010, p. 197
- ^ a b Armstrong 2003, ch. 1
- ^ a b c Armstrong 2003, ch. 2
- ^ Armstrong, Charles (2004). The North Korean Revolution, 1945-1950 (1st ed.). Cornell University Press. p. 54.
- ^ Armstrong, Charles (2004). The North Korean Revolution, 1945-1950 (1st ed.). Cornell University Press. p. 54.
- ^ Armstrong 2003, ch. 8
- ^ a b Hwang 2010
- ^ Armstrong, Charles (2004). The North Korean Revolution, 1945-1950 (1st ed.). Cornell University Press. p. 54-58.
- ^ a b Hwang 2010, p. 200
- ^ Lankov 2002. p. 11
Sources
- Armstrong, Charles K. The North Korean Revolution, 1945–1950. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2003.
- Hwang, Kyung Moon. A History of Korea: An Episodic Narrative. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.
- Lankov, A. N. From Stalin to Kim Il Sung: The Formation of North Korea, 1945–1960. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2002.