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Abstract
North Korea is perceived by many as one of the most totalitarian societies of modern time. But in the wake of the economic collapse of the 1990s, North Korean totalitarianism has grappled with new conditions. This paper examines how the country's totalitarian character has been upheld through the institutional changes instigated by the economic collapse and subsequent famine in the country. It strives to answer whether today's North Korea should still be characterized as a totalitarian society, and, if not, what system then governs the country.
Keywords: North Korea; totalitarianism; authoritarianism; institutional change; planned economy; social control
Introduction
North Korea is perceived by many as the most controlled and oppressed society in the world today. It tops many of the global standardized ratings of political repression, and is in fact considered by some to be the longest-surviving totalitarian regime in the world. The political control incorporated in the North Korean society apparatus is so strong that the North Korean regime has remained stable and unthreatened by political opposition for decades, despite the fact that North Korea is, according to Nicholas Eberstadt, "the first urbanized literate society in human history to suffer famine during peacetime."1
Indeed, North Korean society was-at least when it functioned as intended- almost an embodiment of the textbook definition of a totalitarian society. Pre-1990s North Korea even stood out from other societies considered to be totalitarian, perhaps most notably in its total lack of political dissidence. According to both scholars and refugees who have fled North Korea, no political opposition or dissident movement has ever existed in the country.2 North Korea before the 1990s was not merely "any" totalitarian society-its level of totalitarianism was unprecedented in contemporary history.
But a totalitarian society requires that its institutions actually function as intended in order for totalitarianism to work. This was not a significant problem when North Korea was economically stable. But as the 1990s approached, the dire state of the country's economy took an increasingly larger toll on the public agencies controlled by the regime. It has thus become questionable whether the country that was long considered to be the most totalitarian society of all times is still actually totalitarian. This paper aims to explore exactly that: Did North Korean totalitarianism survive...