[KS] Dear Leader

Thu Oct 5 02:57:06 EDT 2006

Dear Jim and all,

thanks for highlighting the continued usage of Dear Leader, which actually went on until 2004, although only occasionally; here is what I have found on the title issue under http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/dprk/leadership-succession1.htm:

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"By mid-November 2004 there were claims that North Korea's official media was no longer using the glorifying term of "Dear Leader" while referring to the country's head, Kim Jong-il. Instead the term "Leader" was used. Some analysts speculated that this reflected a downgrading of Kim Jong-il's status. But this does not appear to be correct. The last usage of "Dear Leader" in the KCNA english archive was in fact on 18 February 2004, in the context of a joint performance of the Art Troupe of Koreans in the United States and the State Symphony Orchestra gave a at the Yun I Sang Concert Hall on February 17 in celebration of February 16, the birthday of leader Kim Jong Il. The performers presented colorful numbers including female sopranos "Wellbeing of the Dear Leader Is Our Happiness." Indeed, there are only two dozen uses of the term "Dear Leader" in the KCNA english archive. There are, however, over 300 references to the "great leader Kim Jong Il" in the archive. And a search of the KCNA archives reveals a number citations of "leader Kim Jong Il" dating back to 1997. Indeed, the "Great Leader Kim Il Sung, Dear Leader Kim Jong Il" construct appears to be largely an artifact of the period prior to the death of Kim Il Sung. While the KCNA English archive has of 10,000 mentions of Kim Il Sung, there are only slightly more than 100 mentions of "Great Leader Kim Il Sung." (emphasis RF)
***

It makes perfect sense to me that in a political system and ideology that put such a high emphasis on the person of its leader (called the brain of the socio-political body etc. etc.), the title cannot remain the same if a significant change in status happens, as was the case after 1994/1997. 

By the way,  some of you might not be aware that KCNA has updated its Rodong Sinmun archives (in Korean). The major articles, about 10 per day, are now available from Jan. 01, 1998 until present time (used to be only starting Nov. 2002). Unfortunately, only the English archive is searchable, thanks to the efforts of the author of http://www.nk-news.net/search.php

I vaguely remember having visited a Korean language site with searcheable Rodong Sinmun archives; does anybody on this list have an URL? That would be great.

All the best,

Ruediger Frank

am Mittwoch, 04. Oktober 2006 um 21:50 schrieben Sie:

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> Dear all
>   
>  
>   
> I am not sure that I have seen all the correspondence on this
> issue, so forgive me if I repeat what other?s have said.
>   
> Commemorative plaques marking visits by the ?Dear Leader? are still
> to be found all over the DPRK, and the title had not fallen into
> disuse in 2001-2, although it was beginning to be replaced by Dear
> General or just Our General. That said, I think that Ruediger is
> right and that Chairman is accurate and neutral. There is an element
> of mockery in the way that journalists and even some scholars
> continue to use the Dear Leader tag.
>   
> I do not recollect anybody translating the choson rodongtang as
> anything but Korea Workers? Party,and this seems to be the DPRK
> preference. But since labour is a collective noun for workers, it
> could be equally be the Korean Labour Party.
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> Best wishes
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> Jim Hoare 
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> From: koreanstudies-bounces at koreaweb.ws
> [mailto:koreanstudies-bounces at koreaweb.ws] On Behalf Of Ruediger_Frank
>  Sent: 04 October 2006 09:11
>  To: Korean Studies Discussion List
>  Subject: Re: [KS] Dear Leader
>   
>   
>  
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> Dear all,
>   
>  
>   
> as Aidan knows from many related debates we had, the title of Kim
> Jong-il is one of the issues that bothers me a lot. Actually, it is
> not the title itself, but how it is used in Western media. Kim JI
> has been the Dear Leader (jinaehaneun jidoja) until his father's
> death, which is long enough ago to just forget about that title.
> Ever since, his functionary titles (chongbiseo, wiwonjang etc.)
> aside, he is referred to as Great Leader (widaehan ryeongdoja) or,
> less frequently, Dear General (jinaehaneun janggunnim). We outsiders
> seem to like the somewhat funny expression "Dear Leader", so it has
> survived in our media. So far, so good,  but imho at least academics
> should use the correct title, no matter what they personally think
> about the man. It is certainly problematic that in English, widehan
> suryeongnim and widehan ryeongdoja are both translated as Great
> Leader; however, I am wondering why there would be too many
> instances to use these honorific titles anyway (imagine the NYT or
> Washington Post using "Great Leader"). The official address in
> international protocol is Chairman (wiwonjang), which is both
> correct and fairly neutral. As for the Worker's Party, it should be
> mentioned that "Labour Party" (instead of Labourer's Party) would
> indeed be the correct translation; it is not rodongjadang, but
> rodongdang. But I guess that would make our British colleagues unhappy...
>   
>  
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> Best,
>   
>  
>   
> Ruediger Frank
>   

