North Korea's inverse feudalism

[Cain]

This is utterly fascinating:

In 1957, the authorities launched a large-scale and ambitious investigation of the family backgrounds of virtually all North Korean citizens. As a result of this and subsequent investigations, by the mid-1960s the entire population was divided into a number of hereditary groups, somewhat akin to the estates of medieval Europe. Career chances and life prospects of every North Korean were determined, to a very large extent, by his membership in one of these strictly defined groups.  The major criteria of classification were quite straightforward: the songbun (origin) of the North Korean was largely defined by what his or her direct male ancestors did in the 1930s and 1940s.

The official songbun structure was quite elaborate and changed over time. However, at the first approximation, there have been three groups in North Korea, usually known as "core", "wavering" and "hostile" classes. Every single North Korean had to belong to one of these groups.

The "hostile class" included people whose ancestors in or around 1945 were engaged in activities that were not to the regime's liking. Among others, this group included descendants of clerks in the Japanese colonial administration, Christian activists, female shamans, entrepreneurs, and defectors to the South. Members of the hostile class faced the greatest number of restrictions: They could not live in Pyongyang or other major cities and they could not be admitted to good colleges or universities. People whose songbun was exceptionally bad would not even be drafted into the military.

Members of the "core class" included those whose direct male ancestors contributed toward the foundation and strengthening of the Kim family regime. They were descendants of anti-Japanese guerrillas, heroes of the Korean War, or party bureaucrats. For all practical purposes, over the past half-century, only these people could be promoted to key positions in the North Korean state and party bureaucracy. They constituted the hereditary elite.

In the days of Kim Il-sung's rule, from the early 1960s to the early 1990s, songbun was of paramount significance. It determined where people lived and worked and even what they ate. Most marriages were also concluded between people of the same or similar songbun.

It was also important that the songbun was, in essence, unchallengeable. It was inherited from one's father and was then bestowed on one's children. The mother's songbun did not matter. I know a couple where the husband's songbun was bad (he was a "landowner's grandson"), but the wife had the best songbun imaginable, being a descendant of a family that once was involved with the anti-Japanese guerrillas of Kim Il-sung. Frankly, such a marriage was rare and unequal - in most cases women of such standing would be as reluctant to marry a man of low origin as, say, a European noble lady from the 17th century. However, in this particular case the marriage did take place, much against the resistance of the girl's parents.

In due time, though, the spouses discovered that the wife's songbun did not really matter. Their daughter, a promising athlete, could not be sent for further training, since her songbun was bad: the great-granddaughter of a minor landlord could not compete on the national level and, for that matter, could be accepted only to a junior college.

The rest of the article details how the importance of the songbun has declined with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the subsidies it provided.  In particular, following the mass starvation of the early 90s, the government has tacitly condoned the growth of a thriving black market in goods - especially food - which has rendered the songbun system more and more irrelevant to the material well-being of the average North Korean citizen.

[Precious Moments Zalgo]

I had no idea North Korea had an official caste system.  I''m glad it's becoming irrelevant.

[Triple Zero]

Hmmm well that is certainly odd/interesting/unique, especially how it was all started off by a census and relatively recently.

I don't quite get why you call it "inverse feudalism", though?

[Precious Moments Zalgo]

I think it's because the former landowners are on the bottom.

[Freeky]

That is really interesting, Cain  Thanks.