The North Korean authorities recently revised the “Party’s Ten Principles for the Establishment of the One-Ideology System” to deify Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, and have emphasized the study of the revised principles.

As such, the Guidance Department of the Workers’ Party has ordered everyone to make ‘A Letter of Apology on 4 Articles’ based on the Ten Principles.

 

The source in Hyesan, Yangkang Province told Open Radio for North Korea over the phone in an interview on the 21st, “The central party ordered people to write a letter of apology on the violation of the ‘Ten Principles,’ which were recently revised. They also forced people to write their deficiencies regarding the 4 articles, ‘showing loyalty’, ‘group life’, ‘fulfillment of the teachings’, and ‘revolution of the household.’”

 

The source explained that “The party members and the members of the Youth League, the General Federation of Korean Trade Unions, the Women’s Union, and even the Children’s Union all participated in this writing exercise. The secretary of the party cell forces people to write it many times until the root of their deficiency comes out.”

 

The source also added, “Workers in agency enterprises are sitting all together after work and writing a letter of apology together. It is very distressful since people have to write not only self-criticisms, but criticisms of other people’s behavior as well.”

 

According to the source, ‘showing loyalty’ means taking very good care of the portraits of Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il, and Kim Jong Sook; ‘group life’ refers to the problem of a self-viewpoint and self-attitude toward political organizations; ‘fulfillment of the teachings’ means carrying out Kim Il Sung’s and Kim Jong Il’s teachings; and ‘revolution of the household’ is like an ‘ideological struggle’, which criticizes problems that arise among couples, parents, and children. 

 

Evaluations on people’s adherence to the ‘Ten Principles,’ which Kim Jong Il designed, have been conducted every year since the mid-1970s, but as economic hardship accelerated in the 1990s, these evaluations were relaxed. However, the names of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il were recently added in a row on the ‘Ten Principles’ and this is interpreted as a way to induce people’s unconditional loyalty to Kim Jong Eun and as a justification for this third-generation succession.

 

Source: Open Radio for North Korea