2nd Congress of the Workers' Party of North Korea
| Date | 27–30 March 1948 (4 days) |
|---|---|
| Location | Pyongyang, North Korea |
| Participants | 999 delegates (990 of them attended the congress) |
| Outcome | Election of the 2nd Central Committee and 2nd Central Auditing Commission |
The 2nd Congress of the Workers' Party of North Korea (WPNK) was held in Pyongyang, North Korea, from 27–30 March 1948. The congress is the highest organ of the party, and is stipulated to be held every four years. 999 delegates represented the party's 750,000 members. The 2nd Central Committee, elected by the congress, reelected Kim Tu-bong as WPNK Chairman, and Kim Il-sung and Chu Yong-ha as deputy chairmen.
The 1st session was presided over by Kim Tu-bong, Chairman of the 1st Central Committee, and Chu Yong-ha, a Deputy Chairman of the 1st Central Committee, and it lasted for two hours. The first order of business was to elect the officers of the congress; a 57-member executive committee, a 7-member credentials committee, a 9-member secretariat, and a 15-member committee responsible for drafting party documents. As in the previous congress, the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin was elected the congress' honorary chairman. A resolution extolling Stalin's achievements was adopted shortly afterwards. An 3-point agenda was approved by the delegates, and the rest of the time was spent on congratulatory messages from other mass organizations and parties (the most notable one being the one from the Workers' Party of South Korea, read out by Ho Chong-suk). In total 5,287 letters and 5,515 telegrams were received by the congress to congratulate it one it convening.
The 2nd session began with Kim Il-sung delivering the report on the work of the 1st Central Committee while in tandem talking about the international situation. The report praised the work of the Central Committee in the period since the 1st Congress, praising its work in introducing democratic reforms (while in tandem condemning the undemocratic situation in South Korea). In the last part of the report, Kim Il-sung told the congress delegates in the shortcoming in party works, and how they could be improved upon. However, what dominated the speech was Kim Il-sung's accusation that the domestic faction of the old Communist Party of Korea (CPK) were involved in factionalism and anti-party activities. The majority of the domestic communists (those who stayed behind during Japanese rule over Korea) were in large parts opposed to the establishment of the WPNK and the dissolution of the CPK into two halves; one Northern and one Southern. Kim Il-sung claimed that the domestic communists had breached party protocol, even if the majority in the party supported the establishment of the WPNK and the WPSK.O Ki-sop, Hyon Chun-hyok's successor as informal head of the domestic faction, received most of the blame, and was forced to defend himself at the congress. Others who were accused of factionalism were Chong Tal-hyon, Choe Yong-dal, Yi Sun-gun, Chang Si-u and Chang Sun-myong. The majority of those who stood accused were high-standing officials, for instance Chong Yong-dal had served as head of the Justice Bureau, Yi Sun-gun as head of the Agriculture and Forestry Bureau and Chang Si-u as head of the Commerce Bureau for instance.
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