Language and ideology in North Korean language planning

Abstract

The division of Korea for more than half a century has created two separate sociopolitical entities in the Korean peninsula. These two Koreas, led by elites with different ideologies, have undergone politically induced changes which have embraced every facet of life. The Korean language, which is the only language spoken by the ethnically homogeneous Korean people, has not escaped the extensive socio-political engineering of both regimes. Language planning has been an integral part of the national policy of North Korea. The communist regime has attempted to institutionalise its political ideals in the language in order to bring changes to the life of the people and to mobilise them towards socialist construction. There has been a constant emphasis on language reform and purification to expunge linguistic elements which are considered to be inconsistent with political objectives of the regime. Language planning in North Korea has been developed in parallel with changes in the ideological orientation of the regime: the adoption of Soviet Marxism-Leninism in 1945; the declaration of a North Korean brand of communism, the idea of Juche which highlights national self-reliance and independence in the 1960s; and an increasing emphasis on the personality cult of the late leader, Kim ll Sung since the 1970s. However, what has pervaded the whole process of language planning is the idea that language is an effective tool for achieving the socio-political objectives of the regime, as was epitomised by Kim ll Sung: Our spoken and written language serves as a powerful weapon in the development of the economy, culture, science and technology of our country, in all fields of socialist construction (Kim ll Sung 1984, vol.18: 16). This thesis attempts to present the development of language planning in North Korea from its formation until the mid-1990s, with special attention to its close connection with socio-political changes. Chapter 1 provides background information on language planning in North Korea, including a brief history of the Korean people and their language, and an overview of North Korean communist ideology in conjunction with which language planning has been carried out. In the last section of this chapter, after examining several different views on the periodisation of North Korean language planning, I suggest a new periodisation on which following chapters are based. Chapter 2 begins the discussion of the historical development of language planning in North Korea, examining the first and second periods. The first period covers language planning during the post-independent era up to the Korean War (1945-1953). Language planning activities of this period are dealt with as a part of the decolonisation and self-authentication policy of the new state. The second period is from the post-war era until the mid-1960s. Language planning actions in this period are presented as a way of carrying out the post-Korean War reconstruction scheme. Chapters 3, 4 and 5 are dedicated to the third period of language planning which began with North Korea's proclamation of political independence from the Soviet Union and China, and the subsequent development of Juche as the North Korean communist ideology. After reviewing Kim n Sung's speeches as a source of ideological orientation for language planning based on Juche, Chapter 3 examines major corpus planning activities in areas of orthographic reform, vocabulary management and dictionary compilation. Chapter 4 discusses two contrasting varieties of language usage: language of deference for the leader, Kim n Sung; and language of contempt for the enemies of the state, with a brief summary of recent changes in language planning. Chapter 5 provides an overall review of achievements and limitations of the third period. Romanisation of the Korean language in this thesis mainly follows the Yale system except for some widely known conventions including place names. Regarding the Romanisation of Korean personal names, the thesis follows the common convention of putting the family name first, followed by the given name connected by a hyphen, as in Hong Kil-Tong, with the exception of some widely published and recognised cases such as Kim ll Sung and Kim Jong ll. Show more