김정은 시대 북한의 사회문화 = North Korea’s Social Culture during the Kim Jong Un era

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The North Korean social and cultural system faced by Kim Jong-un has been characterized by the decline in people’s trust in the country and the spread of individualism that values material over ideology as a result of marketization. In order to cope with the changing environment, Kim Jong-un pursued strategic changes at economic, social and cultural levels. Kim Jong-un pursues ‘People’s Popular Firstism’ and aims to ‘build a socialist civilization powerhouse’.
In order to respond to the new social environment such as the change in the character of the North Korean people due to marketization, the influx of external cultures, and the emergence of a new generation, traditional social control was strengthened along with receptive policies.
At social level, the background of change is the progress of marketization, the influx of external cultures, and the progress of informatization. While the income level of residents has increased due to marketization, polarization is intensifying, and various crimes are also increasing as the inflow of external cultures expands.
The emergence of a new generation, referred to as the ‘marketplace generation’, and the expansion of hierarchical and regional inequality are bound to induce changes in the overall system. Though various control policies are being implemented, due to technological progress it is becoming increasingly difficult to block the inflow of external cultures. Furthermore, advances in marketization and informatization stimulate physical social movement and are accompanied by activation of information transmission. Regardless of the efforts of the North Korean authorities to maintain the current system, the pressure for social structural change is gradually accumulating.