>  PS: For those who might think these are just words, here is what
> Confucius had to say (Lun-yu, Chapter 13, Verse 3): 
>   
> "If terminology is not corrected, then what is said cannot be
> followed. If what is said cannot be followed, then work cannot be
> accomplished. If work cannot be accomplished, then ritual and music
> cannot be developed. If ritual and music cannot be developed, then
> criminal punishments will not be appropriate. If criminal
> punishments are not appropriate, the people cannot make a move.
> Therefore, the Superior Man needs to have his terminology applicable
> to real language, and his speech must accord with his actions. The
> speech of the Superior Man cannot be indefinite."
>   
> (http://www.human.toyogakuen-u.ac.jp/~acmuller/contao/analects.htm)
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> am Mittwoch, 04. Oktober 2006 um 03:10 schrieben Sie:
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>> Dear Andriy & Michael
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>> "Suryo^ng-nim" is just "leader". "Dear leader" is a usual English
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>> rendering of "Chin'aeha'nu^n chidoja" and is a standard epithet for
>   
>> Kim Cho^ng-il.  Kim's father was known, inter alia, as
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>> "kyo^ng'aeha'nu^n suryo^ng-nim," another epithet standardly rendered
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>> in English as "Respected and Beloved Leader."  The
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>> "Nodongdang"/"Rodongdang") is translated regularly as the "[Korean]
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>> Workers Party," in English and is often abbrievated KWP.  Kim
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>> Cho^ng-il is the General Secretary ("Ch'ong Piso^.")
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>> Doc Rock
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>> Andriy Ryzhkov <andy_kim at ukr.net> wrote: Dear Michael, 
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>> "Dear leader" sounds like "suryong-nim" in Korean and is still used to address Kim Jeon Il,
>   
>> but this term is used mostly in North Korea (he may also be called
>   
>> "Kim Jeong Il rodong-dang piseo" which means "The secretary of
>   
>> labour party", which is more official, but I`m not sure about the
>   
>> correctness of this term).  In "suryong-nim" "suryong" is
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>> Sino-Korean word which stands for "the leader" and "~nim" is a
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>> honorific suffix of pure Korean origin. As for South Korea, he is
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>> usually called "Kim Jeong Il gugpang wiweon-jang" or "chairman of National defence committee".
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>> I`m not sure whether my reply is satisfactory...
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>> Best regards, 
>   
>> Ryzhkov Andriy, 
>   
>> PhD candidate
>   
>> National Taras Shevchenko university of Kyiv.
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>> Dr. Edward D. Rockstein 
>   
>> Korean Language Instructor 
>   
>> Language Learning  Center (LLC) 
>   
>> 891 Elkridge Landing Road, Rm 301 
>   
>> Linthicum Heights, MD 21090 
>   
>> Office 410-859-5672
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>> Fax 410-859-5737 
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>> ed4linda at yahoo.com 
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>> "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. "
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>> Edmund Burke
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>> Want to be your own boss? Learn how on  Yahoo! Small Business.  
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